How do I respond when my religious classmates ask me how I think the bible was passed down to people who were as convinced of the bible's truth as they were convinced that their (immediate) ancestors witnessed a revelation proclaiming the bible's truth?

brian t www

I would also point out to them that the Bible, as it exists now, is hardly original and free from tampering. It was effectively “assembled by committee” over many years, and final agreement on the “canon” took over a thousand years. You can point people at the article on the “canon” in the Catholic Encyclopedia, which is as close to an official history as you’ll find, (and not some atheistic propaganda!).

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Eric_PK

Well, to start with, we don’t know that those generations believed that they were the actual descendants of the witnesses.

We only know that there are writings that say that this is the truth. Writings that were created and handed down by people who clearly believed it was the truth.

But that doesn’t make it non-fiction.

As an aside, you might want to do some research on the history of the bible. It’s far more complex than most Christians know, and there were arbitrary decisions on how to translate it (“What? It wasn’t written in English?”), what books to include, etc.

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logicel

Obviously, your teacher and classmates need a course on Critical Thinking.

Their presumption that they are direct descendants – based on no evidence whatsoever – clearly demonstrates such an ignorant gullibility that I certainly do not envy your situation! (EDIT: On re-reading the question I now realize that your classmates do not regard themselves as direct descendants, but instead believe that a particular revelation was passed down through generations of relations, thus somehow magically securing its authenticity. The following points still apply.)

In fact, I would suggest, stop being concerned about trying to crack through their nonsense and be more concerned about yourself, being circled by loons. Focus on surrounding yourself with critical thinkers—you will have an opportunity to thrive and flourish more so than spending your precious mental energy and time with such dimwits.

But if you must reply to these silly people, then simply say:

Even if the big ‘revelatory’ cheese truly lived and his cheesy ‘revelation’ was passed on from generation to generation, their mere existence and their genetic connections do not equate to such stories as being true. Living people, because they have the kind of brain that evolution gave them, are fully capable of twisting, fabricating, embellishing, etc., reality until it is a shadow of its former self.

To bring my point down to a more understandable time level, in my family, there are stories, from several generations. In fact, on my father’s side, we have relatives who fought in the Civil War (there are official papers). As a young teenager, I would be astounded how each of my many aunts and uncles (total of eleven without counting their spouses) would have different versions of the same story about the relatives who fought in the Civil War, so different that they were barely recognizable as being the same stories!

EDIT: My family’s differing melange of Civil War stories were created by a mix of official papers, family letters, and oral recounting over a span of around one-hundred fifty years. It is not the case that a story proves its truth merit by simply being circulated for a long period (as with Biblical stories), but rather the opposite, the longer a story circulates, more opportunities exist for it to get distorted. Thusly, the keepers of the story having familial connections does not adequately compensate for this inevitable distortion.

One can refer to both Information Theory and the fact of random mutation (DNA copies itself incorrectly through time giving rise to mutated code) to further deepen one’s understanding regarding corrupted information flow.

FURTHER EDIT: If being a direct descendant has such importance, does that mean this particular sect only accepts members who they deem are direct descendants of the Big Revelatory Cheese? (EDIT: Since your classmates do not regard themselves as direct descendants, my points are still valid for the original family and their descendants. At what point does this familial authenticity peter out along with its supposed guarantee of accuracy? Once the Jews had the Bible, were genuine descendants still around to insure that the family stories remain intact and true to their origins?) If they do, they risk extinction without new blood and its protection against inbreeding. And if they don’t, they risk breaking the precious direct ancestry linkage they deem so necessary to validate their stories. Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t – not exactly a promising situation.

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