Reply To: Why do you believe in Science?

Lakewood001,

“So according to what you are saying we have a book written by men who make a claim that it was dictated to them by God. The Koran and many other relgious books make the same claim it is hardly a unique claim for a religous book to make. That someone claims that a book they wrote was inspired by God is not evidence that it was.”

There is a difference between saying something is “divinely inspired” and saying “G-d said these words _ _ _.” The latter is what the word “authorship” means, the former is a vague connection (e.g. “inspired by a true story”; “So-and-so inspired me to be a better person.”). Conflating the two is like attributing the legal brief to the secretary that took the dictation from the attorney.

Christians claim their books are divinely inspired. They do not claim actual words spoken by G-d (i.e. “the Father”). The Hindu religion is very varied (and other than studying for one exam I don’t have much knowledge of the religion), but a general matter most Hindu sects consider G-d too great for direct interaction and therefore interact with their lesser gods (like how the Rambam explains the origins of Avoda Zara).

The Koran claims that an Angel (not G-d himself) dictated the Koran to Mohammed. The Koran is the closest to the Torah in its claim (although it does not have a national revelation) and itself considers the Torah to have been given to the Jewish people (except that the Jews made deliberate corruptions in some places to the text).

Finally, how do you know that the Koran is not what it claims to be? What evidence do you have that the Koran was not dictated by an angel?

In sum, the Torah in claiming the actual words of G-d spoken to the Jewish people and Moshe is unique and to the extent that other books make somewhat similar claims (the Koran most of all), you are begging the question by assuming that they were in fact authored by men.

“If I write a book and claim that God inspired me to write it, that is not evidence that he did; and in fact most reasonable people will not believe me, UNLESS I could bring you very compelling evidence that it was, but the burden of proof would be totally on me.”

Changing your inspired to “G-d told me what words to write,” the answer should be that if the evidence you bring is greater than the evidence against G-d having told you what to write, then other people should accept that G-d told you to write it. Asking for “very compelling” evidence, as opposed “more evidence for than against” is simply illogical.

A preponderance of evidence has a substantial subjective quality to it, but “very compelling” is even more subjective. Furthermore, asking for very compelling evidence, as opposed to ordinary evidence, is a sign that the person asking is not being objective.

“Again the prophecies you mention are very vague and broad and are standard issue threats of punishment for disobeying God and promises of being taken care of if you follow his word.”

No they are not. They are specific about certain matters, matters which from an ordinary historical matter would have been very unlikely. You have not given any counter-evidence to that argument, nor have you denied that the existence of those correct prophecies makes it more probable that the Torah was authored by G-d than it would have been in the absence of those prophecies.

“You agree that the first and reasonable conclusion you have when you find a book is that it was written by men.”

If a book is of anonymous authorship and there is no other evidence either way, then yes. If the book claims authorship from G-d then I would put the scales at approximately 50/50.

“You agree that evrey other book that has been claimed to be divinely inspired is in fact not divinely inspired.”

No I do not agree. Every book has to be examined on its own merits.

“You want me to believe that this particular book is different and was in fact dictated by God. Can you provide any evidence?”

I provided 4 pieces of evidence earlier. You have provided one piece of counter-evidence.