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Chapter Ten - Books Authored by God? Sacred Texts as Evidence of the Supernatural

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2019

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Summary

Here then we are first to consider a book, presented to us by a barbarous and ignorant people, written in an age when they were still more barbarous, and in all probability long after the facts which it relates, corroborated by no concurring testimony, and resembling those fabulous accounts, which every nation gives of its origin.

— David Hume, Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding (1748)

A book that really came from the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator of the universe would be unimaginably brilliant. […] Each point made each idea expressed would be inarguable and stunning. […] It would blow us away. It would be impossible to put down. It would touch each of us personally, regardless of our ages, our education, or our experiences.

— Marshall Brain, How “God” Works (2014)

All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention— of barbarian invention— is to read it.

— Robert Ingersoll, Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll (1907)

The three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, possess revealed texts, the Old Testament, The New Testament, and the Qur'an. These are the purported written records of God's communication to humans by way of a selected emissary, messiah, prophet, vatic, and so forth. While humans are involved in the transmission process, the ultimate author of these books is claimed to be none other than God himself.

These mighty tomes are the basis of the theological “argument from Scripture” for the existence of God. Given that this is part of the arsenal theists and religious apologists employ in their invectives against naturalism and science, claims about the miraculous nature, inerrancy, and supernatural origins of these books are legitimate issues for scrutiny according to the tradition of systematic skepticism in science.

Proposed Evidence of the Divine Origins of Sacred Texts

How do we know that these books are of divine origins? First, the very fact that such texts exist becomes proof for the reality of their supernatural author. In other words, if God does not exist, then how can the existence of the holy book be explained? What this involves, of course, is the question-begging assertion that God wrote the book; therefore, the book is evidence that God exists.

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Religion, Supernaturalism, the Paranormal and Pseudoscience
An Anthropological Critique
, pp. 239 - 258
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2019

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