Why the Bible? (Religion)

by David Turell , Friday, September 12, 2008, 02:36 (5711 days ago) @ George Jelliss

Outside the Bible itself there is very little historical evidence that many of the participants in the stories, such as Moses, David, Solomon or Jesus, ever existed, or that many of the events described there ever took place, any more than did King Arthur or Robin Hood or Sherlock Holmes.
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> The video "Evidence for a Young Earth" is just a regurgitation of some of the usual creationist claims that have been repeatedly answered by scientists. It just seems the creationists never read these responses, and come out with the same old stuff time after time. - The Israeli effort to show that the Old Testament is in part an accurate history has turned up many proofs that people like David and Solomon existed: I've toured the City of David excavations just outside the wall of the Old City. Remnants of Solomon's Temple have been found. A few years ago the tumbled-down walls of Jericho were uncovered. But proving 'Moses taking the tablets' is not possible, and just makes a nice story. Re' the NT, Josephus certainly clearly referenced Jesus, making his existence likely. 
But George is absolutely correct in his assessment of the OT Bible, with authors writing stories that had been told and re-told over hundreds of years before being recorded as written statement in an ancient language with a tiny vocabulary of less than 3,000 base words, forcing each base word to have multiple meanings. I've pointed out in other threads that the Sea of Galilee is really a 5x13 mile lake, the 'sea' a mistranslation of the Hebrew 'yam', which really to any body of water, from puddle to ocean. - And the NT Bible is the same: it contains a first Gospel, written according to experts about 60-80 years after the cruifixion. Again finally writing down orally transmitted stories many years later. Both Bibles finally set up as compendia of selected material, with many more writings available than were selected, through committees of human beings who are not infallable. - And finally, I view Young Earth Creationists as equivalent to members of the "Flat Earth Society" or to those who think we never reached the Moon. Real science sets out to understand the reality we experience, not to promote a desired idea as to what should be correct, twisting and turning evidence to fit a preconceived idea based on a bible story mistranslated in the KJV. 'Yom' means any length of time, from a moment to an eon. Gerald Schroeder's books best explain how to understand Genesis and the Big Bang.