Christians come on in

[bu villain]

Second- The whole religion as a crowd control or the bible as such, it makes absolutely no sense. " No one but God could have authored the Bible, for good beings would not falsely claim divine inspiration, and evil beings would not teach such high morality." New Life study guide.

Makes no sense?! Is it really inconceivable that people might lie because they thought it would be an effective way to convince people to behave better?

[geoff]

It is inconcievable only if you have taken time to study the Bible. As I said before, good men would not have claimed divine inspiration and evil men would not have written to maintain such high moral standards. The Bible was written over many centuries and penned by many different authors yet it flows as if it was done by one person in one lifetime ( Jesus is the author and it was done in His own timeline). If it were a tool used for crowed control then it would have been full of corruption, as we have seen time and time again that power WILL corrupt any man. Also, Christianity is the fulfillment of the Jewish beliefs. The Jews are a very strict people that live by a code, they wrote the first half of the bible and in fact even the New Testament. The New testament was written by the apostles who were in fact Jews themselves. My point being this, if it were simply for crowd control then the Jews would have never written the New testament because they would have held onto tradition and their laws. If you want to look at men who try to use scare tacticts and control a population then look at communism. If religion and the Bible were created for such a thing then why would communist nations fight the belief in Christianity?

[bu villain]

So in your opinion, men are either pure good or pure evil and there is no in between? They never do good things for the wrong reasons or bad things with good intentions? And, groups of people can never believe they are performing God's will when they are not?

Also, crowd control = corruption? I don't understand your argument for this at all. So if a school has an honor code, it must be full of corruption because they are trying to tell students how to behave?

Why single out communism? Every system of government has rules and laws that are intended to control people's behaviors. Why do you think you get to write off your mortgage interest on your taxes. It isn't because God wants you to own a house, it's because the goverment wants people to buy homes. All laws are crowd control, pure and simple. Whether those laws come from a divine book, from a dictator, or from an elected body doesn't change that fact.

[msanch24]

So in your opinion, men are either pure good or pure evil and there is no in between? They never do good things for the wrong reasons or bad things with good intentions? And, groups of people can never believe they are performing God's will when they are not?

Also, crowd control = corruption? I don't understand your argument for this at all. So if a school has an honor code, it must be full of corruption because they are trying to tell students how to behave?

Why single out communism? Every system of government has rules and laws that are intended to control people's behaviors. Why do you think you get to write off your mortgage interest on your taxes. It isn't because God wants you to own a house, it's because the goverment wants people to buy homes. All laws are crowd control, pure and simple. Whether those laws come from a divine book, from a dictator, or from an elected body doesn't change that fact.

All good points here. I was thinking much of this, but couldn't find the words. Thanks, man.

[Nerdsrock22]

The Bible was written over many centuries and penned by many different authors yet it flows as if it was done by one person in one lifetime ( Jesus is the author and it was done in His own timeline).

I'm a full Bible-believing Christian, but I cannot agree with this statement. The Bible was written in a variety of different styles, some historical, some metaphorical, and for a variety of different audiences. I believe that every word was divinely inspired, but the truths contained are complex and take a lifetime to understand (if possible at all).