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What Makes Some Books Holy Or Inerrant?

I was raised Catholic but "fell away" during high school. At first I felt some guilt about no longer being religious, but by my mid-20s was comfortable w/ it. If I follow anything, it is science and the facts / truths it discovers.

Most of my family is no longer Catholic, either, but many have become highly religious based on some version of literal interpretation of the bible. Altho they have explained to me their belief that the bible is the word of God, it seems it is based on their faith, not evidence, or any proof other than referring back to the bible itself. And, of course, the Jews have the Torah, the Muslims the Koran, the Mormons the Book Of Mormon, etc. Everyone thinks their book is the "the one true one".

They can't all be right, can they?

What gives you confidence that your book is "the one"?

Inerrant Holy Books Some What

I am not going to say the bible is better than the Koran or the Torah. I will not say it is better than the book of Mormon. I believe that all these books together can lead a person down the correct path. It is a personal journey you will have to find for yourself and the book you choose will be your guide in the future. I believe it is only you who can find the book that is best for you. Once you decide on who you are and what you believe in then pick a book that best fits your style of religion. Once you have done that you can seek out others who believe as you do and assist each other in learning and dwelving deeper into your spirituality.

What Makes Some Books Holy Or Inerrant? Revealed Bible The

All of the books you mentioned contain truths. Some may also contain some errors, after all they were written by man. Parts have lost their accuracy through centuries of mistranslation. Parts have remained relatively close to the original truth. Each person needs to decide for themselves which hold the most truth. The best way to do this is to read the book, consider carefully what you have read and then pray about it. If you sincerely want to know and pray with real intent you will receive your answer.

Inerrant Holy Books Some What

From the (LDS) Mormon perspective, there is not one true book. We believe that holy books should bring people to Christ, and we consider our Cannon an Open Cannon (We consider the Old, New testaments, The book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants, part of that Cannon but in no wise consider these the only scriptures.)

I Believe that God can and will continue to speak to the world and believe we will never have a closed Cannon. This would imply that all of God's knowledge can be put in a limited set of books . I have a strong belief that other Holy books will come in the future as needed, and that God continues to speak through prophets today.

(This is my personal belief) I also believe that there may indeed be truths that are found in the Torah, Koran, Tibetan Book of the Dead, etc. God imparts a portion of his word to all people, though all truth cannot be found in any society.

Edited: dbackers on 22nd Jun, 2008 - 1:37am

Inerrant Holy Books Some What

I appreciate your replies. Glad to see none of you three are literalists.

I would agree that from a philosophical standpoint most of the good books have something to teach about human behavior. How to live better / peacefully w/ your fellow human being. I just know a lot of people who take the bible literally which makes no sense. Even when contradictions are pointed out they have been taught some "answer" or defense of the inconsistency.

One teacher I recently saw said "if you question any part of scripture, you question all of it and it falls apart". Well, yeah! That's why a lot of us, even good, well educated folks raised in the Christian tradition, have ditched it. A little science, a little logic, and it DOES fall apart.

However, I feel I did learn as a child a lot of useful things from the church. It probably helped to make me a good person. On the other hand, I raised my kids completely without formal religion of any kind, and they are good young adults. Religious training isn't the only way to instill good values and train people to live successfully. In fact, there can be a lot of psychological damage from the fear a lot of religions use to whip people into shape. Some people need therapy to get over it, the guilt of leaving the church, rejecting their parents' beliefs, etc.

I think some religions and religious leaders bring a lot of good to the world (Rick Warren comes to mind), but a few over do it (Falwell and Hagee come to mind). I won't go so far as Richard Dawkins in saying it is the "root of all evil", but religion can mess some people up.

We won't even get into the Muslim fundies. That just gets too political.

What Makes Some Books Holy Or Inerrant?

Famed British atheist supports placing Bibles in public schools

Atheist Richard Dawkins made a surprising statement saying that he supports the placement of Bibles in public schools across England. He does admit, however, that he has ulterior motives, saying that the best way to dispel "myths" that the Bible is a guide to morality for society is for people to read it for themselves. Others disagree and worry that it could be viewed that the country is giving preference to one religion over another. Ref. Source 9