Is the bible really god's inspired word?

http://www.watchtowerlies.com/watchtowerlies_148.htm

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society pretends that the bible "really is God’s inspired Word" -The Watchtower March 1, 2010 p. 4-7. But is it true? If god has inspired the bible, how come the bible doesn’t mention many important things? It doesn’t mention species evolution which is today an undeniable truth, nor cataclysms of the past such as the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. No mention of the dinosaurs either. No mention of the other planets of our solar system, nor the fact that our sun is nothing but another star among many. No details about the formation or the death of stars. No mention of galaxies. No mention of the beginning or age of the universe. No mention of the existence of molecules, atoms, fundamental particles or fundamental forces of the universe. No mention of pathogenic viruses and bacteria as the cause of many diseases. Why god didn’t tell us how to make soap or antibiotics to fight pathogenic microorganisms? Also no mention of the causes of other diseases or the means to cure them. Jesus said that the mustard seed is “the tiniest of all the seeds that are on the earth” -Mark 4:31, which is false. There’s no evidence of any worldwide flood as mentioned in the book of Genesis. The story of Noah is ridiculous. How specimens of all the animals on the whole planet could enter in the ark? There wasn’t enough room and how could they reach the ark from the Australian and American continent while oceans separated them? Miracles never happened since they were impossible. To these things the Watchtower will answer that “the bible is not a science textbook”-The Watchtower April 1, 1998 p.15-16. But if the bible were truly inspired by god, he who is supposed to know everything, wouldn’t he make sure that the bible be scientifically accurate? Shouldn’t he reveal to us fundamental scientific truths that would have given us the proof that he really inspired it? On the contrary, the bible is a book that is scientifically wrong most of the time. The bible is not inspired by god, but it is inspired by the ignorance and folly of some men.

Oh dear. Is it time for one of these posts again? Someone leaves WT and then a post like this follows. Excuse me while I sit this one out. 

But 1st you've got to draw attention to yourself eh?

Bible is in no way inspired. It's a book by commitee to suit the ends at the time it was compiled together under "apostate" christendom. Some books shouldn't even be in there at all, the OT is revisonist history written mostly around the period of assyrian and babylonian vassalage and exiles.

There's two "histories" hammered together by the monotheistic revisionists hence the seeming contradictions all over the place.

I won't search for them, but there are great youtubes that point out how Jesus could have brought some awesome message to mankind that would then prove he was the son of God and he could have delivered some awesome message that would later remove all doubt from the skeptics.  It didn't happen like that, though.

WT and others call the Bible scientifically accurate because it leaves so much out.  It fails even there debatedly, but why wouldn't God offer something more about the sciences?  (I already know the answers from believers, so have at it.  "You want the truth, YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.)

Science has proven the impossibility of a worldwide flood, let alone the logistics of the ark.  Science has demonstrated the impossibility of Adam and Eve only 6 or so thousand years ago.  Science has shown us that no exodus took place, and that there was never a massive 12-tribe Kingdom under David.

Apart from scientific inaccuracies, which believers like Christ Alone dismiss as trivial, its the morals of the bible that convince me it is not inspired.

The bible is beneath me as an ethical guide and its beneath most modern people. We are much better than that.

  Science/knowledge is mainly useful for an argument against an orthodox/funda-
mentalist literalist stance and may be used by a non-believer or a believer.
Noting anything less than what we'd have in heavenly circumstances forever is
useful against an all-beneficent God stance that a non-believer or believer
might point out is wrong.

  Believers in the Bible don't all have the same opinions.  They can be
categorized as orthodox, conservative, liberal, or progressive/reform.  I'd
recommend progressive/reform as having superior ground rules, including regard
for old texts.  Among them. if faith in God is a hope for a possible God beyond
the known things, keep up to speed about the known things.  As they grow, the
knowledge has to develope--no arguments against evolution, bigotry about
homosexuals or feminism, etc.

  If those arise, you better get a different interpretation, translation, or
figure it represents the culture of the time and not what God would know.  As
knowledge develops, faith in a God beyond the known things must develope
accordingly.

  Since it's a belief in a possible God beyond the known things, understand
faith in God (or whatever fantastic story about God intervening) as such like a
subjective reaction to music beyond the objective math of it.  Punishing people
for apostasy creates the ethical/theological problem of arbitrary hurting/
killing--sadism/murder.  There should be separation of church and state.  Nobody
should be hurt or killed in punishment from a belief in God stance or state
atheism purges of believers.

  Example: Herman Cain--prove to me homosexuality isn't a sin--the Bible says
it is and that's enough for me.  Besides Cain having an arbitrary conservative
interpretation, the known things show a small % of people and animals are born
that way.  If you can only spread harm for God ethically with proof of God (as
in "there He is parting the sea"), and spreading bigotry creates the harm of a
stigma and discrimination (let alone Islamic hadiths that call for execution),
Cain has the proof shoe on the wrong foot.

  I'd recommend believers/non-believers who wouldn't hurt or kill over such
stuff, and have a healthy respect for learning about the known things, agree to
dislike the believers/non-believers who would do differently.  Message boards
usually pit believers against non-believers, but if there's an overview of us/
them I'd recommend to minimize harm, it's that.

  If we "need" to agree on the math of music and leave subjective reactions to
the individual, it neither makes a case us "need"ing to like or not like the
music.

If only Jesus had performed a miracle that could be examined even today.

Two simple letters:

N  O

Wot DLL said BIG NO ! 

But, a question, what on earth made you think it was ?   I am not being a smart-arese here. what I mean is, is it the same reason that I thought it was once ?

That MEN had told me it was, and I had never really considered the evidence ?

I spent two years of my life, two valuable years, trying to prove that it was, I could not do it.

of course its the word of god. even the books that dont mention god or jehovah but concentrate on breasts and blow jobs like song of solomon, esther and ecclesiastes are gods word. i love the book of easter or ishtar, where marduk and ishtar save the jews by themselves wothout god. like all good jewish holidays its on a full moon. its funny how all this memoriable events like the exodus, purim etc are always on the full moon. god moves in mysterious ways.

The Bible as  Protestants have it is just one collection of scriptural writings. Catholic Bibles have more, and include what Protestant Bibles call the Apocrypha. There are other writings that are left out, for instance the Book of Enoch, to which Jude refers. And then there are things like the Gospel of Thomas, widely thought to have validity.

Bearing all that in mind, and also that the nature of holy inspiration is not defined, I'd say cautiously that at least some and maybe much of it is inspired in some measure, the historical accounts being historical accounts. But by inspiration I do not mean the process whereby "God wrote the Bible" as i've heard so many JW's describe it, giving an image of God sitting at a desk, pen in hand.

I don't think so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_inspiration

glen

what important point do we learn from the link ?

genocide, slavery, rape, stonings, creation, an impossible flood-----

If it IS inspired of god, then it's a nightmare!

I vote no.  (are we taking votes?)

NC

Considering the age of the bible - only around 3,500 years - and its real origins - Bronze-Age Middle-Eastern male-dominated mythology written down by Middle-Eastern males in a state of captivity to larger, more powerful nations - there isn't much to recommend the bible to a keen-eyed observer...

Add to that the various things that WERE scientifically incorrect in the bible - and you've brought out so many of them in your opening post, I hesitate to repeat any, but I always thought the fact that within the first 20 verses of the bible exists one of the most glaring scientific errors ever, demonstrates its origins as the mythology of backwards, ignorant, superstitious Middle-Eastern herdsmen....

People who still believe that the bible is the "word of 'gawd", haven't done research into the actual origins of the bible, or are somewhat unfamiliar with [or strive mightily to ignore...] what the bible actually states throughout its pages, or are very unfamiliar with the scientific and archaeological discoveries that show what an inaccurate conglomeration the bible is.

Zid

LOL, It's natural for ex-JWs to take a hard line against the Bible- but the Bible is a lot of fun; finding out who wrote it, where and why, and what Middle-Eastern myths it has incorporated. Of course it is all silly, but an endless source of amusement.

Inspired? Not.  

the only miracle in the bible is the fact we still talk about it today and many believe. all the other myths became stories but somehow the bible keeps on trucking.

The bible is a mixture of factual events that happened involving the ancient Hebrew nation, entwined with those factual events

were embellished stories told by the Hebrew scribes and priests of their god in which they worshiped namely Yahweh.

Those many stories were told to create standing relevance to their god, such as Noah's flood, the great cataclysmic event of Armageddon and so on... 

All ancient civilizations and the many diverse gods of which those civilizations worshiped, had told an enormous amount of stories of what their god

or gods were to do for these select people, going as far back and further than the ancient Egyptian civilization.

It would be therefore fair to say that all stories told of the gods were inspired by godly devotion and worship.  

The bible shows a practical reference to that.   

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

 ¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ Completely destroy^[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. ¹⁸ Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

I would expect more from a "loving God."