Merged (edited) General thoughts about Christianity and the bible

[The Norseman]

I don't think you need to even add that "scientifically" in there, it's simply impossible. It seemed possible to the authors of Noah's ark story because of their incorrect model of the universe i.e. the earth being a flat disc with a bowl over it and surrounding all that was water. As soon as we discovered there was no such bowl above the earth, or that the earth wasn't a flat disc the Noah's ark story became impossible.

I can't disagree.

Worthy to be reported in the Bible then.

The Israelites crossed the Red Sea too.
Which wasn't Moses' idea.

Well, since it's made up, we can all write in who did what then.

If you assume that miracles cannot happen.

It's not an assumption. It's a conclusion.

This is the point where every theist fails, you included.

I suppose you wanted peer-reviewed scientific papers to prove the event? - LOL

Were there miracles before peer-reviewed scientific papers? (even after)

LOL

I find it interesting that the only 'miracles' that have ever been 'demonstrated' has been ONLY BEFORE the scientific method has been refined and proven to be effective.

It doesn't require peer-reviewed scientific papers. It's a simple conclusion that what is claimed in the bible cannot physically happen.

 

[The Norseman]

It's a measurably oblate spheroid. I do engineering where the oblateness matters.

Funny thing, I used to be a measurable oblate spheroid. Lost a lot of weight since then though.

The Bible doesn't present itself as fiction. The Lord of the Rings does.

How do you explain all of the many, many forgeries that were once included in your bible? Or the currently-thought forgeries still contained therein?

Forgeries are, by definition, fiction yet they were presented as fact or at least a matter of known history. Why would anyone just assume the bible is some sort of reliable history based on this alone?

 

[The Norseman]

Why didn't Peter call him out as a fraud?

Because he was in on the grift. Duh.


Welllllll.... okay... to be fair, I don't know that for sure.... he could simply have incredulously believed it as I'd guess most people at the time would have.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Myth in the Bible? You're getting closer to getting it.

Not by much though.

 

[catsmate]

Realistically, there were other water sources in between. (nothing news-worthy)
And they probably filled up at the first rock.

And yet the babble doesn't mention then, just the rock.
Funny that......

But that is beside the point here.

But it isn't.

 

[catsmate]

Why didn't Peter call him out as a fraud?

2 Peter 3:15-16 NIVv

Ah, biblical fan-fic.

 

[catsmate]

If you want to talk to skeptics about your religion, maybe don't lead with all the koo-koo-bonkers parts.

But that's so much of it.

 

[catsmate]

The Bible doesn't present itself as fiction. The Lord of the Rings does.q

But the bible is fiction. Collected, badly edited, fairly stories.

 

[catsmate]

It acceptable to credit Peter in Christians circles.

Actually it's not: even most xian biblical scholars agree on the falsity of the Petrine attribution.

 

[catsmate]

Won't you roll away the stone (sha na na na push push), won't you roll away the stone?

Why not go back to the original?

The Rolling Stones (novel) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[catsmate]

The Earth is spherical.

I believe there have been many answers, but I learned it was an oblate spheroid in primary school.

 

[Pixel42]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ...

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Call me Ishmael.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.

Surveys have shown that a large percentage of people believe many fictional characters really existed. I'm not just talking about the likes of King Arthur and Robin Hood, but characters like Sherlock Holmes. His stories are presented as being written by his friend Dr John Watson, they take place in real locations - there really is a Baker Street in London, for example - so it's easy to see how this could happen. And this is in a society in which almost everyone can read, and has free access to libraries where they can see the books for themselves with the author's name clearly printed on the cover. How much harder must it have been to keep track of which stories are accounts of things which actually happened, and which are just stories, in societies where most people's only access to both was hearing them told by the same storytellers in the local tavern or around a camp fire.

 

[Helen]

Rusty, have you ever considered that you are a shill for the plutocrats of religion? And that they wouldn't give you car fare if you had an iwxa sticking out of your navel?

Better than being a shill for Big Science, and I ought to know, because that's what I am. But what has Big Science ever done for me???

Well, you know, except everything...

 

[Roger Ramjets]

Good thing that Edison didn't give up on the light bulb.

Edison's Lightbulb

By January 1879, at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison had built his first high resistance, incandescent electric light. It worked by passing electricity through a thin platinum filament in the glass vacuum bulb, which delayed the filament from melting. Still, the lamp only burned for a few short hours. In order to improve the bulb, Edison needed all the persistence he had learned years before in his basement laboratory. He tested thousands and thousands of other materials to use for the filament. He even thought about using tungsten, which is the metal used for light bulb filaments now, but he couldn't work with it given the tools available at that time.

Edison was an inventor, not scientist. His idea for an incandescent light bulb idea worked, but need refining to have a practical lifespan. His method of achieving that was very inefficient, and while the carbonized cotton thread filament worked it wasn't the ultimate solution - just 'good enough' to be commercialized. His persistence was admirable, but he might have done a lot better with a more scientific approach.

How does this relate to Noah's ark? Persistence hasn't paid off there, for obvious reasons. It's not based on anything known to exist - just an improbable tale in an old book. Why are people so desperate to find one of the 'props' in the Flood story that they are even willing to fake evidence for it? The answer is:- they don't actually believe. Faith alone isn't enough for them, they have to shore it up with physical evidence. The Bible itself warns against testing God, but they persist because it's human nature to want evidence for extraordinary claims.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Why didn't Peter call him out as a fraud?

2 Peter 3:15-16 NIVv
Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation,
just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand,
which ignorant and unstable people distort,
as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

In a time of low pulchitrude an amoeba will become like unto a planet.

There, everuthing explained.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

You call that a reliable source?

Goebbels was as reliable as the wholly babble and somewhat more honest.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

The Bible doesn't present itself as fiction. The Lord of the Rings does.

Just because the Lord of the Rings has a disclaimer you don't believe it's real? When the Euphrates video had a disclaimer you said they were just covering themselves and it was really true. Anyway, the LotR says it's true because it was taken from the Red Book of Westmarch, how can you doubt the authorship of Bilbo, Frodo and Sam, after all it says in the book that it was written by them and Prof T just translated. If it's good enough for the Bible and your seagull post videos....

ETA: Ninja'd by @arthwollipot

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Neither is true. The Earth is not a sphere nor is it flat.

Hey, hey, too much information.

Only those of us who have reached sufficient levels of enlightenment* can know the truth.

*

Sucessfully getting past junior infants.

 

[Mojo]

The Bible doesn't present itself as fiction. The Lord of the Rings does.

I see that we're back to "the Bible is true because the Bible says it’s true and the Bible is true because the Bible says it’s true and..."

 

[Mojo]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ...

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Call me Ishmael.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.

I met a traveller from an antique land...