The Bible is Completely Unreliable

I was replying to someone who asked why God "CAN" (caps in original) perform miracles, yet chooses never to do so.

It was never a discussion of whether one believes in the veracity of these miracles, or not.

 

The "different times" that the New Testament books were written were not all that different.

 

If you believe that my reply was in error, then please feel free to elucidate.

Otherwise, I will have to assume that you are capable of making a charge--but just incapable of backing it up...

 

There would be no point in any attempt to "Elucidate".

Have A Nice Day

 

I haven't said anything negative about home schooling.

I HAVE pointed out that for the most part, US citizens can't do an effective job of home schooling, because they don't have the time, resources or the education to pull it off.

Again, that doesn't mean that those who home school fail. It means that home schooling isn't an option for a significant percent of the population.

It's also the case that religion is a significant reason for home schooling - NOT math/science. And, America's education problem isn't in religion. It is in math/science.

 

Lets look at those 3 items (time, resources, education). Its not really a matter of time and resources, its a matter of priorities. People have to decide how important are their children. Raising children requires full time dedication - if its going to be done properly. And don't start with the "both parents need to work in this economy", I know too many people who make far below the median and are doing just fine.

Resources are available and they are free, just go to the local library or a local home schooling group. Join a home school association and share the workload.

And education is not a problem either. Where I live, there is an extensive home school association which has a variety of classes. Some parents int eh association teach, some classes have a fee. A parent who is a musician holds music classes, an engineer teaches a calculus class, etc. Want your child to learn Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, even Gaelic? There are classes here for those languages.


What should really be done is to exempt home school families from education taxes since they don't use the public school system. That's really frees up resources.

You assume that because people home school for religious reasons that they are incompetent - that's BS. I home school for 2 reasons. One is religious. The other is that my child on entering kindergarten tested at the 2nd grade level (thank me for being a responsible parent and teaching my child to read and write and do basic math). My child (who would normally be in 1st grade) is now at the 3-5 grade level depending upon the subject.

You want education to be narrow, secular, and tailored to your politics. I am educating my child to a classical liberal education - arts, science, philosophy, language, religion.

 

Here is the problem 31% of Americans believe the Bible is the literal word of god and 100% truthful cover to cover, that's over a lot of persons over the age of eighteen who vote and form their opinions based on a bronze age book that all science and reason says cannot largely be considered reliable. How many is that 100 million Americans that's a lot of adults delusional and counting on blind faith to compensate for human reason.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/in-us-3-in-10-say-they-take-the-bible-literally-52070/

The actual numbers are from Gallup in the article.

 

So everybody is as clever as you! Well done.

Without children of poorer, less clever, parents, who is going to do the lesser jobs, pay the taxes required in the future running of your country. Education is the lifeblood of any civilisation for progression. Come down to earth.

 

Since you appear to be entirely unresponsive, I think I will choose to simply ignore your posts in the future.

And I will graciously wish you a nice day, also...

 

It is unclear exactly what you mean by "the literal word of [G]od."

I do believe that it is precisely that.

But I do not believe--and neither do many other serious people--that it is verbatim. (This is what was once known as "The Dictation Theory" of inspiration.)

Yes, it is true that the word, "inspired," is from the Greek, theopneustos--literally, God-inspired--but I would prefer not to read too much into that.

If we were to accept The Dictation Theory of inspiration, then it would bring about a number of other problems--not the least of which is this: Just why is it that God changes his fundamental style when He writes through Mark, vis-a-vis when he writes through John? Or when He writes through Paul, vis-a-vis when He writes through Peter?

This is something to think about...

 

that leaves the problem of deciding what is true/literal/correct etc. How does one believe in Abraham, Moses, the exodus etc when history/archaeology clearly denies their 'Biblical' existence. How about the highly exaggerated 'facts' proven to be incorrect - again by history? How do we know that 'Jesus' was divine when the nativity stories - particularly of Matthew - is made of prophecies which have clearly been taken out of context by whoever wrote Matthew, and Luke's use of non-existent Roman and Jewish practises?
I gave up believing in the Bible after years of studying it and the period in which it was written.

 

I'll skip to the first sentence of that last paragraph, as everything else is just plain ridiculous, using yourself as some sort of model that certainly is not representative.

Public education SHOULD be secular, not because I'm an atheist, but because the state isn't a legitimate or constitutional source of religion.

You're interested in home schooling. Surely you recognize that there is time after public schools let out (at about 3:30!) and ALL weekend for you to indoctrinate your kid in your version of the supernatural, subvert their science education, and take whatever other action you want.

 

Learn to read the posts (maybe you should have been home schooled). Education is not indoctrination. A good education teaches facts and also how to think and process information.

Education should be objective, not secular or insulating. Students should be exposed to many subjects including comparative religion. I will teach my child about evolution and creation, about Christianity and islam and judiasm and atheism. Most importantly, I will continue to educate my child so she will think critically. Before long, she will be smarter than you.

 

???

I agree with what you are suggesting education should be.

But, that's not a justification for making education worse in America by working toward defunding it.

We need to IMPROVE education and make it MORE available.

(It would be great if you found someone to teach your kid science, obviously.)

 

How, exactly, does archaelogy "clearly den[y]" the existence of Abraham and Moses?

[Bold added]

I tend to believe in the so-called "Four-Source 'Q' Theory" of the Synoptic Gospels, popularized by B.H. Streeter, almost 100 years ago.

Basically, it goes like this:

Mark--not Matthew, as had once been believed--is the earliest of the Synoptic Gospels.

Matthew uses Mark; plus an Antiochene source document, known as "Q" (for the first letter of the German word, quelle--meaning source) as his basis.

Matthew supplements this with "M"--a Jerusalem source document, which gives Matthew its distinctively Jewish flavor.

Luke uses Mark, "Q," and "L"--the last of which is believed to be a Cesarean source document.

The weakest point of this theory, of course, is the fact that these source documents remain undiscovered; so this remains in the realm of theory, rather than hard fact.

But it is still the best explanation that I have seen.

 

I was raised in such a church by literal I mean these people believe cover to cover with the only exception clearly poetic books the Psalms. Proverbs and Song of Solomon that the Bible is accurate, that all the events happened as stated and the accepting of an young Earth since the lineage of the men and women of the Bible demonstrate a timeline one can go by as a scholar. Usher's dating is deemed close enough to be accurate. So there was an Adam and Eve, Abraham, Exodus and all of it were true. I had issues with that. That is why I find faith inferior I have seen the blind faith in action and it scares me its fundamentally ignorant.

 

Your assumption is that public (govt) education is the way to go. The current public education system has failed. Funding has been increased steadily and dramatically for 50 years, yet student performance has declined.

Funding a public education behemoth has failed.

If you insist on govt funding, then attach the funds to the student, let the funds follow the student, and let the parents decide were their children will go to school. But of course, you will say the parents are unqualified and need to be led by the hand by their betters - your comments about home schooling clearly indicate that attitude.

 

Actually, by using Usshers dating we can show that the stories of Abraham and Moses are simply stories.

 

This isn't going to be a popular opinion but I have two points to make. IF your local schools are really bad how much worse could home schooling be if done by a caring person not necessarily a parent a grandparent could oversee it and if one adds in available resources of the modern age and life experience of older adults it might be the far better option - just saying.

The second is how much do you need to know really it seems to me literacy, basic mathematics especially if practically focused, basic civics and history, some science and other things taught would be good enough say the goal is the home school student earns a GED at sixteen as the educational goal would suffice. Adding in some trade or work related education to that. I will note most people don't use most of the things learns in High School and largely forget their time learning Ancient History and International Literature but teach the person to fix engines it might last a lifetime leading to a career. Again I might consider K-12 education complete overkill for average people. Now if someone plans to go to college it will require more of course, but again earn an associates degree, and do well then they can likely enter a four year school and no one will care if they were home schooled ever again. But why not focus on the basic needs of going to college and not more than that? Just some thoughts on that.

 

Not according to most Evangelicals, if it said Moses went to Egypt and unleashed the plagues and led the multitude and that was a lot of people through the parting of the red sea etc. it happened and no evidence will change their minds or use of common sense. I tried and got a good talking to about trusting god and I need to stop thinking so much about what the Bible said and to pray.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...s-anyone-worrying_us_59547fc7e4b0c85b96c65f3f

 

I'm afraid reality goes out of the window when 'faith' takes over. Proven History means nothing when someone doesn't want to believe it.

 

Exactly and if the numbers of the poll even are off it still means many millions of people believe the Bible is the literally true history of the world and will of god, well as far as ancient history in Biblical times come into play. And if that doesn't scare people, it should.

 

Many of us have, that's why we don't except that the Bible as anything but the word/ideas of man, not those of a god.

 

Public education has been a monumental success compared to EVERY other alternative EVER proposed.

Subsidizing wealthy families to abandon public education doesn't make ANY sense.

If you want to let people have a choice, then the policy would need to be that ANY kid can go to ANY school, regardless of whether they have a dime to their name.

Then, there would have to be great schools provided by some means, so that capacity isn't an issue.

Otherwise, it isn't choice.

The part you guys totally forget is that America needs ALL kids educated. And, that absolutely includes higher education for those with the desire and ability.


If you think your public school system isn't good enough, then FIX IT.