Does the Bible contain more than human wisdom?

[Haven]

One of the most prominent claims Christians make about the Bible is that it is the word of their god, and is ultimately of divine origin (either through God controlling the human authors, dictating words to them, or 'inspiring' them to write).

If this purported authorship by an omniscient being were true, one would expect the Bible to be more scientifically and ethically advanced than the average person of the time and place (1000 BCE-100 CE, Middle East & Mediterranean -- the Ancient Near East [ANE]).

One would expect to find, for example, scientifically accurate insights about the origin of the Universe and Earth, the animals that inhabit the planet, the origin of humanity, the nature of earthquakes, floods, and climate, and so on. One would expect useful insights on how to cure diseases, make childbirth safer, develop technologies to improve lives and help those with disabilities, et cetera.

Finally, one would expect an advanced moral vision, one that explicitly condemns slavery and sexual exploitation, affirms the equality of all nations, stands against war and genocide, declares the equality and inclusion of women and LGBTQIA people, and implores us to care for the Earth, avoiding disasters like famines, pandemics, climate change, pollution, and so on.

________________

The problem, for Christianity, is that no such advanced wisdom is found in the Bible. Instead, we have a collection of writings that by and large affirm the common knowledges, beliefs, and prejudices of the human inhabitants of the ANE.

One finds, for example, numerous scientifically inaccurate passages about the Earth being flat and resting on pillars, life being created in six days, the sky being made of water above a "firmament" and so on. It contains a statement that showing striped sticks to goats will cause their offspring to be striped. It says that a menstrual cycle made a woman "unclean."

The Bible contains numerous passages on planting crops, slaughtering animals, and reaping grain, but no accurate information on how to cure diseases or make childbirth safer. It contains no mention of mental illness, but talks endlessly about demons and devils causing illness, deafness, and insanity. It is about as scientifically accurate as an average ANE peasant.

__________

The Bible's moral vision also reflects a viewpoint that cannot be called advanced in any way. It calls homosexuality an abomination, but condones slavery, pedophilia (old men 'marrying' young girls), concubinage (sex slavery), and polygyny (many women / young girls 'marrying' one man, often for political reasons). It prevaricates on rape, calling for the death penalty when the victim is a "virgin," but also says a woman must marry her rapist. It says that a woman who doesn't scream loud enough is lying about being raped, and should be stoned to death for "adultery."

The Bible is extremely sexist in general, saying that women are subservient, influenced by evil, weak-minded, weak-bodied, created as men's "helpers" (not equals), not fit to speak in church, should be "silent" with "all subjection," and generally made to be vessels for birth, homemakers and little more. Christian scripture is also racist, explicitly affirming the Jews as God's "chosen people," and giving them favorable treatment compared to the rest of humanity.

It is violent and warlike, containing commands to wipe out entire ethnicities (Amalekites, Merathaimites), kill civilians (including children), take young girls as sex slaves / spoils of war, execute people for religious disagreements, and take/trade slaves. The Bible condemns gender non-conforming people, but commands slaves to serve their masters with subjugation, and never once says slavery is in any way immoral or not the "natural state of things." It says non-human animals are mere objects for human exploitation.

_________

I can go on and on and on, but the point should be obvious--the scientific and moral content of the Bible is more backward than even the most reactionary fundamentalist today. Far from advancing a more enlightened, wise viewpoint, its content is very human and very dated to the time and place in which it was written. It appears clear that the Biblical record contains human wisdom and foolishness, rather than any kind of divine communication.

Debate question: Does the Bible contain more than human wisdom? Is there any evidence of divine authorship?

[JehovahsWitness]

If this purported authorship by an omniscient being were true, one would expect the Bible to be more scientifically and ethically advanced than the average person of the time and place (1000 BCE-100 CE, Middle East & Mediterranean -- the Ancient Near East [ANE]).

JOB 26:7

He stretches out the northern sky* over empty space, Suspending the earth upon nothing

JOB 26:7ISAIAH 40:22 - Douay-Rheims Bible

It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in

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FURTHER READING

Reasons to Trust the Bible #4 Scientific Accuracy
https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines ... -accuracy/

Does Science Agree With the Bible?
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/q ... the-bible/

Is the Bible Outdated? Or Ahead of Its Time?
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/science/

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

EVOLUTION, BIBLE & SCIENCE and ...THE 7 CREATIVE DAYS OF GENESIS

[JehovahsWitness]

[...] One would expect to find, for example, scientifically accurate insights about the origin of the Universe and Earth, the animals that inhabit the planet, the origin of humanity, the nature of earthquakes, floods, and climate, and so on.

The current iteration of the universe began 13.8 billion years ago ...

The Genesis creation order was nowhere near accurate in terms of the evolutionary development of life on Earth.

Does the bible reflect what is generally accepted to be the stages of the development of life on earth?
viewtopic.php?p=982529#p982529


FURTHER READING

Science and the Genesis Account
https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/was ... s-account/

Does the bible contain scientifically accurate insights about the origin of the Universe?[this post]
viewtopic.php?p=1032301#p1032301

Does the bible teach the earth is FLAT?
viewtopic.php?p=1032310#p1032310

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EVOLUTION, THE BIBLE & SCIENCE and ...THE 7 CREATIVE DAYS OF GENESIS

[JehovahsWitness]

Finally, one would expect an advanced moral vision [...]

1 CORINTHIANS 6:18 ESV

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

ACTS 10: 34, 35

God is not partial, but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

GALATIANS 3:28 NIV

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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[brunumb]

Does the Bible contain more than human wisdom? Is there any evidence of divine authorship?

Not a skerrick, as your OP neatly demonstrates. That collection of fanciful tales and fabricated history did nothing to advance our knowledge of the world or add to human wisdom. There is nothing in the Bible that necessitates any divine authorship. The comical attempts to interpret primitive descriptions as forward thinking profundity amply demonstrate the paucity of evidence in support of divine involvement.

[Tcg]

Finally, one would expect an advanced moral vision [...]

Of course the details of the law tell a very different story:

Leviticus 25:44-46 - You may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.

Contradictions, as the one documented above, is what one would expect from a document created by human authors. You'd expect to find consistency from a divine author.


Tcg

[Tcg]

[...] One would expect to find, for example, scientifically accurate insights about the origin of the Universe and Earth, the animals that inhabit the planet, the origin of humanity, the nature of earthquakes, floods, and climate, and so on.

The geologist Wallace Pratt failed to notice that light reached the earth 3 days before the creation of the sun and stars.


Tcg

[JehovahsWitness]

One finds, for example, numerous scientifically inaccurate passages ....

...the earth being flat ...

The word erroneously translated as “globe” in Isaiah 40:22... is actually the Hebrew word chuwg, which means “circle.”

Can the Hebrew word "chuwg" legitimately be translated as "globe" or "sphere"?
viewtopic.php?p=800467#p800467

FURTHER READING Does the Bible Teach That the Earth Is Flat?
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/q ... lat-earth/

......a "firmament...

What was the "firmament" referred to in Genesis?
viewtopic.php?p=818172#p818172

Does the firmament" referred to a solid dome over the earth?
viewtopic.php?p=833325#p833325






JW

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[JehovahsWitness]

One would expect useful insights on how to cure diseases, make childbirth safer, develop technologies to improve lives and help those with disabilities, et cetera.

• safe disposal of waste - Deut 23:13

• the medical value of quarantine measures - Num 19:11-22

• the impact of the emotional state on physical health - Proverbs 14:30; 17:22

FURTHER READING A Practical Book for Modern Living
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/110 ... &p=par#h=1


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SIN , SICKNESS and .... DEATH

[Haven]

[Replying to JehovahsWitness in post #2]

[Replying to JehovahsWitness in post #2]


I read your three posts and didn’t see much in them to addressed. They are all cherry-picked examples designed to present the Bible in the best possible light (truthfully, the whole thing looked like advertisement copy). They also don’t say what you seem to think they do.

-There is nothing in the Bible that says the Earth is a sphere. The word erroneously translated as “globe” in Isaiah 40:22 (in your JW Biblical version) is actually the Hebrew word chuwg, which means “circle.” The Earth was perceived as a flat circle by most tribes of that region.

-Job 26:7 does not imply an Earth bound by gravitational forces on “nothing.” Rather, it describes the entire cosmological system as floating on nothing. Other verses do talk about “the pillars of the Earth” / “columns of the Earth” (Genesis 1:9; Ps 104; etc.) or say the Earth is immovable (1 Chronicles 11) or “separating water from water” (Genesis 1).

-The Genesis creation order was nowhere near accurate in terms of the evolutionary development of life on Earth. It claims that all sea life (including whales and other marine mammals) evolved before birds, and birds before other dinosaurs, lizards, mammals, and other land life. All of this is false. Life did start in the sea, but it branches off several times, and then a branch of fish evolved to be amphibious, leading to the tetrapods (reptiles, mammals, dinosaurs (including birds), and so on. A branch of mammals then evolved back toward marine life (whales, dolphins, etc.). Insects and other Arthropoda are a separate lineage. It all gets very complex, but the basic order is nothing like described in Genesis.

-Genesis 1 even says the Earth existed before the sun, which is known to be false, as the Earth formed from a dust and gas cloud surrounding the infant sun ( https://www.google.com/amp/s/solarsyst ... -depth.amp). It also says this took place in six days, and we know that this process of the universe reaching its current state took far, far longer.

-As for the morality of the Bible, you cherry picked some nice-sounding verses (along with a “sexual immorality” quote meant as a homophobic gotcha). This, however, is a very biased and one-sided look at your scriptures. Here are a few verses that provide another perspective:

1) Ephesians 6:5-8 — “Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ.”

2) Deuteronomy 21:10-14 — “10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them captive, 11 suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman whom you desire and want to marry, 12 and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails, 13 discard her captive’s garb, and shall remain in your house a full month, mourning for her father and mother; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 But if you are not satisfied with her, you shall let her go free and not sell her for money. You must not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.”

3) 1 Timothy 2:11-12 — “ Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”

4) 1 Corinthians 11:3 — “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”

5) Genesis 3:16 — “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.“

I could go on and on, but I’ve made my point. The Bible’a opinions on slavery, gender, bodily autonomy, biology, astronomy, and so on all reflect a very primitive and very ignorant worldview, steeped in superstition, patriarchy, and racism.