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Position:Home>History> Do Historians trust the Bible?Question: Do Historians trust the Bible!? From my very light research it seems that while many scientists have strong atheistic views on the religion and God!.!.!.!.There are many historians who set out to unbiasly research the historical claims of the Bible!.!.!.!.I just wanted to know what is the overall general consensus that historians have regarding the Bible and GodWww@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Historians and academics don't put too much faith in anything that they don't have physical proof of!. They said that the Temple of Artemis was only a myth until it was found in Turkey some years ago in the 20th century!. They said that the City of Troy from Homer's book the Iliad was a myth until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered it in Turkey in the 1800s!. They said that the Exodus out of Egypt was only a myth until an underwater archaeologist found 3500 year old chariot parts and animal bones in the Red Sea!. Many places in Israel that were said to be myths have been uncovered by archaeologists!. Academics are usually pretty low on the faith scale until you shove hard evidence under their nose!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Historians and Archaeologists base their work on written records and physical evidence!. The distance from the source event in most written history can be surprising!. Much accepted historical fact is based on documents written hundreds of years after the event!. A common quote in Christian history is that there is far more evidence for the existence of Christ than of Julius Caesar!. Parts of the Gospels can be traced back to as close as 30 years after the event!. Hard evidence for the existence of cities and places in the Bible has been uncovered!. Read Lee Strobel's "The Case For Christ"!. It's the story of an atheist journalist's quest to disprove the bible that leads him to rethink his opinions in the face of undeniable evidence!. God's truth and existence are self-evident!. It takes man's imagination to deny it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Scientists do not have to have strong atheistic views on religion but it is very difficult to avoid having or at least getting serious doubts about religion when you study history!. For example, most of the Bible stories didn't happen!. Adam and Eve didn't exist!. Snakes do not talk!. People do not live 999 years!. The big flood never happened!. The Hebrews didn't wander for 40 years in the Sinai desert!. People do not walk on water, unless it's frozen!. People do not change water into wine!. Unless their names are Siegfried and Roy!. People do not raise the death, nor raise from the grave themselves!. Crucified bodies are not returned to the family!. All those events would warrant extraordinary evidence, as they are extraordinary events!. However, outside the bible, none of these facts are even mentioned!. Which makes serious historians doubt it, or simply reject it!. The bible and history have as much in common as Harry Potter and history!. The fact that London is a real city and England has a prime minister is not proof Hogwarts exist!. Www@QuestionHome@Com Its limitations are well-known!. Only small parts even purport to be historical, and even those seem to have been written much later than the times in which they occurred!. There are also quite a few "typo's" and whatnot!. There are quite a few historical passages that correspond to histories from surrounding regions, though often the names are not exactly the same, and it's quite possible others will in the future be found to have outside corroborating evidence!. But again, the purpose of the Bible isn't exact history, and the part that's literature is best considered literature, etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com No competent historian will rely on a single source!. There is no independent verification of any of the Old Testament stories!. No mention of these great rulers of a large empire in any of the writings of surrounding empires!. No evidence of slavery in Egypt, or an Exodus!. Equally, no competent historian should have a closed mind and deny the possibility that such confirmation will be found!. God, being an imaginary being, will leave no physical evidence!.Www@QuestionHome@Com No, historians do not trust the Bible!. Neither do they trust those christians who use questions in the Yahoo! History category as an opportunity to convert another "lost soul" to the "truth" of the teachings from the Bible!. There is nothing worse than tooting your own horn and expecting everyone else to dance to the same tune!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Ancient texts can be good starting points for research to find physical evidence for cultures!. As mentioned above, the hunt for Troy using clues from the Illiad was a success, which really embarrassed the archaeologists of the day who had written it off as a myth!. Keeping an open mind is the most important thiing in any science-challenging the orthodox view is how science makes progress! Www@QuestionHome@Com Most historians do not put much faith in the bible!. the existence of Biblical figures such as Moses, David and Solomon cannot be verified!. And there is no proof that the Egyptian captivity or the exodus ever happened!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The bible is a book of jewish folk tales about their sky god Folk tales often contain some elements of historical interest but no serious historians would rely on the bible for evidence of any eventWww@QuestionHome@Com They do not!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |