Justifying Christian belief

Author: Jarrett_Ludolph

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I'm not here to start a debate(since this is a forum, and not a debate) so I will not respond to your comments. I just want to see how you think. Bring a justification for one, some, or all of the following: 

- Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion

- Jesus was born of a virgin

- God created the universe

- the book if Genesis is to be interpreted literally/not literally

- There was a Global flood, as described in the Bible

-The earth is young(6,000-10,000 old) years/old ( about 4.5 billion years old)

- The bible is the source of all truth. (meaning humans cannot reach truth without it, and the bible is necessary)






secularmerlin
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- Jesus was born of a virgin
I can only think of one viable scenario. His mother must have sat in it.
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion
Jesus was in a three day coma.

- Jesus was born of a virgin
In-vitro fertilization. (Or a turkey baster.) Mary's being a virgin is primarily a Catholic/Luciferian argument. The immaculate conception is in reference to the Mother Goddess having both her husband and son as consorts. Since the son is the reincarnation of the father, the Mother Goddess is said to have given birth without seed.

- God created the universe
The mind is God.

- the book if Genesis is to be interpreted literally/not literally
Since there's a lack of observational data on the creation of Earth, the interpretations of the Bible are worth just as much as that of any textbook.

There was a Global flood, as described in the Bible
Almost three quarters of the Earth's surface is submerged in water. Besides, I like using the term antediluvian.

-The earth is young(6,000-10,000 old) years/old ( about 4.5 billion years old)
Who would've observed the Earth before the first human? Or before its first documentation? How does one verify this independent of any biased interpretations?

- The bible is the source of all truth. (meaning humans cannot reach truth without it, and the bible is necessary)
Christians believe in the integrity of the Bible.





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@Jarrett_Ludolph
1. Yep. The coma idea is valid.

2. Mary was unfaithful and hatched a cunning plan with a cunning lover and gullible Joe fell for it. D'oh.  Must have been an influential lover as she managed to avoid a stoning.

3. The universe was created, thus giving rise to a variety of GOD principles, of which christianity is but one.

4. Not literally....Mythical pseudo-hypothesis.

5. Probably a local but extensive flood event whereby a guy rescued some goats in a boat....A tale retold and exaggerated.

6. We know that the Earth isn't 6000 - 10000 years old. That's just a figure derived from a myth based pseudo-hypothesis....Refusing to admit this is just pig headedness.

7.  As a myth, the bible is a collection of exaggerated hand-me-down tales, which are probably based upon factual events that occurred in real places. Factor in a lot of fanciful supernatural GOD hypothesising, and you end up with elements of truth and an awful lot of baloney.


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Allllllllll that is in the book that God got them guys to do for him so he can like , leave it behind for us. 

All the top God's do a book.  
If he didn't that would be nonsense. 

Answer.  It's in the book that God did. 

18 days later

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@Jarrett_Ludolph
- Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion
Jesus is magic.

Old books that record personal testimonials are always 100% reliable.
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
- God created the universe
Logically speaking there must be a "first-mover".

What you decide to call that "first-mover" is a pure ontological choice.
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
I'm not here to start a debate(since this is a forum, and not a debate)
We have debates here on the forums all the time!!!

I highly recommend it!!
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
- Jesus was born of a virgin
PARTHENOGENESIS.
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
- the book if Genesis is to be interpreted literally/not literally
Books are supposed to be interpreted literally when the writer was writing literally and figuratively when they were writing figuratively.

Only "true believers" have the god($) given wisdom to know which interpretation is appropriate for any particular passage (even if they disagree with other "true believers").
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
- There was a Global flood, as described in the Bible
This Global flood is confirmed by cross-referencing THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH (if one old book is true then all old books must be true).

Although it may have likely been a regional flood of the area known as "the fertile crescent".

The location and the names of the rivers "the Tigris" and "the Euphrates" appear in both books.
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
- Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion

When The Truth takes flesh, and the flesh it takes is destroyed, does The Truth die? Of course not, The Truth rises again, even bodily. You cannot kill The Truth. 



- Jesus was born of a virgin


The fruit of pure undefiled wisdom is The Truth Incarnate

- God created the universe


All existence is contingent on Ultimate Reality. If there is no Ultimate Reality, nothing is real. The Ultimate Reality is God.

- the book if Genesis is to be interpreted literally/not literally

The church fathers interpret Genesis in both ways, and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive.



- The bible is the source of all truth. (meaning humans cannot reach truth without it, and the bible is necessary)

The bible isn't the source of all truth, it is a witness to The God of Truth. The source of all truth is God, who is The Truth.
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@Jarrett_Ludolph
-The earth is young(6,000-10,000 old) years/old ( about 4.5 billion years old)
Well, nobody "really knows" how old the earth is, but we have some useful models that estimate coalescence about 4.5 billion years ago.

As long as these models continue to produce testable hypotheses we should continue to refine them (without mistaking them for "facts"), even if god($) made you and the entire cosmos two weeks ago and just ret-conned all your memories and buried dinosaur bones and everything sort of like a super-elaborate open-world puzzle game (or BRAHMAN took a nap).

9 days later

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@Jarrett_Ludolph
- Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion
Coma idea is implausible. Imagine the Romans were bad at killing people - not very plausible at all.  The most plausible position is that what the evidence leads us to conclude.  The grave was empty. The eyewitness accounts of his resurrection - and the exponential growth of the early church. Each leads to the unavoidable conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead. 

- Jesus was born of a virgin
The bible indicates that Mary was the mother before she had sexual relationships with a person.  Facts indicate that a baby born came from somewhere, despite her having no sexual relations. 

- God created the universe

The universe is in existence. It did not just start from nothing. Improbable from statistical point of view to just arise and then brought everything into existence by itself.


- the book if Genesis is to be interpreted literally/not literally
The book of Genesis is to be interpreted in accordance to the different languages it uses in its various parts. Some is historical narrative. Some is poetry. Some is metaphorical. Some is prophetic.  Some is musical. There is no one set way of interpreting language. 

- There was a Global flood, as described in the Bible
This obviously depends upon the way it is interpreted.  I take it that it is most plausibly a global flood from the Bible. 


-The earth is young(6,000-10,000 old) years/old ( about 4.5 billion years old)

I think the bible is at least 6000 years old and anywhere up from there.  I am however not a scientist. I do not know how age of an object over the age of a human can ever be tested and verified. I certainly do not know how anything can be verified within millions or even billions of years. It can be be believed by faith. Faith in our scientists and that the methodology they use is accurate. 


- The bible is the source of all truth. (meaning humans cannot reach truth without it, and the bible is necessary)
I think the bible is the revelation of God. It is special revelation that tells us who God is and what humanity has done requiring God's forgiveness. Yet, general revelation also exists in the evidence before our eyes in the world around us, the humans around us, and the brains we have that reveals that God exists.  General revelation leaves us all without excuse of the existence of God.  Special Revelation leads us to Christ.  There is truth in all parts of the world. It is found in the atheist. It is found in the Muslim religion and any other religion in the world. It is found in science. It is found in philosophy. Truth is not exclusive to the Bible. 

Nevertheless, the truth NEVER contradicts the Bible.