The More I Learn About The Bible, The More Amazed I Am.

[Theland]

Atheists read the Bible and find plenty to criticise it.
However it so cleverly written, that there are levels of understanding at so many levels in even the most simple texts.
Many texts have been misunderstood for years until contemporary events have unlocked them.
This is worth more than instant dismissal by atheists.
Open minds?
Evidence?
We have an Internet capable of satisfying all of our enquirers.
Give it a go?

[Khandro]

The Bible’s far-reaching influence is quite hard to ignore. Whether you are a believer or not.
The number of allusions to the Bible in literature and the visual arts is astounding. Shakespeare references the Bible hundreds, if not thousands of times. Authors that include Biblical references or even base whole works on the Bible include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Milton, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy.

(and Khandro!).

[Theland]

Peter Pedant - Many thanks - I found it in Kings 2.

[Theland]

Naomi and your sidekick - Your strategy seems to be, whatever I say, you will throw it out.

Problem is, you ask for evidence, but never present any for your own views.

Rather lazy and only interested in the entertainment of stirring things up.

More low brow than high brow.

You Naomi, ask for evidence of God?

Ah! Back to basics.

But for starters, the whole of creation is evidence for God, and if you disagree, then why? Evidence?

[nailit]

//Problem is, you ask for evidence, but never present any for your own views//
Evidence of your own would be a start.
Oh, God, I give up. What a compete numpty!

[nailit]

Theland, you don't do yourself any favours m8!

[Caribeing]

Yes I am amazed as well, as this is the period of Lent, according to Matthew, Jesus fasted for 40 days, we are told to follow the example of Jesus, if I fasted for 40 days I would be on the brink of starvation and probably die, so I couldn’t follow Jesus again!

[nailit]

caribeing,
Interesting point.
However, its not meant to be taken literally!
Is it Theland?

Exept where it IS meant to be taken Literaly?
it all gets a bit confusing.
Clear as mud.

[Theland]

Well Nailit, you are the, "cover to cover expert," so if you did not absorb anything, think and regret all of the time you may have wasted.

[naomi24]

Khandro, your logic – or absence of it - disappoints.

Theland, I don’t have a sidekick.

I’ll ignore your usual rudeness and move on to your question.

//the whole of creation is evidence for God, and if you disagree, then why? Evidence?//

Impossible to provide evidence when none exists. Who/what/where is God?

[Khandro]

The atheist's obsession with scripture seems rather risible. Watching and listening to the so-called New Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and their gullible half-witted followers, makes one think that these figures are convinced of the utter lack of substance of the Bible and biblical thought. Many of these New Atheists leaders though have found fame and fortune (big time) in their attacks on Christianity without understanding the substance of that which they attack.

If any of you actually possess a bible (?) please try this little experiment; open it somewhere with closed eyes, place your finger anywhere on a page, open your eyes, read it and explore its context - there are some excellent sites on the internet to help with this.

If you find what you have learnt, lacking in poetry, imagery or any form of metaphorical relevance to your life, please return and tell us about it.

[Theland]

Evidence?
Does not the creation have a Creator?

[vetuste_ennemi]

//the whole of creation is evidence for God, and if you disagree, then why?//

OK, Theland, let's say for the purposes of argument that I agree. But why would I assume further that this creator god is the same as Theland's God, as in "God is Love"?

If an orderly universe is evidence of an intelligent creator, what is the suffering of God's creatures an evidence of?

[Theland]

The suffering is evidence of a fallen world, and the free will of men, who in total have turned their back on God.
Our way instead of Gods way, and look where it has got us.

[vetuste_ennemi]

//If any of you actually possess a bible (?) please try this little experiment; open it somewhere with closed eyes, place your finger anywhere on a page, open your eyes, read it and explore its context//

The Bible's an anthology, isn't it, Khandro? Not all of it is Manley Hopkins. Some of it might be Francis Thompson ("sentimental" is the word AB's foremost literary critic used, I think)), Swinburne(neurotic), or worse.

[vetuste_ennemi]

E.g. there is little moral edification to be found in the austere Mosaic code, or much to admire in the Divine plan for His Chosen people in the mythological history

[Arksided]

I just did that, and St. Peter on about trust and love your Brother... I can't read Latin though.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Confessions of an "Old Atheist", not a new one.

Hitchens didn't get it right in "God is not Great" with his false defence of twentieth century secularism (i.e Stalin and Mao), and his refusal to treat revolutionary France. Dawkins, unlike Hitchens, doesn't appear to be widely educated outisde his own speciality.

I have an abhorrence of secularism in its modern and pervasive neo-Marxist form because of its hostility to all of the West's cultural inheritance.

[Theland]

Morals? The difference between an objective morality that originates with a supreme Authority, and the man made subjective morality that like shifting sand is so damaging.

[naomi24]

Theland, //Does not the creation have a Creator? //

I don't know - and neither do you.

[Theland]

Naomi - Don't be silly.
All effects have a cause.
If the creation is an effect, does it have no cause?
I know it does.
You seem to think "It just happened."
Listen to yourself.
There is more to AB surely than simply posting opposition views without evidence or even a theory.