I was attracted to the forum "The Bible: Accuracy and Inerrancy" by that description i used for the title. As if there already is a subject i missed it would have at least several years of inactivity, i thought i might as well make a new topic.
So, is the Bible the inerrant word of God? Or is it the words of men?
I would say it doesn't really matter.
I mean, even if it was god's exact words, just how far are you going to believe them?
Just take Jesus as an example. What do you think would have happened if he came and said "Your whole conception of how the world is and was made is wrong, let me tell you how it really is." ?
Just for everyone to acknowledge the earth is round took thousands of years.
I like to try to write what he could have said (which he maybe actually did by the way) about the creation of the earth not being done in "seven day" but several billions of years :
You see, the Bible said the earth was created in seven days. But it is not talking about "earthian" days, how could it since the earth wasn't even created at that time? It actually were periods, called "day" so that everyone could understand the concept, several billions years long each.
Oh that's right, you didn't need to handle such high numbers before and can't understand them yet.
Then i'll explain that way : each day was so long that you would have time to be born, live, die, your bones to become dust and being re-used for somebody else, and that several times before it ends.
What is it? You still can't grasp the concept of such a long period of time?
Let's just keep it to the seven days then.
That's why i think using the bible as an absolute truth isn't good. The humanity at this time wasn't ready to accept new ways of thinking, and even now, when one of the key point of the science is to question everything, it is still hard for a new theory to be accepted, so how could God reach us if he didn't play our game and do as if we were right?
I think we should take the basic saying of the bible like the ten commandment (is it how they're called in english?), and adapt the rest to our new society. Well, even the ten commandment were probably carefully spelled not to offend the believers of the time, so it might be good to review them too (i didn't read them so i can't really talk about them).
The question now would be to know who should be doing that review. I'm certain there would be a lot of people not accepting it, even if it was from the Pope himself.
Maybe we should try to do a new conduct code, that would be accepted by everyone, believer or non believer. God said to love each other, wasn't it because he wanted us to live in peace? If he truly cares about us, then he would rather have us do it without believing in him than not doing it but believing in him.
My point here is to try to spread his word even if he doesn't take the credit for it. And you have to admit, even if it is the words of men, it doesn't mean our life wouldn't be better if everybody were following it.
Well, as you can see i love to talk, sorry for going a bit off topic, i hope you had a good read ^^
™ Version 4.2