The bible - fact or fiction???

[habsheaven]

good thing you like hockey. I guess I should start watching.

No ice where I am going apparently

[Star_Cards]

Wouldnt that mean your belief is to not have beliefs? Conundrum!

BTW, I am not in no way saying that I have all the answers to these, just giving my personal beliefs. I enjoy getting to know others ways of thinking, so by no ways whatever I put on here be a insult to anyone else.

as an atheist I do have beliefs, just not ones of a higher power, and definitely not one that specifically defines how people should live and what they should do or eat or has an active role in the day to day lives of man. That's not to say that I don't have standards or ethics in which I live my life by. The word atheist has such a negative connotation. People are sometimes freaked out by the definition and sometimes seem to think that atheist means you are evil or have no structure in your life to live as a productive member of society.

[AUTaxMan]

I guess my basis, one that isn't by any means set in stone or complete, is because I simply don't believe there to be a book that was written by or through the words of a higher being. Although a bible with God's author photo on the back would be sweet :). I can't see the reality in that and when people tell me it was written by god or by man through the word of god himself I can't and don't believe that. I don't believe early man started with adam and eve and I don't think the bible or even books were around while early man roamed the earth. I'm no expert on the bible/christianity, but it's rather new in the scheme of the world goes from my understanding. If the world was created by god and it's typically seen as being billions of years old, why is the bible and christianity so new when compared to the years the earth has been around? That leaves me to believe that religion was created by man for whatever reason and not by god and presented to man.

I guess one would or could say that it's because that is the timing when jesus was sent to teach of christianity, but like much of religion nothing can really be explained with any sort of certainty. Maybe the problem is that in the past people of power have used christianity to try to control and heard people that I'm jaded.

The creation story is a tough nut to crack, and there are a lot of different theories about it. Many take it literally. Some say that it is merely a story similar to the creation story of many ancient religions. Some say that you shouldn't look at that Bible as the history of the world but instead as the history of the Jewish bloodline, which began with Adam and Eve. Another common view, one which I share, is that though the earth is old, man is relatively young (6,000-15,000 years) and that Adam and Eve were the first humans. Accordingly, the religion and the Bible are also young.

You do sound jaded, and I understand why many people are turned off by the hypocrisy and unchristian acts of some Christians, but please do not base your view of Christianity on a relatively small number of us who aren't practicing what we say.

[habsheaven]

The creation story is a tough nut to crack, and there are a lot of different theories about it. Many take it literally. Some say that it is merely a story similar to the creation story of many ancient religions. Some say that you shouldn't look at that Bible as the history of the world but instead as the history of the Jewish bloodline, which began with Adam and Eve. Another common view, one which I share, is that though the earth is old, man is relatively young (6,000-15,000 years) and that Adam and Eve were the first humans. Accordingly, the religion and the Bible are also young.

You do sound jaded, and I understand why many people are turned off by the hypocrisy and unchristian acts of some Christians, but please do not base your view of Christianity on a relatively small number of us who aren't practicing what we say.

Since we are on the topic. How many people did God "create"?

[AUTaxMan]

Since we are on the topic. How many people did God "create"?

God created Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam.

[habsheaven]

God created Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam.

I'm confused. Who did Cain or Abel marry? And where did they come from? And who was Lilith?

[AUTaxMan]

I'm confused. Who did Cain or Abel marry? And where did they come from? And who was Lilith?

Cain married one of his sisters. The Bible does not tell us this directly, but it does tell us that Adam and Eve had multiple sons and daughters. "And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were eight hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters." Gen. 5:4. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, "The number of Adam's children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters."

The Bible doesn't mention that Abel had any children. Remember, Cain killed him.

Lilith is/was a mythological woman/creature.

[Star_Cards]

The creation story is a tough nut to crack, and there are a lot of different theories about it. Many take it literally. Some say that it is merely a story similar to the creation story of many ancient religions. Some say that you shouldn't look at that Bible as the history of the world but instead as the history of the Jewish bloodline, which began with Adam and Eve. Another common view, one which I share, is that though the earth is old, man is relatively young (6,000-15,000 years) and that Adam and Eve were the first humans. Accordingly, the religion and the Bible are also young.

You do sound jaded, and I understand why many people are turned off by the hypocrisy and unchristian acts of some Christians, but please do not base your view of Christianity on a relatively small number of us who aren't practicing what we say.

agreed, I don't have problems with people being religious. Ironically most of my really great friends have very strong christian views. I'm able to get along with people that have all sorts of different views. My main issues deal with trying to force christians views and beliefs on the country as a whole, which is always being tried and discussed.

[Star_Cards]

God created Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam.

How do you explain all of the different races if god created two people everyone in the world are descendants of?

[AUTaxMan]

How do you explain all of the different races if god created two people everyone in the world are descendants of?

Genesis 11:1-9 tells us that in the early days of history, all mankind spoke the same language. However, the people congregated and built a great city which was in direct opposition to God's expressed command to scatter and populate the earth. (Gen. 9:1). Because of their disobedience, God "confounded" their language and scattered them over all the earth. (Gen. 11:7—8). The scattering of these groups all over the earth, which created genetic isolation, is the real cause for the origin of modern races of people.

Here is the passage:

11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused ["Babel" sounds like the Hebrew for "confused"] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.