"I don't propose to have answers to everything--but the Bible does."

And *I* must read those answers and 'decide' whether to believe them.

I put it to you this way: If God exists AND is all-powerful and controls how everything is, then HE gave me (us) brains which are able to question & doubt. *IF* he allows us to use our brains to question and debate all this, then it is a very unfair &, I might add, un-Godly thing to demand we believe that those words "which was written (put pen to paper) by men", are in fact, inspired by Him.
Why bother to make the eternal souls of we poor, fallible mortals dependent on accepting 2000 years of selecting, editing, translating, and interpreting words "written by other men"?

No matter how I got this brain, it has the ability to analyze and judge claims & assertions about its own essence and creation. As we prove here, it is not only possible, but common, to see the problems with the status of the claimed evidence for theology!!

If I were a (god) and NEEDED to be believed in & worshiped, I would most assuredly remind those poor, fallible, doubting mortals on a regular basis instead of ONE basic warning when we were just learning to write.~~~~~ Perhaps clouds parting and fiery letters in the sky saying "Hey! Pay attention! You all have been ignoring scripture again! Note what I said in Proverbs 13:3!"

And... when some especially egregious sin was committed, one of those lightning bolts would ZAP the offender before he was able to, for example, do harm to masses of "true believers".

You see, Iona... to we who assume that brains with the power of REASON would be used for reason, and not as rubber-stamps for interesting, but undocumented, stories told to us by other fallible men.....(and women.)



"Acts 17:11 tells you to test everything in the light of the Scriptures."

Ummm... so, when I said a few hundred posts ago, that that very admonition involves invalid, circular reasoning, it is especially relevant here. You can, of course, use YOUR brain to ignore and reject the logical flaws in your own reason...THAT is part of what "free will" means!