what is the most unbelievable story in the bible in YOUR opinion???

jonah stopping the sun

now that we know that we go around the sun, it just makes no sese at all

The part I find to be most unbelievable is the part that starts with "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and ends with "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen."

But I suppose if you nailed me down on a smaller section, I'd probably pick Genesis 1:1.

i dont find any storie totally unbelievable.......maybe very strechted but when reading the bible you have to think in biblical terms and the fact that these are one ethinicities travels talks w/ god....but if forced to choose one then i would say adam and eve .......i must add that i think its funny that alot of people are quik to dismiss the stories in the old test, but then believe that a woman can give birth to a child with out having sex and that this child is god incarnet......huh??

Aw, where's that lol button!

For me, the whole idea that the Christian God is good and loving, but the actions say otherwise. The bears killing the kids is a good example. Add to that the kids killed in Egypt, the gays killed in 2 cities, and the instructions for the Israelites to kill their enemies.

That narrows it down a little, but I do agree with the people who say the whole thing seems incredible (as in unbelievable).

IMO the most unbelievable part of the bible (KJV) is the part that begins:
"In the beginning"... and ends with...
"He wich testifieth these things saith: Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord jesus"
I believe that the part including there two passages and everything in between qualifies to answer your question. But, that's just me.
skep

Has anyone mentioned Genesis 4:17 yet?

Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.

Huh? We have up to this point exactly three living and one dead human being, Cain himself, Adam, Eve, and Cain's dead brother Abel. Where the heck did he find a wife????

Originally posted by Two Steps Forward
Huh? We have up to this point exactly three living and one dead human being, Cain himself, Adam, Eve, and Cain's dead brother Abel. Where the heck did he find a wife????

Hi Two Steps,
Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve recorded in Scripture. His brothers, Abel and Seth were part of the first generation of children ever born on this earth.

Even though only these three males are mentioned by name, Adam and Eve had other children. In Genesis 5:4 a statement sums up the life of Adam and Eve -- "And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he (Adam) begat sons and daughters:" This does not say when they were born. Many could have been born in the 130 years (Genesis 5:3) before Seth was born.

During their lives, Adam and Eve had a number of male and female children. The Bible does not tell us how many children were born to Adam and Eve. However, considering their long life spans ("And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." -- Genesis 5:5), it would seem reasonable to suggest there were many! Remember, They were commanded to "...Be fruitful, and multiply" (Genesis 1:28).

I hope that helps.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
jonah stopping the sun

now that we know that we go around the sun, it just makes no sese at all

I find this one hard to believe too. It's bad enough that God sends a whale to swallow you. Then on top of it you have to try to stop the sun, all the while from inside a whale. bummer

Lot's wife turns into a pillar of salt after she looks back when she was told not to do that...harsh, harsh man.

yeah, the point of all of this is quite clear - there's a lot of fine parables to be found in the Bible but there are also people who believe that everything in there happened exactly as it was written and that makes for some serious controversy. None of that is a problem until "bible literalists" want to make it public policy or try to teach it in public schools, though.

in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, it's "mostly harmless"

GameSetMatch:

I prefer the "two creations" and "other people" theory myself: that there are two creations of man mentioned in Genesis. The first was when the Elohim (plural) said, "Let us make man in our own image," and did so, creating them male and female. The second was the Adam and Eve story, in which God is referred to by a different name. Adam and Eve were thus not the ancestors of all mankind, but merely the ancestors of Abraham, and so Cain quite normally found his wife from among the other people who were out there.

This also avoids the picture of Cain and Seth committing incest.

Getting a little more serious . . .

The most unbelievable thing about the Bible for me is not any particular story in it. There are many stories in it that cannot be literally true, others that might be true, and still others that probably are true, but the most unbelievable thing about it is the attitude Christians have toward it

The books of the Bible reveal attitudes common to the times in which they are written. In them, one can find approval of slavery, rampaging mysogyny, polygamy, and genocide (read up on the slaughter of the Amalekites). One finds, in the early books, the existence of many gods taken for granted, even if the Hebrews are commanded to worship only one. Later on, the writings become monotheistic. All of this is perfectly acceptable and understandable if we regard the Bible for what it is: the historic writings, legends, laws, and poetry of an ancient people, whose earliest existence was as nomadic pastoralists and who later settled down, built a civilization, and founded a profound world religion. But it is completely incompatible with regarding the Bible as God's dictation, valid for all time.

The history of the Bible's formation also inspires no confidence. The Old Testament was repeatedly revised and recompiled by the Jewish priesthood. Who knows what the oldest books said in their earliest editions? The only thing we can say with any confidence is that changes were made on a political basis. That is perhaps even more true of the New Testament. In the period between Jesus' death and the triumph of Constantinus, hundreds of writings are known to have circulated. These included a lot more Gospels than the four canonical ones, and a great many writings purported to be by the Apostles, as well as prophetic visions of the general nature of Revelations. None of these were regarded as canonical, of course.

So how did the canon of the New Testament come to be? When Constantinus became Emperor, he called a convocation of Bishops to meet in the town of Nicaea. It was his purpose to have Christianity serve as the new Roman state religion, and a force to help unify the Empire. But before that could happen, it was necessary to unify Christianity itself, which was too diverse and contained elements that were not usable as well as those that might be. He did not, himself, have the religious authority to do this, hence the meeting of the Bishops -- the Ecumenical Council. The Bishops met to create a unified Christian creed, and to compile a holy scripture. This they did, in service to Constantinus' political purpose, which fit well with their own, because like most high priests, they were more political than spiritual beings.

Yet Christians continue to trust the Bible, and regard it as God's dictation and an infallible guide for their own lives. And from this comes everything that's wrong with Christianity today.

Originally posted by they see ALL
alot of people i know dont believe in God and the truth value of the bible and i wanna know what is so hard to believe...

what is the most unbelievable story in the bible in YOUR opinion???

[Edited on 16-3-2004 by they see ALL]

Whats so hard to believe? How about a man walking on water? Or a man splitting a sea? Maybe a global flood that extended 15 cubits above the tallest mountain. Or a boat built by a man big enough to keep all those animals afloat. It could even be water turning into wine. Maybe some people turning into stone.

The list goes on. There is plenty of BS in the bible. I hope this is just an excercise, and you do not actually find it weird that people dont take this as truth.

I take it all as truth, as best as could be recorded by the scibes scribing, because they could not really scribe it at all, just describe it.

But was he trippin on something, or was he seeing things that were so far in the future that he had to use word terms of his time to explain futuristic things? Some of those locus with scorpion tails....sound like modern day Militarychoppers....like maybe black hawks??

What did the American Indians use to call the train? A Iron Horse.

I agree though, some of that is hard to figure.

[edit on 22-12-2005 by jensouth31]