IS THE OLD TESTAMENT INSPIRED ?
December 9, 2012 13 Comments
IS THE OLD TESTAMENT INSPIRED?
If it is, it should be a book that no man — no number of men — could produce.
It should contain the perfection of philosophy.
It should perfectly accord with every fact in nature.
There should be no mistakes in astronomy, geology, or as to any subject or science.
Its morality should be the highest, the purest.
Its laws and regulations for the control of conduct should be just, wise, perfect, and perfectly adapted to the accomplishment of the ends desired.
It should contain nothing calculated to make man cruel, revengeful, vindictive or infamous.
It should be filled with intelligence, justice, purity, honesty, mercy and the spirit of liberty.
It should be opposed to strife and war, to slavery and lust, to ignorance, credulity and superstition.
It should develop the brain and civilize the heart.
It should satisfy the heart and brain of the best and wisest.
It should be true.
Does the Old Testament satisfy this standard?
Robert G. Ingersoll, 1894
About the word of me
![El perfil de un joven fotógrafo [Explore]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52768152479_61edd8b84e_s.jpg "El perfil de un joven fotógrafo [Explore]")
The Word of Me... 
The old testament was a series of books picked BY MEN to pick the version of religion these MEN wanted.
Not only picked by men, but written solely by men….inventing a religion.
Sadly, there are people who say it does satisfy all those criteria…
I am not an atheist, but I am a realist when it comes to the bible.
You don’t think that the Bible is largely disproven??
Actually yes I do believe that the Bible is largely disproven, however I think that there is some good to it. What I meant to say is that I do believe in God, but I don’t believe that God has a religion.
Yes, I do believe the Bible has done some good in our modern world (last 75 or so years), but in the past it was very evil. Millions of innocent people died because of it, and it has the potential to be very destructive again.
Religion overall is very dangerous today. One can get caught up in stuff that is best left alone.
Remember, the Republican party was controlled by fundamentalists just 5 years ago.
The Republican party is still controlled by fundamentalists, which is one reason why I vote Democrat. I used to be on the fence, but recently all the insanity from the religious right has pushed me right over to the other side. The most important thing they should be dealing with is the economy, not gay marriage or abortion or any other of their other wack-a-doodle causes. And yes I do believe that religion can be destructive. I see a lot of people who are moving towards a more personal spirituality, rather than “religiousosity”. I see that as a good and healthy move. Not to offend you as an atheist, I have no problem with people believing what they want.
It also bothers me about all the religiously motivated racist bigotry towards Obama. When people call him the Antichrist who is out to let the muslims take over our country and also set up a world government, I get really get bothered by that. When TV preachers throw out lies like this. I want to vomit. Unfortunately their are many, many people who believe this crap just because it comes from the mouths of famous people who they think they can trust solely on the basis that they are “good Christians.” Well, the KKK thinks that they are good Christians, too.
The book of Revelation should have never been put in the bible. There was a big dispute whether it should be included in the first place. It is the fear of an apocaliptic future that is driving all this madness. Unfortunately I can’t see any possiblity of world peace as long as people cling to these ideas..
Please forgive my bad spelling!
If there was no ‘Original Sin’ what was the need for Jesus??
I think you are assuming that I buy into the Jesus myth of him dying for our sins. To make it clear, I like some of what Jesus taught but no I am not a Christian. I happen to think that all religions have good and bad in them and I search for the good. Basically I see him as a reformer, not a savior. I don’t think he intended to start a new religion. But he did a good job of telling the Jewish people to stop some of their barbaric practices, such as stoning people to death over minor infractions. He introduced a gentleness into the Law. Now I know he did give some “clobber verses” in regards to hell and damnation, but there is some evidence that these verses are mistranslated, particularly when you consider that the Jews did not believe in hell or the afterlife. There may have been a transfer from the Greek belief of the underworld and Hades to the new Christian faith.
Yes I know that we can’t prove for certain that Jesus actually existed and if he did how much of what was written about him was true. But I don’t really think it matters if the teaching is good.
Ms. Rogers, I got your reply kinda’ late….I will respond tomorrow.
Thank you for writing.
Hello Ms. Rogers, thanks for your reply.
I think me and you pretty much think alike on most things in the Christian religion. However I think that Jesus may be a construct, a blend of myth and reality and hoped for changes in religions. I know that there are some scholars out there who have spent their lives searching for the ‘man’ Jesus and concluded that the ‘man’ was real at least, but that a God may not have been involved.
I have read “Jesus Interrupted” by Bart Ehrman, a professor of religion at UNC at Chapel Hill, and in the book he tells us that the writers of the Gospels are anonymous and were not eyewitnesses to what they wrote. This from a well respected scholar of the New Testament.
In another book, “Sins of Scripture” by retired Bishop John Shelby Spong, he writes that we may not really have the words of Jesus because of the anonymous writers of the Gospels, who were just passing on stories from others. Also from a well respected New Testament scholar.
Along with the fairly new information that there was NO Adam and Eve, therefore no need for a Holy man to expiate human sins by a ‘blood’ sacrifice, one has to wonder what going on here.
Jesus was supposed to have spoken about Adam and Eve, Moses, and Noah, and the creationists somehow think this is proof that those early characters existed, somehow forgetting that the man Jesus was a Rabbi…a teacher, therefore he had access to the Jewish scrolls, the Torah, and the Tanak. He was familiar with them through reading the existing Jewish works…not through knowing them in ‘Heaven.’
You write:
“…I like some of what Jesus taught but no I am not a Christian…”
and…
“Yes I know that we can’t prove for certain that Jesus actually existed and if he did how much of what was written about him was true. But I don’t really think it matters if the teaching is good.”
I agree with this.
In his Sermon on the Mount he did say something that is almost universally ignored since his death. Matthew 5:31,32
31 “It was said, ‘WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE’; 32 but I say to you that everyone who [i]divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a [j]divorced woman commits adultery.
Sorry, gota go right now…I like the conversation.
Pingback: Hope for Today – Is the Old Testament Scripture?