Hearsay

Hearsay is information gathered by one person from another person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience. Often information from other people that cannot be substantiated.?In most courts, hearsay evidence is inadmissible (the "hearsay evidence rule") unless an exception to the hearsay rule applies.

The hearsay rule does not exclude the evidence if it is an operative fact. Language of commercial offer and acceptance is also admissible over a hearsay exception because the statements have independent legal significance.

Double hearsay is a hearsay statement that contains another hearsay statement itself. In a court, both layers of hearsay must be found separately admissible.

Many jurisdictions that generally disallow hearsay evidence in courts permit the more widespread use of hearsay in non-judicial hearings.

In religious matters however, hearsay is priceless, and makes the Bible the most precious book in the world. Hearsay can be of great importance, but when it comes to religion, it is not enough and must change into experience.

In many fields it is extremely valuable. We are indebted to hearsay for most of our knowledge. For instance, how much do we know about history? Very little first-hand. It is so with almost every other fact in history.

In the 'book of Acts' (fifth book of the New Testament) for instance, we find three entirely different groups of religious leaders; the disciples; the scribes, and the priests. The scribes and priests religion was a matter of hearsay, while, the disciples had experienced the living God.

So, is your religion based on hearsay or experience? Do you say this of yourself or because others have said it? Hearsay can never take the place of experience.

Throughout human history, God has initiated communication with humanity by speaking audibly to humans. The Bible more often portrays God's voice as sounding ordinary and meek than as booming and thunderous. It's been posited that God speaks to us through circumstances: blocked pathways; dreams; feelings; inspirations; music; nature; symbols; tender mercies, thoughts and visions.

Such Divine communication was also in the Hebrew called “kol” (voice) as is shown by the Biblical phrase "There fell a voice from heaven" (Daniel 4:28 A.V. 31); and occasionally in the Talmud.

In a historical context, it is at best circumstantial or indirect evidence. A story, recounted many times over tens or even hundreds of years, then finally written down, perhaps edited for content and meaning, then suffering multiple translations, is so far from evidence it’s almost facetious.

Although in court an oath is made while holding the Bible. The Bible would not be considered as evidence in court, unless there is a murder case where the victim was hit on the head with a really heavy Bible!

Truth is that the Bible is hearsay. This is a bold claim. Immediately some of you may rise up with challenges. People have been attacking the Bible for millennia. But the challenges simply weren’t that strong. Every attack withers and fades away once it’s looked at in any kind of depth.

For instance, the Bible mentions the Hittites over 50 times. In the Scriptures, they appear to be a large and important ancient Empire.

Yet for thousands of years, scholars had no proof of them existing anywhere except for the record in the Bible.

Skeptics utilized this constantly in their attacks against the Bible. How could a book that claims to be from God get this so wrong? How could they know so little of the ancient world and still claim to be divine?

Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries archaeologists hit the jackpot, not only identifying extra-biblical references to the Hittite civilization, but by actually finding and excavating the ancient Hittite capital city of Hattusa (modern day Boeazk?y in northern Turkey). The rediscovery of this ancient civilization vindicated the Biblical record.

Evidence for the Hittites was bolstered in Egypt with the discovery of a treaty (known as the “Eternal Treaty” or the “Silver Treaty”) between Egypt under?Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite Empire under King Hattusilli III. Whereby, after years of fighting between the Hittites and the Egyptians, settled on a treaty, in-which, the territory of Canaan would be divided between them.

This pattern holds true for a great many historical claims in the Bible. Skeptics accuse the Bible of getting the details wrong. Then archaeology verifies the Bible’s claims. It happens over and over and over again.

Any true book cannot contain falsities; that’s simply obvious. Likewise, any true book cannot contain conflicting accounts of the same story; as one of them would have to be a lie.

Skeptics constantly charge the Bible with violating this principle. They claim there are hundreds of contradictions in Scripture, proving that it cannot be true.

Yet every supposed contradiction has been studied endlessly. In the end, the message is clear: there are no contradictions in the Bible.

If the Bible is true, then its philosophy and poetry should reflect the truth of the human condition. They should not reflect pie-in-the-sky na?veté, but rather the boots-on-the-ground reality of our everyday struggles.

Since the stories in the Bible were written long after the fact then by definition it is hearsay. There are over 200 Bibles and the stories in them were often reported by the 20th listener to the story. If you have ever done the activity where you tell a short story to a listener and then they tell it to another listener then you know the outcome, the story after ten tellings is a far cry from the original story. So, yes, it is.

Perseverance, persistence, consistency and dependability, make of you one who is told whatever with no fact checking ability, thus, by not knowing giving rise to believing.

Everything you learned in school is hearsay. The date of your birth is hearsay. That your parents are your parents is hearsay. The number of electrons in one coulomb of negative charge is hearsay. Macro-evolution is hearsay, yet the majority of Bible critics believe it and speak of it as they've actually witnessed it. Almost everything you "know" is hearsay.

So, to the charge the Bible is hearsay, one could say: So what?

If you are religious and never read the Bible? If you had, would you have answers to all your questions? Well, esoterically you may “ask” but you have to accept the answers and not doubt what you are told. Which, is basically the same thing as not being allowed to question, isn't it? There lies the paradox...

Food for thought!