I'm not talking about the Deluge or Jesus ascending into Heaven. I'm talking about Numbers and the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. Much of the history we know about the time period comes directly from the Bible or is based on information gleaned from the Bible. You can deny its religious claims but you cannot deny its historical accuracy or importance.
Ah, yes, of course, that's what I meant in my last edit. Historical writings, especially ancient ones, tend to sensationalise stories a bit.
But if many of our sources are from the Bible do we have anything to prove the Bible besides its word?
It's substantiated by other sources. A place in the Bible might have been said to exist at X spot, so archeologists go and excavate the area. They find a village that fits the description of what the Bible says. Et cetera.
I'm gonna stop replying because after this its obvious we are going to have different opinions and it will lead nowhere.
Well, I'm glad you took the time to actually tell me that. Normally, people just stop replying altogether, which is kind of annoying.
Sly didn't translate what I said very well. I said that God played a role in writing the Bible. Divine Intervention is how I said the Bible was written. I know my religion pretty well also, considering I go to a school that teaches about it. Apparently, Sly changed what I said a bit to fit his claims or just misinterpreted what I had said. @General Mosh I have studied Evolution quite extensively and find that there is a reason to believe and to not believe that it actually happened. Anyways, it doesn't matter to me. I will find all of the answers when I die. Humans are so quick to question when they don't realize that their answers might be awaiting them in the afterlife.
Or there's no afterlife and you'll have no answers as you're dead. Humans are quick to question, and they should. Of course, it's very simple and tempting to blindly follow what you've been taught like a sheep in a herd, but without questioning anything, you're not getting any further with anything.
Then what point is there in living? That is what gets me about Atheists, they question everything. What point is there in not believing that you might find happiness when you die? I mean, how can you not see the beautiful Earth and not think, "Boy, there is a God!" There is no point in questioning. Got to type fast, in school.
There's quite literary no reason to go on living if there's no afterlife. Whether you fall in love or get shot or even change the world for better or worse is pointless. Humanity is just a speck of life in the grand scheme of the Universe. Even if you live a million years as a memory like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar will you will eventually be forgotten to time. In other words, killing 10 people has the same effect as saving orphan children. Nothing.
Why does there have to be a point in it, though? And if the point of life is to get a good afterlife, what point is there in the afterlife? Questions bring knowledge and progress. Imagine how the world would've looked like if no one ever thought "Well, I wonder if you'll end up in India if you go to the west instead of the east?" or "Hmm, is there a way for people to fly? Let's find out!". It gives you the idea that life is all you will ever have, and that you should live it to the fullest. I'm sure I can come up with a few other reasons if I tried. Because most, if not all, natural phenomena have a perfect geological and/or biological explanation, none of which require the existence of a higher power? I already gave a brief explanation as yo why it is, but I could probably write an essay full of them. Understandable. If life itself isn't enough for you, yes. However, would you kill yourself, even if there was no afterlife? I doubt that. That depends on how you changed it. If you made it a better place to live in, it wasn't entirely worthless. And even if it is, who cares? Pretty much, yes. Probably, but that depends on what you did. With modern recording technology, there's always a possibility that great historical people, or even every single human that has been digitally recorded, will be "remembered" until humans are extinct. If you immediately kill yourself afterwards, then it indeed has no effect on yourself. However, you still have to take in consideration the people that you leave behind when you die. Of course, if you go far enough into the future, it has no effect. But for those people you leave behind, it probably will. And even if it doesn't, what does it matter?
We question because we are afraid we won't get the answers in the afterlife. Because we question is there really an afterlife?
This brings me to a point not actually philosophical but historical, since I was a kid I learned that Brazil was discovered by accident as much as Columbus discovered the Caribbean. Now they teach us that the Portuguese king already knew of the existence of lands to the south of the Caribbean and the portuguese were quick to claim those lands. Totally off-topic, lol. But on-topic, even I being a christian and a person who studied for over 10 years in catholic schools, I was never told that God himself wrote the Bible neither he intervened on it. Also that question of a reason to live, brings up a book from Aristotle that we read on our philosophy class, of course he can be wrong but, he said that for every human there is a reason for his actions and we act for a greater good.
Much of the numbers in the bible contradict each other, besides that the exodus from egypt by the jews requires a magical man parting a massive body of water with his mind does it not? Not to mention they supposedly walked around a small desert for FORTY YEARS. it really wasn't that big a mass of land israel would have took the tiniest fraction of that time to reach even if they didn't know where they were going forty years are you kidding me?
Again, in school. Maybe there is a different religious curriculam between Ohio and Brazil which is very likely. Got to go.
