Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
3 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,819 Year: 3,076/9,624 Month: 921/1,588 Week: 104/223 Day: 2/13 Hour: 1/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Does A Biblical Historical Record Exist?
ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 3 of 55 (430008)
10-23-2007 12:27 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Buzsaw
10-22-2007 11:33 PM


Buzsaw writes:
2. Must a historical record be imperically substantiated to be 100% accurate to be regarded as a historical record? If not, what percentage of a record must be imperically substantiated accurate to be regarded as a historical record?
Asking whether or not the Bible is "a historical record" is the wrong approach. You might as well ask if a library is "a historical record".
Some of it is and some of it isn't. Each part has to be individually compared to outside sources. And even if some parts are corroborated, that in no way validates the parts that are not corroborated.
So, calling the Bible "a historical record" in a debate has no value. Only parts of the Bible corroborated by external sources and pertinent to the particular topic should be deemed "historical".

“Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place”
-- Joseph Goebbels
-------------
Help scientific research in your spare time. No cost. No obligation.
Join the World Community Grid with Team EvC

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Buzsaw, posted 10-22-2007 11:33 PM Buzsaw has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 8 by Buzsaw, posted 10-23-2007 11:40 PM ringo has replied

  
ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 9 of 55 (430242)
10-24-2007 12:26 AM
Reply to: Message 8 by Buzsaw
10-23-2007 11:40 PM


Re: Historical Record
Buzsaw writes:
A library is a building. The Bible is a book...
The Bible is a library. The 66 (or so) books ought to be your first clue.
Some of it is history, though that doesn't necessarily mean that it's an accurate account. And much of it isn't history at all, doesn't even pretend to be history. The Psalms and Proverbs contain little or nothing that could be called history. The epistles contain next to no history. Even the gospels are more biography than history.
Which is why I say it's useless to describe the Bible as "a historical record". It's a record of many things, only a few of them even purported to be history.
Regarding it as a historical record has value depending on one's ideology.
I don't have an ideology.

“Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place”
-- Joseph Goebbels
-------------
Help scientific research in your spare time. No cost. No obligation.
Join the World Community Grid with Team EvC

This message is a reply to:
 Message 8 by Buzsaw, posted 10-23-2007 11:40 PM Buzsaw has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 10 by arachnophilia, posted 10-24-2007 12:33 AM ringo has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024