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Overcharging in "just my 2 cents worth"
Many people (particularly christians) condemn other religions because there “holy work” was written by a “human prophet” however their original “holy work” was written by alas a HUMAN PROPHET.
Gosh! I think you are ripping us off at $0.02 for that. Does anyone really believe that God actually wrote any of that Bible text himself, personally? That is a really blasphemous insulting notion. If He had written it personally, the Bible would not have all the ambiguities and inconsistencies that have divided its readers on its meaning for thousands of years now. It would be a much better document and a good read.
I think the universal claim is much less: that God inspired man (in general) to write it and later to edit and translate it many times. So, if you can stomach that indigestible lump, which is devoured by just about all Christian, Hebrew and Islamic sects, then it does not matter who or how many people wrote any of it, and no one should be surprised that they made so many mistakes. Nothing can be proved about its authorship. You just believe what you want to believe (or are conditioned to believe) about it.
The only sure thing is that all of the authors lived so far in the past that they were necessarily much more ignorant than most modern humans about nature, science and almost everything. Think about this! His ghost writers could not have been inspired to write about the world as we know it today because that would not have made sense to them or anyone else at that time and the writings would have been binned. Imagine an inspired Moses writing his Genesis about genetics as we understand them. What an absurd notion. This would not matter one bit if so many Christians did not insist on taking this ancient text as a “good news” guide to history, science, medicine and sociology.
The ignorance of the authors of the scriptures was not their fault, but it does seriously erode their credibility today on almost any subject. After all, they had no knowledge even that germs spread disease, so how could any modern human take seriously their advice or rules about diet or blood treatment. In our world they lack even an elementary school education and are not qualified to give advice about anything.
Nevertheless the Bible served a useful purpose until mankind grew a sufficient understanding of the world to be able to base his moral code on a more stable foundation.
However all religious people must be conservative by nature, and conservatives tend to have a problem adapting to change and better ideas.
RE: Overcharging in "just my 2 cents worth" by scottb
So, if you can stomach that indigestible lump, which is devoured by just about all Christian, Hebrew and Islamic sects
Correction: Islamic tradition holds that the angel Jibril dictated the Qur’an to Muhammad.
The only sure thing is that all of the authors lived so far in the past that they were necessarily much more ignorant than most modern humans about nature, science and almost everything.
Of course, that needn’t be an obstacle, depending on how the “inspiration” is supposed to work. For example, Joseph Smith also claimed he took dictation directly from an angel in creating the Book of Mormon.
It’s true, though, is that none of the holy books give any solid indication that the authors (human or divine) had access to any special knowledge that an ordinary person of their time and place wouldn’t have had.
However all religious people must be conservative by nature, and conservatives tend to have a problem adapting to change and better ideas.
Actually, that’s backwards. It’s not really that the religious tend to be conservative — there are large numbers of religious people who are both religiously and politically liberal. If there’s a tendency in that direction, it’s a smallish one.
Conservatives, however do quite strongly tend to be religious. I suspect that’s because they have a strong tendency to have authoritarian personality types, as described by Bob Altemeyer in his research.