How do I have any less faith than any other man? Again, the bible is FULL of implausible numbers, myths, errata. You grab the WHOLE THING to your breast from wall to wall as perfect truth. I'm doing a bit of righteous early spring house cleaning, throwing out the implausible numbers, obvious myths, errata; getting to the TRUTH of God's Word.
My lord Jesus did the same thing when he overthrew the money changers tables in the temple, about the only VIOLENT act he ever did. My father's house is for prayers, not thieves!
You are no different than those money changers, garbaging up the BIBLE TEMPLE with implausible numbers, myths, errata. If you had 1/10th the righteousness of our lord Jesus you would cleanse it as he did with the money changer's tables. Can you do it?
And how precisely do you determine what is true and what isn't? Is the virgin birth true? Is Paul account on the Road to Damascus accurate? Did our Lord really say all those things on the Sermon on the Mount or were they inserted by some zealot church father?
People who start down this road end up like Thomas Jefferson, clipping out the things he found offensive. In the end he only had 1/10 of the Bible that he felt comfortable with. But he was happy.
Discuss the issues all you want but do NOT make it personal!
The same way every other man rejects faith, by your own volition. All faith comes from God. Faith which is used in the regeneration of the human spirit is from God; faith which assumes a position of humility in order to breath in the Word of God so that the Holy Spirit might perform His ministry in our mind again is from God; faith which is used by the Holy Spirit to make thoughts and understanding in the mind transformed into problem solving devices in the heart is from God; Faith which is Bible doctrine circulating in our soul is from God; and faith to exercise our volition in accordance with His will after studying His Word thereby wlaking in fellowship with Him is from God.
Whenever we drift away from His will, we interrupt that fellowship with God, thereby grieving the Holy Spirit in His making our faith efficacious for His good works. He builds in us faith upon faith for those of us who persevere in fellowship with Him. We all have an equal opportunity in the development of that spiritual IQ, but whenever we choose to reel or look away from Him, act independently of Him, or fail to follow Him, we reject the faith He provides. Such is the mechanism any man follows when he has less faith than any other man.
In order to worship Him, we abide by His will in spirit and in truth. This is where many a 'scientist' fails to walk with Him. Without the human spirit, such as the case of an unbeliever from a divine perspective, worship of Him doesn't exist, nor is He able to sanctify us without first regenerating our spirit. Accordingly, many a noble and good working scientist might pursue truth honestly, but without the spirit will fail to become more sanctified in faith.
Conversely, worshipping in spirit must also be accompanied by truth. We become cognizant of the truth in empiricism by our physical senses of our body, and in rationalism by our mental activities, reasoning and consistent understanding of our soul, and by the perception of faith given us in our human spirit.
These issues are not understood without a better uderstanding of faith and its meaning to the believer.
The righteousness we have is the same as that of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, namely by faith (Rom 3:22-26). There is no need to clean up the Word of God which He provides. On the contrary, it is that very Word which is used to cleanse the temple He occupies today, namely each and every believer. Any attempt to change our thinking outside of Bible doctrine results in us cluttering that temple.
Where we might think there are implausible events in Scripture, rather than appealing to empiricism or rationalism, our first line of thinking in fellowship with Him shall be through faith in Him. This doesn't cancel nor negate the perception available to us by empiricsm or rationalism, but it enhances us by us living according to how He has made us. When we choose to exercise empiricism or rationalism without faith, we separate ourselves from Him, if it were possible, except for the perfect sacifice already provided by our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. That sacrifice, however, does not change the immutable nature of God the Holy Spirit who is only free to perfomr His work on something righteous. Where we fail to exercise faith, and stray in our thinking away from Him, His sanctification of our thinking processes halts in advancement, while we scar our souls in sin. Such is the condition of the carnal Christian and the backslidden believer.
Don't take my word for it, take His Word for it. Try a little smidgeon of faith in the lab of life the next time nobody else is aware and don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing, but only in a very simple faith by belief in God through faith in Christ. We live in an age of grace and the opportuities are frequent.