Yet another ID challenge.

[Box Whatbox]

I've just spent the afternoon with a relative who was introducing her 4-month-old son to our local section of the family.
The poor little blighter spent a lot of time pushing his hand into his mouth, screaming in pain.
Teething, it's called.
Who designed that?

[Goat]

[Replying to Goat]

There are many prophecies mentioned, we have not touched any of them, one in particular successfully predicted the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and another kingdom which is in our future(You can read about this prophecy in Daniel chapter two). In the case of Babylon it even mentions the name of the General who conquered Babylon and the manner in which Babylon was conquered and predicted Babylon would never be rebuilt and to this day has not been rebuilt. Sadam Hussein claimed he was a descendant of Nebudchadnezzar(king of Babylon) and tried to rebuild Babylon but the war put an end to his plans.

Well, part of the problem I see is that the Book of Daniel was written beteween 160 and 164 bce. That makes it 'after the fact' writing, rather than a prophecy

[Inigo Montoya]

[Replying to Goat]

There are many prophecies mentioned, we have not touched any of them, one in particular successfully predicted the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and another kingdom which is in our future(You can read about this prophecy in Daniel chapter two). In the case of Babylon it even mentions the name of the General who conquered Babylon and the manner in which Babylon was conquered and predicted Babylon would never be rebuilt and to this day has not been rebuilt. Sadam Hussein claimed he was a descendant of Nebudchadnezzar(king of Babylon) and tried to rebuild Babylon but the war put an end to his plans.

Well, part of the problem I see is that the Book of Daniel was written beteween 160 and 164 bce. That makes it 'after the fact' writing, rather than a prophecy

That... probably stings a bit.


As an aside, I've always felt like a prediction that happens to later occur speaks only about the batting average of whoever originally said it. I never understood how authors guessing future events occasionally right was evidence for a fairly specific version of a god.

[Maranatha]

[Replying to Goat]

Author: The Book of Daniel identifies the Prophet Daniel as its author (Daniel 9:2; 10:2). Jesus mentions Daniel as the author as well (Matthew 24:15).

Date of Writing: The Book of Daniel was likely written between 540 and 530 B.C.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Dan ... z3TE9asKj4

[Maranatha]

[Replying to post 52 by Inigo Montoya]

Biblical prophets have a one hundred percent track record.

[Inigo Montoya]

[Replying to Maranatha]


http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Failed_biblical_prophecies

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/proph/long.html

http://faithskeptic.50megs.com/prophecies.htm

http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Debunk ... /Page7.htm

[Goat]

[Replying to Goat]

Author: The Book of Daniel identifies the Prophet Daniel as its author (Daniel 9:2; 10:2). Jesus mentions Daniel as the author as well (Matthew 24:15).

Date of Writing: The Book of Daniel was likely written between 540 and 530 B.C.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Dan ... z3TE9asKj4

That website ignore a lot of the evidence. For example, the borrow words from Persia that was being used did not get introduced into the language for another 150 to 200 years after that. It's really amazing when the author uses words that aren't in existence yet. Then, there is the bad history...

And, from http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/daniel.html

W. Sibley Towner writes: "Daniel is one of the few OT books that can be given a fairly firm date. In the form in which we have it (perhaps without the additions of 12:11, 12), the book must have been given its final form some time in the years 167-164 B.C. This dating is based upon two assumptions: first, that the authors lived at the later end of the historical surveys that characterize Daniel 7-12; and second, that prophecy is accurate only when it is given after the fact, whereas predictions about the future tend to run astray. Based upon these assumptions, the references to the desecration of the Temple and the 'abomination that makes desolate' in 8:9-12; 9:27; and 11:31 must refer to events known to the author. The best candidates for the historical referents of these events are the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem and the erection in it of a pagan altar in the autumn of 167 B.C. by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The inaccurate description of the end of Antiochus' reign and his death in 11:40-45, on the other hand, suggests that the author did not know of those events, which occurred late in 164 or early in 163 B.C. The roots of the hagiographa (idealizing stories) about Daniel and his friends in chaps. 1-6 may date to an earlier time, but the entire work was given its final shape in 164 B.C." (Harper's Bible Commentary, p. 696)

Louis F. Hartman writes: "Having lost sight of these ancient modes of writing, until relatively recent years Jews and Christians have considered Dn to be true history, containing genuine prophecy. Inasmuch as chs. 7-12 are written in the first person, it was natural to assume that Daniel in chs. 1-6 was a truly historical character and that he was the author of the whole book. There would be few modern biblical scholars, however, who would now seriously defend such an opinion. The arguments for a date shortly before the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 are overwhelming. An author living in the 6th cent. could hardly have written the late Hebrew used in Dn, and its Aramaic is certainly later than the Aramaic of the Elephantine papyri, which date from the end of the 5th cent. The theological outlook of the author, with his interest in angelology, his apocalyptic rather than prophetic vision, and especially his belief in the resurrection of the dead, points unescapably to a period long after the Babylonian Exile. His historical perspective, often hazy for events in the time of the Babylonian and Persian kings but much clearer for the events during the Seleucid Dynasty, indicates the Hellenistic age. Finally, his detailed description of the profanation of the Temple of Jerusalem by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 and the following persecution (9:27; 11:30-35) contrasted with his merely general reference to the evil end that would surely come to such a wicked man (11:45), indicates a composition date shortly before the death of this king in 164, therefore probably in 165." (The Jerome Biblical Commentary, vol. 1, p. 448)

I find the 'Got Questions' web site to be highly inaccurate from a scholarship point of view.