Why are Christians so incredibly gullible?

The earliest writings of the OT we have date to mid 1st millenia BCE.

Copies of Enuma Elish found dated around 12th Cent.BCE and most scholars agree the original writings come from the Sumerian period - 2000BCE.
The latest of religious texts before Christianity is the OT. The earliest are known to have been around 2000 BCE. Sumerian and Egyptian.
Gilgamesh comes from circa 2200 BCE. It is generally agreed that Gilgamesh was probably an historical king from circa 2400 BCE. Also that the epic was a series of stories about this king built up over time.

 

I think you're about 800 years off for the oldest Old Testament manuscripts.

 

Taking your word as truth would be like the one with eyes to see allowing himself to be lead by a blind man.

 

"But taking an ancient book written anonymously and which we don't have the original manuscripts for as the truth about God, now that's a concept you can get behind!"

 

So because you believe as you say written anonymously that automatically means it is not literal? What authority do you have that makes what you say correct? Do you really expect an intelligent person to believe what you say without any evidence to back it up?

 

I have been trying to tell him that the Bible and all the ancient texts and books within it...NOT ONE BOOK OR ANCIENT TEXT IS AN ORIGINAL COPY! Not one.

They are copies of copies of copies and there veracity is dubious.

In the end it doesn't really matter as it is the stories lessons that are important not whether or not the things written in the Bible are made up stories and stories based upon some facts and history.

The LESSONS are what is important!

Still...I can't understand why he or anyone else needs to cling on to some ridiculous ideology where they are telling me these stories are REAL.

They are not.

AboveAlpha

 

News flash!!! I know that silly. What do you think I thought; that the Bible was originally written in English? Those who copied it were people of integrity and are not like some of you, that tends to put things the way you all see it instead of copying it as is, word for word. Besides, since I believe its God's inspired word I have full and total confidence in His ability to preserve His word.

You people act as if just because something is not the original that automatically means it what is in it is not true. I mean, who do you people think you are? You are all so full of yourselves that you actually think that your opinions is the truth just because you say so. Its one thing to say I don't know or I'm not sure, but to dogmatically say that it is not true, as if you were all around then to know.

I guess from you'll logic anyone not living in the U.S can be an expert about on American culture.

 

Who do I think I am?

I am an American Citizen.

Which means I have Free Speech and can say what I want and ask questions about things!

Take a look at the name of this TOPIC.

Although I myself find the topics name rude I am still on a topic where what I have posted is ABSOLUTELY APPROPRIATE and for you to get indignant just because someone might question the veracity of what you hold dear upon such a topic in such a forum is not only laughable but it also underlines the TOTAL INFLEXIBILITY OF THOUGHT that some people have as far as being able to talk about and look at aspects of their beliefs.

How can you possibly profess to have true FAITH when the moment another person might talk about an aspect of it that questions it...you get all wigged out?

Besides...how strong really is a persons faith when at the slightest questioning they get angry and emotional?

AboveAlpha

 

Free speech don't mean that you are correct......it just means that you can utter any foolishness you feel the need to express. But you know something? There is a scripture in the Bible that say that even a fool would be considered wise when he keeps his mouth shut.

And there is no sin from expressing anger......even Jesus did it.

 

OK...so let me translate the REAL meaning of your reply to me.

So basically because I have the audacity to actually THINK FOR MYSELF....and the strength TO QUESTION OTHERS AND QUESTION WHAT SOME BOOK AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT IT WANT ME TO BELIEVE....you basically are telling me to SHUT UP? And your angry?

FOLKS....I REST MY CASE!

AboveAlpha

 

,

A man that is blind has no authority to instruct someone about things he cannot see. And have you ever thought about questing what you believe? You have no case only your opinion that you confuse with the truth. The man that is full of himself ascribe to himself things that he assumes he knows that he cannot possible know.

 

You are TOO FUNNY!

What you are doing or saying is that because I actually think for myself and make certain to question things and question what people might say or believe the I AM BLIND? LOL!

It is not a person such as myself that is blind...it is people such as yourself!

You cannot abide even the THOUGHT of the NECESSITY for a person to question the indoctrinated from youth religion or belief system placed within them as for you such a thing is UNCONSCIONABLE!

The only thing sadder than a person such as this is a person who has been converted or Born Again and now exists at the Height of Hypocrisy!

Why can you not see that your Faith does not exist because you believe every literal sentence in the Bible which is both proven scientifically to be impossible as well it is not even necessary to believe such fantasy as all that is important are the lessons and meanings?

I am not blind because MY EYES ARE OPEN!

You on the other hand are trying to walk a path while you hold a book in front of your eyes.

AboveAlpha

 

And the blind man says he can see.

 

No theologian is always correct, not even the Pope. Personally I disagree with Augustine’s conception of “original sin”, but here you go, some people agree with it.

As for why God set up the “primordial ooze” and thus us you’ll have to ask the Bible. The theology I adhere to in this point would say that He did it because God is perfect love and as such wanted other conscious beings to share the love with.

As for when and how God did that you’ll have to ask scientists such as Francis Collins for example, who led the Human Genome Project and founded the Christian organization “biologos” that I gave you the link to.

 

And with your open eyes you thought that medieval scientists believed the earth to be flat and that it is well documented that the Church burned a lot of people on the stake for promoting that it's round and that the world is heliocentric. Seems to me that some atheists are just as gullible as some Christians are. Don't worry, I don't blame you for it. It seems that most people easily believe what they want to believe.

 

In 1992. the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing.
In 1992. the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing.


The Church eventually lifted the ban on Galileo's Dialogue in 1822, when it was common knowledge that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. Still later, there were statements by the Vatican Council in the early 1960's and in 1979 that implied that Galileo was pardoned, and that he had suffered at the hands of the Church. Finally, in 1992, three years after Galileo Galilei's namesake spacecraft had been launched on its way to Jupiter, the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing.

On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.[104][105] Pope Benedict XVI later praised Galileo.

They killed Tens of Thousands!

AboveAlpha

 

This WIKI link provides a list of famous people burned at the stake that were deemed heretics.

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

Yeah...I'm the one with my eyes closed! LOL!

AboveAlpha

 

Don't make blanket statements.....what Church are you referring to? Are you referring to the Roman Catholic Church; the same one that murder Christians who were never Catholic because they refuse to adhere to Roman Catholic teachings? You people are so myopic that you lump every Christian/denomination with the Catholic Church. Get this straight...I do not revere the pope or think he is in God's stead or believe that Mary intercedes for us or that Mary remained a virgin after Jesus was born.....I despise that Church. You would have more in common with that Church than I do.

 

New Flash!! You don't have to be a unbeliever to be labeled a heretic........many none Catholic Christians were called that by the Church of Rome and were we killed.

 

Galileo was not burned on the stake though and if you cared to have a look at the Galileo affair you'll find that Galileo's problems were not rooted in heliocentrism so much but in insulting the wrong people. Of course that does not mean the Church handled the affair well and that it did not burn an awful lot of people for other reasons than the one given by you.
In many ways the whole heliocentrism thing is a bit like what we see today: if fools such as Richard Dawkins didn't keep insulting religious people and didn't spread nonsense such as that science and religion are incompatible and that evolution pretty much disproves the existence of God, there'd probably be a lot less creationists around these days.

 

A few minutes ago your argument was no one was burned at the stake for such beliefs as the World being Round or NOT being the center of the Universe.

I provided a list proving this happened.

Now A NEW NEWS FLASH! LOL!

AboveAlpha

 

But what would all of that have to do with a Christian who is not of the Roman Catholic Church? Would it be right for someone to blame Americans for a wrong that the British did?

- - - Updated - - -

I said not such thing.

 

Sigh, yes, heretics were burned for things such as defending Wycliffe's doctrine of The Lord's Supper etc. etc., but feel free to go through that list and find the ones for me that were burned for defending heliocentrism and the idea that the earth was round.
For somebody who praises himself for his scientific thinking you are being surprisingly inaccurate here.

 

Giordano Bruno (Italian pronunciation: [dʒorˈdano ˈbruno]; 1548 – February 17, 1600) (Latin: Iordanus Brunus Nolanus), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, astrologer and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model: he proposed the Sun was essentially a star, and that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited worlds populated by other intelligent beings.[2] The Roman Inquisition found him guilty of heresy and he was burned at the stake.[3] After his death he gained considerable fame, particularly among 19th- and early 20th-century commentators who, focusing on his astronomical beliefs, regarded him as a martyr for free thought and modern scientific ideas.

LINK....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno

AboveAlpha