@Ebed Keraz - I have only dipped into the Bible when at school - I agree with its role as a very important civilizing book - there is no doubt in my mind that the Ten Commandments, Ancient Judaism, eventually Christianity are the very basis of our legal systems, of the way we interact with each other, the way we care for unfortunates of any kind, ill people, people who fell by the wayside for no fault of their own. We even give money to foreign countries when they are in trouble. All these actions are the outcome of Christianity.
Christianity, as based on the Ten Commandments and the Bible are the very basis of our humanity and we export it into the Third World, even though many in the West no longer believe in 'Gospel truths'. So there is no way I would slam the Bible, nor Jesus, nor the resultant Churches - it is the most civilizing book/religion (in all their variations) in the world to have tamed the beast in us, which you would call the 'devil' and I call 'instinct' - Sigmund Freud called the 'id' - the unconscious part of us, which is greedy, wants to take, before others, wants its own way/will, wants the rival killed etc. etc. - The path to civilization (and self knowledge!) is the conquest of the 'id' - not my quote, but I forgot whose. It is fortunate that the barbaric Roman civilization was taken over and transformed by Christianity.
As far as science is concerned, we have come a long way since those early days when men simply observed certain phenomena and felt 'enlightened' and eventually entrusted their observations to their holy books, of which there are many, not just the Bible.
The Bible, if it were indeed inspired by communication with a higher and supernatural power, would be far more specific. The generalised 'truths'/ scientific facts, this guy is talking about were known to the Ancients, some of it got lost, and particularly Europe went through the Dark Ages, in which a lot of knowledge got lost. But some of those 'facts' or truths are simple common sense and some are inspired observations.
Do you realise that our brain and thinking capacity is pretty similar to that of stone-age man? (woman?) - we have more knowledge, but we have his instincts (most likely to a lesser degree). This goes for the female of our species too: He/she might have been better in the total awareness of his surroundings, in his hunting ability, in his ability to sense certain connections as can be observed in animals as well; ancient man most likely also had a heightened capacity to communicate with one another sub-linguially by means of mind transference. We might have more brain connections, but we are most likely a lesser specimen than the people of Old. That is a guess!!
- So why the Persecutions of the Middle Ages of anyone who raised any doubt as to the nature of the earth - if it is in the Bible, why weren't the medieval scientists who were persecuted for their blasphemies, able to point to the passages in the Bible as 'truths, revealed by God'?
Just an example: ancient people would have known all about bodies, they killed animals for food,etc.; even before the Ancient Jews had the idea to sacrifice the inedible bits of their dinner to their Jehova, they knew about bleeding animals just after the kill - and observed the animal slowly dying as the blood was leaving the body - no mystery there. They probably saw plenty of this in humans in their bloody squabbles with neighbours or in captivity with the Egyptians - where they witnessed a great and medical and scientific tradition and most likely learnt from it.
Sorry, I could go on forever - one day, I will read the Bible from cover to cover - or maybe just speed-read through it - I am sure it is couched in the most beautiful language - but here again - the Bible has been translated from an ancient language, first into Greek, then Latin, eventually into other European languages - does the truth survive this long - or does it get shaped by the personalit of the translator?
It seems to me that this guy in the video is doing something I once did as a very young woman to an older couple who I had been instructed to visit and ask why they hadn't been voting. I was a Socialist then and felt full of the fire of revolution and the need to proselytize. Knocked on the door of total strangers, was polite, but in essence I berated them - I the youngster - for something they had chosen not to do, out of a full life's experience. I realised my faux-pas as soon as I left and they had closed the door and I found myself in the street. People have a right to their opinions, opinions, which often have been achieved at great cost and soul-searching and maybe exposure to corruption and disappointment.
People have souls, people do not want to hear they re going to Hell if they don't accept the Bible's teaching - most people are decent human beings and the ones that are not, often - not always - find they are getting punished here on earth, except we never hear the end of their stories, as our lifetimes are so brief.
But life is beautiful, let us be grateful to whatever God you or I worship for not having come into this world as a worm, fly, tick, stone or even a Rose, but as a human with that infinite capacity to rejoice, love, learn, admire, breathe in the sounds, songs and beauty of this world.
