From a standard Christian view the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Through chosen people, accounts of history and personal accounts of Jesus were documented and written throughout 66 books that make up the Bible.

My question to those who do not believe the Bible to be valid in what it states is, then, what do you believe the Bible is? Why is it in existence and who benefited from falsely writing it?

Might I recommend "Who Wrote the Bible" by Richard Elliot Friedman? It's one of the best books on the history of the bible ever written.

The Bible was written by (if I recall) 5 authors. One of the authors is probably Jeremiah. I don't remember the others. But I remember that it said that the five books of Moses were probably NOT written by Moses.

The people who benefitted from the writing of the Bible were the Clergy: The priests, rabbis, etc... They used the Bible to give themselves tremendous power over the laity.

It's in existence because people didn't like the idea of dying and having that be the end of it. (the root anyway)

Those who benefited are humans over the years that are also looking for an explanation of why we're here, and who also find comfort in thinking they will live on after they die.

If people didn't try to impose their religious beliefs on others the world would be a much better place, so I'd say overall, the world is worse off because of books like the bible. (it's not the only one to blame obv)

"BUT THEN WE WOULDN'T HAVE MORALS!!"

lol

ya this too

Asking, "who benefitted from falsely writing it", is a dishonest question. This book has been written and rewritten so many times. The vast majority of those "authoring" the bible were probably just honestly mistaken. As an example just think of the childrens game "telephone".

Documented hundreds, in some cases over a thousand years after the fact. Plus it was originally a lot bigger, had a lot more books in it. They had to weed it down.

Obviously the church benefited from it. That was the reason they kept it in Latin for so long, so the common folk couldn't understand what was going on, until old Martin Luther kicked up a stink. It was a document of power in a time when communication was extremely limited. Knowledge was power, and the bible was the ultimate power tool.

The Bible is simply a collection of 2000 year old myths and fables, with some twisted history thrown in every bow and then.

The story of Jesus is nothing new, it's been told before. If people get comfort from it great, but if it reinforces their prejudices than it's a shame.

It's a contradictory book. That's it.

A book about Humanity, written by various people over an extented period of time.

-Zeno

Its a really strange and creepy book about an angry god who makes people worship him.

What I think the Bible is:

God created the heavens, which are His. While talking within the Godhead God said, “Let us give a small part, just a piece, and create Man. Let us create Man in our likeness. And we shall give the earth to Man. The heavens are our domains and the earth will be for Man to do with as he pleases. We will allow Man to subdue the earth and give him full authority over all creatures. The creation of the earth holds all that Man needs to prosper. Man need not follow his neighbor to accomplish what his neighbor accomplished, for God left a little secret in each of His people to be found. The pursuit of this secret will unlock a little more of the piece, and will ad growth to the small part which God copied of Himself. Man has taken this gift and thrown it away. Although unworthy and undeserving, The LORD God sent a second and final Adam to save the people He so loved. Adam was the first human being who had that sacred choice to make for all of mankind. And because of his failure, God sent Christ, the Word Made Flesh. For, through Christ, Man can restore within himself what Adam took from him, and that is life. This life is not what is to be considered as functions of the body, but of the soul. This very life is what allows a Man to look into the mirror and be proud of what he sees. This life is what allows a man to stand tall above his persecutors, for he knows. I say to you my friends, go after your dreams. Go after what you do not yet know how to accomplish. For deep within your desires there is a truth to which reality can be made. You can be who you want to be. Through Jesus Christ, nothing is impossible. Do not let this world deprive you from the knowledge and Truth that is at your fingertips. Know this. Know that you can accomplish. The man who tells you otherwise simply knows it's not possible because he doesn't know. And to ad gift upon gift, God so loves you that a promise to you is eternal life. Your soul, your consciousness, will never die. A new life will replace this earth. A perfect life. Simply a storybook from a different realm.

Fyp.

Could you provide a link proving that the bible has written and rewritten many times and is nothing like the original?

Because this contradicts everything that authorities on the subject manner say.

But the church, the priests, rabbi's, etc... Are you saying that you believe that "God" was first made up by these people, and then holy books were written to support their con? Where did the idea of "God" come from?

Of all the fables and myths that are out there, it takes a pretty remarkable one to convince billions of people don't you think? The United States Government was even fooled. "IN GOD WE TRUST", on their own money no less. The pledge of allegiance, "One Nation Under God".

My question is on the depth of what is told in the Bible. The Bible is deep. And by deep I mean that it connects. Like all other books and most things in life probably, when you approach it without sincerety you get nothing from it but fables and myths. But when you approach in sincerely, as it suggests you do, something unexplainable happens and this is where I cannot follow your logic. You personally get nothing from it but do you ever wonder if it's because you don't want to? Because surely if you did, you would. You would most definitely get something from it.

I can compare it to sewing and knitting. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in sewing or knitting. If I saw a book about it I wouldn't even read it. But if I had to read it, lets say for a class, then I would get enough out of it that I needed to complete whatever was expected of me. And at the same time, sure, I would gain a little more knowledge but still would change nothing. But now lets say I met this girl who loved to sew and she had no interest in me. But to get closer to her I wanted to impress her so I decided, on my own, to learn as much as I could about sewing and knitting. Now this takes on a different structure of the meaning of sincerety. I could actually learn to understand and become good at sewing because I really wanted to.

Now obviously this analogy can be made fun of but my point is that if you are faced with a subject matter as important as your own existence, and the claim of a book that says all you need to know is within it while at the same time BETTERING your life, wouldn't you want to approach it with the sincerety needed to find out if it was telling the truth?

By not doing this it tells me that one might be afraid of something. Progress maybe? Dealing with the truth about your own demons? I have overcome personal hardships in my life because of my pursuit of God. Not just drugs, but personal accounts of my childhood that I've kept inside my whole life. This has been done on my own, no therapy. But the reason for this being possible is because my search has shown that God exists, and when you know God exists, THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING!

I'm urging you, for your own good, search sincerely! Do it and you will emerge a different person. The world through Gods eyes is power! You see how to fight addictions, you see how to accept your physical self for who you are, you see what it takes to be who you desire to be.

I have read a lot of the bible, and read it sincerley as I was deeply religious at the time. Instead it did the opposite, I guess God doesn't love me.

I think the problem with these debates is that the Christians will do everything to twist and manipulate the Bible into making sense. Whereas the critics will try to take everything as literal in order for it not to make sense. Nobody wins.

Personally, when I read the Bible it struck me as a story-like historical source. The happenings seem so far from what we see and hear of today it is foolish to deny that it seems far fetched and I think this is the biggest problem with people believing the Bible today. It is just too unrealistic and seems so obviously made up. However, I think there are lots of good morals taught in the Bible and was fortunate enough that my Reverend at school focused more on the moral teachings of the Bible than trying to convert people.

Billions of people have low self esteem and need something to believe in to make their own lives mean something. Doesn't make the bible real.

Doesn't make it false.

C'mon now!

Hey man, I'm not twisting anything. For me to do so would say that I have nothing better to do then try and tell people a story that I myself don't even believe because well, it's either this or football. You have the same chance as everyone else when it comes to applying oneself. The reason I kept reading the Bible was because it was opening my eyes, not because I liked manipulating it's words.

Well don't give up Malcolm X, just know that there is always hope. Always.

I was never saying you didn't believe. Quite the opposite, because you deeply believe you have to make sense of it. For example, you present twisted versions of Genesis to make evolution fit and you attempted to twist that John chapter. I'm not criticizing just saying that for Christians there will be a certain amount of malleability when it comes to the Bible because that's how it makes most sense. Whereas anti-Bible people will look at the Bible and use every possibility to discredit it even when it is unjustly so.

We need more avatars of animated gifs showing boobs.

I probably agree with most of the teachings of the Bible, just not all of them. Of The Ten Commandments, the first four are irrelevant to me and the last six are pretty good so I adhere to them.

The problem for me is words or statements like the following: "...because the Bible tells me so...".

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"Never trust a man who only carries one book..."
-anonymous

The world through my eyes is power.
I already know how to fight addictions.
I already accept my physical self for who I am.
Whom I desire to be is someone who doesn't rely on the bible to get things done, so your last statement is self-contradictory.

If you want to read the Bible, go ahead. Be my guest. If it makes your life better, great. I wish you all the best.

Untrue. "The Bible" is not a catch-all for every Jewish or Christian writing from antiquity. The Gospel of Thomas, for example, was never included in the first place.

Perhaps He doesn't.

Shouldn't that concern you more?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by either of these. I don't recall twisting anything.

If I ever change an opinion, it would be because I have further knowledge that would allow me to interpret differently, if that's what you mean by twisting. But I don't see how this is much different then what science does when they discover new evidence; they make new assumptions.

I'm qurious to know who people think Jesus was. If you believe the Bible is invalid then you must believe Jesus not to be real. Jesus Christ is the heartbeat of Christianity and the Bible was written because of Him. Do you believe the authors just made up the stories of Him? And if so, is it plausible that people would follow a religion that was "falsified" within a generation or two after Jesus' appearance on earth?

If Jesus never existed or if He didn't do the miracles that were written about then how can the Bible have the weight it does? I mean c'mon seriously, people are not that gullible that they would just believe this if there was no foundation to support it.

Or do you believe that Jesus did performed miracles, but probability would show that after billions of people, one is bound to be able to do it?

You should think it out. Wait 30 seconds. Then start to type.