An argument against the divinity of the Bible.
Offline Let me begin by prefacing my argument. This argument in no way seeks to disprove the existence of God; merely to question the basis on which believers in the Judeo-Christian God believe. Furthermore, if this argument has been expressed by anyone, I defer credit to them, though i've come to this argument on my own.
My argument rests on several premises with a simple conclusion and is constructed as follows.
1. God is that which no greater can there be. Omnipotent.
2. God commanded man to behave in certain ways.
3. A commandment is obligatory as it carries with it a mandate of authority.
4. One can disobey what are supposedly commandments of divine origin.
Conclusion: The ten commandments are not divine commands. If a commandment is obligatory to the extent of the authority with which is mandated, a commandment given by God would be impossible to break. Such a commandment would be more akin to the natural laws of the universe than to legislative mandates as is the case with the 10 commandments.
I wanted to post this here and get some feedback as to the holes which may be present in this argument.
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Okay I must be missing something here, but why can’t a commandment given by God be broken?
I had to read it a couple of times myself.
Using the logic in the original four statements, the conclusion is that the 10 commandments must not be divine because they can, in fact, be broken.
(Did I get that right?)
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Because a commandment, by definition, is obligatory as it carries with it a mandate of authority.
Believers claim that God carries posesses infinite power and authority. A commandment which carries with it infinite authority could not be broken. That is, unless I'm the one who is missing something.
{Mod edit - duplicate post}
Apolgies for the triple post, if a mod could clean that up i'd appreciate it, Seem to be having some serious bandwitdth issues here.
Susan, yes that is my unapologetically simple argument. If you accept the definition that a commandment is obligatory in that it carries with it a mandate of authority, then a commandment given by supreme authority, God, could not possibly be broken.
Therefor the 10 Commandments, and by virtue of association, the entire Bible are not "the word of God"