So here we go, the readers answers to questions regarding the bible. Just the reader, not a believer or an atheist, just someone who reads.
Backglass wrote:Why was it written just a few thousand years ago when humans have been on the planet for much longer? Didnt those people need a god also?
That's a stupid question to ask a reader, it got written, it gets read, that's about it.
Backglass wrote:Were Adam and Eve cavemen? Neanderthals? OR just like you & me?
They are articulate, they are farmers and raise sheep and stuff. Neanderthals definitely had a language, but they were probably hunters-gatherers who lived a more nomadic life.
So more like us than like neanderthals.
Backglass wrote:If jesus is a gods son, and birth control is bad...why only one son? why isnt there a whole god family tree running about?
He only needs one for the story, the authors must have thought that 2 would have messed up things, although it could have made for a nice plot, too. Gods two sons duke it out on earth, who gets to found the new religion?
In the red corner... the great reformer, the pacifist who turns the other cheek, the man who walks on water and multiplies food for the hungry, he who turns water into wine! Applause fooooor JESUS!
Aaand in the blue corner, straight from the old testament, the smiter of gods enemies, who learned the ancient art of sea parting from Moses himself, who sends plagues and locusts against his enemies! Applause foooooor SUSEJ!
ok, two sons could have made for a pretty good storyline, too.
Backglass wrote:Was Eve really made from one of Adam's ribs? Why not from dust just like Adam? And, why do men and women have the same number of ribs if one was stolen from Adam to make Eve?
According to the bible she was, however, I've heard that it was really meant as half the ribcage and not just one rib. To explain why we don't have any ribs over our stomachs.
Backglass wrote:Was physics different when Noah built the ark? I mean, seriously... how did he get all the animals from all over the world... and the dinosaurs, etc. on that boat? How did he get penguins to the Middle East? How did he get them back after the big flood? Why didn't the dinosaurs eat all the sheep?
There are no dinosaurs in the bible, so they can't eat anything. And penguins are very good swimmers, 40 days in the water isn't such a big deal to them. Anyway, as long as the story's good it doesn't have to be logical.
Backglass wrote:If Adam & Eve came first, and they had three sons Cain, Abel & Seth, what happened next? There's 4 men and 1 woman, right? What happened next to propagate the species? Who did the children marry? Who did they procreate with? Isn't incest bad? Adam & Eve had other children, so brothers and sisters; or Eve's sons and Eve were having sex? Why aren't we all retarded genetic mistakes? Why didn't the whole human race get physically deformed and mentally handicapped from mixing familial genes?
Read it, there ARE other people, too, Cain is afraid he'll be killed by others after god condemns him to being an outcast.
Backglass wrote:The Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill." Yet Moses was ordered to do a lot of killing. Why if it violates one of the commandments? Why did he wipe out entire cities, kill all the men and rape the women and children?
because it makes for a better story if you smite your enemies.
Backglass wrote:Are we really supposed to believe the fairy tale of Jonah and the whale? Wouldn't Jonah have drowned? Or, wouldn't he have been killed from lack of oxygen in the whales stomach? Or, wouldn't he have been digested by the acids in the whale stomach like everything else?
It's a book, surviving inside a whale isn't stranger than Gandalf using magic. Anyway, I read about some 19th century seaman who fell overboard and was swallowed, a few hours later the whale was caught and his mates found him in it. Unconscious but alive. Don't know if it was true, I don't remember where I read it either.
Also there's very little empirical data on the survival rate of humans inside a whale, so if you want to know if it's possible to survive inside a whale I have to answer that it can't be answered.
Backglass wrote:Why create the forbidden fruit on the Tree of Knowledge? If a god didn't want Eve to eat the fruit, why create it in the first place? And, why create the serpent who tempted Eve to eat the fruit? Was he afraid she wouldn't without being tempted by a serpent? Why the game?
In this seminar I'm taking we thought that it boils down to didactic reasons. Of course god knew what would happen, but he wanted A&E to exercise their free will (or at least Eve to exercise it). Same as when he asks Cain where Abel is, he knew already, but he wanted to give Cain a chance to confess.
There are other cases where he deliberately has humans fail. Take Saul for example. I won't tell you what happens because I don't want to spoil the fun for you, you'll have to read it.
But with the right mindset non-believers can have a good time reading the bible, too, I mean, there's sex, intrigues, murder, betrayals, rebellion and pretty much anything you can think of. Just have a go at it some time. This small add-on, the Apocrypha, ain't bad either.
