Someone isn’t real just because they’re written about in a book. I might as well start a thread asking if Jay Gatsby wrote The Great Gatsby. 
You haven’t even demonstrated that god exists, which is quite important to establishing that he wrote the bible. Do you understand the questions that are being asked of you?
Please accept my most sincere regrets.
Double posting from me is not intentional.
My computer and my ISP are rather modest and limited.
The first holds the seniority award in the neighborhood.
The second has the merit of economy and its owner/operator is known for humility.
So, sometimes I check to see whether the post has been sent.
There being no notice of ‘sent’.
I do some chore and come back.
Still no notice.
I tinker around the computer a bit.
Later, it turns out the post has been sent twice.
Yes, I’ll be patient and wait until the ‘sent’ message appears.
Susma Rio Sep
Dear Marley:
Let’s first talk about some conditional sentences.
Simple condition: If it rains, the water will leaks inside the house.
Condition against fact: If Susma were dead, he would not be posting here.
The Bible exists, you and I exist.
The Bible talks about God, His existence, His character, His deeds, His words.
You and I read the Bible, and we get to know what it says about God.
Now someone asks us, assuming that all the things in the Bible are true, did He write the Bible, as many people claim so?
Let’s make two sentences, thus:
"‘If the things in the Bible are true about God’, (that is a simple condition), did He write the Bible?
“‘If the things in the Bible were true about God,’ (that’s a condition against fact), had He written the Bible?”
In either case, it is a legitimate exercise to ask ‘did God write the Bible’ or ‘had God written the Bible?’
Susma Rio Sep
Don’t making all those assumptions answer your initial question, though? What’s the point of asking it if you assume it’s true?
I understand that perhaps you want the opinions of the writers of the piece, but they’re not going to offer you facts to prove that god wrote the bible. They’re stating their opinions on it.
(Guys, I’m not attempting to say anything personal about you, I think this just isn’t a question that relates to facts.)
Both of them have said no in various ways, and eutychus adds it’s impossible to tell. Are you just looking for a way to ask the question so they say yes?
I seemed to have given the impression that I posted a question apparently to obtain an answer one way or the other, but actually with the intention to force the answer that I inwardly wanted to obtain from readers.
How did that impression come about with readers here?
Marely23, you seem to also think that I am trying to force an answer of ‘yes’ from the Staff to the question ‘Did God write the Bible’.
Actually, I have recently experienced a poster starting a thread with the question or doubt about the divine authorship of the Bible.
Down the thread, it becomes very obvious that he is trying to prove to anyone who questions the divine authorship, that divine authorship is indeed provable and for him proven beyond doubts.
Let me then make it very clear, that I really want to know from whom I take to be knowledgeable and learned people whether they can take it as a truism that God wrote the Bible, or they cannot, and they do not.
The impression I obtained from the series of articles about who wrote the Bible, from the Staff, is that they should have gone further and answer the more pressing question whether God did or did not write the Bible.
They did give me the position that it is a matter of faith for many people that God wrote the Bible.
And I seem to have the impression that they also are inclined to have that faith.
But Eutychus already told me in his very first post with his last paragraph there that:
But if you’re looking for grounds to state one or the other, I would have to say no. The Bible is too full of internal inconsistancy and outright error to have come from the pen of an supposedly omniscient being.
From that point on, the exchange seems to have bogged down into one side trying to convince me that we cannot prove God wrote the Bible, on the understanding that I am trying to force readers here to make an admission that God wrote the Bible on the basis of the Bible itself.
Things just get to be so slippery.
Well, let’s just sum up what I think all of us will agree here, in the following two statements:
-
It cannot be proven that God wrote the Bible, whether from grounds outside the Bible or inside or both – understanding proof as founded on facts and logic, according to the accepted use of evidence.
-
That God wrote the Bible is a matter of faith; just like there are three persons in one God is a matter of faith for Trinitarian Christians, but not for Jews and Muslim and unitarian Christians.
At least I for one maintain those two positions, and even going further, namely:
That God did not write the Bible, understanding ‘write’ as I am writing this post.
Whether He inspired the Bible, or the people who wrote the Bible, or the people who chose which books are of His inspiration…
That is the task of Christians and Jews who believe in the divinity of the Bible to explain what they mean if they maintain that God wrote the Bible.
Susma Rio Sep
Speaking in my formal role as Moderator of this board, there is a fine line here.
First, if we are discussing authorship of the bible, then I call your attention to the several Staff Reports which describe the most recent conclusions of archaeology, literary analysis, historic analysis, religious tradition, etc.
Who wrote the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible)?
Who wrote the (Old Testament) biblical histories?
Who wrote the Old Testament books of prophecy and poetry?
Who wrote the books of the New Testament?
Second, if you want to debate “faith” then the proper forum is GREAT DEBATES where there is a similar topic being waged: Is the bible written by God?
As it seems superfluous to have the same discussion raging in two separate locations, I ask that the continuation occur in the other thread please. Comments on the archaeological or literary or historic evidence would be fine here; but comments on faith and belief (and “the task of Christians and Jews who believe in the divinity of the Bible”) belong in the other forum. Clear?
Also, Susma, your comments will be more readable to others if you sometimes type more than one sentence per paragraph. Sure, sometimes a single-sentence paragraph is what’s called for, but you’re winding up with very stretched-out posts. No big deal, just a friendly suggestion for future.
Dear Dexter:
You will notice that I purposely go from GB to Comments on Staff Reports, precisely because I feel the desire to obtain a view from workers in CoSR, when they have written exactly on something very pertinent, in their work as collaborators of Cecil Adams, the main and original talent of Straight Dope.
In fact, generally, I go from one board to another, of course not always starting a new thread in the to-board, when the from-board has already an analogous thread already ongoing; namely, in order to find materials in aid of enlightening me more and further on the topic in the from-board.
No attempt at shallow flattery here, but the Straight Dope and especially for our concern here the Message Boards are somewhat like departments and colleges and faculties and courses in a university of learning.
And that is how I navigate SD and its message boards and everything I can reach and dig up.
(Although its search function leaves a number of things to desire.)
Cecil Adams is the main and original talent here in SD, and – correct me if I am mistaken, you people here are collaborators.
I expect you people as collaborators to have or at least to exercise the same mind as Cecil Adams’
What is the mind of Cecil Adams?
My impression is that he is really a person given to facts, reason, and logic, with a super emphasis on critical attitude and skills.
But the man is also attached to formulating his own personal view on a question he has explained critically, meaning he goes further to put his neck out – in many instances certainly what many people would truly like to hear from him, and many others would curse him for his view.
If people ask him what he can find out how Da Vinci painted Mona Lisa, he will explain clearly, logically, sticking to facts, reason, and logic.
And at the end, he might give his own impression whether for him Mona Lisa is terrific art or not.
In his article on Bush going awol, at the end he put in his own view about the legitimacy of Bush’s war on Iraq, his own personal view, by stating that though history will not bother with Bush going awol on his guard duty, it will most probably condemn him for the war on Iraq.
And his personal view is what many people are really going after and for.
And that is exactly what I hope to hear from you people here.
After you have expatiated in a scholarly manner on the human authorship of the Bible, I think you should in the spirit of your Master, Cecil Adams, express your view on its divine authorship, if not spontaneously, at least when a reader asks for it.
Correct me if I am wrong, but my feeling is that there is some kind of reluctance here.
And I seem to get apprehensive that this reluctance is prevalent among you people.
Like you will talk about sex scholarly but you will not say from your own view whether its terrific for you or not.
Or you will talk about abortion scholarly but you will not say whether you endorse it or not.
In regard to divine authorship of the Bible,
most probably as I said, you people think that I am trying to push you to make an admission that God wrote the Bible.
Which is exactly not the fact.
The fact is that I sincerely want to find out how you people look at divine authorship of the Bible.
Even though I am of the strong view that simply put: ‘God did not write the Bible’.
Is that a legitimate inquiry from you people in the board Comments on Staff Reports?
Which is described thus:
Comments on Staff Reports:
For comments on Staff Reports (formerly called “Mailbag Answers”) contributed by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board.
I agree with you perfectly that the discussion on the divine authorship should go and stay in Great Debates.
But, I think you owe it to readers who do approach you on your writings to give your personal view on the really pressing question, like ‘Did God write the Bible’, when you have treated scholarly on its human authorship.
And then to refer them for the real discussion to Great Debates.
Maybe Cecil Adams could have answered my query in this manner:
“Did God write the Bible? You ask for my personal view, Susma. I have written extensively on the human authorship, as regards the divine authorship, I don’t believe that (or I believe that).”
And give me some personal reasons why he does (or does not).
God bless you.
(Maybe that invocation is what misleads you people and readers here that I am pushing for the divine authorship of the Bible.)
Susma Rio Sep
Susma, are you deliberately being annoying? I gave you my answer in my first response to this thread. Eutychus gave you his answer early on as well.
Why do you keep asking the same question over and over and over and over and over, when we have already given our answers?