Originally Posted by
Alric
First lets start with the bible. To understand the bible you need to do two things. First, understand the perspective that it is written from. Second, understand that it is written using allegory.
Most of the stories in the bible are likely true, and were passed down from person to person before being written down. Things like Moses and the flood, were probably a story of a region flooding, not the entire world. From the perspective of the person who witness the flood, their entire world was flooded. To them that was the world, so they wrote it as such. That does not mean the entire world flooded. Things like the creation of earth, and the Adam and Eve story and allegory. They are not meant to be taken literal. Instead they are written to explain things that were never witness by men.
The bible is filled with things that would have applied to society back when it was written, but not to today's living. When it says to do something silly, it may have been for real practical reasons, that simply do not apply anymore. That doesn't make the bible wrong, it makes it outdated. And of course the bible has some bad stuff in it, because the stuff was common in the thinking of people back then.
Parts of the bible has been shown to be true, or based on real stuff. The bible obviously isn't the direct word of god. However that does not mean it can't be a legitimate document of religion. A person can believe that its based on real stuff, and written from the perspective of a human living in that time, and helps teach people to be a better person. It is very likely that is exactly what it is. So there is a fair debate between the person having been inspired by god, or simply inspired by some goodness he felt inside due to being human. A reasonable person could debate it from either side.
Okay, now to Jesus. Most people agree Jesus was probably a real person. He did good things, and he preached his belief. He probably did exist, and believing in him is perfectly reasonable. Debate come from the opinion that he was the son of god, and not just an amazing man who taught great things. It was so long ago, it really is hard to know.
God vs science. If god does exist then he should exist within reality. Everything he does should be explainable by science. There is no conflict between believing in science and believing in god. The fundies are wrong, because they are taking things from the bible literally. You are not supposed to. When someone says god created earth in a week, that is an allegory, written by someone thousands of years ago, not a fact. It isn't supposed to be fact, and was never intended as a fact. Why seven days? Because that many days probably had some significant to the writer at the time.