Is the bible the word of God?

[JehovahsWitness]

Jehovah’s Witnesses accept all the books 66 of the bible canon as the inspired Word of God and the final authority for Christian doctrine.

My question is this your view?
Why? Why Not?


EDIT

I'm sorry I should have said my question is directed at Christians. I understand if you don't believe there *is* a God there cannot by definition be a word of God.

[Divine Insight]

Jehovah’s Witnesses accept all the books 66 of the bible canon as the inspired Word of God and the final authority for Christian doctrine.

My question is this your view?
Why? Why Not?

It's definitely not my view. And the reason should be obvious to anyone who has read the 66 books of the Biblical Canon. These stories are not only in contradiction with each other, but many of them contain self-contradictions right within the individual books.

Also, IMHO, it would be impossible for a supremely intelligent God to be as ignorant as the Biblical Canon demands. I'll grant that this latter observation is a personal opinion. Some people may not agree that the behavior and directives of the God described in this canon are clearly ignorant. So we can only argue that on the basis of personal opinion.

However, my first objection can be debated on pure logic. I can show clearly that these collections of stories contain extreme self-contradictions. The whole canon starts off with an extreme self-contradictory story in the first few chapters of Genesis with the supposed "Fall from Grace" of Adam and Eve.

The story of the Great Flood contains self-contradictions.
The story of the Canaanites contains self-contradictions.
The story of the Promised Land contains self-contradictions.
The story of Jesus contains self-contradictions.
The very idea that a creator God would need to "sacrifice" himself, or his demigod Son, in order to save humans from his own wrath is a self-contradiction.

So no, the Bible cannot be the word of any intelligent trustworthy and benevolent God.

Could it be the word of an unintelligent, untrustworthy, malevolent God? Sure, but why would anyone want to believe we were created by such a malevolent God?

Keep in mind, that the entire thing must be believe on pure faith. There is no compelling evidence that any of it is true. And there is overwhelming evidence why it must necessary be false.

So, no, I not only don't believe the entire 66-book canon of the Bible is the inspired word of any God, but I don't even believe that any of it was inspired by any God. In fact, there are very good reasons to suspect that there is no such thing as a "God" and that whole idea was never anything more than the imagination of men.

I'm not saying there is no "God", but rather that we really have no good reason to think that one exists at all. If one does exist it's far more likely to be as Buddhism describes. At least Buddhism has a plausible theology.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]

I'm sorry I should have said my question is directed at Christians. I understand if you don'the believe there *is* a God there cannot by definition be a word of God.

My bad,

JW

[American Deist]

I do not accept the modern Bible as the Word of God and final authority for doctrine. The Autographs, whether OT or NT, have long been lost/destroyed over time. We simply do not have the original writings with which to compare our non-Hebrew, non-Greek Bibles to. Anyone that makes the statement that the Bible is inerrant or infallible can't unequivocally prove that their belief is true.

They have a personal opinion, and denominations will use the terms inerrant or infallible in their statements of faith, but those statements are designed so that the attendees won't question biblical authority. Many will come to idolize the Bible as an object, rather than trying to learn the message that the stories are trying to convey.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 4 by American Deist]


Yes I'm beginning to feel Jehovah's Witnesses are unique in this regard, I'm not saying we are, but before I came to this forum I thought we didn't stand out with regard our position vis-a-vis the bible, now I'm seeing things differently. ..

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]

I'm sorry I should have said my question is directed at Christians. I understand if you don'the believe there *is* a God there cannot by definition be a word of God.

My bad,

JW

I'm not saying that there cannot *be* a God. I'm saying that as a "Christian" I have come to realize that the Hebrew Bible and Christianity itself cannot be the word of any God because it contains too many self-contradictions.

I still believe that the man named Jesus may have lived, argued against orthodox Judaism as the Gospels claim, and was potentially crucified for his blaspheme.

In fact, I have very good reasons to believe that Jesus was most likely a Jewish Buddhist because of many things the Gospels attribute to Jesus as supposedly having said.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 6 by Divine Insight]

OK I think I understand. Thanks, I see what you are saying.

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 4 by American Deist]


Yes I'm beginning to feel Jehovah's Witnesses are unique in this regard, I'm not saying we are, but before I came to this forum I thought we didn't stand out with regard our position vis-a-vis the bible, now I'm seeing things differently. ..

This forum wouldn't be a good place to see these types of trends. In fact a "Deist" isn't likely to take the Bible literally as the "Inspired Word of God".

Here's a far better picture of what's going on in the USA:



Notice that Jehovah's Witnesses are only about 1% of Christendom. And "Deists" aren't even represented at all.

The Baptists are most likely to be the most fundamentalists. Ken Ham is a Baptist and he proclaims that every word of the Bible is the Inerrant Word of God.

Notice that Baptists make up a good 25% of Christendom. So Jehovah's Witnesses are from from being unique in being Bible fundamentalists. Most Catholics I know consider the Bible to be the inspired word of God too, but they probably don't take things quite as literal as the Baptists.

I was a born and raised as a Methodist. We too were taught that the Bible is the inspired word of God. But we allowed for quite a bit of personal interpretation which is what all "Protestant" sects should allow for.

I don't know where the Lutherans and Presbyterians stand on the Bible but I'm willing to guess that they too support the basic 66-book canon as being the foundation of the religion.

But no, Jehovah's Witnesses are hardly unique in viewing the 66-book Canon as being the "Inspired Word of God".

In fact, Baptists like Ken Ham, and many other "Young Earth Creationists" hold the Bible to be very much the inspired word of God, if not totally infallible. Ken Ham proclaims it to be the "Infallible Word of God". He takes every word of it to be true right down to a literal 6-day creation.

[American Deist]

This forum wouldn't be a good place to see these types of trends. In fact a "Deist" isn't likely to take the Bible literally as the "Inspired Word of God".


Notice that Jehovah's Witnesses are only about 1% of Christendom. And "Deists" aren't even represented at all.

Deism is not a religion, it is a philosophy. If I explained my beliefs in detail, many people that identify as Christian would suddenly use my label, as it would appeal to them. They would have that "ah ha!" moment, as they finally discovered something that made sense to them but never knew what to call it.

For the record, I grew up as a Baptist and spent 30 years in that denomination.

I have no problems with the Bible being viewed as the "inspired Word of God." People can be inspired to do all sorts of things, to include writing music, a book, a poem, painting a picture, etc. There is nothing to suggest that the inspiration was divine in origin.

Once you say the Bible is the "divinely inspired Word of God," then we enter a whole different ballgame. No one can prove divine inspiration. It all boils back down to the Church wanting control mechanisms in place, and don't want people asking questions.

[Divine Insight]

Deism is not a religion, it is a philosophy. If I explained my beliefs in detail, many people that identify as Christian would suddenly use my label, as it would appeal to them. They would have that "ah ha!" moment, as they finally discovered something that made sense to them but never knew what to call it.

Some people do use the term to define their "religious philosophy". Whether it technically qualifies as a "religion" at that point is open for semantic debate I suppose.

There are also "Christian Deists". When used in this way it's hard not to think of it as a religion.

For the record, I grew up as a Baptist and spent 30 years in that denomination.

I have no problems with the Bible being viewed as the "inspired Word of God." People can be inspired to do all sorts of things, to include writing music, a book, a poem, painting a picture, etc. There is nothing to suggest that the inspiration was divine in origin.

Once you say the Bible is the "divinely inspired Word of God," then we enter a whole different ballgame. No one can prove divine inspiration. It all boils back down to the Church wanting control mechanisms in place, and don't want people asking questions.

What exactly would it mean to be the "Not Divinely Inspired Word of God"?

Are my words in this post "The Inspired Word of God"? Just not the "Divinely Inspired Word of God"?

Why call it the "Word of God" if it's not meant to imply that God is the one who is supporting what is actually being said?

If I write a song, I can see where someone might suggest that my creativity was "inspired by God". But they would hardly proclaim my lyrics to then be the "Inspired Word of God".