I have heard Creationists claim that God (or Satan, depending on who you ask) planted dinosaur bones to test people’s faith. As far as I know, there is no evidence of this in the Bible, so I can only assume that this claim is pure speculation.
I have also heard the argument, from non-religious types, that the Bible cannot possibly be the Word of an all-seeing, all-knowing entity because it is not written with any real clarity or insight that one would expect from a Supreme Being. Instead, it appears to have been written by people who were only aware of their particular time and place. It occurs to me, too, that God would not write a Bible that is open to so many interpretations (which is evidenced by the many religious sects). Why would He deliberately write the Bible in such a way that would cause so much disagreement and strife?
I think I may have a possible answer: The Bible was written by Satan! Certainly, if it is possible that God (or Satan) planted dinosaur bones to test people’s faith, I see no reason why Satan couldn’t have written the Bible in order to cause confusion and doubt. The implications of this, of course, are extraordinary. Discuss.
I have talked with a young man in another Philosophy chat room who belongs to a faith called the "Brethren’. His religion believes that the earth was created old. That the encompassing universe and all of it’s substance was created 5,000 years ago by God. As far as I’m concerned, that cold be possible due to the fact that anything is possible for Him. They also take it literally that ‘Creation’ happened in a six day period. Again, I would say that is possible.
Since time has no constraints on God and His actions in my opinion, I don’t see why this physical universe couldn’t be 13 to 15 billion years old as is postulated by scientists. God in my estimation can exist at any point at any time He chooses. While satan has his wiles, I doubt God would let him subverse the Bible. People alone can corrupt God’s Word and intent with their wickedness. The first few Books of the Bible were transcribed into Moses mind by God and interpreted it as well as he could with his finite mind. I’m sure God brought His level of consciousness down enough for Moses to understand enough to write those Books.
I don’t think the question is whether Satan planted dinosaur bones to test faith. I think the question, rather, is whether or not someone planted the Bible to control fear, to control the masses.
I don’t agree with your answer. If God could allow Moses to part the Red Sea, He could certainly allow all the people who wrote the Bible to have a higher level of comprehension and clarity. Are you telling me that God couldn’t make the Bible easier to interpret? That makes no sense, if He can do anything.
People seem to believe Satan is behind so many other things that lead mankind astray, and God clearly doesn’t stop him from doing those things, so why couldn’t Satan be behind the Bible? That seems to the kind of Bible Satan would write: one that causes hatred, confusion, sectarianism. God would not do that, would He?
The biggest premise behind God is ‘faith’. God had created Angels with miraculous abilities and satan had started his nonsense with God and cast down to earth. I believe then God created ‘man’ with lesser abilities and was given the freedom to choose like the Angels. A lot of what happened in Heaven, paralleled here on earth. I will expound on this further this evening.
Satan was/is prideful as man is and felt he had just as much right to run Heaven and receive worship like God. Satan’s ego got him along with his followers into trouble and was charged to wander the realm of the earth just like Cain had to endure after killing Abel. I’m not saying the whole story concerning satan and man’s fall from grace with God, but there are correlations between what happened in Heaven and on earth when man was placed there by God.
We can’t know God’s mind of why things are. Information in the Bible is suffient for what needs to be known for people who want to follow God. The rest relies on faith. God’s ethics and thoughts are beyond what we perceive and could understand as far as I see. When we receive our Heavenly reward after leaving this earth, all things will be made known to us. I feel when that point arrives, it will appear irrelevant and insignificant when God’s thoughts are known to us. This what I believe to be true…what conclusions you come to will be of your own making.
From what I had read in the Bible and listened to from the pastor in church and prayer. Some I had reasoned in my mind from the combination of those things I had listed above.
Clearly God isn’t very creative, then, or he likes to purposely create beings who screw up. Doesn’t it seem odd that He created angels capable or rebelling against Him, and then would do the same with humans? Maybe God realized rebellious angels were too powerful and wanted beings who were easier to mess with. He gave us a little planet that he can shake like a snow globe whenever he feels like it. Nice. Did He think casting Satan into Hell wasn’t enough, so He created billions of people to torture in Hell as well?
You say that we do not know God’s mind, but what if His mind is capable of insanity beyond our Earthly comprehension? What if He keeps toying with us just for fun? You have no idea. Your simplistic response that the Bible is enough information for people to follow God is grossly inadequate.
It is fascinating how htere are these two sides to a preciously delicate coin…
Yeah, it IS apparent that the “God” is not quite atained to in a totally literate sense, with all these qualifications and difficulties, emotions unsuiuting a Divine, Loving, Perfection,
yet the faith required to “see” past it to embrace some of the good tidings celebrated by a general messgae we extract from certain biblical proportions seems telling…
Well, we all have different perspectives of God. If everyone thought the same, then we probably wouldn’t have free thought to choose to think what we want.
By saying that Satan wrote the bible you are saying that some pure evil being exists. Therefore it could be possible that some pure good being exists; God. So logically, who cares who wrote the bible; God exists.
He doesn’t, God kick started everything ( good and evil ). Satan being Evil; created the Earth and the animals/people and then wrote the bible in such a way to cause wars etc… Makes more sense to me than that God wrote the bible and created the Earth.
