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One reason why one person I know believes

Almo

Masterblazer
Almo
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Messages
6,846
Location
Montreal, Quebec
So, one of my Facebook friends (actually an old friend of the family) posted this:

Ok last weeks debate got me thinking. Why do you believe in God. Why do you NOT believe in God. I ask all to refrain from busting on others who do not believe as you do. thanks
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It's been good. I posted my reason for lack of belief, and did not get lambasted for it. Here's a recent thing he said:

"Oh... one other reason I choose to believe... the Bible was consists of 66 books, written on 3 continents in 3 different languages by40+ authors over about a 1500 year timeframe. It is a unified book from start to finish with no contradictions or any changed of canceled verses. The devine unity in the authors who wrote it. There are over 2500 prophecies in it, and over 2000 have already been sucessfully fullfiled. Jesus filled over 330 Old Testament prophecies alone. To me thats enough right there."
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I want to send him a private link to one of the sites showing the contradictions in the Bible. Or something that discusses how prophecies work and they are just wild guesses that people try to fit current events to. But what would I hope to accomplish? I'm just going to leave it alone. But I had to vent. The blindness is staggering.

:(
 
I enjoy it when folks claim that thousands of people witnessed Jesus' preachings and how could all those people be lying?

And then there are the folks who believe simply because they have faith. No evidence or facts required.

Finally, there are the lucky individuals who claim Jesus has personally touched their lives.
 
Almo said:
So, one of my Facebook friends (actually an old friend of the family) posted this:



It's been good. I posted my reason for lack of belief, and did not get lambasted for it. Here's a recent thing he said:



I want to send him a private link to one of the sites showing the contradictions in the Bible. Or something that discusses how prophecies work and they are just wild guesses that people try to fit current events to. But what would I hope to accomplish? I'm just going to leave it alone. But I had to vent. The blindness is staggering.

:(
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Believers. Who can figure them out? Religion goes in one ear and rational thought goes out the other.
 
I know a man who once told me "The bible makes 1,000 prophesies, and every one of them has turned out true." I asked him to name one. He could not.
 
I know he asked not to go busting on others who don't share your beliefs, but there are so many things wrong with what he wrote it's not even funny (well, it is, actually :D).

Maybe you can politely (and privately, not via the FB page) ask if he's willing to look at some evidence that may contradict some of what he posted, so that in the future he doesn't make similar mistakes..?
 
Mister Earl said:
I know a man who once told me "The bible makes 1,000 prophesies, and every one of them has turned out true." I asked him to name one. He could not.
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If they don't go round knocking on doors to evangelize,they usually only talk to other believers,they are not used to those sort of questions. That is why they are on a hiding to nothing when they come to this site.
 
Almo said:
So, one of my Facebook friends (actually an old friend of the family) posted this:



It's been good. I posted my reason for lack of belief, and did not get lambasted for it. Here's a recent thing he said:



I want to send him a private link to one of the sites showing the contradictions in the Bible. Or something that discusses how prophecies work and they are just wild guesses that people try to fit current events to. But what would I hope to accomplish? I'm just going to leave it alone. But I had to vent. The blindness is staggering.

:(
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He is just regurgitating a hodgepodge of stuff that I have seen numerous times across the web. Your first task would be to get him to understand his 'own' arguments. Yeah, that is a tall order. OTOH, maybe you could just send him a link to Wikipedia, or so, like this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorship_of_the_Bible

(And about those "sites showing the contradictions in the Bible" ... they are just the mirror image of apologetics; and better, if at all, just by chance.)
 
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Lord Emsworth said:
He is just regurgitating a hodgepodge of stuff that I have seen numerous times across the web. Your first task would be to get him to understand his 'own' arguments. Yeah, that is a tall order. OTOH, maybe you could just send him a link to Wikipedia, or so, like this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorship_of_the_Bible

(And about those "sites showing the contradictions in the Bible" ... they are just the mirror image of apologetics; and better, if at all, just by chance.)
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It does not help showing believers those sites. It just makes them dig their heels in.
 
"Oh... one other reason I choose to believe... the Bible was consists of 66 books, written on 3 continents in 3 different languages by40+ authors over about a 1500 year timeframe. It is a unified book from start to finish with no contradictions or any changed of canceled verses. The devine unity in the authors who wrote it. There are over 2500 prophecies in it, and over 2000 have already been sucessfully fullfiled. Jesus filled over 330 Old Testament prophecies alone. To me thats enough right there."

I have noticed that people who make this claim have not read the bible form cover to cover. They are parroting the assurances of others such as priests, "theologians", parents, teachers, sunday school teachers. They read the bible in an odd way...a passage is taken and then discussed without context and later forgotten.
 
There's just no way to approach someone with this kind of opinion. They have to stumble across the truth themselves.
 
"is a unified book from start to finish with no contradictions or any changed of canceled verses."

All right, if there are no "cancelled verses", ask him where in his bible the book of Enoch appears.
 
The danger in linking him to a particular web site about "Contradictions in the Bible" is that often such websites might overreach, and present some examples of apparent contradictions that are reasonably harmonized. A better idea to start with, in my opinion, is to bring up one specific example of two passages that disagree - for example, the two genealogies of Joseph, Jesus' supposed legal father (Luke 3:23–38 and Matthew 1:1–17). The genealogies are in agreement for everything up until David (since they had common OT source material), but after that they're both radically different, both in terms of the individuals in the genealogy and also in terms of how many generations elapsed between David and Joseph.
 
Lamuella said:
"is a unified book from start to finish with no contradictions or any changed of canceled verses."

All right, if there are no "cancelled verses", ask him where in his bible the book of Enoch appears.
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-> Wasn't part of the Bible to begin with.

or

-> Was a false testament.

I'm sure he's got an answer. :)
 
Almo said:
-> Wasn't part of the Bible to begin with.

or

-> Was a false testament.

I'm sure he's got an answer. :)
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so why is it in some bibles (the ethiopic orthodox bible, for example) and not others.
 
Almo said:
So, one of my Facebook friends (actually an old friend of the family) posted this:



It's been good. I posted my reason for lack of belief, and did not get lambasted for it. Here's a recent thing he said:



I want to send him a private link to one of the sites showing the contradictions in the Bible. Or something that discusses how prophecies work and they are just wild guesses that people try to fit current events to. But what would I hope to accomplish? I'm just going to leave it alone. But I had to vent. The blindness is staggering.

:(
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Ask him to read the Bible from cover to cover.
 
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