everything that everyone knows or believes came out of a book
This is a thought I have been rattling around in my head for a while and I think it has peculated long enough that its ready for sharing.
A lot of atheists that I have heard speak are really critical of the Bible as the source of faith that fuels Christian beliefs. Now I must warn that I am going to be painting with a fairly wide brush in this post as I make some broad generalizations, but even with that said I think my point will stick to the wall quite nicely. First lets assume we are speaking of the kind of atheists that run with the science crowd believing that nothing created everything in the big bang and that we all evolved out of a puddle over the course of the last few billion years. Where does that information come from?
In a lot of cases that information comes out of books. Books that have been recorded through out history as scientists have conducted studies and experiments. Those books have then been leveraged to write other books, some of them most likely translated from other languages over time. Those books have been used to formulate science class curriculum for students. Some books are even made into educational videos for T.V. and used in class rooms and labs to teach other people what science has revealed.
So here is my point. Everyone believes in a book. So many people in the “science camp” believe what science has to tell them without having seen the results of an experiment or study with their own eyes. That sounds a little like faith to me. They haven’t looked in the microscope, seen the mutation of cells or understood what carbon dating even means but they rest easy that what they are told or what is in the books is true. By definition that is faith. So why does the Bible get such a hard time? Is there such a gap between science and miracles?
We have a book that is full of examples of miracles but for some reason it is such a stretch for billions of individuals to believe. People retort that the Bible was written by men. Well so were science books. Well aren’t science books written by men that had experiences and saw things with their owns eyes? Sure, but the Bible was also written by men that saw with their own eyes and had experiences as well. But didn’t those men have self serving purposes to control peoples thoughts and put their mind in a box? Who actually makes that argument and why? Does Christianity leave some assumptions and expect faith to bridge the gap? It sure does… and after having read a bit on evolution there are some serious assumptions there too. OK, but at the end of all the arguing isn’t religion focused on getting peoples money? You mean there is no money in big science?
To conclude I want to say that this wasn’t intended as a religion vs. science or creationism vs. evolution post but it is the most convenient topic to lean on. The only point I intended to make is that no matter where you stand you believe in stuff from a book written by men or women at some point in history. So take it a little easy if your ripping into a Christian for believing in a book. At the end of the day when all the arguing is done everyone has faith in a book.