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"God wrote it! I believe it! That does it!" Those words adorned the bumper of a car I saw in the deep South. "This is the word of the Lord!" That is a liturgical phrase heard after the scriptures are read in many Christian churches. "The Bible says!" "It's in the Bible!" Those are phrases frequently heard in religious debate. When these phrases are introduced there is a sense that this is the last word and that no higher appeal to truth can be cited. The "inerrant word of God" has, however, supported throughout history a wide variety of completely discredited practices. The Bible was quoted to claim that kings rule by divine right, that the earth is the center of the universe around which the sun rotates, that slavery, segregation and apartheid are legitimate and moral social institutions, that women must be kept in second class positions, that evolution is wrong and that homosexuality is a condition condemned by God. In each of these cultural debates the Bible has lost! Despite these constant defeats the tenacity of this irrational and patently absurd idea is still asserted. It is therefore not surprising to discover that the claim of inerrancy for the scriptures as the "Word of God" would be the first line drawn in the sand when the beleaguered conservative Protestants struck back against the modern world in the early 1900's. They seemed not to be aware that this claim reflects both an almost total ignorance of biblical scholarship and has been the source of enormous human evil over the years of Christian history. Behind every burned heretic, at the heart of every debilitating human prejudice that has ever plagued the Western World, the justifying claim of biblical inerrancy can still be heard. If that claim is an essential ingredient in Christianity, then surely the Christian God is destined to join Marduk, Baal and the gods of the Olympus in the museums of human history in an exhibit of "Dead Deities." The fact that even today in 2007 religious leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Albert Mohler and a host of lesser known lights can still utter this claim without a gullible public being convulsed with laughter at its absurdity is proof of the tenacity of religious superstition and of the enduring human, but nonetheless neurotic, need for certainty.

The Bible is not, I repeat, is not the "Word of God" in any literal sense. Repeat that line once or twice a day until you no longer expect lightning to strike you dead when you utter it. To kill an idol in whose service you have lived in both bondage and fear is never easy. The real tragedy, however, is that bondage to any idol, even the idol of the Bible, makes it impossible, as history reveals, to be fully human [b]and that is clearly the final goal of Christianity.[/b] (Bold added)

richardMdBorn wrote:Roger Spong says more on Fundamentalism:
They seemed not to be aware that this claim reflects both an almost total ignorance of biblical scholarship and has been the source of enormous human evil over the years of Christian history.

Richard Was B.B. Warfield ignorant of biblical scholarship? No. He was a leading scholar in his time (c 1851-1921). Rather, he had a most lower opinion than Spong of higher criticism. Face it Spong, there are great scholars who disagree with you.

Roger (Spong) at the heart of every debilitating human prejudice that has ever plagued the Western World, the justifying claim of biblical inerrancy can still be heard

Richard So is Christian inerrancy responsible for social Darwinism which was used by the Nazis. Was inerrancy responsible for Stalin's murdering 30M+ Soviets. Is inerrancy responsible for the Muslim's murders of Islamic critics.

In each of these cultural debates the Bible has lost!

Galileo believed that the Bible was inerrant; so did his opponents. What then is the historical efficacy of stating that

Quote:
The "inerrant word of God" has, however, supported throughout history a wide variety of completely discredited practices. The Bible was quoted to claim that kings rule by divine right, that the earth is the center of the universe around which the sun rotates

And the Bible was quoted by Galileo. Clearly the opponents of Galileo had baptized the cosmology of Ptolemy.

Jason Bourne wrote:Richard,

I found the remarks posted by Sponge rather reasonable.

Do you believe the Bible is literal and innerrent in total? It seems to me that you are dodging the issues. Who cares, and how do you even know Galileo thought the Bible was innerrent? What bearign does this have on whether it really is or not.