Summations Only

I realize that this topic morphed into a general place for debate and argumentation on the Bible, spirituality and/or lack thereof.If anyone has an idea for a new topic that also addresses these issues in a more focused fashion, please feel free to add such a suggestion to your summary and we can all move over there.My personal summation is as follows:I believe that the Bible can be used to teach and edify people or it can also be used to make a case for whatever type of world view one has.I have found that for me personally, trying to defend inerrancy through apologetics is futile and time wasting.I have my beliefs because they work for me. Critics may accuse me of ignoring evidence to the contrary and they have a point...but I am unconvinced that such evidence is conclusive.

The evidence is overwhelming that the Bible is simply the words of man and can only be the inerrant words of God if the God is a liar, delusional, a conman or cheat.There is the vast body of historical evidence. There is the vast body of textual evidence. There is the vast body of evidence showing redaction. There is additional outside evidence. For example not a single so called Prophecy of Jesus in the Old Testament has stood up to examination.There is the fact that God seems to have been unable to even create a single universal Table of Contents rather there are Canons that vary from only five books to over eighty.The only reasonable conclusion is that the Bible is not the Inerrant Word of God.

I don't think a summary can be made that makes more sense and includes all areas, better than what Jar did. I wish I wrote it:-))
I just want to say thanks to all posters and even those I adamantly disagree with.And the signs of what believers can do: Edited by Golffly, : No reason given.

I went back over my posts to see what my opinion on the topic is and I discovered that I said a lot of clever things. That isn't just an empty opinion; there are approximately twenty-four cheers to support it.The reason is inescapable: I was clearly inspired by God.

2 Peter 3:16: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest [twist, distort], as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.Psalm 56:5 Every day they wrest [twist, distort] my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.

The question in my mind is what influenced the decisions to accept some beliefs and reject others.I maintain that People become "believers" through a definite change of mind/heart and though their are many phonies and fakes, there are also some who have been transformed.