"I dunno, could'a been."
Then you `coulda` go to heaven. lol.
`What sort of "moral standards" are taught by the crucifixion story? Really, this baffles me.`
Sacrfice for the greater good is a puzzling concept hey...you poor soul. I hope you don`t plan on having kids. I`m willing to bet you would throw them under the bus to save your own butt.
`This isn't any sort of "direct observation" we're talking about here. Especially so for those first two chapters of Genesis (ah! back to the topic, almost).`
Well, since books previous to Jesus` told of his coming, I suppose this would have been an educated guess
Okay. I need to interupt here for a minute. Can someone tell me why my keyboard doesn`t let me use quotations or question marks...all I get is this bs `` ```.
Sorry. Where was I. Right. I don`t know if you have bothered to read the bible, but many of the books written from different time periods relate to each other (the mark of the beast talked about in Daniel and Revelations for example). Daniel lived before Jesus, and Revelations was a dream given to John after jesus` death (man that keyboard thing is driving me crazy).
` but there was still plenty of time for embellishment and invention regarding "events" that were never (could not have been) directly observed by the authors`
I agree. But since the birth of Jesus is prophecied in the OT as well, I don`t understand how men living at different periods of time could collaborate their efforts (without time machines).
It`s important to note that some of the stories in the bible are geographically accurate. If these were made up by 40 different authors, then perhaps there would be much more conflict than Genesis 1 and 2 (which actually don`t conflict with each other at all).
Physical support for the stories told in the bible such as the red sea crossing (chariot wheels in the water and inscriptions in the rocks at shore) show us that at LEAST some of the stories have evidence supporting them. This physical evidence is also true with Mount Sinai (hope thats spelled right), that is burned at the top, and drawings at the base of the mountain of Moses breaking the tablets with men in the background worshiping a golden calf.
` has nothing at all to do with what we normally refer to as morality/ethics.`
HEY for once we agree. The fact is that Morality is subjective, and more a matter of personal opinion. I do not believe the bible was intended to teach anything of the sort. If there is a god, and he happens to be the Christian one, then my morality and your morality mean very little, since God has laid out the ground rules, and whether or not you think it`s morally acceptable to kill is irrelevant to Him.