How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?

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nobspeople
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How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?

Post #1

Post by nobspeople »

As this is geared more towards agnostics and atheists, I put it here as I think christians would like to read it as well - the almighty can move it if they feel the need.

Let's say the bible says 100 things. Ten of those things are shown to be true. Does that make you believe the other 90? What about if 50 of those 100 things were shown to be true? 75?
How many things would it take spoken about in the bible for you, the non-believer, to accept the bible as 100% true?
Or is there only one thing? If so, what is that one thing?

For discussion:
For non-believers: Is there a specific % of biblical claims that need to be shown to be true for you to believe? Or is there only one thing? If so, what's that one thing?
For believers (not to leave them out of the discussion) what thing did you find that's real that made you a believer?
Have a great, potentially godless, day!

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Re: How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?

Post #2

Post by TRANSPONDER »

If (say) the Bible looked 80% reliable, the odd error or mistake could be shrugged off. I'm still inclined to credit a lot of the stuff relating to Assyria and Babylon as relating to real events, give or take polemical spin. But over the years, I have come to doubt more and more of it. At one time I didn't doubt the Exodus, Conquest or empire of David and Solomon. But there are increasing doubts as to whether those stories are true.

One might compare and contrast the account of Troy, which as Illium (Wilusa) has recently earned a a place in Hittite history, and yet even if Paris and Priam were real people, can we believe any of the events in Homer, scrub all the magical stuff?

So where I am is that the Bible is struggling even as credible history where it doesn't deserve credit as politicised history, and never mind the miraculous stuff, especially when Bible apologists have tried to make the Flood or parting of the Red Sea work as natural events, effectively (if that was correct) debunking God having any hand in it.

It's been a curious and teasing tendency I have noticed from my schooldays for Bible - apologists to try to make miracles work in practical ways like slapping mud on the eyes will cure them (good luck with that), Jesus 'walked on water' by wading through the shallows to the shore (these are all rationalisations made to me, I swear), Algae turned the Nile blood red, olive trees can live underwater (thus plenty of food after the Flood) and the mouth of a Genessaret fish is the same size as a shekel (I swear this was in an apologetics book) as well as appealing to the Black Sea flood to validate the Bible, even though that totally trashes a Global Flood and thus God being involved. I wonder whether they think this stuff through or like the Taipiot tomb, wag around anything that looks like it was evidence for the Bible, even though, if Jesus' sarcophagus had really been found, that would totally debunk the resurrection.

That's without the evidence that isn't, like a book of evidence for Jesus that crowed that fishhooks were found in Capernaum. Thus there were fishermen living there, thus Jesus' fisherman followers are real and the Gospels are true? Is that how it works? Oh... 'it fits'. Well it does, but that proves absolutely nothing.

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Difflugia
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Re: How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?

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Post by Difflugia »

nobspeople wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 11:18 amFor non-believers: Is there a specific % of biblical claims that need to be shown to be true for you to believe? Or is there only one thing? If so, what's that one thing?
If I'm going to believe that the magical stuff is true, then the magical stuff has to be demonstrated to be true.

If we're just talking about the mundane, plausible parts, then it's not just a percentage, but the pattern of things that are true and not true. Fox News has a pretty distinct pattern of what's true and what's not, so one can glean some measure of accurate information from it. A Tom Clancy novel will also have a pattern of true and not true, but a different pattern, a different set of accurate information one might glean, and a different threshold for how reliable the information is.
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Re: How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?

Post #4

Post by nobspeople »

Difflugia wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 1:15 pm
nobspeople wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 11:18 amFor non-believers: Is there a specific % of biblical claims that need to be shown to be true for you to believe? Or is there only one thing? If so, what's that one thing?
If I'm going to believe that the magical stuff is true, then the magical stuff has to be demonstrated to be true.

If we're just talking about the mundane, plausible parts, then it's not just a percentage, but the pattern of things that are true and not true. Fox News has a pretty distinct pattern of what's true and what's not, so one can glean some measure of accurate information from it. A Tom Clancy novel will also have a pattern of true and not true, but a different pattern, a different set of accurate information one might glean, and a different threshold for how reliable the information is.
You bring up a good an interesting point on 'patterns'. I wonder how many people actively look for patterns in life.... something to consider - thanks for that!!
Have a great, potentially godless, day!

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Re: How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?

Post #5

Post by Miles »

nobspeople wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 11:18 am How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?
All of it, plus a boatload of additional evidence.

Let's say the bible says 100 things. Ten of those things are shown to be true. Does that make you believe the other 90? What about if 50 of those 100 things were shown to be true? 75?
How many things would it take spoken about in the bible for you, the non-believer, to accept the bible as 100% true?
How about the 100 things plus everything else.

For discussion:
For non-believers: Is there a specific % of biblical claims that need to be shown to be true for you to believe?
Nope.


.

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Re: How much of the bible does it take for you to believe?

Post #6

Post by benchwarmer »

nobspeople wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 11:18 am For non-believers: Is there a specific % of biblical claims that need to be shown to be true for you to believe?
Yes, 100%. i.e. each claim has to be shown to be true for me to believe that given claim. I will not believe other (magical) claims just because some other claims lumped in the same set of documents have been shown to be true.

This seems to be asking that if we believe some percentage of claims, we can just go ahead and shut our brains off and swallow something else at face value.

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