>How about prophecy? Doesn't the multitude of fulfilled prophecies in the
>NT and history written in the OT and NT imply that there might be
>something unusual going on? It really is a huge number of prophecies. And
>we do have manuscripts of the OT previous to 1AD, so you can't argue they
>were forged. And how about the agreement between so many different authors
>in so many different situations and times and styles?
>
Only if the events of the prophecy are historical events, which is my entire
point. The only way we can escape from this tautology (where the Bible is
true because God doesn't lie and God inspired the Bible because The Bible
says so) is for external data, history, to help us. This is why I view
historical events of critical importance in evaluating Scripture. Some may
call this Judging God, but God ask us to trust Him. So I am doing it. If
there was a flood then there should be evidence--this is external evidence.
The search for verification is actually part of the trust.
If the prophecies were really written down 600+ years before Christ then
that, too, is external evidence. The Book of Mormon has prophecies also, but
since they were written down by one author who also wrote of the
fulfillments, it doesn't count for external evidence.
>On a related note, a Cambridge atheist geologist I spoke to yesterday
>seemed to be under the impression that there was a flood 6ka ago. She was
>vehemently opposed to Christianity, but seemed to have been taught this by
>an atheistic faculty.
She is probably referring to the post glacial rise in sealevel which
occurred about 10,000 years BC. This inundated the coastlines of the world.
It was this which cut Tasmania off from the Australian continent and
isolated the Tasmanians. If not, ask again for more information. I would
like to hear about this.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm