From: utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!tim
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Re: Some complain that the Bible is ambiguous and unclear. Why?
Article-I.D.: unc.4769
Posted: Mon Mar 14 00:42:42 1983
Received: Tue Mar 15 01:35:50 1983
References: floyd.1295


I stopped corresponding with Dave Lee a few weeks ago because he seemed
obviously beyond the reach of any form of reason. Since then, I have seen
him say many foolish things on the net, but have remained silent until now.

Dave claimed that the popularity of the Bible is evidence of its
validity, and that the opinions of "a few people" who don't like it
are of no importance. He can't mean this. First, this implies that the
vast majority of people on Earth are Christians, an outright falsehood.
In fact, the majority of people on Earth are not-Christians. I usually
consider "a few" to mean fewer than a couple of billion.

Second, and more importantly, the majority opinion is of no value.
As was recently pointed out in an article on dowsing, "If a million
people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." (Loosely
translated from the Analects of Confucius) I don't know what I can
add to this; it falls in the category of obvious truths.

Finally, about the whole issue of Biblical contradictions: It doesn't
matter if there are any or not. Lack of contradiction does not imply truth,
only consistency. Existence of contradiction does not imply falsehood,
when dealing with inconceivables such as omnipotence, which necessarily
imply their own systems of reasoning. In other words: give it up!

Tim Maroney