JC, im sure your view feels perfectly reasonable to you. So whos doesnt? How many people have you met in your life who readily admit or like to admit they are wrong? How about people who are willing to admit they are ignorant? If your experience is anything like mine it is likely most of the people you have met believe that their opinions and understanding of reality is just as legit as anyone elses. However, i think you admit as i do that we know this is not the case. Peoples intellectual capacitied, sanity, perceptual accuracy, emotional stability and so many other factors vary so widely, that as i said earlier, it is amazing humans get along as well as they do, hence my "meat suit" comment.
Even with all that it still works, if it didn't we'd still be living in trees or under rocks.
That being said, it is perhaps of interest and maybe even necessary in some cases to want to look into those biases, experiences etc of the biblical authors. However, might i suggest that allowing questions of those kind to get in the way of an open minded assessment of the bible on its own merits would be in danger of commiting a very common logical fallacy called "attacking the messenger". Im sure youve heard of it.
Yes heard of that one also heard of the one called circular reasoning and begging the question.
Let me put it another way. If i was driviing down a road and someone jumped out in front of my car waving their arms with a crazed expression on their face screaming a warning to not go further because there was a bridge out or a shooting or any number of dangerous situations awaiting i might be inclined to disregard him purely on the basis of his appearance and behavior. However doing so would violate protocols of logical analysis. Taking into account any other environmental variables and added together with his behavior i could perhaps have a chance at piecing together a reasonable assessment of what actions to take. if it was a clear blue sky, no smoke or noise in the distance, no sirens etc i might choose to proceed with caution. IIf it was raining hard and the sky was dark i might still proceed but very cautiously or even decide the man was t1elling the truth. If there were sirens in the distance and smoke or hard rain or any other conditions which could lend credence to the claims of the wild eyed man i might be very inclined to believe him.
So forgive a hasty and poor analogy, but im sure you get my meaning. God doesnt want blind faith. God wants people to have reasons for why they believe what they do. "come now and let us reason together" he says. Is. 1:18
Go back a re-read your first paragraph then apply that here. Can't have your cake and eat it too.
You see, it doesnt really matter if you think the bible is rediculous. Plenty of real things are rediculous. You need not even like God to admit it is or is not real. A truly open mind and reasonable person will admit if something is true even if they dont like it. I happen to not like many things about the reality that i believe in, but i believe in it because my intellect, intuition and awareness demand it.
If a person was truly interested in establishing a basis for why to believe or not believe in the bible i could provide ample evidence for the former. Reasons for the latter are usually not wanting.
