thethinkfactory wrote:I think what Cyracuz was saying Frank is that there were certain assertions to scripture that the sciences are proving to be true.
Could be...but if that is so...his wording is most peculiar.
Quote:But - this brings me to a question I wanted to ask you Frank. If I am a credible person - let's say you and I are long friends and you have never seen me lie before. I come by your house and over some beers and tell you about something that I have seen happen recently.
Let's say I had seen a UFO in the sky and I saw it land about 50 yards from me.
This UFO visit cannot be replicated in a lab but it can be independently verified. You find some other people to substantiate my claims. You don't know those people as well but they basically verify what I had seen - with slight 'point of view' differences.
Would you believe me?
I do not do "believing"....EVER.
I would accept what you had to say...(knowing me, with a healthy bit of skepticism)...and then change the subject.
Quote: Would you believe what I had told you had happened?
I do not do "believing"...EVER.
I would simply accept that you say you saw a UFO...and then move on to something else. If I didn't see the UFO myself...there would be no reason for me to suggest that you actually did...or that you did not.
Of course, I would have to evaluate the story...and see if the parts make a coherent statement. For instance, if part of the story deals with the fact that you were coming back from a party where you had done losts of beer and marijuana...or if you told me that you noticed the UFO just after waking up from a deep sleep...I might be more inclined to guess the story to be false.
But most likely, I would...if pressed...say: "I do not know if TF saw a UFO...I do not know if TF did not see a UFO...and I do not have enough evidence upon which to base a meaningful guess about that issue.
Quote:If so... isn't this what happens with scripture?
Yeah...in a way.
But I do have lots to assess in the way of scripture.
Here is my take on scripture...specifically, the scripture of the Bible.
Either the words written in the Bible represent a fairly accurate portrayal of revelations of a God...the maker of our universe...or they are the self-serving words of relatively unknowledgeable, relatively unsophisticated, extremely superstitious ancient Hebrew who had good reason to invent a ferocious god.
I have read the Bible fairly carefully...and every instinct of mine tells me that the best possible guess that can be made about that book...all things considered...is that it represents a fanciful, self-serving history of the early Hebrew people...and that it has a fanciful, self-serving mythology intersperced.
There is no way I suggest this is the only possible assessment of the Bible...but it is the assessment I have made...and, since I am comfortable with that assessment, considering all the thought I have put into it...I think it is as good a guess as I can make.
None of the people who guess in the other direction have ever given me any reason to change my mind on that.