Friday, May 30, 2014

A Better Way To Evaluate Miracle Claims

From the Errancy discussion list May, 1998:

TILL
[The Bible] is filled with miracle claims, some of which were such that had they actually occurred, independent, disinterested corroboration of them would have been left by the contemporaries of those to whom these events happened. But in all of the information ever found that corroborates biblical records, NONE of it corroborates any of the extraordinary information claimed in the Bible. Only extrabiblical confirmation of the very plain and ordinary claims of the Bible has ever been found. Strange indeed!

M.BELL
And of course in F.Till's mind strange equates with false.

TILL
No, not at all.  I think it strange that people who live in enlightened times could read the nonsense in the Bible written by people who lived in prescientific, superstitious times and believe that it all actually happened, yet it certainly isn't false that there are people who have this belief.  

I think this would be a better way to state what is in my mind on this matter: If it is more unlikely that the hundreds of miraculous events claimed in the Bible could have gone unnoticed by independent, disinterested parties than it is likely that the events actually happened, then it is reasonable to doubt the historicity of the completely biased claims that such events happened.

Farrell Till

No comments:

Post a Comment