Become a theist

Author: Fallaneze

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@Mopac
Everything is made through God's word and spirit.
This is not in dispute.  Word and spirit is not "nothing".  Word and spirit are 100% pure uncut god.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Whatever you want to call it.

God does not pop into existence, there was never a time when God did not exist.
You're hair-splitting.  At whatever point god decided to create the first thing, that's the point we're interested in.

Time was created by God.
No problem.

God can certainly create from nothing.
Not if you want to continue to pretend god is logical.

"Nothing" is not some primordial hypothetical substance.  "Nothing" necessarily does not and cannot exist.

And furthermore, even if you want to suppose that "nothing" IS some sort of primordial hypothetical substance, THEN it exists independently from god, and therefore was never created (but was instead merely shaped) by god.

But yes, God is in everything. That doesn't mean that a rock is part of God.
(IFF) god created the rock (THEN) the rock is necessarily and quite literally part of god.

(IFF) god did not create the rock (THEN) god did not create everything.
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@3RU7AL
Nothing doesn't exist. That is its defining characteristic.

I am not talking about god, I am talking about God.


Created things are not part of what is uncreated, that makes no sense.




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@Mopac
Quite confused Mo. Try responding to Brutal's post.
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@PGA2.0
You say atheistic scientists assume a scenario and build evidence from it. When it comes to explaining the origins of existence, you're more or less right(I say more or less because they're more like educated guesses than assumptions, but still). However, in order for your "evidence" to make sense, you have to assume your god exists. So, in other words, you do the exact same thing.

If your god does exists, then your evidence makes perfect sense. However, if your god doesn't exist, your evidence is the stuff of psycho babble. This is why you're not supposed to make assumptions. Evidence based on assumptions equates to nothing more than speculation and imagination. I know you'll never admit that, even though it's true. That's fine. You Christians cling to your delusions like a life line. No amount of proving your arguments false will change your mind. One needs to be interested in finding truth to be willing to change their beliefs. I've literally never met a theist of any kind willing to do that.
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@3RU7AL
(IFF) they are unfalsifiable claims (THEN) their truth value cannot be either confirmed or denied.  This is our epistemological limit.
The coherence and correspondence of what is said can be checked out to their reasonableness. If they make prophetic utterances the quality and quantity of those statements can be checked out as to the falsifiability of the claim. 
When is the earliest recoverable document/manuscript from each religion found? Do you know the answer?
The earliest Hindu texts are from approximately 1000 BCE. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts

The earliest Zoroastrian texts are from approximately 2000 BCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism

The earliest Chinese mythological texts are from approximately 3000 BCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mythology#Shells_and_bones
Are you saying there are manuscripts from these time frames???


Then you say, "I don't believe in any of these fake gods because anyone can write an ancient book and their prophecies are too vague".

Then I say, "I don't believe in the YHWH because anyone can write an ancient book and their prophecies are too vague".
I say give me the evidence that you believe makes these three gods believable as opposed to Yahweh so I can dispute your claims. 
Forget about the "YHWH" for a second.  Start from scratch.  The evidence is roughly equivalent for each, they all have ancient writings and prophecies (that are confirmed by the writings).
I'm asking for the earliest actual manuscripts retrieved from each. 


Then you say, "TLDR, I'm not reading thousands of pages of ancient texts about any of these fake gods because it would be a waste of my time and it doesn't matter if the text says it is true or not because of course it will say it is true, that's what anyone would expect it to say, even if it was totally fake".

Then I say, "TLDR, I'm not reading thousands of pages of ancient texts about the YHWH because it would be a waste of my time and it doesn't matter if the text says it is true or not because of course it will say it is true, that's what anyone would expect it to say, even if it was totally fake".
I asked for the reasonableness of these gods and you avoided the proof or evidence. I am quite willing to discuss the reasonableness of the biblical God and I have offered to demonstrate that He is reasonable to believe as opposed to your three gods. 
The evidence is roughly equivalent for each, they all have ancient writings and prophecies (that are confirmed by the writings).
What is the earliest manuscript of these three religions?

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@3RU7AL


1. Are Vishnu, Marduk, or Pangu the same god, and if so what is said about them should not be contradictory?
All three are 100% mutually exclusive.  All three of them are unfalsifiable.
Are they reasonable and what evidence do they give to their reasonableness since you brought up the subject and now want me to do all the bull work?
The evidence is roughly equivalent for each, they all have ancient writings and prophecies (that are confirmed by the writings).
Again, you never answered my original question. I'll add another question. How many ancient copies are found from each of these three and when do they date back to?


2. Do you believe the descriptions of these gods contain contradictions?
It is difficult to write thousands of pages of ancient text without at least a few logical contradictions.  But I'm certain, that just like the Jews and the Muslims and the Christians, they have many detailed and scholarly excuses for any apparent conflicts.
List a few that we can discuss them since you are certain. 
I have no idea what your personal standard of evidence are.  Although I have a strong feeling that you would not accept prima facie, a writing that said something like "and then the prophet said, in 200 years there will be a war" and then in the same document, "and it came to pass, exactly 200 years later, that there was a war".  If you want some examples of ancient contradictions and specific rationalizations, 

check out this short clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB3g6mXLEKk
Take for instance Daniel 2 and the four kingdoms or empires that are easily discernable by their descriptions and later mention of two of them. Then Daniel 9 speaks of six conditions that would take place within a specific period of time in which a Messiah would be killed and THEN the city and sanctuary would be destroyed with details of wars and desolation. The reference is AD 70 when all this happened. Copies of Daniel were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls dating back 200 years before AD 70. Or take Daniel 12 in which all prophecy concerning Daniel's people would be fulfilled.

Is this a new one or the same one from a previous post? I see you answered it for me in a future post. 


As I said before, I do not defend the reasonableness of any other god but the Judeo-Christian God. 
Forget about the "YHWH" for a second.  Start from scratch.  The evidence is roughly equivalent for each, they all have ancient writings and prophecies (that are confirmed by the writings).

How can you claim that the "YHWH" is "more reasonable" than other gods if you don't even know anything about other gods?


How is the information equivalent? Do you know anything of Hindu prophecies and how they relate to human history to date? I don't see anything specific there. 

I have checked other beliefs when I was younger (i.e., Zen Buddhism, New Age teachings, Confucianism), plus others since (Islam, Atheism, J.W.'s, Mormonism, Wicca/Paganism, Bahaism), to engage with others, and the factual nature of prophecy and the unity of the Bible rings true, among other considerations. Prophecy is very reasonable. If Christianity is true then all else is false because of the biblical claims. I don't have to check out every other religion because they say contrary things. 


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@3RU7AL
It might be that the moon snuck down one night and scooped up all the evidence so therefore you are right. Do you understand anything outside of your playground rhetoric?
That is an ad hom. It implies that my answers are childlike and rhetorical. It avoids answering the question I asked you. So, it attacks the man rather than the question. 
It appears to be a mild characterization of your rhetoric specifically and not of you as a person.

It would be similar to someone saying something like, "these atheists don't even know what basic logic is" or "atheists just deny the reality of my god because they won't admit how biased they are", or something like that, which I would consider more of a genuine expression of exasperation rather than a "personal attack" or "insult".
Not quite. When you use a personal pronoun like "you" and "your" it becomes an ad hom directed at the person. 

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@3RU7AL
(IFF) the "YHWH" was the first and only "thing" to exist,
 
(THEN) everything that is created or shaped by the "YHWH" MUST BE MADE FROM PIECES OF THE "YHWH".
False analogy. Is what you create, say a painting, you (a piece of you), or is it an expression from you? 
False analogy.  I am not a god.  I am not the first and only "thing" to exist.
Both you and He create things. The difference is He is omnipotent and omniscient and you are limited in your ability to create.  


Imagine for a second that you are god, and you pop into existence.
God does not pop into existence. He always is. Someone eternal does not have a beginning or end. 


You look around and there is nothing, just you, all alone.

You then decide, hey I should make some stuff.

Do you go to the store and buy some art supplies?

No.

Because there is no store.

You are going to have to make things out of yourself.


Another false analogy. God is able to speak things into existence.

First,  

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Second, 

When you create something from your mind you don't leave a piece of it on the canvas. You don't leave your finger or foot in the painting. 

Third, 

A god is something that acts in the place of God. Thus, as Jesus said to the Jews:

John 10:33-35 (NASB)
33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to beGod.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),

The biblical definition of a god is something that takes the place of God, a false idol. Hence, the Ten Commandments forbid creating a graven image or worshiping other gods for they are not God. 

Exodus 20:“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.


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@3RU7AL
I'll answer these alleged contradictions when I get some spare time.
Problem solved!


The point isn't about whether or not the contradictions can be rationalized.

The point is that all ancient texts have similar contradictions AND similar rationalizations.

No, the point is that for a large amount of the claimed contradictions I see on these threads, the person making the claim isolates a Scriptural verse or takes it out of context. 
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@PGA2.0
So whatever Danny boy claimed would happen in a year and a half (70 weeks) actually happened then? I must have missed that.
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@PGA2.0
God does not pop into existence. He always is.
So men tell you, why do you believe them? So when these men tell you that Galapagos Turtles didn't exist you must believe them.

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@BrutalTruth
You say atheistic scientists assume a scenario and build evidence from it. When it comes to explaining the origins of existence, you're more or less right(I say more or less because they're more like educated guesses than assumptions, but still). However, in order for your "evidence" to make sense, you have to assume your god exists. So, in other words, you do the exact same thing.
Thanks for the admission! 

I admit we both start from presuppositions in building our worldviews (atheists and Christians) but to claim, as some do, that it is not based on evidence to just plain false. And as I have said all along, the Christian faith is a reasonable faith. It is based on reason and evidence although many do just take a leap. Some science uses deductive reasoning and some uses inductive reasoning. It is the same with us. 

Take away the wishy-washy scenarios and basically, two remain, God or chance. I ask, which is more reasonable? Would you rather build on something reasonable or something irrational and illogical, since it is reasonable to believe you are here due to one of these two scenarios, and one is from a reasoning Being? 


If your god does exists, then your evidence makes perfect sense.
Again, thanks for the admission. 

However, if your god doesn't exist, your evidence is the stuff of psycho babble.
The resurrection is another area beside prophecy that has multiple written eyewitness accounts as evidence that are most reasonable.  

This is why you're not supposed to make assumptions. Evidence based on assumptions equates to nothing more than speculation and imagination. I know you'll never admit that, even though it's true. That's fine. You Christians cling to your delusions like a life line. No amount of proving your arguments false will change your mind. One needs to be interested in finding truth to be willing to change their beliefs. I've literally never met a theist of any kind willing to do that.
On the contrary, many reluctantly came to faith after investigating the evidence thoroughly, such as C.S. Lewis. Lee Strobel was another one. They were not delusional. They knew what they were doing. 

What you keep seeming to forget is that humanity is here for one of a very few reasons (creation or chance), and only one is from reasoning Being.
Whether you want to brush this under the carpet or not is your choice, but it is not insignificant if you are wrong. 
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@PGA2.0

I admit we both start from presuppositions in building our worldviews (atheists and Christians)
Explain mine to me and bloody get it right.

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@PGA2.0
The earliest Hindu texts are from approximately 1000 BCE. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts

The earliest Zoroastrian texts are from approximately 2000 BCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism

The earliest Chinese mythological texts are from approximately 3000 BCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mythology#Shells_and_bones
Are you saying there are manuscripts from these time frames???
Figure it out.  (IFF) you believe that the older the text is, the more "true" it is, the Christian scriptures (codified in 325 CE) are not at the top of that list.

We have original writings on clay tablets dating from 2100 BCE of the Epic of Gilgamesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

I'm asking for the earliest actual manuscripts retrieved from each. 
They are all older than Abraham (late 6th century BCE).  Does it matter how old they are?  Would you abandon your religion if the dates were ancient enough?  Is that your primary criteria?

The evidence is roughly equivalent for each, they all have ancient writings and prophecies (that are confirmed by the writings).
What is the earliest manuscript of these three religions?

They are all older than Abraham (late 6th century BCE).  Does it matter how old they are?  Would you abandon your religion if the dates were ancient enough?  Is that your primary criteria?


Abraham did not grow up christian.

Abraham was born and raised in Ur of the Chaldees, which is in modern Iraq, near Nasiriyah in the southeastern part of the country. Joshua 24:2 says that Abraham and his father worshiped idols. We can make some educated guesses about their religion by looking at the history and religious artifacts from that period.

Ur of the Chaldees was an ancient city that flourished until about 300 BC. The great ziggurat of Ur was built by Ur-Nammu around 2100 BC and was dedicated to Nanna, the moon god. The moon was worshiped as the power that controlled the heavens and the life cycle on earth. To the Chaldeans, the phases of the moon represented the natural cycle of birth, growth, decay, and death and also set the measurement of their yearly calendar. Among the pantheon of Mesopotamian gods, Nanna was supreme, because he was the source of fertility for crops, herds, and families. Prayers and offerings were offered to the moon to invoke its blessing. 

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@PGA2.0
The evidence is roughly equivalent for each, they all have ancient writings and prophecies (that are confirmed by the writings).
Again, you never answered my original question. I'll add another question. How many ancient copies are found from each of these three and when do they date back to?
Your pursuit of specific names and dates and copies is a misguided red-herring.

Your very oldest and most accurate transcripts are from "The Dead Sea Scrolls" and the overwhelming majority of that goldmine does not support the modern christian viewpoint.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient writing that we have multiple, independent original manuscripts of, that very closely corroborate each other.

Based on these fact alone (age and multiple copies), do you believe the Epic of Gilgamesh is true?

I'm going to hazard a guess of "no".

I have no idea what your personal standard of evidence are.  Although I have a strong feeling that you would not accept prima facie, a writing that said something like "and then the prophet said, in 200 years there will be a war" and then in the same document, "and it came to pass, exactly 200 years later, that there was a war".  If you want some examples of ancient contradictions and specific rationalizations, 
Take for instance Daniel 2 and the four kingdoms or empires that are easily discernable by their descriptions and later mention of two of them. Then Daniel 9 speaks of six conditions that would take place within a specific period of time in which a Messiah would be killed and THEN the city and sanctuary would be destroyed with details of wars and desolation. The reference is AD 70 when all this happened. Copies of Daniel were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls dating back 200 years before AD 70. Or take Daniel 12 in which all prophecy concerning Daniel's people would be fulfilled.
Here's the problem you're missing.

A lot of people make a lot of predictions.  Most of the predictions are wrong, a few of them are right.  WE FORGET ABOUT THE WRONG ONES.  Nobody catalogs every idiotic failed prediction of ancient times.  Literacy was extremely rare in the bronze age and it was both time consuming and expensive to keep records of anything.  This means there is always a SAMPLE BIAS when it comes to predictions (and other writings in general).  WE OVER-EMPHASIZE THE ACCURATE ONES.  Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus are famous for the uncannily accurate predictions.  Does this fact alone lend any credibility to any of their beliefs about GODS?  Not really.  Making predictions does not, itself, mean anything at all.  What you need is a RELIABLE SYSTEM OF MAKING PREDICTIONS THAT IS INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIABLE.  Making some number of accurate predictions without revealing your methods "oh, I had a dream or vision or heard a voice" - is less than meaningless.

How is the information equivalent? Do you know anything of Hindu prophecies and how they relate to human history to date? I don't see anything specific there.  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_eschatology
The point here is that I care about as much as YOU DO about the accuracy of Hindu prophecy.  Because, even if Hindu prophecy was 100% accurate, it would still not convince you to change your beliefs.  Accurate predictions are made by mortals every day of the year.  IT PROVES NOTHING.  People thought Democritus was a GOD when he proved he could predict the weather.  Ancient people were quite unskeptical.

I have checked other beliefs when I was younger (i.e., Zen Buddhism, New Age teachings, Confucianism), plus others since (Islam, Atheism, J.W.'s, Mormonism, Wicca/Paganism, Bahaism), to engage with others, and the factual nature of prophecy and the unity of the Bible rings true, among other considerations. Prophecy is very reasonable. If Christianity is true then all else is false because of the biblical claims. I don't have to check out every other religion because they say contrary things. 

Sure, you don't really have to do anything you don't like.

But if you claim "Christianity is more logically coherent and has better historical sources and more reliable prophecies than EVERY OTHER RELIGION" then you need to provide specific examples.

If you claim "Christianity is good enough for me, YOU CAN'T PROVE ME WRONG" then you are making a naked appeal to ignorance.

A is better than B on these specific points.

A is better than C on these specific points.

A is better than D on these specific points.

You can't just say, A seems good and since A says "all others are wrong", it must therefore be true.

Not only, but also because there are over a thousand (ostensibly) Christian denominations, and some of them believe that only their members will go to heaven.

This is a non-trivial problem.

Your steel-man is, "the YHWH has spoken to me personally, and I feel its love in my heart".  Just like Saul of Tarsus.  Bullet-proof logic.
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@PGA2.0
I admit we both start from presuppositions in building our worldviews (atheists and Christians)
I assume nothing, because I'm not the one claiming to know how the universe began.

That being said, I'm going to prove you wrong with one very simple sentence in response to the above quote:

A presupposition is a position taken from a premise rooted in assumption, and an assumption is quite literally the opposite of knowledge, therefore, by your own admission, you do not know how the universe began.

End of debate. You lose.
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@PGA2.0
Not quite. When you use a personal pronoun like "you" and "your" it becomes an ad hom directed at the person. 
Dude, your car is dirty.

Dude, your logic has an error.

Just because I said "your" doesn't make this a personal attack.
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@PGA2.0
False analogy.  I am not a god.  I am not the first and only "thing" to exist.
Both you and He create things. The difference is He is omnipotent and omniscient and you are limited in your ability to create.  
I modify and shape pre-existing things.

No human has ever created anything.

Imagine for a second that you are god, and you pop into existence.
God does not pop into existence. He always is. Someone eternal does not have a beginning or end. 
Whatever, imagine you are god, at the point of decision.

Because there is no store.

You are going to have to make things out of yourself.
Another false analogy. God is able to speak things into existence.
This changes nothing.  The method god chooses to employ is immaterial.

The voice of god is 100% pure uncut god.  The breath of god is 100% pure uncut god.

Nothing exists that is not god.

(EITHER) god makes everything out of itself (OR) god makes everything out of a hypothetical, metaphysical substance called "nothing".

This is a tautology.  There are only 2 options.

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@PGA2.0
The point isn't about whether or not the contradictions can be rationalized.

The point is that all ancient texts have similar contradictions AND similar rationalizations.
No, the point is that for a large amount of the claimed contradictions I see on these threads, the person making the claim isolates a Scriptural verse or takes it out of context. 
For example,

John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time.(cf. John 6:46)
Exodus 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live.
1 Tim. 6:16 Whom no man hath seen nor can see.
When compared to the insistence that god = holy spirit = the Jesus, it would seem that the Jesus would be logically and necessarily invisible.

Let the hair-splitting begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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@Mopac
Nothing doesn't exist. That is its defining characteristic.
I'm glad we can agree on this.

I am not talking about god, I am talking about God.
Calm down.  Whatever you want to call it.  The first thing that existed and that caused all "other" things.

Created things are not part of what is uncreated, that makes no sense.
The voice of god is 100% pure uncut god.  The breath of god is 100% pure uncut god.  The mind of god is 100% pure uncut god.

Nothing exists that is not god.

(EITHER) god makes everything out of itself (OR) god makes everything out of a primordial, hypothetical, metaphysical substance called "nothing".

This is a tautology.  There are only 2 options.  Please choose one.

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@3RU7AL
You are not God.




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@BrutalTruth
End of debate. You lose.
Rush to declare victory.

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@Mopac
You are not God.
I'm glad we can agree on this.

Of course this means you also agree that god did not create me.

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@3RU7AL
You were created by God. I do not acknowledge your god. These are two different words with two different meanings. I am not condescending to your bad language, because it would only serve to be destructive.

It would be haughty to presume that just because you can see only 2 possibilities means that those are the only 2 possibilities.

There is a distinction between the created and the uncreated, and the distinction here is the difference between God as God Truly is, and that which is NOT God.

We are not the building blocks or parts of God. God does not lose anything to create the universe, no piece of God is missing. Is God in everything? Yes. Is God everywhere? Yes. Did God create everything in existence from a previously existing substance? No. It all came from God. But created things are not God.


It would be incorrect to bow down to a statue and say, "This is God". 




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@3RU7AL
The earliest Hindu texts are from approximately 1000 BCE. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts

The earliest Zoroastrian texts are from approximately 2000 BCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism

The earliest Chinese mythological texts are from approximately 3000 BCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mythology#Shells_and_bones
Are you saying there are manuscripts from these time frames???
Figure it out.  (IFF) you believe that the older the text is, the more "true" it is, the Christian scriptures (codified in 325 CE) are not at the top of that list.
Hinduism is recognized by some as the oldest religion in the world, followed by Judaism. 

But the earliest written Hindu religious texts are hard to determine. Wikipedia dated the text from between 1500-500BCE. Some date the text to 7000BCE. The dating of extant manuscripts is so bazaar when trying to find out over the Internet because of the dates ranging all over the place. I can't find when the earliest manuscripts are found. And just because they have an early date how well are they transmitted through the centuries? And the closer to the original manuscripts we find manuscripts the better chance that the manuscripts have not been corrupted.

2494–2345 BCE
The first of the oldest surviving religious texts, the Pyramid Texts, was composed in Ancient Egypt.
1700–1100 BCE
The oldest of the Hindu Vedas (scriptures), the Rig Veda was composed. [But when is the earliest manuscript found]
1250–600 BCE
The Upanishads (Vedic texts) were composed, containing the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
8th to 6th centuries BCE
The Chandogya Upanishad is compiled, significant for containing the earliest to date mention of Krishna. Verse 3.17.6 mentions Krishna Devakiputra as a student of the sage Ghora Angirasa.
6th to 5th centuries BCE
The first five books of the Jewish Tanakh, the Torah (Hebrew: תורה‬), are probably compiled.
600–500 BCE
The earliest Confucian writing, Shu Ching, incorporates ideas of harmony and heaven.
300 BCE
The oldest known version of the Tao Te Ching was written on bamboo tablets.
140 BCE
The earliest grammar of Sanskrit literature was composed by Pāṇini.
100 BCE–500 CE
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, constituting the foundational texts of Yoga, were composed.
250
Some of the oldest parts of the Ginza Rba, a core text of Mandaean Gnosticism, were written.
c.350
The oldest record of the complete biblical texts (the Codex Sinaiticus) survives in a Greek translation called the Septuagint, dating to the 4th century CE.
c.850
The oldest extant manuscripts of the vocalized Masoretic text, upon which modern editions are based, date to 9th century CE.

(But earlier manuscripts of OT biblical books have been found in Qumran dating to the beyond 200BCE, speculations even to beyond 800BCE for one.)

Veda, (Sanskrit: “Knowledge”) a collection of poems or hymns composed in archaic Sanskrit by Indo-European-speaking peoples who lived in northwest India during the 2nd millennium BCE. No definite date can be ascribed to the composition of the Vedas, but the period of about 1500–1200 BCE is acceptable to most scholars. 
Due to the ephemeral nature of the manuscript material (birch bark or palm leaves), surviving manuscripts rarely surpass an age of a few hundred years.[43] The Sampurnanand Sanskrit University has a Rigveda manuscript from the 14th century;[44] however, there are a number of older Veda manuscripts in Nepal that are dated from the 11th century onwards.[45]

So my question is how reliable is the transmission of these religious texts as opposed to the biblical texts? Obviously the greater number of texts (for comparison) and the earlier the text the more close to the original data, and the less chance of transmission errors. 

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@3RU7AL


We have original writings on clay tablets dating from 2100 BCE of the Epic of Gilgamesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

I'm asking for the earliest actual manuscripts retrieved from each. 
They are all older than Abraham (late 6th century BCE).  Does it matter how old they are?  Would you abandon your religion if the dates were ancient enough?  Is that your primary criteria?
The religions may be older but how reliable is the information we have of these religious texts? 

Before Abraham, the biblical records were passed down from generation to generation and compiled by Moses. 

[ Descendants of Adam ] This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.

These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

[ Descendants of Noah ] Now these are the records ofthe generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.

[ Descendants of Shem ] These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood;

Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot.

So before Abraham, the records were passed down from generation to generation and codified by Moses. 


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The religions may be older but how reliable is the information we have of these religious texts? 


All religious texts are myth and of equal standing. 
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Is God in everything? Yes.
Ok.

Is God everywhere? Yes.
Ok.

Did God create everything in existence from a previously existing substance? No.
Ok.

It all came from God.
Ok.

But created things are not God.
Critical error discovered.  Please explain what they are made of.

It would be incorrect to bow down to a statue and say, "This is God". 
Certainly it's not the whole of god, but it is, at least according to the statements you've made here, certainly a piece of god.
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Yet by saying it is a piece of God, does that not imply that this piece is missing from God? Or even that the pieces make up God?
God is not diminished. God is not divided into parts. Neither is it a strange thing for God to call matter into existence.



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@3RU7AL

The evidence is roughly equivalent for each, they all have ancient writings and prophecies (that are confirmed by the writings).
What is the earliest manuscript of these three religions?

They are all older than Abraham (late 6th century BCE).  Does it matter how old they are?  Would you abandon your religion if the dates were ancient enough?  Is that your primary criteria?
Yes, it matters. The transmission, the additions, the corruptions all play into it. The more manuscripts we have the better the comparison between texts.

It does not tell me much.


Abraham did not grow up christian.

Abraham was born and raised in Ur of the Chaldees, which is in modern Iraq, near Nasiriyah in the southeastern part of the country. Joshua 24:2 says that Abraham and his father worshiped idols. We can make some educated guesses about their religion by looking at the history and religious artifacts from that period.
What does this have to do with the biblical God?

Ur of the Chaldees was an ancient city that flourished until about 300 BC. The great ziggurat of Ur was built by Ur-Nammu around 2100 BC and was dedicated to Nanna, the moon god. The moon was worshiped as the power that controlled the heavens and the life cycle on earth. To the Chaldeans, the phases of the moon represented the natural cycle of birth, growth, decay, and death and also set the measurement of their yearly calendar. Among the pantheon of Mesopotamian gods, Nanna was supreme, because he was the source of fertility for crops, herds, and families. Prayers and offerings were offered to the moon to invoke its blessing. 


Yet Abraham turned to the biblical God from idols. So what?