Hey everybody :) Happy snow day for anyone else in Denver...what a fun drive in this morning!
I am working on a project and wondering if anyone out there is a guru on the borg's book "The Bible, God's Word or Man's?" That is if they haven't replaced it yet. I'm looking for any relevant incorrect facts stated in the book that disagree with historical records. As with many things their history the Bible seemed very censored, looking back on it now. Just trying to point out some specifics.
Any gurus on "The Bible, God's Word or Man's?" book out there?
by feenx 4 Replies latest jw friends
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feenx
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bluesapphire
Isn't that the orange book that talks about "higher criticism" over and over again? I remember I had no clue what higher criticism was when studying that book. Boy, they sure are afraid of people looking at the facts, aren't they?
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Merry Magdalene
One guru coming up...
Alan Feuerbacher
The Watchtower Society's complete lack of comprehension of science, while pretending the opposite, was one of the main things that clued me in as to their true nature. This is a commentary on the Watchtower Society's 1989 book The Bible: God's Word or Man's?, Chapter 8: "Science: Has It Proved the Bible Wrong?"
-- http://corior.blogspot.com/2006/02/science-has-it-proved-bible-wrong.html~Merry
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OnTheWayOut
Observe http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH184.html
Claim CH184:
The Bible is unique in its intellectually honesty. Its characters have real personalities. It portrays flaws of its writers and details failures along with successes.
Source:
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1989. The Bible - God's Word or Man's? Brooklyn, NY, pp. 65-66.
Response:
- The Bible is far from unique in this regard. The Iliad and Odyssey depict the heroes as human, and even the gods have personalities and failures. The Mahabharata depicts failures of its heroes. In the African Mwindo Epic, a major part of the story is Mwindo's punishment after he achieved, and then overreached, his power (Biebuyck and Mateene 1971). Thor's weaknesses are the focus of part of The Prose Edda. Examples can be multiplied from all parts of the world. People prefer stories about real people, and real people are fallible, so that is what people write about.
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH103.html
Claim CH103:
The Bible is special because it is inspired; its writers claim that their thoughts came from God.
Source:
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1989. The Bible - God's Word or Man's? Brooklyn, NY, p. 10.
Response:
- Other works claiming divine inspiration include the Qur'an, Mahabharata, and The Book of Mormon. Many traditions of North American Indians claim to be divinely inspired (Vecsey 1991). Some contemporary New Age books claim divine inspiration, such as The Urantia Book and Talking with Angels: A Document from Hungary.
- Claiming divine inspiration does not mean having it. I could easily claim divine inspiration even for this web page.
- Even if the Bible is divinely inspired, one's interpretation of it can still be entirely wrong. The Bible has been invoked to justify burning innocent young women (supposedly witches), maintaining slavery, and other atrocities. Divine inspiration, even if true, is no reason to accept ideas that someone gets from the Bible.
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feenx
Thanks to everyone! Some great info on that mysterious orange book that supposedly is difinitive. I love how it's presented as completely based archaeological finds, I remember the pictures of old tablets and artifacts. Funny how they left all the other texts that were discovered along the way in addition to what's in the Bible as we know it.