Is anything unbelievable (in the Bible)?

[Jagella]

As we should know the Bible has stories about talking snakes, talking donkeys, unicorns, dragons, and flying zombies. Many Christians believe all these tales must be true because they are in the Bible. One Christian famously stated: "I'd believe the Bible if it said that Jonah swallowed the whale!"

Question for Debate: Is there anything so outlandish that you would not believe it even if it's in the Bible?

I'm wondering if there is a limit to what people will believe. There may be a point at which even the most faithful Christian reading her Bible might stop and say: "No way can I believe that! I'd be a really gullible fool if I did."

[Tcg]

As we should know the Bible has stories about talking snakes, talking donkeys, unicorns, dragons, and flying zombies. Many Christians believe all these tales must be true because they are in the Bible. One Christian famously stated: "I'd believe the Bible if it said that Jonah swallowed the whale!"

Question for Debate: Is there anything so outlandish that you would not believe it even if it's in the Bible?

I'm wondering if there is a limit to what people will believe. There may be a point at which even the most faithful Christian reading her Bible might stop and say: "No way can I believe that! I'd be a really gullible fool if I did."

Sure, and it doesn't take long to find it. It's the fourth word in the English Bible.

• In the beginning God...

Tcg

[Clownboat]

As we should know the Bible has stories about talking snakes, talking donkeys, unicorns, dragons, and flying zombies. Many Christians believe all these tales must be true because they are in the Bible. One Christian famously stated: "I'd believe the Bible if it said that Jonah swallowed the whale!"

Question for Debate: Is there anything so outlandish that you would not believe it even if it's in the Bible?

I'm wondering if there is a limit to what people will believe. There may be a point at which even the most faithful Christian reading her Bible might stop and say: "No way can I believe that! I'd be a really gullible fool if I did."

I was a believer for 2 decades. The level of what I could believe varied throughout that time.

Towards the end, when I was being set free from my beliefs, I went from believing that the Bible was 'the spoken word of God' to accepting that evolution happens and that it was the mechanism that the god of the Bible used to get to man.

For me there was a limit, but it varied.

[Elijah John]

As we should know the Bible has stories about talking snakes, talking donkeys, unicorns, dragons, and flying zombies. Many Christians believe all these tales must be true because they are in the Bible. One Christian famously stated: "I'd believe the Bible if it said that Jonah swallowed the whale!"

Question for Debate: Is there anything so outlandish that you would not believe it even if it's in the Bible?

I'm wondering if there is a limit to what people will believe. There may be a point at which even the most faithful Christian reading her Bible might stop and say: "No way can I believe that! I'd be a really gullible fool if I did."

Sure, and it doesn't take long to find it. It's the fourth word in the English Bible.

• In the beginning God...

Tcg

OK, just to clarify you position. You seem to be saying that the basic belief in a Creator God is as outlandish as some of the other things in the Bible which Jagella pointed out? That puts you at odds with all Monotheistic religion, not just Christianity and Judaism, but also Islam, Bahai, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, and even Deism.

You see no difference between the basic belief in God vs talking snakes? Just so you know, many of us Theists and Deists believe the former, without believing the latter.

Only Fundamentalists believe the whole kit and kaboodle "because the Bible tells me so".

[Jagella]

Sure, and it doesn't take long to find it. It's the fourth word in the English Bible.

• In the beginning God...

Well, I primarily meant this question for Christians, but I assume you think that the creation stories are too outlandish to believe. Can you elaborate? It seems very hard for me to believe that an invisible person who exists in no location for no time and is made of nothing we can recognize as real is the answer to one of the toughest questions we people try to answer: why does the cosmos exist? To say a god did it is almost certainly wrong because we have created the gods. I don't see how something we have created can create a universe.

[Jagella]

Only Fundamentalists believe the whole kit and kaboodle "because the Bible tells me so".

So what does the Bible say that you doubt? What does the Bible get wrong?

[Jagella]

I was a believer for 2 decades. The level of what I could believe varied throughout that time.

Towards the end, when I was being set free from my beliefs, I went from believing that the Bible was 'the spoken word of God' to accepting that evolution happens and that it was the mechanism that the god of the Bible used to get to man.

For me there was a limit, but it varied.

So what was the limit of what you believed?

When I was a Christian, I believed everything I read in the Bible. I was expected to believe everything it says. So I'm not sure if there was a limit to what I believed. However, I did eventually find limits, you might say, when I discovered false prophecies and contradictions. I realized that I simply cannot believe that Jesus had two family trees or that his prophecies that the world would end during the lives of his listeners could be true.

[tam]

Peace to you!


I do not believe things just because they are written about in the bible. But I do believe all that my Lord Jaheshua teaches, as well as anything He has confirmed or explained.


Some of the problem with what is written is from the erring pen of the scribes and the teachers (who lack understanding, themselves). If people are listening to erring teachers (instead of to Christ), well, how could they not be led into error?



Let's take your list for example:

As we should know the Bible has stories about talking snakes,

There are no talking snakes in the bible. I do not know when the scribes erroneously inserted the word 'snake', but this is not a snake. This is a serpent, a dragon (drakon, in Greek, meaning serpent). Both of these are referring to a seraph (a spirit being). What men mostly refer to as angels.


We can clearly see this in Revelation where the Adversary (the one called Satan) is referred to as a dragon, that ancient serpent.

He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Rev 20:2

We can see it also in the etymology of the word, dragon.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/dragon



I do not find the existence of another species (such as seraphs) to be outlandish.

talking donkeys

I could be wrong, but I do not understand that story as a donkey literally developing vocal chords, etc, like a human so that it can form human words. I understand that story as the donkey 'speaking' to his rider and the rider finally understanding.


If anyone has a dog (or other pet), you should be able to understand that animals can indeed communicate with us. We are not always paying attention. My dog has a help bark that is distinguishable from any other bark of his. I knew he was calling for help the very first time I heard that help bark, even having never heard it before.


So I understand that story more as the rider understanding the donkey's form of communication; not that this was a "Narnia" donkey.

, unicorns,

I do not recall any unicorns in the bible.

dragons,

See serpent, above.

and flying zombies.

Are you referring to Christ?

You understand that this is a skewed and biased representation of the resurrection, yes?


A zombie is a dead being.

Christ is a living being. He did not resurrect as a dead being, but a living one.


Do you also consider people who have been revived after flatlining, to be zombies? Of course not. So why would Christ - having been resurrected - be a zombie? So what is the problem other than the length time between death and resurrection?



Is it so unbelievable that a more advanced being (especially if that being is the creator of all life to being with) being able to perform a more advanced feat?





***

As to your question, I do not know how to answer it. I've read the bible and I do not find anything in it unbelievable (except for anything that contradicts Christ, the Truth). I don't spend time trying to think of things that I might consider to be unbelievable. (Unless we want to get into silly things: like the moon is made of cottage cheese.) Things once thought to BE outlandish have later been shown to be true. Like germs.



Perhaps you could toss out some examples?


Peace again to you!

[SallyF]

[Replying to post 8 by tam]

I don't spend time trying to think of things that I might consider to be unbelievable.

I respectfully suggest that it is a really good idea to do just that.

And, there are lots of biblical unicorns to be found:

Numbers 23:22 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.


Numbers 24:8 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.


Deuteronomy 33:17 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.


Job 39:9 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?


Job 39:10 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?


Psalms 22:21 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.


Psalms 29:6 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.


Psalms 92:10 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.


Isaiah 34:7 | View whole chapter | See verse in context
And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/unicorn/

[tam]

Peace to you!

[Replying to post 8 by tam]

I don't spend time trying to think of things that I might consider to be unbelievable.

I respectfully suggest that it is a really good idea to do just that.

May I ask why you think that?

And, there are lots of biblical unicorns to be found:

Ah, thank you for pointing those out. The KJV translates the word re'em as unicorn. I don't tend to use the KJV, so I would not have come across that. So I just looked up the word to see its meaning, and the exact meaning of the word is unknown:

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/le ... 7214&t=NIV

probably the great aurochs or wild bulls which are now extinct. The exact meaning is not known.

rᵉʼêm, reh-ame'; or רְ�ֵי� rᵉʼêymlemma רְ�יֵ� second vowel, corrected to רְ�ֵי�; or רֵי� rêym; or רֵ� rêm; from H7213; a wild bull (from its conspicuousness):—unicorn.

(have to click the link to see the rest of the explanation)



Peace to you!