Bertrand Russell White
Well-Known Member
Coming to the conclusion that Jesus is god is either an emotional reaction when people are vulnerable and need something to believe in, manipulated by Ministers or Christians in various settings (such as at a revival or church service), other intense psychological situations or a placid acceptance of such by religious influencers over time. The person often (but not always) has a peak experience which they attributed to having a special religious experience and encounter with god. This helps to convince them and make them feel special. Similar experiences has been noted within other religions or groups or situations. It is purely natural and has no connection to a divine encounter.The Bible is comprised of 66 Books written over a period of about 1,500 years by over 40 authors from all walks of life, with different kinds of personalities, and in all sorts of situations. It was written in three languages on three continents, and it covers hundreds of controversial subjects. Yet, it fits together into one cohesive story with an appropriate beginning, a logical ending, a central character, and a consistent theme.
And keep in mind—many of the writers of Scripture didn't even know each other.
Approximately 40 men were inspired to record the Word of God. They had no e-mail, no faxes, no phones. Imagine trying to pull together a project like this over a 1500-year period.
You sound like a booster for a Josh McDowell book - Evidence that Demands a Verdict! The Bible is an interesting humanly composed book but definitely not inspired or the word of a god. People over time have established hundreds of errors in it both large and small. If it were god's word why did he do such a poor job of having it transmitted and composed over time (lots of mistakes in transmission and composition that even fundamentalist scholars acknowledge and not all are trivial)? Even many small errors are still lots of errors - you'd think god would want its book perfect. The translation errors run into the 100's of thousands.
Also, the authors often disagree, if you read the Bible closely. In one place it will say one thing in another place something contradictory.
Coincidence? No coincidence, the Bible is the work of humans, so we would expect lots of factual errors, logical and other errors when being written by a hodgepodge of people.
I would disagree ... Matthew, Mark & Luke should be studied together. Agreed They are 3 different people giving their account ... No, they are three different people giving their particular spin. This is evident from Matthew and Luke copying Mark verbatim and adding their particular twist for their intended audience (propaganda?). they are not exactly the same however cover many of the same stories The Greek shows Luke and Matthew copied Mark - much of it word for word. The stories they add are either made up by them or taken from a mysterious lost source or sources. .... if they were exactly the same They are except where their purpose to make a certain point, where they will alter the story or create/use another one. The gospels aren't historical they are for the needs of the Christian communities they served... then it would indeed be suspicious. They don't contradict one another Yes they do, details of the resurrection for example don't agree in details at all. The birth story in Luke and Matthew cannot be harmonized. So which one is correct or are they both wrong?.... more or less details are given by each author. Same with the writings of Paul.
The message is cohesive throughout .... Jesus is God ... Jesus is the Messiah .... where is/are the contradiction(s) in that regard? Where does it say Jesus is god in Mark the first gospel written? Where does it say it clearly in Matthew and Luke, god equal to the father? We see an evolution to make Jesus more and more like a deity until John says he is equal to the father. However, this is exactly what to expect after about 60 or 70 years of oral transmission and reworking of who Jesus was in the minds of people. Scholarship has shown that myth creation of this sort (transforming a leader of a movement into a god) can easily happen much faster then this. Anyway, there is no evidence in Jesus time (about 4B.C. to A.D. 30) outside the Bible that Jesus did any miracles, was resurrected from the dead (common myth before Jesus time), had a miraculous birth (another common myth, used long before Jesus came along in the ancient world) and was a god. Most likely the gospels gave him these characteristics to make him seem special with people who were familiar with famous mythical people who had miraculous births, did miracles and were resurrected from the dead. Why did people with these characteristics exist long before Jesus came along? Were there other Christs? Why did god the father allow false Christs to exist before J.C. come along? Did he not have the power to stop them or does it just want to make it hard for us dumb humans?
When facing possible contradictions, it is important to remember that two statements may differ from each other without being contradictory. Some fail to make a distinction between contradiction and difference. Scholarship, science and common sense have taken all of these things into account and there are still impossible contradictions and problems in the Bible and about Jesus life. Only if you assume from the beginning that there are no contradictions, because of religious assumptions (Bible is infallible), can you cling to these types of ideas today. You have to remember that for perhaps all your life you have been constantly told - "The Bible is true", "the Bible is true", "the Bible is true", "the Bible is true"..... that kind of programming helps you to KNOW "the Bible is true"
If an event happens and say several people eye witness the event .... will they all tell the exact same story the same way? It depends. They may or they may not. However, all or most of the contradictory stories must be wrong. There can only be one right story. What contradictory stories tells us is that without people coming to an agreed upon story, we don't know much of anything at best. People have notoriously bad memories as has been shown by recent research in science. All of the accounts of Jesus resurrection could be so mixed up and made worse with oral transmission over time that none of the details are accurate at all. It is not uncommon for people to believe they have had experiences of dead people appearing after a traumatic death, speaking to them etc. These stories over time can be easily changed into a myth of a person be resurrected. Or the stories could have been made up. Or the disciples could have made up the stories or... there are lots of possibilities without having to jump to supernatural explanations. We just don't know based on the lack of evidence. Also, even if Jesus somehow did not die and was revived this would not demonstrate he was a god.... will their "accounts" be exactly the same? If one states something happened and another does not .... does that mean one of them is lying? or ... that none of it is true? No, but their accounts will be different (vary) ... does that mean they are contradictory? No it does not.
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