Human Lies or Gods Word (Books making claims)

If I stumble across a book that claims to be the word of God, how do I know if it really is God's Word or Human Lies?{Topic moved from "Great Debate" to "Faith and Beliefs" forum - Adminnemooseus}[This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 01-06-2003]

Quote : Which book had you in mind.It was really a general question about any book claiming to be the word of God, eg Bible, Koran, The Jewish Bible, The Morman Bible, etc etc. There must be quite a few alternatives to choose from.

So, if the book foretold some 'supernatural' event (in written words) that could at a later date be verified, since humans should not naturally be able to possess this ability, one could then assume the book contains the word of God.(It is assumed that anything verified 'in the past' could be 'doctored' as a trick to proving the book contains the word of God unless it could be shown that that which was written preceeded that what happened.)So, does anyone know of a book that fortells a future event that has yet to happen (hopfully in the not too distant future), and that also claims to be the word of God (plus page number if it's an exceedingly long book)?Or does anybody know of a book that fortold a future event which definetly proved correct and also claims to be the word of God (plus page number if it's an exceedingly long book)?Also, what kind of an future event should be classed as being fortold? Should location and time and description of event all be stated rather than a more general fortelling?(Note, one problem with fortelling something. It doesn't stop someone reading the prediction and then fullfilling the 'destiny' of the prediction - Example, someone might fortell in writing that I will go and live in Washington DC. So I might read the prediction and go and live there just to fullfill the prediction. This is no good. As I think about it, it seems to me that the only type of prediction that will count is the prediction of a specific natural disaster that's against the stastical norm.So, until it has been proven that God fortells in a book should we accept the position of being agnostic, since to believe in God or to believe in atheism seems pointless unless you know for sure?yzend1

Lets try to make this more specific:-Apart from foretelling specific natural disasters what else would give it away that a book contained the word of God as opposed to human lies claiming to be the word of God.LIST OF WHAT WOULD GIVE IT AWAY1. Fortelling specific natural disastersWhy would God tell us about a specific natural disaster and do nothing about it? It doesn't make alot of sense to me.2. Help, I've run out of ideas.

If someone wrote in 1000AD that on Friday 13th January 2004AD a comet was going to crash into Mars and blow it to bits, and it proved true, then, if this person also claimed to communicate directly with God, well, he'd probably have been right and this could be regarded as proof of GOD.THE LIST GROWS2. Godly insight into advanced technological devices.3. Godly insight into understanding of how the universe works.Come on ladies and gentlemen, get your thinking caps on.yzend1

Do you think my Roman Catholic Bible was written by/via an advanced alien or future-time travelling Human or is it Human Lies or is it the Word of God?The mind BogglesWill it be St peter at the marble gates or some alien or advanced human when I die?The Mind BogglesI suppose the question might be what good is faith in God which might only delay us on our road of using science to achieve immortality? Hence, It possible ain't some future human but a naughty rascal of an alien getting further and further ahead of us?How do we inform the world to wake up?.......Before it's too late to catch up?yzend1

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

Have you ever come across books that you thought were not the work of man?

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]