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Author | Topic: Human Lies or Gods Word (Books making claims) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Primordial Egg Inactive Member |
quote: Your original question was asking how we could identify a book as being written by God and I responded with a few criteria plus the notion that I couldn't see any way of distinguishing God from a sufficiently advanced intelligence (SAI), or even a time-travelling human. You're now asking if I personally think the bible was written by an SAI? Personally, no. I think it was written by men. Were they deliberately lying? I don't see why not, although its difficult to authenticate either way. I gather Barbara Thiering has done a lot of good work in this regard - the bible may well have been written as a fulfilment of earlier Jewish messianic prophecies and certainly seems to contain stories already in the dead sea scrolls. Its an interesting topic. Maybe someone who knows more than I do about the topic can wade in here..... Then again, maybe it was written by a crafty alien? Seems to me to be a strange way to go about things if it was. Why all the fuss about immortality though? It'd be a nightmare - imagine all the endless re-runs of the Sound of Music you'd have to sit through. PE
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yzend1 Inactive Member |
The nice thing about eventually dying, is getting to an artificial heaven, designed and constructed by advanced humans or aliens. Then once there, perhaps they could invent a universe with inhabitable planets in, with bodies to control where you forget your real identity (which is an immortal, exotic matter, being), where you could think up crazy ideas about getting to an artificial heaven.
Mind you, I'm sure if you don't want to go there, there's probably an opt out clause, turning you into dust and ashes. Won't anybody miss you? Never mind, I'll remember you (if the rules allow it). Perhaps you could come back as the ant I roasted with my magnifing glass in the playground, one sunny day as a child at school. yzend1
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Gzus Inactive Member |
quote: You should start your own religion
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David unfamous Inactive Member |
He doesn't need to. Raelianism already exists.
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shilohproject Inactive Member |
deleted duplicate
[This message has been edited by shilohproject, 01-15-2003]
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shilohproject Inactive Member |
deleted duplicate
[This message has been edited by shilohproject, 01-15-2003]
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shilohproject Inactive Member |
quote: You have an interesting point here. My 1st grade daughter is killing me with this do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do thing! Any image of heaven I can come up with includes a good dose of quiet time.-Shiloh [This message has been edited by shilohproject, 01-15-2003]
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Peter Member (Idle past 1510 days) Posts: 2161 From: Cambridgeshire, UK. Joined: |
quote: In my opinion, since we cannot know the nature of any supposedgod or advanced intelligence that we should look at the question from the other angle. We know a fair bit about man (apologies for the non-pc usage) so we should focuss on what would we expect to find in a book written by man. Then when presented with any text we could consider howlikely it is to be the work of man.
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yzend1 Inactive Member |
Have you ever come across books that you thought were not the work of man?
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Coragyps Member (Idle past 765 days) Posts: 5553 From: Snyder, Texas, USA Joined: |
quote:I have. Both Frankenstein and the Peter Rabbit series were written by women.
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Peter Member (Idle past 1510 days) Posts: 2161 From: Cambridgeshire, UK. Joined: |
quote: I already apologised for the non-pc usage of 'man'
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Peter Member (Idle past 1510 days) Posts: 2161 From: Cambridgeshire, UK. Joined: |
quote: Not yet ... how about you?
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yzend1 Inactive Member |
I got an 'A' in the Religion O'Level, but at the end of the day it's a story about a fella who gets crucified and resurrects. There is no way of telling for sure if it's the word of God or the lies of men.......the past is gone and at present thee is no way of going back. There are some people in this world who are very linguistic and find it easy to write far fetched ideas down....the world is full of books. Is the Gospel of Luke just another peice of fiction? It's impossible to answer. I'm not saying God doesn't exist, but for me I have no direct experience of him, so it looks like I'm staying presently Agnostic.
When reading a book, in order to understand it, it will always seem like it is the work of humans though, because otherwise you wouldn't probably be able to understand it. So there's no way out of this scenario. (A book has to be written on the human level in order to be understandable, so it will always seem human rather than Godly). I for one don't think I will find God between the binders of some book. Likewise I could roam the earth for 70 years and still not meet God or know anything about him. I would go as far as to suggest that the only possible time you'll know for certain he exists is if, after dying, you awaken somewhere else in another reality. And even then the other reality could be built by these 'Advanced Beings' from the future, and unless they're honest maybe one will never know (Wizard of OZ scenario). I've only read Luke and attended the odd sermon as a youngster. Fairy tales or Truth? Impossible to know. So, in answer to your question, every book I have ever read seems likely to be written by human, for human. This leads to the question:- How did so many people get into the situation of believing certain books were the word of God? Were the 'originals' forced, Were their descendants brainwashed at childhood, or was it just fear, or were they hoping for an afterlife so much they deceived themselves? And why do they go on believing? Surely they should just accept the fact that they should be Agnostic since there is no proof that any book contains the word of GOD. (perhaps this should be a new topic.) yzend1 [This message has been edited by yzend1, 01-22-2003] [This message has been edited by yzend1, 01-22-2003]
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Peter Member (Idle past 1510 days) Posts: 2161 From: Cambridgeshire, UK. Joined: |
quote: I agree that all books I have encountered are consistent withwhat I would expect of human authors. My opinion (for what its worth) is that religion is largelypolitically motivated (not belief in god(s), but organised religions). It is a means of controlling the masses by suggesting that there are powers at work which can punish the unrighteous it is possible to 'put the fear of god' into people and help maintain stability. Politically speaking, religion has often been used as a justificationfor wars and other atrocities. In large part, yes, people who follow particular religions havebeen 'brainwashed' into it by the culture into which the were born. Not deliberately, but since all of the attitudes around them from birth have been founded in one religous world-view or another this subtly colours the child's forming world-view. Most people do not start to question this world view untilteenage years, and even then it appears to be related to both educational background, and the depth of cultural indoctrination within their community.
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Greatest I am Member (Idle past 305 days) Posts: 1676 Joined: |
At the end of the day, you will need to evaluate the truth of the messages attributed to God. If they make sense or not, are they logical. Does it sound like something God would say etc.
We used to say believe non of what you here and half of what you see. Only your cautious investigation can give you the answer. RegardsDL |
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