This animistic kind of thinking IS typical of primitive people, but it is far from the mentality you find in the Bible. Nothing about God in that story. In fact, although there are vague references to a Great-Spirit-like God in some tribal religions, the usual religion is ancestor worship and local gods and forms of animism along the lines of this tribe. The Bible is SO far above these TRULY primitive kinds of thinking there is no comparison, and it comments ON these common beliefs also. The Bible is the reason the Western world transcended that kind of primitive thinking. How sad to see arrogant moderns accusing it of the same thing.
And what you said is called "ethnocentrism".
In short, the idea that ones world view is better or greater or of more value than anothers.
If natural disaster destroys a church, however, or a nation for that matter, the church should take it as a reason to reconsider how they are teaching and living the gospel in my opinion, and the nation should repent as Nineveh did.
And how is that different from some group that believes in a hungry ocean, pray tell?
This is what many call "magical" or "supernatural" thinking.
The Bible writers are wise level-headed realistic people.
And you would know this how? You mean you actually held a conversation with one or more of them? Wow.
How can you seriously think that we could take your word on the supposed sanity or mentality of long dead writers? Jesus sounds to me like he had feelings of "supernatural" powers and charismatic bouts of euphoria attributed by other to be indications of "powers". Sounds just like many "shamans" you may meet in the world.
The fact that so many were involved in writing it over so many centuries helps to guarantee that reliability.
That statement is unsupportable and is in fact contrary to observed instances of transmitted histories. They ALL get distorted somehow or other.
No, I'm afraid God really did do those things, and they are supposed to be taken by us as knowledge of the consequences of sin.
That makes god the biggest terrorist of them all.
Other "historically" presented accounts were likely not wwritten by those who actually experienced them. Factual archeological evidence suggests that the Exodus as described in the Bible never happened (there is no evidence of a 40 year trek through the desert - even smaller nomadic groups leave evidence behind, and the numbers suggested by the Bible are huge).
After 3000 years you expect evidence to remain, though many other nomadic groups have come and gone since then? Remarkable. What? Quail bones? A pellet of manna?
Yet you expect us to believe YOUR evidence is perfect and should be taken litteral? Just pointing out a glaring inconsistency.
Yet, evidence exists in many areas in which humans lived. Food remains can be found in many archaeological sites, especially bones. Cloth remains more than 7000 years old have been found. It all depends on the level of preservation due to climate and environmental factors. Much of evidence obtained does not follow the bible as Rhavin stated and as far as I am aware in the majority of events described in the bible, there is no evidence. Though evidence exists of humans, it doesn't match what the bible says.
Amazing what modern people prefer to believe based on scanty recently acquired evidence over a witness account from the time. The ancient people would laugh at us.
Until we have the evidence the witness is suspect. Amazing how little you require to believe in magic and demons.
The striking thing about the Bible as a whole is its utter lack of literary embellishments of history.
Surprising how close the Enuma Elish compares to the genesis accounts of creation. Of course, the Enuma Elish predates the biblical account. It seems likely that early jewish writers came into contact with the powerful story of the babylonians and thought "Wow, we gotta include this, but lets embelish it a bit and make our god sound better." (Reminds me of Bush and his cronies on the road to war with Iraq. Hmm, I think we need to make this evidence sound more better.
This message has been edited by DBlevins, 09-02-2005 11:26 PM
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