Why Do Christians Believe The Bible Is True?

[25YearsLater]

I was once a young earth creationist, yet now I find it completely extraordinary that I ever believed in the historical accuracy of the bible, especially with a view to the accounts of the miraculous.

 

In my case, as a teenager I was fooled by the selective interpretations of the bible, by a few authors with a specific agenda, and, as I know now, the selective and misleading interpretation of so-called scientific 'evidence', again by a few authors.

 

But I know a lot more about science now, and also a lot more about the bible, and it all seems completely bonkers.

 

Everything from talking snakes and bushes, the sun going backwards, people turning into salt pillars, healings, virgin birth and resurrections - it all reads like a mythical world that bears no resemblance to reality.  It only gets dressed up with anything resembling legitimacy when the believers come along and start superimposing their interpretation on it.

 

So I'm curious - why do Christians believe that the bible is inerrant?  

 

Surely the more educated ones must know about the unreliability of written accounts?  That science isn't about sticking to a conclusion, and only selecting the evidence that appears to confirm it?

 

Surely they must also realise the circularity of believing the bible to be true because it itself claims to be true?

 

So come on, explain why you believe this stuff.  I'm extremely sceptical of anything subjective - I felt like I had a relationship with Jesus myself, once upon a time, and I see it now for what it was - a combination of fear, wishful thinking, and self-conditioning.

 

Equally, don't start quoting scripture at me - I've heard it all before, and in any case it is no good as its own authority. 

 

So come on, explain.  I'd prefer it if ex-Cs don't pile in and ridicule the Cs, although obviously on-topic polite discussion is welcome.  But I'd rather this didn't become an exercise in abuse, since I'm genuinely trying to become more informed.  Even if I do think their position is completely untenable.

 

Thanks.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

We generally save our abuse and ridicule for The Lion's Den; your topic should be safe here.  I wouldn't mind some polite discussion myself, as a welcome distraction.

[mymistake]

I became a Christian at age six.  However I had been feed a steady diet of Christian propaganda my whole life.  I went to Sunday School at least once a week until I was old enough to attend main service.  Every adult I ever trusted told me the Bible was the word of God.

 

Some time around when I was ten years old I lost my faith.  I had been watching documentaries such as the original Cosmos and I had figured out for myself that there is no evidence for Christianity.  I made the mistake of telling my family that I didn't believe.  As soon as they could arrange it they sent me off to Bible camp where I was told stories about people who had been attacked by demons because they were not protected by the blood of Jesus.  Apparently Jesus was real because everybody at camp could talk in the tongues of angels.  I became seriously frightened about the dangers of demonic attacks so I rededicated my life to Jesus.  In a leap of faith I tried to talk with the tongues of angels and it came to me effortlessly.  I was told that interpreting tongues was a rare gift that might come latter but it usually wasn't given right away so I didn't worry about it if I couldn't understand a single word of tongues that came out of my mouth or from anybody else.

 

So I was back to believing the Bible was the word of God and I became fanatic in my faith all through my mid 20's.

 

 

People I trusted told me the Bible was the word of God so that was good enough for me.

 

 

 

 

*edited because the gawd-dayam autocorrect keeps changing the words I type.  Autocorrect was invented by a troll.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

I had a superstitious fear of monsters when I was 11. If I saw a movie, I learned how to stop the monster also. When I saw an advert for the Exorcist, I knew this was a monster that could come inside and take over. That was extra-crispy freaky to me, and I knew from watching Jesus of Nazareth on TV that he could stop demons. So I picked up the Living Bible, read most of the NT in one night and converted. It wasn't that I wanted to become a Christian, but wanted to be safe from the boogie man. But to get that protection, I had to be real about the change, so I was. That led to 30 years of fundamentalist faith.

 

Part of my deconversion was revisiting why I first believed. When I noticed it was a childish fear of monsters, that helped unplug the whole thing.

[25YearsLater]

Thanks for the responses so far - effectively they describe the hooks that initially led people to believe.

 

What I'm really hoping for is responses from people that are still Christians, explaining why they still believe that the bible is true (in whatever sense they prefer to articulate it).

 

It may be, of course, that without the equivalent of either:

 

- "my Christian experience reinforces my interpretation of scripture", or

- "the Bible is true because it says it's true"

 

, such a response is too difficult for them to articulate.

 

But I hope they'll try.

[amateur]

I was young when I was a xian (under 18), then I kind of enjoyed the "love and forgiveness" part of it when I was older (maybe mid-20's to mid-30's).  Looking back, and being honest, I just believed (especially when I was young) that when a minister said the bible was the inerrant word of god, that I believed it because a trusted adult said it, and sunday school teachers (trusted adult ladies in the church) said it too.  As I got older I had a lot of questions that never got answered in church (of course!), and the internet wasn't invented yet so it was hard to find good info easily.

 

By around age 30, I had serious doubts and found plenty in the bible that was the polar opposite of "love and forgiveness" and some was just plain weird and stupid and like fairy tales, and I started reading more (but the internet still wasn't readily available to me), but I STILL tried to make my brain believe that god was this good being in heaven and jesus was our friend and all loving.  I learned here that this is cognitive dissonance, but I didn't know that then!  But I did start to realize that ministers weren't so smart and didn't know all the answers.

 

I have some friends, around my age or older (40's-60's) that are still believers and I truly don't understand how they can still seriously believe.  I respect that they are mostly serious in their faith, but I truly don't get it.

[25YearsLater]

So where are the Christians then?  I still know a few myself, and they're very nice people.  I haven't been here long, admittedly, but I was kinda expecting that given genuine questions, there'd be one or two around prepared to answer them in a genuine way.  

 

I'm really not at all interested in the sort of sniping I'm reading elsewhere, so they can be assured that I'll read what they have to say and give it fair consideration, although if I feel I can offer a reasoned disagreement then I won't hold back - obviously I can't pretend to be unbiased, I'm not, but I am a reasonable man and I am capable of being polite and friendly at times

 

Come on guys, why do you still believe?

[Guest Furball]

Because the bible speaks to them in the 1st person with authoritative do's and don'ts. The first thing we learn in this world is our parents speaking to us in the first person telling us authoritative do's and don'ts. 

[mikey101]

 

So I'm curious - why do Christians believe that the bible is inerrant?  

Thanks.

Start at the beginning.  The Christian fundamentalist movement started in the late 1800s as a reaction to Darwinism.  New ideas and practices started, one of which was insisting on a literal interpretation of the creation story (reaction to Darwinism).  The movement has grown quite a bit since then.

[Leo]

I now you're looking for Christians, but I have only been out since this past April.

So in my early 20s I went through a fundamentalist fiery phase. I had been raised Evangelical through the 70s and 80s -- think Francis Schaeffer / James Dobson / C. S. Lewis theology. Combined with young earth creationism and all the surrounding apologetics, Josh McDowell, Reaganomics, the Evil Empire (The Soviet union for those too young to remember).

Now it is possible to be very well educated and yet not really understand how science works. Hell, even science texts are often about memorizing facts and learning things, albeit very interesting things, until you get far along. Often in school you perform experiments but already know the conclusions. They call it experiments but they're really illustrations of prior experiments. So it's possible to be educated, understand enough science to not be an ignoramous, and still fall for this stuff.

Then, after having set aside Christianity for a year or two, I had the "coming back to the Lord" experience in Florida in 1997, but it would never really be the same. Even though, under the newfound constructs I really tried to be the "reasonable" Christian, still acknowledging evolutionary biology and much of the sciences even though I was the only one at our Pentecostal church who did this. Honestly, it was more about appeasement and doing right by the family, for the past 15 years. Not fooling or being deceptive, but an honest effort to do the right thing by the family. Especially as a father in these times in churches, you're always told that if you fail at faith, your kids might well be damned, just as Adam failed at faith and Eve was damned. The yoke was never easy and the burden never light. But you know how it works: you can be rational and objective in a lot of areas in life, and still have a mental block against being rational and objective in one single area. In fact, apologetics are an appeal to that part of us when we were still Christians: I read every apologetics book I could get my hands on, every article on the Internet, ReasonableFaith.org, all that stuff. The problem is, it's never enough. You always are left ultimately with serious doubts. Doubts for which, as a Christian, you feel guilty. The allure of the reasoned faith is that you can keep your logic and rationally objective methods intact, while still doing the honorable thing by the faith and family. It's a crock, yes, but it's there. Even among the Pentecostals, behind every lady dancing with scarves is an intellectual finding arguments for scarves-dancing that aligns somehow with scripture, or even acknowledges the aspects of experience we know from psychology, the hormones that get released, etc.

Add to that, you have commentaries for the Bible: people who try and explain cultural contexts for things. People say the best way to become an atheist is to read the Bible straight through. That is in part correct: read it straight through without your pre-conceived biases, without the commentaries. And watch a few atrocities on Youtube perpetrated by groups like Al Qaeda and Isis while you read books like Deuteronomy. There isn't any moral excuse for any of what's written there, but the way out is difficult. Primarily because of that allure to the reasoned faith, one more evidence, one more apologetic, one more piece of information that could seal the deal and make things fit into place. And, if the Bible isn't correct, then all of the system falls apart like a tower of Janga blocks. The pastor at our last church always said you can't have the new testament without the old. Technically, one can see how that works, and how you dismiss Isis, Bin Laden and the Old Testament god, you end up cracking the foundation and away it blows.

Also, when you've heard these stories from the cradle, you never really consider them the way you consider the stories of the Mormons or others, groups to which Evangelicals are as atheistic, and capable of rationally dissecting and disproving the claims, as I am.

[Guest Furball]

 

 

So I'm curious - why do Christians believe that the bible is inerrant?  

Thanks.

Start at the beginning.  The Christian fundamentalist movement started in the late 1800s as a reaction to Darwinism.  New ideas and practices started, one of which was insisting on a literal interpretation of the creation story (reaction to Darwinism).  The movement has grown quite a bit since then.

 

I thought the argument for the bible's inerrancy has been going since we had the bible itself....oh well

[Geezer]

The original question was why do Christians believe the Bible is true. Relatively few believers even read the Bible much less study it. Those that do "study" the bible are usually limited to those that "read" commentaries authored by an apologist.

 

Bible "studies" are usually indoctrination sessions that are really a review of some particular apologist commentary on a specific Bible topic.  People believe the Bible is true because they believe the authoritative figure that tells them its true. Few believers are even aware there is even such a thing as a field of study dedicated to the historical critical approach to religion and their respective sacred texts.

 

I think 99% of people who call themselves Christian are absolutely certain that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the four gospels. They also believe these men were either eyewitnesses to the events written about or were close personal friends of one or more of the original disciples. Even highly educated professionals believe this. Few Christians know what the term "synoptic gospels" means.

 

Christians also believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible because they have been told it is by someone they trust. They believe their preachers, priest, etc. know there is evidence to support the gospels being based on real events because they studied the evidence in college. Indoctrinating (brainwashing) people is obviously easy to do. The entertainment industry does it all the time and so do political parties.

 

Virtually all Christians sincerely believe the bible is true, but when questioned why they believe this they rarely have an answer. They just believe it.

 

The inerrancy of the Bible is really their Achilles heel. In my opinion trying to convince a believer the bible isn't really true using logic, reason, and the laws of science is probably a waste of time. They believe God resides in a supernatural reality where the laws of science simply do not apply. I left Christianity when I found out the Bible wasn't true literally or historically. Destroy the credibility of the Bible, based on the historical evidence, and you destroy the faith of the believer.

[Guest Furball]

. Few believers are even aware there is even such a thing as a field of study dedicated to the historical critical approach to religion and their respective sacred texts.

 

 

 

 

 

Your absolutely right geezer. I wasn't aware of the field of study on the scriptures until my 13th and final year of christianity. Too bad i never saw it sooner, it may have saved me 13 years of torture. -peace

[Lucy]

My former Christian self would not have answered this question on a public forum. The reason is that I always knew that my reasons for believing the Bible were entirely subjective and wouldn't convince anyone else. I had various reasons for believing it to be true, but they were emotionally driven, superstitious, and a based on trust in my own personal authority figures. The people I thought most highly of in my life were absolutely sure it's true so who am I to question it? It seemed arrogant to question it. To deny it would be like I'm saying that they are wrong about what they think is the most important topic in the world. I still feel uneasy about it when I think of it that way.

[Deva]

The primary reason was that someone they respected, such as their parents, told them it was true. Then the parents carted them off to church where it was repeated over and over by other adults that it was true, sacred and holy.

 

These authority figures have a selective blindness and willful ignorance that prevents them from cracking a book to read something about the origins of the Bible. It seems strange, really bizarre to me now. It is really as if most Christians actually think this book fell from the sky from the hand of God in its present day (or King James) version.

[Guest Furball]

 It is really as if most Christians actually think this book fell from the sky from the hand of God in its present day (or King James) version.

I have heard christians say many times that god let the kjv down from heaven on a golden cord. -uhg