How can you trust the Bible?

[OldChurchGuy]

Hi I’m an Atheist who respects beliefs of many. I think that people should have faith in "God" if they so will. But my question is why should beliefs come from and be understood from the bible.

Having basic knowledge and historical skills I know the Bible is of secondary evidence being from a time hundreds of years after the times it talks about, although it has some historical accuracy being fact how can you trust the rest as not just a depiction of old beliefs? Why does nature do this? How can we understand?

So my main point is why the Bible has to be a centre piece for a religion being of archaic profession with a take on society at a different time and not necessarily to do with “God”.

Regarding the question of why should beliefs come from and be understood from the Bible. First, this is an excellent question.

Historically, it is my understanding the Hebrew Bible did not become cannonized (a final agreement that these books and ONLY these books will make up the Hebrew Bible aka The Old Testament) until around 200 A.D. Prior to that there were many manuscripts available such as the Book of Enoch and others. Different theologies began springing up including Christianity so the Jewish leaders decided it was time to get back to the basics and determine which books were "in" and which were "out".

The New Testament was finalized around 400 A.D. after Constantine became emporer of the Eastern Roman Empire. One of his first acts was to make Christianity an official religion of the empire. With this came the need to decide just what writings were "in" and what writings were "out" for the Christian New Testament.

There are those who say both books were the result of politics while others believe it was the quiet hand of God guilding mortals to the correct writings. Neither view can be proven one way or the other.

But, as a theist, the books are important as they are a written source by many authors (many of whom are unknown) over many centuries all trying to explain what it is like to experience God.

For example, at this point in my life I am struck by how the Old Testament prophets and New Testament writers seemed to focus so much on the well being of widows and orphans. Turns out, these were the two most vulnerable groups in society. For a long time I took those two groups as literal. But in the last few years I have come to conclude that all of us at different times in our lives feel like a widow or an orphan. So, I try as much as possible to be aware of people and their concerns so they do not feel like no one cares.

The above rambling is an example of belief I derived from reading and studying the Bible. Can I prove it is correct? No. Do I need to prove it is correct? I don't think so.

Enough for now.

OldChurchGuy