Bible! myth or fact?

I am not Christian and do not follow the teachings of the bible. I find too may unanswered questions in it to believe it. For instance.. If God created Adam and Eve and they had Cain and Able, Where did Cain and able get wives?

I have not met a Christain that can explain this to me yet, they still believe the bible to be fact.

WOW this one has lots of responses!

I read one response that the Bible was written 300 years after Christ... well, PARTS were, but the Old Testament pre-dates Christ. Most Bible scholars believe that the first four books of the Bible were written by Moses.

Is it fact? Well, there are lots of things mentioned in the Bible that many people thought to be false that later were proven to be true. For example, the old testament mentions "springs in the oceans" but these weren't discovered until the 1800's or 1900's. There are other parts where historical kings and locations are mentioned that once were not thought to be true but modern archaeology has actually found locations of the cities and evidence of the kings mentioned.

I'll grant that there are parts, at least at this time, that do rely on faith. However, there are also other parts that contained eitehr prophecies or other descriptions that either came true or were later proven to be true through research.

I'll also grant that there are parts of the Bible that a lot of people do not believe--specifically the global flood and a six-day creation. And I don't want to get in to that here...

And I'll also admit that there are a lot of things in the Bible that we just don't understand today--slavery, for example.

Did you know that in WWII there was a British commander who was reading his Bible one evening about a battle that took place in a certain location near the Holy Land that outlined the victory strategy taken (I think by Johnathan, Son of King Saul) that included the discovery of a shortcut path through a mountain passage to then cut off the enemy from behind? He was reading the strategy, went and looked for the pass and found it, then used it again for victory! Neat, huh?

Here's my challenge: If you think it is true or false, do some serious research. This is one that I don't recommend "guessing" about how you "feel" about it being right or wrong.

No, the Bible as it stands has been re-written countless times and as happens, details and events are more than likely to be blurred and distorted leading to irregularities and division between believers.The Bible itself is probably used as advice rather than law (although some use the literal meaning rather than the general meaning) some also use the Bible for their own aims (the USA has had a few,Swaggert(spelling?) for example).As for the Bible myth,all myths have their basis in truth, the author was not a "nutcase" but a person with a strong belief.

I am a non-believer but believe that someones belief or worship is their personal choice, this also goes for people who have made the choice not to believe. Christians and other religious people who know a bit about their chosen religion can be just as ignorant towards non-believers as people who know nothing about religion.

Well if you think about the earth now a days with all the pollution and such living past 100 is a long shot... however with everthing being pure and water actually being h20 instead of H20CS8AU and everything else than possibly 700 years old is achievable... As far as water to wine perhaps there was a houdini or angle or blane that was around back then... who knows... the fact remains there are millions who belive in it anyway so whether fact or fiction doesn't really matter,, I check every sewer I come accross to see if I can meet Leonardo or Splinter... am I crazy?

I think that pagan stories have been passed orally on for thousands of years and someone decided there was one god and compiled many of the pagan stories (that obviously changed over time) and changed them to suit their current religious thought and formed the bible, especially the old testament.

This is actually obvious if you read the bible, and then read the texts of MUCH older religions and compare them. Though there is no sense in telling that to the Christians because they have no logic. They will tell you that the bible is older than the other texts even though science has clearly proved it is not. If you tell them that they will say that it is Satan trying to trick you, or that the scientist are wrong because god wrote the bible, even though the only reason they have for saying that is because someone told them that. There is no reasoning with that. they wouldn't believe a fact if it flew down and bit them, unless it was written in the bible.

In Jesus' time, part of the Bible (the old testaments) existed. He quoted from scriptures on many ocassion. Jesus is a historical figure, not a myth. It is true that the four gospels were written after 20-30 years the death of Jesus, but if there were any lies written, there were still eye-witnesses who could have refuted them. (In contrast to the gnostic gospels which Da Vinci Code is based on, which is written around120 years after the death of Jesus). The bible is not written by one human agent, in one generation, but over centuries. The different books do not contradict, as some believe, but speak the same message of God's redemptive love for man.

RE: the comment by the scottish moderator on St. Paul's authority. God had spoken in Genesis in the city of Sodom, and thousands of years later, Paul said the same thing. So what makes the scottish moderator think he can change the course of God's will now. I'm sorry if I've offended any homosexual friends here. I just want to say I respect your choice, I'm not here to preach, but please do not use the word of God to support your choice of lifestyle.

Most Bibles are inaccurate translations of the original text. Hell,the trinity and the rapture are words that din't appear in the Hebrew or Greek text. Simply look at the king James last 3 versions all the changes to meet the so called modern needs of Christians. The bible has been altered by Satan himself. The truth lies within the Holy scriptures. There is a message of love and war contained within. In these text you can see what YAHWEH has in store.

The bible was written 300-400 years after christ's crucifiction. A group of people decided what will be in it and what won't. These people wanted to promote christianity so they embelished alot of the stories and some were just made up to make the religion sound powerful. One man (King Constantine) then read all these stories and picked and chose what will be in the bible. He also wanted christianity to flurish so picked the one's that made jesus sound like he was supernatural and had powers. There were more disciples than Mark, Matthew, Luke, & John. Why didn't he pick stories written from Phillip, Judas, Mary Magdalen, & others?

Because they made jesus sound like an ordinary human man with no special powers and just like most men he grew up, got married, & had kids. Who would follow a religion about an ordinary man?

I honestly believe it is a written down version of SOME historical fact with a lot of passed-down cautionary tales (with all the dogmatism and exaggeration that comes with this). Unfortunately many people now take it as absolute fact despite some very dodgy behaviour and rules in it and much that is clearly metaphorical.

I am happy for folks to go with it (or any other religious text) if they want but I would have thought they should go with the tune not the specific lyrics.

Peace out

The bible is both, started out OK, but man changed, and added things for him to profit, it's also turned out to be a good way of brainwashing people. The so called bible bashers, will always support the bible because they no of nothing else, and most have been brainwashed since birth.

The words of God were once written down, but never lasted, so I say forget the bible, and have faith in God, and just as important faith in ourselves, lets make sure we allow our children to grow making up their own minds, and not allow the brainwashing to continue,

Love & Peace

The Bible is a collection of stories that were originally told verbally and sometimes a century or more later were written down and copied for hundreds of years. Many of the stories have received a new slant, corrected or changed over the years depending a lot on the politcal climate of the region where they were translated.

If you believe and have faith that the Bible is devinely inspired and that God controls how it is translated and printed then you believe it to be the final and devine words of God, Christ and his followers. If you are more skeptical and relie heavily on the Bible as a historical tome, then you must recognize that several chapters are just repeats of the same story, over and over again and you must rely on your own logic to interpet it.