If I may, I would like to share my most recent opinion concerning the bible.
I have resigned myself to accept that human beings possess some unexplainable characteristics which cannot be rationalized or attributed to science.
Some basic examples are "sharing". How often have you offered a stranger some of your food or drink in public? How often have you dropped some loose change into someone's can or basket? How often have you purchased candy or cookies from school children and girl scouts? I know I always do these things. Sharing and helping others are examples of "paying it forward" like the movie with Kevin Spacey & Haley Joel Osment.
I have never read or seen an example of a hyena sharing food with a hungry lion or vice-versa. I have never learned about any creature willfully building shelter for different species.
So, I have concluded that humans have certain qualities which prove intelligent design beyond mere physics and anatomy. Now, the question is who is responsible and how do we know?
I for one find the bible has some appealing accounts if human interest, like many novels, movies, other holy books and writings, humans are unique in recording, documenting and passing on legacies of their presence on this planet. The animal kingdom, as far as we have discovered, does not do this for themselves or their progeny.
Now, can we rely on the bible? I do not believe we can place blind confidence in a book written by humans, with a laundry list of inconsistencies, flaws, controversies and speculations as the "divine inspired word".
When I visit this forum, I am inspired by other humans to communicate and share my ideas. That is not from God. The quality may be "god-given", but the individual application is not inspired.
I do not believe the bible was inspired. I am an agnostic due to logic. How could a supreme mathematician of the highest order create the universe and time, and then allow the eating of a fruit to become the decisive factor for the death, misery, pollution and corruption of a planet for six thousand years. It is not logical to make decisions of that nature. None of us would gamble that way with our own children.
If god exists, we may someday find out or perhaps he is already here and no one knows it. The question is very vague and ambiguous. Some say there is no greater or noble cause than to search for god, while others say there is no greater waste of time.
I am somewhere in the middle, if possible, keeping the door open for new information while trying to "pay it forward" in this life.
