[thomastwo]

fiatlux wrote

I agree with Kinich that this thread is being derailed, so if you'd like to start a new thread to discuss this further then I'd be willing to throw down with you.

I'll see your 'de-rail' and raise it. Although I don't really consider this a de-rail. It's important to clarify meaning when discussing something.

fiatlux wrote

That said, I can't help myself in making a parting response to your probability-based doubt that the garden of Eden ever existed. If you're skeptical of it, then why believe anything else in the bible? What makes parts of it history and parts of it myth?

There are good reasons to believe that some of the Bible is historical fact. There are good reasons to believe that some of the Bible is myth, or poetry or some other form of literature. There are some parts of the Bible that may be myth or history and we don't have enough information to know for sure. You need to consider each section, sometimes each verse, separately. There is no reasonable, single opinion about the Bible being one or another type of literature.

fiatlux wrote

Do you pick and choose what you believe from the word of gawd? With what criteria? Because you like Jimmy Dean's pork products with your pancakes? Why be a christian at all if you're not sure what you can and can't believe in the bible?

There isn't a silver bullet method for interpreting the Bible. Only simple, rational consideration of the evidence.

Regardless of the status of individual parts of the Bible, I still choose to use it as the lens through which I choose to see everything else. The most obvious reason for why I choose to do that is that I was brought up in a Christian environment and so learnt to see the world that way.

fiatlux wrote

And why respond to this thread -- which is intended to be a resource for talking to Christians that are convinced that every jot and tittle of their holy book is historically accurate and straight from the big guy himself?

It wasn't clear to me that in the "atheist v theist" section of the forum that only certain types of theists were intended to respond. Perhaps, the section should be renamed 'atheist v strawman fundamentalist, american christians'?