Bible prophecy and occam's razor

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Ask21771's picture
Hello?

Hello?

Sapporo's picture
Ask21771: Hello?

Ask21771: Hello?

Anything that is observable is necessarily a natural phenomenon rather than a supernatural one like a god. Something that has no effect on reality cannot qualify as a hypothesis that explains phenomena.

Ask21771's picture
Your making assumptions

Your making assumptions without corroborating evidence

Sapporo's picture
Ask21771: Your making

Ask21771: Your making assumptions without corroborating evidence

Absolutely not. It should be obvious that if an event happens, it happens within the laws of nature.

Grinseed's picture
@ Sapporo, unless you are a

@ Sapporo, unless you are a theist.
@ Ask...are you a Muslim?

David Killens's picture
Unicorns are complicated too.

Unicorns are complicated too.

Actually, all predictions were made by the unicorns. They could talk back then, before they went invisible. We don't know if they went mute or just decided to be quiet.

David Killens's picture
How many times has the bible

How many times has the bible been right, and how many times has the bible been wrong?

We can not just cherry-pick the correct predictions and ignore the errors.

Grinseed's picture
For an agnostic you certainly

For an agnostic you certainly sound very committed to a seemingly unshakeable faith in the existence of the Abrahamic god, more than most theists in fact. What the hell can you find to argue about with christians....? You seem to believe the bible is the very word of god and all the fake prophecies in it as being true; that the writers of the bible were truly inspired by god to write their lies; you shift the burden of truth like a theist and here you are disputing the honest intelligence of atheists.
You show no doubt about being able to know or believe. You dont come across as an agnostic.

Grinseed's picture
And its not a matter of god

And its not a matter of god not fitting our understanding of reality, its more a matter that no god can be shown to exist.

Meepwned's picture
Let's compare the assumptions

Let's compare the assumptions of both sides.

Goddidit side:
1) The supernatural is real.
2) A deity is real.
3) The abrahamic deity is real.
4) That deity inspired prophecies.
5) Those prophecies were written by the people credited within it.
6) The prophecies were written before the events.
7) The prophecies are all 100% true.

Skeptic side:

1) People wrote the prophecies.
2) People lied about the time that they were written.
3) The prophecies are vague.
4) The prophecies are not inspired by any deity.
5) The abrahamic deity doesn't exist.
6) The prophecies were not always written by those credited within the bible.

Examining the goddidit

The supernatural is full of unfalsifiable claims. We simply cannot verify them, so we default to not believing them. If we did believe them all, we would believe contradictory things. #1 -4 falls within the unfalsifiable category.

#5-7 These, through studying the texts and any contemporary texts, has been proven false.

Examining the skeptic side

#1 This has been proven true.
#2 This one is very likely, as we have many, many examples of people lying about things related to their religion.
#3 This has been proven true.
#4-5 These are unfalsifiable.
#6 This has been proven true.

Tallying up the scores.

Godiddit: 4 unfalsifiable, 3 false
Skeptic: 2 unfalsifiable, 3 true, 1 likely

Let me know if I missed anything.

Nyarlathotep's picture
Maybe (skeptic side):

Maybe (skeptic side):

7) Often times when the prophecies "come true", they come true in other works of fiction, with clear indications the new authors were aware of the old prophecies.

Stare's picture
The OP doesn't make any kind

The OP doesn't make any kind of logical sense at all. I see no algebra in bibles, no scientific equations. Why would I want to rely on an old book, with no scientific equations in them? Could I rebuilt the internet, based on the bible alone or other holy texts?

Rivka's picture
I think Ask21771's a

I think Ask21771's a Christian trying to challenge we little atheists to a duel. Duel accepted. Take it from someone who's Jewish, someone who read this shit, and took SOME of it seriously when she was young. I know much better now.

Rivka's picture
Ask me your question (as I

Ask me your question (as I don't have time to read everyone's comment, sorry!), and I'll do my very best to answer it. Ask me anything you want.

Grinseed's picture
@ Ask21771, you asked

@ Ask21771, you asked

Is ex eventu a simpler explanation thand god

From the Oxford University Bible Studies website

www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/opr/t94/e1988

vaticinium ex eventu
The term applied to a passage in the prophets or the gospels which has the form of a prediction but is in fact written in the knowledge of the event having occurred (e.g. probably Luke 21: 20).

So if 'ex eventu' is the answer it is still about distortion of facts, ie lying.

Armando Perez's picture
Ask21771,

Ask21771,

You are totally wrong. I, who has lived forever and can influence human minds, though I am not a god, was the one inspiring these so- called prophecies as kind of lame jokes.

I dare anyone to prove it was not me. As I am here now, I am the simplest explanation.

arakish's picture
@ Ask

@ Ask

An even better tactic is to try and prove Christianity is correct. Do the research like me for over 30 years. Only to prove it is all a lie.

rmfr

jonthecatholic's picture
This reasoning is highly

This reasoning is highly flawed. It does go into a circular form so I wouldn't use this at all.

One very simple explanation which doesn't assume divine intervention is that the thing that was prophesied happened then later, then the written word was made. Another: the written prophesy was made first and... it was a lucky guess that it happened. Now, if you could show that a certain book contains prophesies and 100/100 happened AFTER the work was made, maybe you'd have a case on your hands.

arakish's picture
Hey JoC

Hey JoC

Did you come back to go septic tank diving and pick God's Nastiest Turd?

rmfr

jonthecatholic's picture
Oh! I didn't see that! I'll

Oh! I didn't see that! I'll get back to that. I've just been busy. Found some time on my hands recently.

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