[Bogdana Alkeav]

Sigh, really? Hi, you may not remember me, I used to post here for a bit a few months ago (I have been diligently studying my English, hope you note some improvement). In case you don't know, me and "Heathen_Basher" used to be engaged until I told him I had decided to become an atheist and he dumped me. Anyway, I was randomly browsing by here and found this discussion, and I realized it was VERY similar to an article I had read ages ago http://christiananswers.net/q-aiia/q...t=44+questions Can't make up your own material, dear? Anyway, it hardly matters cause it's all B.S., as I will now show you. Since that article is the original (and better written) I'll use it instead of the tripe here.

How do you explain the high degree of design and order in the universe?

Maybe because are brains tend to see patterns where none exist? How do you explain all the randomness and chaos in the universe?

How do you account for the vast archaeological documentation of Biblical stories, places, and people?

Oh, so some of the stuff mentioned in the Bible is historically accurate? So? Plenty of other ancient myths have some historical basis to them. However with those, scholars ALWAYS ignore the supernatural elements to get out the truth. Now how do you explain archaeological documentation that disproves the Bible, or lack of evidence for events mentioned in the Bible that should have left some?

Since absolutely no Bible prophecy has ever failed (and there are hundreds), how can one realistically remain unconvinced that the Bible is of Divine origin?

Really? None has ever failed? Do you mean the ones that haven't happened but might still some day? I predict the sky will turn into jello. May not happen in a thousand years, but hey, it did not FAIL cause it might happen in a thousand more. Or maybe you meant some of those vaguely worded prophecies that you interpret to mean something that has happened while other people reading the same passages interpret to mean other things? Anyway, here's a list of Bible prophecies that have definitely failed: http://faithskeptic.50megs.com/prophecies.htm The most interesting one there is Jesus saying He will return within the lifetime of the people of the first century. Hmm, that didn't happen now, did it?

Explain David's graphic portrayal of Jesus' death by crucifixion (Psalm 22) 1000 years previous to crucifixion being established as a form of capital punishment?

Really? First, this Psalm is not written as a prediction of something yet to come, it is a prayer of someone in distress. Second, the thing does not describe crucifixion! The word used as "they pierced" in English translations in the original said "like lions". In fact, the Psalm doesn't even say that the person in danger is ever even physically harmed! http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/pierce.html

How could any mere human pinpoint the birth town of the Messiah seven full centuries before the fact, as did the prophet Micah?

The gospel of Matthew (2:5-6) claims that Jesus' birth in Bethlehem fulfills this prophecy. But this is unlikely since

1. "Bethlehem Ephratah" in Micah 5:2 refers not to a town, but to a clan: the clan of Bethlehem, who was the son of Caleb's second wife, Ephrathah (1 Chr.2:18, 2:50-52, 4:4).
2. The prophecy (if that is what it is) does not refer to the Messiah, but rather to a military leader, as can be seen from verse 5:6. This leader is supposed to defeat the Assyrians, which, of course, Jesus never did.

It should also be noted that Matthew altered the text of Micah 5:2 by saying: "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda" rather than "Bethlehem Ephratah" as is said in Micah 5:2. He did this, intentionally no doubt, to make the verse appear to refer to the town of Bethlehem rather than the family clan.

Account for the odds (1 in 10 to the 157th power) that even just 48 (of 300) Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in one person, i.e Jesus.

Yes, a bunch of random quotes from the Bible, a lot of which are not prophecies, which you assert were fulfilled by Jesus because the BIBLE SAYS THEY WERE, when in fact it is just as likely that the Biblical authors REWROTE Jesus' life in order for it to fit in with those "prophecies" (which they did, Matthew particularly is fond of misquoting the Old Testament to fit his purposes). What about all those Messianic prophecies Jesus clearly DIDN'T fulfill? There is a reason Jews don't believe in Him, you know...http://www.geocities.com/realjewsforjesus/MJFAQ.html

How was it possible for the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to have predicted the virgin birth of Jesus (Isaiah 7:14) 700 years before it occurred?

The King James Version mistranslates the Hebrew word "almah", which means "young woman" as "virgin". (The Hebrew word, "bethulah", means "virgin".) In addition, the young woman referred to in this verse was living at the time of the prophecy. And Jesus, of course, was called Jesus -- and is not called Emmanuel in any verse in the New Testament.

[QUOTE]How can anyone doubt the reliability of Scripture considering the number and proximity to originals of its many copied manuscripts?[/QUOTE

So the reliability of the content of the texts = the veracity of the content? Anyway, those manuscripts weren't always that well-preserved http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textual...#New_Testament

Are you able to live consistently with your present worldview?

Um, yes, I am. Are you able to live consistently with yours?

Wouldn't it make better sense, even pragmatically, to live as though the God of the Bible does exist than as though He doesn't?

Pascal's wager has been refuted time and again. It's nonsense for several reasons: one can not simply will oneself to believe something, this wager can be equally applied to any and all gods (why don't you believe in Allah to stay on the safe side?), and why would God reward belief based on a bet? http://www.infidels.org/library/mode...ism/wager.html

In what sense was Jesus a 'Good Man' if He was lying in His claim to be God?

Did I say Jesus was a "Good Man"? Perhaps you misunderstand people who say that, though. They probably mean the basic morals espoused in the New Testament are good, ignoring the divine claims. Anyway, it's totally possible that Jesus never claimed to be God and only the Bible authors record it as so.

Do you think that Jesus was misguided in affirming the truthfulness of Scripture, i.e. John 10:35, Matthew 24, Luke 24:44?

Yes. Or whoever wrote those words were, at the very least. What's your point?

If the Bible is not true, why is it so universally regarded as the 'Good Book'?

Universally regarded, except for the 2/3 of the world population who don't regard it as such?

Are you aware that the Old Testament alone claims to be God's inspired word at least 2600 times?

So? The Book of Mormon makes similar claims...

Did you know that the Bible has been the number one best-seller every year since the 1436 invention of the Gutenberg printing press?

And that proves what? The Da Vinci Code is a best-seller also.

From whence comes humanity's universal moral sense?

From whence comes your idea that humanity has a universal moral sense? I know plenty of people whose morals I definitely do not share, and many cultures look at things completely differently.

1. If man is nothing but the random arrangement of molecules, what motivates you to care and to live honorably in the world?

Evolution has programed a desire to help our fellow man into us, as were are a tribal species.

Explain how personality could have ever evolved from the impersonal, or how order could have ever resulted from chaos.

Didn't we go through this already in the first question? Explain how an all-powerful entity could have always existed before anything else and have created the rest of the universe.

If Jesus' resurrection was genuined, why would twelve intelligent men (Jesus' disciples) have died for what they knew to be a lie?

How do you know that they died for their belief?

How do you explain the fact that a single, relatively uneducated and virtually untraveled man, dead at age 33, radically changed lives and society to this day?

The same could be said about Buddha, and he's been dead even longer.

Why have so many of history's greatest thinkers been believers? Have you ever wondered why thousands of intelligent scientists, living and dead, have been men and women of great faith?

And thousands of great minds have not been. And thousands of great minds have believed in other religions. What's your point?

1. Isn't it somewhat arrogant to suggest that countless churches and people (including men like Abraham Lincoln) are all radically in error in their view of the Bible?

Isn't it somewhat arrogant to suggest that countless Hindus are radically in error in their views?

How do you account for the origin of life considering the irreducible complexity of its essential components?

How do you account for the origin of God?

How can the Second Law of Thermodynamics be reconciled with progressive, naturalistic evolutionary theory?

Quite easily. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/thermo/probability.html

Why does the Bible alone, of all of the world's 'holy' books, contain such detailed prophecies of future events?

Didn't we go through this already? Anyway, Muslims make the same claims about their Quran. http://www.gracewatcher.org/quranprophecies.html

On what basis can the Bible (interpreted as per historic Christian orthodoxy) be challenged as a sole, final truth-standard (Galatians 1:8)?

Yes, the Bible says its perfect, so the Bible must be perfect

Is it absolutely true that "truth is not absolute" or only relatively true that "all things are relative?"

Of course truth is absolute. Something is or isn't. What's your point?

Is it possible that your unbelief in God is actually an unwillingness to submit to Him?

Is it possible your belief in God is actually an unwillingness to live in a world without that comforting notion?

Does your present worldview provide you with an adequate sense of meaning and purpose?

Yes. Do you hold your present worldviews just because they provide you with a sense of purpose?

How do you explain the radically changed lives of so many Christian believers down through history?

Again, how do you explain the radically changed lives of so many people of other faiths?

Are you aware that every alleged Bible contradiction has been answered in an intelligible and credible manner?

No, I have not. But let's consider it like this. Star Trek is a very popular series spanning various television shows and movies and written by many different people throughout decades. Naturally, contradictions in the show's real universe have arisen. The geeks of the internet, thankfully, waste no time discussing these and making up plausible reconciliations to these errors. Of course, the writers did not have these big ideas in mind. They just made a mistake.

Any Bible error can be answered because ANY contradiction can be answered in the method Apologists use. They examine the text and make up things not in the text to explain it away. Funnily enough, many of these Apologists come up with DIFFERENT answers. Only one of these can be right, of course, which also brings up the fact that none of them are right. Consider I am writing a book and in one part I say I live in Florida and another part I say I live in California. Is that a mistake? Well, maybe I only live in California half the year, and the rest of the time I live in Florida. Maybe I moved between the time of these passages I mentioned. Maybe I meant I live in one of these places in spirit. This is the sort of reaching that brings about your credible answers.

What do you say about the hundreds of scholarly books that carefully document the veracity and reliability of the Bible?

I say there are hundreds that document its falsity and unreliability.

Why and how has the Bible survived and even flourished in spite of centuries of worldwide attempts to destroy and ban its message?

Let's be honest here - the only real danger was in those first 300 years or so. After that, Christianity became the state religion of the biggest Empire of the time, and then went on ban and destroy as much of its competition as it could. Yet so many other religions still survive..

Why isn't it absurd to try to speak or even conceive of a non-existent 'God' when an existing God would, by definition, be greater?

The Ontological argument, eh? That's been refuted, too. The mere concept of what God is does not entail his existence: http://www.infidels.org/library/mode...tological.html

Have you ever considered the fact that Christianity is the only religion whose leader is said to have risen from the dead?

Um, no, maybe because that isn't true?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-de...ebirth_deities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_C...tive_mythology

How do you explain the empty tomb of Jesus in light of all the evidence that has now proven essentially irrefutable for twenty centuries?

Uh huh. And what refutable proof do you have that there ever was an empty tomb in the first place?

1. If Jesus did not actually die and rise from the dead, how could He (in His condition) have circumvented all of the security measures in place at His tomb?

He couldn't, so that probably didn't happen. He probably also did rise from the dead either.

If the authorities stole Jesus' body, why? Why would they have perpetrated the very scenario that they most wanted to prevent?

See above.

If Jesus merely resuscitated in the tomb, how did He deal with the Roman guard posted just outside its entrance?

See above.

How can one realistically discount the testimony of over 500 witnesses to a living Jesus following His crucifixion (see 1 Corinthians 15:6)?

The problem here is that we DON'T have over 500 testimonies. We have the testimony of ONE person, who was not even present at this alleged event. Interestingly, the Gospels, the book of Acts, and all the other epistles fail to mention this huge event.

If all of Jesus' claims to be God were the result of His own self-delusion, why didn't He evidence lunacy in any other areas of His life?

How do we know He didn't? Because the Bible says so?

If God is unchanging, wouldn't it be true that one who changes by suddenly “realizing” that he/she is “God” therefore isn't God?

Yes. What's your point?

Is your unbelief in a perfect God possibly the result of a bad experience with an imperfect Church or a misunderstanding of the facts, and therefore an unfair rejection of God Himself?

No. Is your belief in God possibly the result of influence of your upbringing, or some stressful time in your life when you were looking for comfort?

How did 35-40 men, spanning 1500 years and living on three separate continents, ever manage to author one unified message, i.e. the Bible?

Unified message? Tell that to the 30,000+ Christian denominations. But anyway, here's an interesting quote: "We find collected in this book [The Bible] the superstitious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, with indistinct echoes of Indian and Persian fables, mistaken imitation of Egyptian theories and customs, historical chronicles as dry as they are unreliable and miscellaneous poems, amatory, human and Jewish-national, which is rarely distinguished by beauties of the highest order but frequently by superfluity of expression, coarseness, bad taste, and genuine Oriental sensuality." Be honest, the Bible is a great big mish-mash of books, which often contradict each other. Consider that Christians cannot even agree whether or not they should pay attention to the Old Testament.

1. Would you charge the Declaration of Independence with error in affirming that "all men are endowed by their Creator..."?

If we view it as a metaphor, what's the problem? Would you charge an constitution with error if it said, "This government will treat its citizens with certain inalienable rights..." ?

Because life origins are not observable, verifiable, or falsifiable, how does historical 'science' amount to anything more than just another faith system?

Nobody has faith in these things. We believe them until we find the next best hypothesis. We are always open to be proven wrong. Christians merely have failed to do so.

What do you make of all the anthropological studies indicating that even the most remote tribes show some sort of theological awareness?

I would say that is not true. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3_people

Why subscribe to the incredible odds that the tilt and position of our planet relative to the sun are merely coincidental?

If you consider the sheer vastness of the universe, it becomes easier to believe that somewhere one planet might achieve those odds.

Now, why did God create all those barren empty planets?

If every effect has a cause, and if God Himself is the universe (i.e. is one with the universe, as some non-Christians suggest), what or who then caused the universe?

This again? What caused God?!

1. What would be required to persuade you to become a believer?

What would be required for you to stop believing?

Now then, why don't you all visit this website and see a better list of proofs: www.godisimaginary.com