# Bible stories... Fiction or the word of a God? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 23, 2014, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829 "2014-07-23T10:50:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/21 "2014-07-23T21:21:18Z")
> [@](#): > > “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise” – Proverbs 10:19 Fact or Fiction? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/22 "2014-07-23T21:41:15Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Fact or Fiction? Matter of opinion depending on the circumstances, as are most “wise” sayings. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/23 "2014-07-23T21:43:44Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Fact or Fiction? There’s no place like home. Fact or fiction? Fiction can and does contain many pithy sayings. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/24 "2014-07-23T22:43:59Z")
Let me rephrase: Fact, fiction or philosophy? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/25 "2014-07-23T23:02:00Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > the Bible is in my science fiction collection under God (house pseudonym) _Yoink_. Stealing that. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/26 "2014-07-24T01:32:27Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > What exactly does “inspired by God” mean, anyway? Suppose a writer wasn’t actually inspired by God, but thinks he was? Indeed, a movie that is “inspired by” a novel or a historical event is a _less_ accurate rendition than one that is merely “based on” the source. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/27 "2014-07-24T01:50:23Z")
It’s a book of religious mythology. Lots of outright fiction, some bad history, various stories designed to make a political, religious or moral point. It wasn’t written by people who had any particular\* interest\* in an accurate accounting of history in the first place; it was written by people who were trying to appeal to and/or convince the audience the mythology was aimed at. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/28 "2014-07-24T01:51:59Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Let me rephrase: > > Fact, fiction or philosophy? Fact, fiction, philosophy, poetry, parable, fable, history, exhortation, rhetoric, apocalyptic literature, erotic literature, myth? As already pointed out, the bible is a compilation of texts by a wide variety of authors and editors working either on their own or collaboratively over a period of a couple of millenia. Unsuprisingly, it contains examples of a wide variety of literary genres - undoubtedly including fiction. I’m just puzzled as to why anybody but a simplistic (indeed, almost simple-minded) biblical literalist would think that that last point means that it can’t be “the word of God”. I can think of a variety of plausible objections to the claim that the bible is the word of God, and some of them have already been articulated in this thread, but this one is just silly. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/29 "2014-07-24T03:35:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s a book of religious mythology. Lots of outright fiction, some bad history, various stories designed to make a political, religious or moral point. It wasn’t written by people who had any particular\* interest\* in an accurate accounting of history in the first place; it was written by people who were trying to appeal to and/or convince the audience the mythology was aimed at. It’s a sales pitch, that’s all. Bronze Age theories about cosmology which were borrowed from Babylonian creation myths. I heard somewhere that “Gospel” meant “Good News”, so it’s the good news. They left the bad and neutral news out. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/30 "2014-07-24T03:39:32Z")
Political Spin? Just how many times did Pharaoh drag the Hebrews back before he got sick of doing so? ---
**Author:** ![potenski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@potenski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/potenski)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/31 "2014-07-24T05:21:38Z")
Sorry Dopers but you’re missing the point… you are all hanged up on fiction when my main point is: Was there anyone taking notes when God was talking to whoever he was talking too. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/32 "2014-07-24T05:29:54Z")
> [@potenski](#): > > Sorry Dopers but you’re missing the point… you are all hanged up on fiction . . . Well, in fairness to us, you chose to mention fiction in the post heading. > [@potenski](#): > > . . . when my main point is: Was there anyone taking notes when God was talking to whoever he was talking too. Obviously not, but what conclusion are you inviting us to draw from that? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/33 "2014-07-24T05:37:02Z")
> [@potenski](#): > > Sorry Dopers but you’re missing the point… you are all hanged up on fiction when my main point is: Was there anyone taking notes when God was talking to whoever he was talking too. No, since he doesn’t exist. If you are looking for the opinions of believers, they range anywhere from it being inspired by their god in some vague fashion, to thinking it fell out of the sky pre-written complete with the red lettering for Jesus. Although the latter aren’t likely to be found posting here. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/34 "2014-07-24T06:25:19Z")
We have to presume that some details were left out. Editing. How do we know what the Six Days of Creation entailed? Clearly, at some point or other, God would have had to have told someone. “Oh, yes, the sun and the moon. Let’s see, that was the fourth day, as I recall.” Did he tell Adam, and Adam wrote it down? Did he mention it in passing to Moses, and Moses took notes? Did he pass it along to Ezekiel or someone? We don’t know: the book doesn’t say. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/35 "2014-07-24T16:07:29Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Did he tell Adam, and Adam wrote it down? Did he mention it in passing to Moses, and Moses took notes? Did he pass it along to Ezekiel or someone? We don’t know: the book doesn’t say. Whenever the stories were written down, they had been passed down orally for many generations first. Tradition says that Moses wrote the first five books of the OT, but the first person to actually put pen to papyrus is unknown. There were no eyewitnesses or direct testimony given - just like the ancient myths of any other civilization, they evolved over time into the form that was ultimately codified into the Bible. Note; that doesn’t preclude the belief that they were ‘inspired’ by God. What I teach my kids is that the OT doesn’t necessarily teach us directly about God - it teaches us about what the ancient Hebrews thought about God. Today, we think they got some of it wrong - like the idea that God wants you to slaughter all the inhabitants of a city he is giving to you, or to dash the brains of your enemy’s children on a rock. And obviously they didn’t know about evolution or modern astronomy, etc. But it’s their side of the story of God’s relationship with them over the centuries. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/36 "2014-07-24T16:17:19Z")
Even at Sunday School it struck me as decidedly odd that Moses should be reporting his own death and events that transpired after it. But then I’ve always been a natural infidel. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/37 "2014-07-24T16:54:00Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Even at Sunday School it struck me as decidedly odd that Moses should be reporting his own death and events that transpired after it. But then I’ve always been a natural infidel. “Hey God-It says here that I’m gonna screw up and not get to finish this trip, so if I don’t screw up I’m home free, right?” “_ **YOU WILL SCREW UP. SO SAYETH I, YOUR LORD** _” “Ahh, come _on_, dude!” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/38 "2014-07-24T19:47:48Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Let me rephrase: > > Fact, fiction or philosophy? Except perhaps for Ecclesiastes, you won’t find anything in the Bible that merits the name of philosophy by any stretch. Certainly you won’t find it in Proverbs. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/39 "2014-07-24T20:54:29Z")
Nonsense - read Job. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829/40 "2014-07-24T21:03:32Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Nonsense - read Job. > > Regards, > Shodan 😕 That book actually shows that someone inserted the philosophy of the Greek Gods among the Israelites. It is also not so good IMHO when virtually all the dares that God makes can be replied to by a well educated kid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-stories-fiction-or-the-word-of-a-god/693829.md?page=3)