Prayer, faith and healing

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Well judging that the Bible is the most accurate collection of books ever (siloam tunnel, kings, dates, times)

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Sorry, there is not much that is accurate about the Bible with regards to prophecy or history.Ask any non-fundamentalist Bible scholar.

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and countless people come here and preach about christianity being the "right one"

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But maybe the correct religion isn't the one which encourages people to spread the word.What if the correct religion is one which welcomes you if you discover it, such as Judaism or Buddhism but is not so arrogant as to attempt to convert as many people as possible?Lots of people think that astrology, or alien abduction, or homeopathy is true, but that doesn't make it so.

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Does this "healing" include the recent story about that autistic african - american boy who was smothered by a minister and this family members?

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I am sorry, but this has got to be one of the most awful examples of ignorant, superstitious, idiotic religious behavior I have ever heard.Sounds like they ought to spend a little less time praying for God to fix things and a lot more time getting off their intellectual asses and learn how to think for themselves and solve their own problems.

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Most NON-FUNDAMENTALIST scholars agree with my statement.

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History Channel: Minimalists vs. Bible defenders

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The History Channel is one of your sources?Cable TV is about entertainment and the History Channel is not an exception. They are not a good source of real historical scholarship.

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The book of Isaiah

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Archeological digs finding evidences of the bible. Such as Kings, dates, great destructions that happened there.

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There is archaelogical evidence of Mayan, Roman, Egyptian, Aztec, and various Pagan religions, too.So what?As far as the dead seas scrolls, they are simply very old translations of certain parts of the Bible. They are useful from a greater historical context but they don't "prove" or verify anything other than that parts of the Bible have been around for a very long time.

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"Digging Up Jericho" by Kathleen Kenyon

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I couldn't find any mention of this book at Archaeology - Archaeology Magazine. I did find a great many Christian apologetics sites which mentioned it, however.Can you produce any mainstream Archeological reviews of this book, and can you please provide some references to some peer-reviewed papers which support these assertions?

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King Solomon's temples foundation is still there.

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The website you gave me did not provide any non-religious references.

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OK now before you say that you wanted all unbiased sources, for I did give you many, think about this, EVERYONE IS BIASED. Unbiased information is SCARCE.

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Everone IS biased. That's why the scientific method and peer review is so important.Science, done well, eliminates a great deal of personal, individual bias. The scientific method itself does this well, and peer review makes sure others are constantly dissecting and examining your claims.So, relatively unbiased information is not all that scarce. Scientific papers that survive peer review are usually quite good in this regard. If they weren't then the technologies, medical practices and procedures, and most of all, predictions of the natural world wouldn't work or happen.I'll repeat for emphasis...How can science be biased if predictions based upon past scientific work actually happen?

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Before you dismiss christian links at least see what they have to say.

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The problem with what they have to say is that they do not attempt to use real scientific methodology nor real peer-review.If you are a Creationist, you have already agreed to give up science and rational inquiry in favor of preconceived religious dogma.No Creation 'scientist' comes to any conclusion other than the one he or she has agreed to ahead of time, right?That's not science, and wearing such blinders is not likely to reach the truth about the physical world.

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So telling people about what you believe is arrogance?

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Telling people that you are right and they are wrong when all you have is faith is quite arrogant, yes.[This message has been edited by schrafinator, 10-01-2003]

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I'm sick of reading your negative GARBAGE. I don't care what you think.

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"Negative garbage"?What is negative about wanting logical, scholarly evidence from you to support what you claim?It is not negative, and it is not garbage. It is intellectually vigorous critical analysis.I am sorry if you find such questions and requests frustrating.the truth is, all you have to say is "I know there's no real support for a lot of the stuff in the Bible, but I believe it anyway."We have left science and empiricism altogether, then, and at this point I have no argument with you.It is only when you say, "The bible IS true, see, there's all this scientific evidence," that I can minutely examine what you say and be as demanding and picky about the science as I would for any other empirical claim.

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First off watch the history channel program. They show INTELLIGENT views of archeologists, scholars, EVERYTHING. Maybe I'm wrong because it's on cable.

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I'm sure the History Channel program is not completely terrible, but why bother with pop culture entertainment when there is actual unedited scholarship to be read. The Reader's Digest version of anything is not likely to cover much detail.

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You ask me for evidence I provide then you COMPLAIN? What is that?

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I am asking you for evidence of a certain quality.You said that archeological evidence for things that happened in the Bible, places, people, etc., exists, amd that's a reason you believe in the Bible.I pointed out that lots of Archaelogical evidence for many other people, places and events exists for many opther religions also.When I said "So what", I meant to point out that it is not particularly impressive that the Bible had this supporting evidence because lots of other religions have evidence, too.

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What do you have against CHRISTIANS?

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Nothing at all.I do have issues with any religious group that tries to pass their religion off as science, however.

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Why don't you read the book for yourself???????? Go to a LIBRARY.

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Because YOU provided it as evidence for your assertions, so YOU can do the leg work on the research.If it is such a great Archaeology book, then why can't I find it mentioned at all at Archaeology - Archaeology Magazine?

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It's fun restating what I said huh?

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I NEVER SAID SCIENCE IS BIASED

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Funny, it seemed to me that when you said, in defense of your posting of all christian websites, that EVERYONE is biased, which I took to mean that you thought that Christian and Scientific 'evidence' was equally biased.Maybe you could explain what you meant?

Amlodhi covered everything in their reply that I would hhave liked to, so I will not waste space saying the same things in a different way.It's OK that you got angry, Mike. I know you are a good kid and were only having a moment. We all have those moments.

Whoops, sorry.