What is the intellectual justification for considering the Bible to be the inspired word of God?

Question

Given how much bad stuff (like slavery) is in there, and how much good stuff (like all of science) isn't?

Answer 1

There is no intellectual justification for considering the Bible to be the inspired word of God. Only irrational, illogical, superstition, which was created to explain unanswered questions about life and afterlife and it was done poorly.

Answer 2

1) Any theist worth their salt will immediately question your basis for your claims about what is a bad and what is good.

2) 'Reformed epistemology' (1) takes belief in God to be a basic belief, and thus not in need of support. Extending this same thinking to the Bible doesn't take much. Thus, many would say they do not need any intellectual justification. Of course, this means they have forsaken any attempt to reach a mutually acceptable basis for discussion, and thus they should be censured an dismissed at every turn.

Answer 3

Cognitive dissonance.

We all do it all the time.

It rarely has such tragic consequences in other spheres of life than it does with religion though.

Answer 4

There is no intellectual justification to stupidly and uncritically accept such nonsense...there is only blind, ignorant faith.

Answer 5

Primarily because it says it, "All of scripture is inspired by God." That is the intellectual justification.

You can choose to believe it or not, just like you can choose to believe the stories in the book of Genesis (or not).

C.S. Lewis set out to disprove Christianity, and in the process, became a convert, and a great apologist for Christianity.

You too, must make your own personal journey. Don't depend on others, they don't know any more than you about the reality of God. Call out to God, tell Him you don't believe the bible is divinely inspired. Do it authentically, and let us know what happens.

Answer 6

Science is neither good nor bad.  It just is.  It is an expression of how we understand the universe.  You sound like the fundies that think it is a religion or a god.

Answer 7

Slavery in the bible, especially in the old testament, isn't slavery like we're familiar with, working to death malnourished in a cotton field.

Slavery in the old testament was more like "owed servitude".  If a man was poor and could not feed himself, he would give himself and his family into servitude of someone else.They would work for that person for X amount of years, and be given food, clothing, etc.  They were not abused like the black slaves, they were merely working off a debt.

Just because scientific statements aren't in the bible doesn't mean the bible denies science. After all, most of the scientific terms we use today didn't even exist yet!

But see this one verse:

Isaiah 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

"Circle of the earth" This looks like a scientific statement. Didn't the world thing the earth was flat until a few hundred years ago? And here's a verse right here suggesting it's round.

Answer 8

Bad stuff?  Well, that's not hard at all...lets see what god has to say about children and babies:

And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? ... Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

Numbers 31:15-17

And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

Leviticus 26:29

And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters.

Deuteronomy 28:53

And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them.

Deuteronomy 28:57

Thus saith the LORD of hosts ... Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ***.

1 Samuel 15:2-3

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Psalm 137:9

Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

Hosea 9:16

Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

Hosea 13:16

Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

2 Samuel 12:14

Answer 9

One simply has to comprehend what the Bible's purpose is (ie. NOT a science textbook, but rather instruction regarding man's relationship with his maker).  Once that first step is taken, then the validity of the advice within the book can easily be measured by applying it within one's own life and observing the results.  Are the results positive or negative?  Based on these observations, a conclusion can be reached.

EDIT:  Interesting that I got two thumbs down, apparently from the pro-science crowd.  Was there something about my methodology above that you didn't like?

Answer 10

1. Please discern ASAP between scripture and 'Bible'; they are currenty not the same in USA.

2. Man (many unbelievers) of scripture have tested the scriptures and found them to be truthful.

Answer 11

There is none.

Answer 12

Intelectual justification -- I like this phrase.  I may use it sometime.

There is ample evidence for inspiration.  Time and space will not permit a full disclosure.  I will however address your two specifics.

Slavery -- When people really learn Christ and understand God as presented in the Bible they oppose slavery.  Those in the past and present who misused scripture to support their archaic and bigotted violation of human rights were and are wrong.  God is not pro-slavery.

Science -- In actuallity the Bible does contain scientific facts.  There are statements in the text of the Bible that would have gone against the common belief of the times it was written.  One case in point is the water cycle that many identified and described scientifically in the 17th Cent (I think).  Job 26:8 and Eccl 11:3 hint at this scientific knowledge.  Another case may be in Psalm 8:8.  The psalmist mentions the paths of the sea that creatures swim in.  Matthew Maury who is credited as being one of the fathers of modern oceanography based his search for navigatable waters in the oceans on this verse.  Others had yet to find them.

Answer 13

it's anti-intellectual justification