**POLL** Do you believe that The Bible is the Word of God?

Why or why not?

Here are some sources to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible

http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm

http://www.allabouttruth.org/bible-origin.htm

IMO:

Personally, I am sceptical about the notion that this book is of divine origin. Why would the creator of the universe only divulge his revelation telepathically to a few men in a small culture of people in the Mediterranean and not to everyone everywhere? It just seems like Judeo-Christianity is just another religion among thousands.

Please keep all religious discussion in here for now:

Feel free to also discuss whether or not you believe there is a god; philosophical discussion on the origin of the universe, why there is life, and whether or not you believe that there is an afterlife.

Lol lots (well some) people voting but not really defending their answers...

dunno, could have been written by some guy with OCD

dunno, could have been written by some guy with OCD

gamedude2020

No, the bible is man's interpertation of God's word

No, the bible is man's interpertation of God's word

stupid4

I'm going to go with a resounding yes. Specifically, I hold to a "generally literal" interpretation of Scripture.

For example, I believe the Gospels to be a literal and historical account of the person of Jesus. The only times within the Gospels the text is not literal is when Jesus uses figures of speech such as exaggeration, metaphor, etc. Other examples might be the Proverbs which are statements which are generally true but not promises and the Psalms are emotional responses of an individual towards God (and thus not always literal). Generally speaking, when a text is poetic in nature I interpret it less literally. While I know many do not keep to my same understanding, one cannot argue that the Bible is completely metaphorical with passages like 1 Cor 15:14, "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. "

Why do I believe the text to be the Word of God? Well, after spending countless hours in study over the past several years I find tremendous difficulty believing the text to not be more important than any other text. Looking at topics such as fulfilled prophecies, textual criticism, a historical look at the time of Scripture being written, etc., I cannot find any legitimate arguments that the text has even been changed since its conception. For example, I believe the Gospel of Luke was literally written by the person Luke, Paul's writings were genuinely written by Paul, Isaiah was written by the singular author Isaiah, etc.

Between Scripture and the person of Jesus, I cannot believe that the Bible to be anything but divine.

Why or why not?

Here are some sources to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible

http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm

http://www.allabouttruth.org/bible-origin.htm

IMO:

Personally, I am sceptical about the notion that this book is of divine origin. Why would the creator of the universe only divulge his revelation telepathically to a few men in a small culture of people in the Mediterranean and not to everyone everywhere? It just seems like Judeo-Christianity is just another religion among thousands.

MatthewX

If it was easy to believe, they wouldn't call it Faith. To each their own.

Nope, Zeus, and the other olympians wouldn't write such a heretical thing:x

I can't honestly say without reading all of the other religious texts. Either way, it's an interesting book, but with so many different translations who knows how much of it's word left intact.

No. God isn't a someone or a something.

I believe God is just the creation of everything. Silly humans wrote the Bible from their beliefs. I see it as a message of understanding life.

I think this sums it up nicely.

Personally, I am sceptical about the notion that this book is of divine origin. Why would the creator of the universe only divulge his revelation telepathically to a few men in a small culture of people in the Mediterranean and not to everyone everywhere?.MatthewX

[QUOTE="MatthewX"]Personally, I am sceptical about the notion that this book is of divine origin. Why would the creator of the universe only divulge his revelation telepathically to a few men in a small culture of people in the Mediterranean and not to everyone everywhere?.mindstorm

That doesn't answer his question though.

Yes, it is the reason that I am a Christian.

No. God isn't a someone or a something.

I believe God is just the creation of everything. Silly humans wrote the Bible from their beliefs. I see it as a message of understanding life.

Gaming-Planet

[QUOTE="mindstorm"][QUOTE="MatthewX"]Personally, I am sceptical about the notion that this book is of divine origin. Why would the creator of the universe only divulge his revelation telepathically to a few men in a small culture of people in the Mediterranean and not to everyone everywhere?.topgunmv

That doesn't answer his question though.

[QUOTE="topgunmv"]

[QUOTE="mindstorm"] Well if one looks at the promise of God towards Abraham then you have your answer. In Genesis 12:2-3 the text states, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Through Abraham the Jewish people would arise and through them would Jesus be born. In keeping to the idea that the gift of salvation is given through the "seed of Abraham" (which is ultimately Jesus), all the nations will eventually hear of God's Word. Galatians 3 talks about this a bit. Also, it seems as if you are not taking into account the importance of evangelism in Christianity. For, the very last commandment of Jesus before ascending into heaven is seen in most of the Gospels as well as Acts. Matthew 28:19 puts it this way, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."mindstorm

That doesn't answer his question though.

I'm not going to debate your faith, so I'll just leave it here.

Imo, it is possible that it is not the word of god at all (ie it was written entirely out of the imagination of the people back then) or that it is just influenced by god.

Even when I was a Christian, I never believed that scripture is possible to not be corrupted by the ones who wrote it.

I'm not going to debate your faith, so I'll just leave it here.

topgunmv

Well, being an atheist...

[QUOTE="topgunmv"]I'm not going to debate your faith, so I'll just leave it here.

mindstorm

No. The bible is the word of men, who were "inspired" by God. Unless I hear the big man himself, I will accept nothing else. Agent-Zero

Pretty much this.

Unless I hear the big man himself, I will accept nothing else. Agent-Zero

THANK YOU!

I totally agree; I don't want to listen to someone speaking for someone else.

Nope. It's not and it never was.

At the end of the gospel acclamation the priest says: "This is the word of the Lord." God spoke through the people who wrote the books.

By no means can it be perfect, but by and large it must be true judging by its popularity.

Well man created god so in a way yes.

But in a far more accurate way no, not at all.

Anyone can write something down.

No, even if/when I believed in God I didn't think it was. It was written by men, in some cases decades after Jesus Christ's death. Yes I can see how one can say it was "inspired by God/Jesus", but I cannot for the life of me understand how one can think it's "the word of God" when it's admittedly written by other men.

[QUOTE="MatthewX"]Personally, I am sceptical about the notion that this book is of divine origin. Why would the creator of the universe only divulge his revelation telepathically to a few men in a small culture of people in the Mediterranean and not to everyone everywhere?.mindstorm

First of all, why would God need a certain race of people for his son to be born into?

Second, how could Jesus have been a descendant of Abraham when he didn't have a human father who came from that lineage?