Jelly,
So as a creator how do you create a piece of writing that is concise, and will convey the message you want to both the primitive nomadic tribe that was the Jews as well as modern mankind. It seems to me a lot of people say the bible is wrong because it isn’t scientific enough in its description of creation, however if it were scientific it would make itself a dated writing. For example if it was written for mankind now all the previous generations would be unable to understand it, and what makes perfect scientific sense now will be dated in 40 years. I believe the creator choose his style of writing in order to make the genesis account timeless and applicable to all generations.
How do you argue that writing the facts would have been too complicated for man to understand? God could have explained the factual process of evolution to early man at the time (whoever that was) in very simple terms. Did God not make humans smart enough to understand such concepts? Surely if he is the almighty creator, he could formulate an explanation that is both simple enough to understand and factual. You are theorizing that god basically made up a story, a lie, so humans wouldn't be asking pesky questions about where we came from. Tell me how an accurate account of the evolution of life would have become outdated? Facts do not become outdated. The creation account has become outdated!
Everything falls into place once you realize that the writings of the bible are nothing more than myths and legends passed down by ancient, superstitious men. They are no more or less accurate or inspired than any other ancient writings - such as the Vedas, the Koran, the writings of Homer, or even the Book of Mormon (not so ancient). Otherwise, you get into the dangerous territory of calling god a liar and a deceiver. How do you think god feels when people keep falsely insisting that he wrote a silly, inaccurate book of fables in which he is made out to look like a monster? I know I'd be pretty upset if someone did that to me.
To me, you paint a picture of an incompetent, deceitful god who doesn't trust his own creation with the truth. Would the truth about evolution ever come to light without science - if we were left only with the bible? Of course not, we would still think that the earth was the center of the universe. The bible is simply an outdated, ancient book of myths. This is easily seen by reading the book yourself - without logic-bending apologetic explanations for the many difficult passages. Also, with some research, it's easy to see that the Bible is not as "prophetic" as everyone makes it out to be. I don't see why people insist on defending the indefensible.
Once the security blanket of the bible is shed, the world is easier to understand - without mind-bending explanations to keep the bible relevant. All of a sudden Neanderthals and prehistoric cave paintings and artifacts begin to make perfect sense.
rem
