[ATLian]

Majority of people have no difficulty delineating works of fiction from other works.

True. People who have been brought up since birth believing that the Bible is the actual account of history will always say that the Bible is real. However, if you took someone who has never heard of the Bible, and gave it to him to read, stories of the entire world being drowned in a flood, every species of animal that exists staying in an ark together for weeks, the Red sea splitting in half so people could walk across the sea bed, women being created from the rib of a man, talking snakes and donkeys, etc, then they would almost 100% regard it to be fiction!



In fact if you walk to your local library, you will not find the bible filed under fiction or with other collection of mythology.

True again. BTW you will also find the Koran (which a devout Christian has to regard as fiction!) in the exact same section where the Bible would be.



I would say that your scholarship is disingenuous if you can be mistified by the real and sureal in Frederick Forsyth writings and having read the bible consider its entirety a collection of myths.

I know Forsyth is fiction, but again if you take our guy above who has never heard of the Bible, and also never heard of Forsyth, and you gave him both books, he most likely would believe Forsyth to be real and the Bible to be fiction.



Songa, I'll guarantee you this - if you were born in a rural Indian village, and you have lived there all your life, you'd be a devout Hindu and the Bible would be a fictional work of literature to you!

[njack mbaowa]

ATLian you asked,

Do you know that an overwhelming majority of the scientist if the National Academy of Sciences do not believe in any god(s)?

I would not be surprised if its true. They probably require logical proof before they can believe.

while those that do believe do it on the basis of faith.

I know what your thinking, (WTF is that it?). Yep, it is what it is.

[Songa Songa]

Originally Posted by ATLian

Majority of people have no difficulty delineating works of fiction from other works.

True. People who have been brought up since birth believing that the Bible is the actual account of history will always say that the Bible is real. However, if you took someone who has never heard of the Bible, and gave it to him to read, stories of the entire world being drowned in a flood, every species of animal that exists staying in an ark together for weeks, the Red sea splitting in half so people could walk across the sea bed, women being created from the rib of a man, talking snakes and donkeys, etc, then they would almost 100% regard it to be fiction!

If the above were true, there would be no converts in India and other places.

In fact if you walk to your local library, you will not find the bible filed under fiction or with other collection of mythology.

True again. BTW you will also find the Koran (which a devout Christian has to regard as fiction!) in the exact same section where the Bible would be.

Christians do not regard the Koran as a work of fiction. The main argument is that "Allah" and the Christian God are not the same.

I would say that your scholarship is disingenuous if you can be mistified by the real and sureal in Frederick Forsyth writings and having read the bible consider its entirety a collection of myths.

I know Forsyth is fiction, but again if you take our guy above who has never heard of the Bible, and also never heard of Forsyth, and you gave him both books, he most likely would believe Forsyth to be real and the Bible to be fiction.



Songa, I'll guarantee you this - if you were born in a rural Indian village, and you have lived there all your life, you'd be a devout Hindu and the Bible would be a fictional work of literature to you!

I would be a devout Hindu only if I have never read any other religious text and considered the message in it.

[ATLian]

If the above were true, there would be no converts in India and other places.

There are converts from every major religion to every other major religion every single day. Thousands of Christians convert to Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism daily. Does that mean that the myths in the holy books of those religions are suddenly true?



[color="Blue"]Christians do not regard the Koran as a work of fiction. The main argument is that "Allah" and the Christian God are not the same.[/COLOR]

Are you sure about that? I thought that the only authoritiative word from god is the Bible, and everything else if false publications glorifying false prophets?

[reggie_woic]

Are you sure about that? I thought that the only authoritiative word from god is
the Bible, and everything else if false publications glorifying false prophets?

speaking for catholics, we have nothing but respect for others' religions. they
abide by their beliefs with as much reverence and sanctity as we do with
ours. the fact that our beliefs may not completely concur with theirs doesn't
make any of us false prophets....we need to look past our ""religio-centricisms"" (no such word)

most of the more widely practiced religions all have a common belief: that there is one superior being.
i think that this superior being is common to all, only approached differently...i blame geography.

[Songa Songa]

Originally Posted by ATLian

If the above were true, there would be no converts in India and other places.

There are converts from every major religion to every other major religion every single day. Thousands of Christians convert to Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism daily. Does that mean that the myths in the holy books of those religions are suddenly true?

Your argument was that people raised under other religion would consider the bible a work of fiction. I countered that then it would not be possible for them to convert. Now you say people convert all the time .. true. The changing variable here is not the truth or lack thereof, of their particular holy book(s) but peoples minds. If the books were lies to begin with, they remain so. If they were true, then they remain so.

Originally Posted by ATLian

[color="Blue"]Christians do not regard the Koran as a work of fiction. The main argument is that "Allah" and the Christian God are not the same.[/COLOR]

Are you sure about that? I thought that the only authoritiative word from god is the Bible, and everything else if false publications glorifying false prophets?

The authority vested in the bible is also vested in the God of the bible and the two are inseparable. The authority vested in other books also correspond to their particular subject matter.