If God isn't real, then why does the Bible exist?

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I know this question is badly worded and it might sound silly, but I was interested to hear some atheist's thoughts on this.

I'm agnostic, and this question perplexes me. If God isn't real, then I don't understand why people would have written such a detailed book describing Him. Why would multiple people spend time writing thousands of pages about God if it was untrue? The stories are so convincing in some cases too (the way that different people's perspectives tie in so well together, etc). It just doesn't make sense to me.

I'm mainly curious about the Bible because some of my family is Christian and I don't know much about any other Holy Book, but answers about any other religious text are very welcome too :smile:

Same goes for all the written myths, statues and temples to the Greek and Roman Gods. If they were not real why go to all that effort?

Reply 61

Iridocyclitis

Original post by JMR2017

Example:

Persians were fighting the Romans in the days of early Islam. The Persians won the Battle of Antioch, in 613 A.D. A Holy Quran verse at the time revealed this:

"The Romans have been defeated, In the land nearby, and they, after their defeat, will be victorious. In a few years — Allah’s is the command before and after that — and on that day the believers will rejoice, With the help of Allah. He helps whom He pleases; and He is the Mighty, the Merciful. Allah has made this promise. Allah breaks not His promise, but most men know not." (30.3-7)

The Romans defeated the Persians by 627 A.D, hence fulfilling the prophecy.

So you believe Nostradamus is a holy seer then as well?

Reply 62

Yukikobestgirl

guess every piece of fiction is real./
Oh boy I can't believe we've survived thousands of nuclear apocalypses, demons, universes compeltely fading out of existence.
I mean the Third Imapct actually happened but we're no longer orange tang bc we chose not to be.

Reply 63

username3490412

It's because God is real

Reply 64

Hariex

Original post by _gcx

I would say, to control, and to perpetuate their own ideology.

I would question the first one. If you look at the gospels, they definitely do not have the vibe of people trying to control a population. To begin with, they were written in a time when Christianity was a fledgling Jewish sect under persecution. Secondly, packing the gospel with messages of shunning wealth, pacifism, anti-empire ideology, criticism of elite and welcoming outcasts does not help the status quo a lot.

Of course the Bible has been used to control people since then, but I think in its original form it is not a means of control.

Reply 65

Stevo F

Original post by Boredom101

The sad thing really is that I don't see many christians on TSR bashing agnostic/atheist users for their views.
If someone believes in something why is that a problem? The Bible was a translated piece of text, it wasn't just made up in English.
It has saved millions of people's lives, some of which were close to suicide/fighting depression. It gave them something to believe in and carry on.
Now I personally do not see anything wrong with that. I'm Christian myself.

I don't think there really is much bashing to be done about a lack of belief of a view that has no proof to back it up.
It makes more sense to not believe something is true with no proof than the alternative...

Religion has probably caused as many deaths as it has prevented throughout the centuries (but let's not go into that right now as it's off the topic of the thread).

I have no problem with religion as long as:
A) It doesn't cause people harm or result in people dying
B) it's not forced down my throat

I don't feel like this is unreasonable, and if and when either of these points occur I don't see an issue with bashing the religion(s) in question.

Reply 66

username2763536

Original post by longway1017

It's because God is real

Which one?

Reply 67

username3441700

Original post by Stevo F

Okay but if there is "no proof" then why do you have a problem of people believing in it? Let people go with what works for them and what they want to do. I believe there is a God. One God. And I am not willing to change that.
I don't agree with the idea that I shouldn't be Christian because there isn't proof. The religion works for me and the other couple billion christians in the world.

Fair enough, no likes anything forced down their throat and there has been many instances where religion was the main reason for deaths but Christianity imo needs to be better understood. People die everyday and not necessarily because of religion.
But you have to understand that the harm and the people dying wasn't as a result of Christianity but as the result of the people that didn't interpret/read the word of God properly.

Reply 68

username3490412

Original post by Robby2312

Which one?

The father of Jesus

Reply 69

TheMcSame

To push an ideology? For fun?

The idea that people wouldn't spend so much time writing about things that don't exist has no ground... Your average bible is 1200 pages. The Harry Potter books are over 4000 pages in total.

"The stories are so convincing in some cases too" ... A well written story will be convincing... I could say the same about Shakespeare's work. There are also a few stories that aren't convincing in the slightest.

Reply 70

Stevo F

Original post by Boredom101

As I said, I personally don't have a problem with people believing in religion apart from those two points I already made.

The one thing I would say is I would disagree with what you said in bold.
If it makes sense to you, and you believe based on everything you know at this point in time, then great, follow your religion.
But to blindly say you will never change your belief no matter what happens is not a faith based on logic, it's purely based on indoctrination.

I don't see how anyone can believe in anything without continually challenging and evaluating the ideas, otherwise how is it different to the people that believed the world was flat even with all the evidence suggesting the contrary?
Maybe that's just me and maybe that's why I've never been religious, but even I would say if something happened which was unequivocally caused by God I would be able to change my (non)-belief.

Harm and people dying isn't as a result of a gun, but as a result of the people using it, religion is dangerous for some people...

Reply 71

username3441700

Original post by Stevo F

I put that in bold by mistake lol
I respect your views and if evaluating and questioning is how you get your answers for life's questions then that's a beautiful thing. I personally know what reading the bible has done for me and how its given me faith in my hardest points in life (so far).

Fair enough if you find religion or Christianity dangerous when the multitude believe in it, but I find that not all of those people that call themselves Christians are Christians, they don't understand/read it properly which evidently causes misunderstandings.

Reply 72

Stevo F

Original post by Boredom101

Lol no you didn't, I put your quote in bold so I could reference to it hahaha

Reply 73

username3441700

Original post by Stevo F

Lol no you didn't, I put your quote in bold so I could reference to it hahaha

Ohh right ahahaha, I genuinely thought that was me I was like so confused lol

Reply 74

username2763536

Original post by longway1017

The father of Jesus

Why though? How do you know that one in particular is real? Why not the Greek or Roman or Hindu gods? If you lived in India you would probably be a Hindu.Your religion is determined by geography not by how valid it's claims are.

Reply 75

applesforme

The Christian god isn't the only god that has a detailed accompanying religious text/mythological superstructure. Are zeus, thor, odin, osiris, horus, the Islamic god, mithras, brahma, vishnu, also real? What is so special about the Christian god? Why are you singling him out? Also, humans have been around for about 200 thousand years, Christianity for about 2 thousand years, so where was he all that time? what was he doing??

Reply 76

unknown_usr

Bro I'm a Cactholic and even I conclude that this is kiiiind of a dumb question

Reply 77

bbll98

Original post by applesforme

I wasn't trying to imply the Christian God is the only one with a detailed Holy Book. Like I said, I specifically asked about the Bible because some of my family are Christian, and I don't know much about other Holy Books. I said answers regarding other texts were welcome too :smile:

Reply 78

bbll98

Original post by unknown_usr

Bro I'm a Cactholic and even I conclude that this is kiiiind of a dumb question

I was just wondering what atheist's opinions were on why the Bible was written if God isn't real. I don't really think it's that dumb - I was just curious :smile:

Reply 79

crocodile_ears

Original post by bbll98

I don't know a whole lot about this topic, but I do know that the bible was re-written quite a bit. The stories have so much consistency because they've been edited over the years. Like the new testament was written between 50 and 300 years after the death of Christ, so there was a lot of word of mouth and passing down stories. Things got mixed up and changes and all that jazz.

I think so many people spent/spend so much time writing about God(s) because everyone's looking for explanations about the world around us. Like personally I think everything's just down to chance, that there was never any plan and everything just sort of happened for no reason. I think that religion is a way to explain and understand that chance, it's a way to comprehend that and learn about the world around us.