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Hi, I’m Madeline Teal and I’m a freshman here at Butler. I’m a Multilingual major, with emphasis on Spanish, French, and Chinese. I also have an International Business minor. I’m from Atlanta, Indiana, which is a teeny tiny town about forty minutes north of campus. I’m taking this class mostly out of curiosity and cultural context for my Christian faith. 

In a general sense, the Bible is a collection of holy writings that create and fuel the Christian faith. They contain the Christian narrative on life, all the way from the creation of the world to the early church, and a way of life to keep the faith going beyond that. 

To me, the Bible is a really great source of guidance on a lot of questions I have about life. “Who made me this way?” and “What the heck do I do when I feel (fill in the blank)?” are all questions that the Bible can answer for me. I have a clear-cut path that has built-in brothers and sisters to help me along the way. 

I have always been taught that the Bible was written by God through his chosen disciples. Much like David, Mary, and other famous “chosen people” of the Bible, it’s unclear why or how he chose them, but I believe that he used them to accurately portray his wishes to man from fellow men. Since then, it has been translated many times and tweaked to fit several cultures or belief systems, but still has largely the same goal. 

When you search up “What is a Bible?” on Google, lots of websites, both historically-focused and faith-focused, offer their own explanation. Different denominations are also giving their own truth as to what the Bible means to them. What is considered reliable to one group of people may be different to another, but there are certainly many experts with different types of degrees (secular/religious, historical/modern languages, etc.) ready to help you out. Checking for some sort of consensus is going to be key, with all of the different ideas buzzing around. 

Hello Everyone! My name is Matthew Meyer. I am a sophomore studying to become a pharmacist. I’m from Greenwood Indiana, which is about thirty minutes south of campus. My primary reason for taking this course was for the Text and Ideas requirement but I was also curious about the Bible from other’s prospectives.

I would describe the Bible as a book of books used as the holy writings for Christianity. It contains a new and old testament. The books in the Bible are written from a range of people from a range of time periods. Im not sure who decided on the published contents but I have heard (this could be totally made up) that there are a lot of books that did not make it into the Bible. 

Using google to search “ What is a bible” the first response I get is a dictionary definition of the bible. Following that in order of how they appear I get Wikipedia, biblica.com, bethinking.org, billygraham.org and finally a section of recommended videos from YouTube. Regarding their credibility, in my personal opinion Wikipedia is the most credible out of all the results on the first page. Wikipedia is normally seen as very unreliable because anyone can edit pages. I find it to be reliable because almost everything is cited and I can follow where the author is getting their information. I also know that many moderators and administrators will contact an individual who edits a Wikipedia page and asks them more questions to see if their change is credible. 

Hi, my name is Sophia Agostino and I am a sophomore from the South Bend, IN area.  I am an accounting major and planning to do an accelerated program to get my masters (MBA) in four years.  I am taking this course for two reasons, one being that it fulfills my TI requirement and the second being that I am Christian and want to continue to grow in my knowledge about the Bible.

To start off, what is the bible?  To me, it is a sacred set of scriptures or stories documented from the beginning of time, of and relating to God and Jesus.  These stories include lessons, rules, and personal experiences.  Often times these stories are also designed to help us during hard times.  They were written by people that God spoke through (mediators and some prophets) to teach the people that with Him, all things are possible; God is all knowing and all powerful.

I believe that God inspired the writing of the Bible, and it was written by people that God chose to share and write His word for generations to come.

When I look up, “What is the Bible,” the first thing that comes up is bibles that you can buy, and then there is a definition provided by the Oxford Dictionary, however it is very surface level.  There are then many pages and videos, however many of the sources do not seem very credible (Wikipedia, Got questions, etc.).  For me, this definitely brings up the question of how credible are the videos that I have been shown in my past religion classes, which I took throughout grade school and high school (Catholic schools).  I am interested to see how this course compares to an ecumenical course I took on both the Old and New Testament.

Hi, everyone! My name is Mary Grace Ross. I’m from a small town called Monticello in central Illinois, (no, I’m not from Chicago). I’m a first year student here at Butler majoring in Strategic Communications. I really love it here so far and am hopeful that we get to attend in-person classes soon so I can meet all of you! A couple things about myself – I’m constantly listening to and downloading music (so if you have any song recommendations please send them my way!), I have a dog named Scout, he’s 1 and I miss him dearly, and my all time favorite TV show is Criminal Minds. I took this class to fill my TI requirement, but when given a few different options, I chose the one on the Bible as a Christian and out of curiosity to see what a college course on the Bible would entail. 

In response to what the Bible is, I’d say it’s a book that many people believe carry the principles and practices of religion. To me, the Bible represents how God wants His people to live. 

I’ve always been taught that the Bible was created by God’s disciples on His behalf. Obviously, He didn’t actually write it himself, but it’s still supposed to be crafted in a way that is almost as if He did. I don’t know the history specifically on how it was written and published, but I’m sure we will be talking about that as this course progresses. 

When I looked up “What is the Bible” on Google, I got a bunch of different websites from Wikipedia to religious websites to History.com, all offering different definitions. I would definitely not trust Wikipedia as a credible source of information, but I could see History.com as a more reliable source, depending on the author’s credentials. The religious websites would definitely offer more biased results, so if you were trying to complete a research project, I don’t know if I would gather all of my information from those sources. 

Introduction to myself: I am Morgan Werner. I am a freshman this year and a Health Sciences major (Pre-PA track). I run on the cross country and track teams here and have been running since I was in 3^rd grade. Some things that I enjoy are being outside and doing activities such as hiking, swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding, and playing with my two dogs: Hammer and Max.

What is the Bible? The Bible is the living word of God as believed by Christians. It encompasses stories from the time Jesus walked the earth and the prophesies from before Jesus came to earth. In a google search ‘what is the Bible’ I come across church pages with videos giving a religious overview of what the Bible is and then there are some history pages as well that give a more historical background to what the Bible is. Then there are some suggestions on videos and movies that are based on the Bible as well. When figuring out which sources are most accurate, you must look at the credibility of the author, the time in which it was written, and the reliability of the source itself

Hi everyone! My name is Grace Butler and I’m from Muncie, Indiana. I am a freshman studying Accounting. I chose to take this course obviously as a fulfillment for my TI requirement, however, I chose this class specifically to become more educated on the Bible. I went to a Catholic elementary school, which was really where my religious journey started. Despite that, I have never read the Bible. I hope that this class will expand my knowledge on the Bible academically and religiously. 

To me, the Bible is a collection of stories, lessons, and rules that help guide the way God wants people to live. There are many different ways to interpret the passages in the Bible, but overall, it is the sacred book that binds all Christians together. Whether people look at it as simply a historical book, or something more, it has meaning and is worth learning about.

Many people wrote the Bible with God as the overarching author. He obviously didn’t physically write the Bible, but his influence and guidance was what brought the writings of the Bible together. I really wish I knew more about how the Bible was actually written, so hopefully I will learn more about that in this class. 

When I searched on Google, “What is the Bible?” a few different things came up. There was information from Wikipedia and Britannica, which seem like honest, reliable, and unbiased sources. However, we know that anyone can edit things on Wikipedia (I am not sure if that is the case for Britannica) and that automatically makes that source questionable. After Wikipedia, which was the first website that came up, a result came up as “Faith 101: What is the Bible?” This page comes from an Evangelistic Association, which automatically has bias. The information may be factually true, but it’s still a theological study of the Bible (they’re assuming religious truth), instead of an academic study. It was interesting that this page was at the top of the search page. 

Hello, my name is Forrest Reineke and I’m an First Year Economics major here at Butler. I’m from St. Louis, Missouri. I love to watch professional: basketball, MMA, and soccer. I’m a United Methodist and I was very active in my churches Youth Group back in Missouri. I chose this course because it fills the TI requirement and I thought it’d be cool to look at the Bible from the perspective of academia. 

The Bible is, to me, a collection of different chapters written by assorted followers of God. They’re talking about their interactions with the Holy Trinity and trying to help others grow in their faith as well by spreading the good work of God. 

As I said above the Bible was written by a bunch of different people. They all have different life journeys, levels of importance, and times that they were alive. The area of this question that I know the most about is how they chose what was in the Bible. Early church leaders got together and formed many creeds, namely the apostles creed, the athanasian creed, and the nicene creed. These outlined what would be accepted into the Bible and what wouldn’t be by the people who assembled all these different books into the “Bible.” 

Whenever I looked up “what’s in the Bible” a bunch of kids show things come up. If you look up “Bible” then a bunch of different online versions of the Bible show up. Finally if you look up “Canon” it’s nothing but cameras. 

I suppose I really have no clue as to whether their information is credible. One of my go to’s when trying to figure out credibility is how official does the website look. Another one is when was the content published, but in regards to the Bible I’m not sure that matters.  

Hi. I am Caroline Osler. I am a sophomore from Fishers, Indiana. I am double majoring in math and economics, with hopes of going to law school after Butler. I am taking this course for two reasons, one being it fulfills my TI requirement. The second being that I am a christian and want to learn about different perspectives and ideas that others have about the Bible.

The Bible, to me, is a collection of stories, rules, and guidelines, that were spoken by God but we received them through people, who were His prophets. Basically, it’s God telling us how to reach a true state of peace and happiness. I also think of it as a tool to help get through hard times and difficult situations.

I believe that God was the author of the Bible, but He used people who He believed were influencers to be the narrators and actually transcribe the Bible itself. I know that it took a village to write the Bible, but the first person that came to mind was Paul, because he wrote quite a bit.

When I look up what a Bible is, the first information presented is actually videos. They talk about how to read the Bible and what it is. The first actual text source is Wikipedia, which is not reliable. But I also couldn’t say with confidence that the religious sites are very reliable either. I think that the author’s education tells a lot about their credibility.

Hi everyone, I’m Luke Barath.  I’m a freshman here at Butler and dual majoring in Vocal Performance and Music Education.  Mainly, I am taking this course because it fills my TI credit needed.  However, I also wanted to take it because my knowledge on the bible is very limited and I have always been interested in learning more.

Like I said, I have very little experience or background involving the bible.  Growing up I never really went to church and never actively practiced a religion.  I do know that it is a sacred text to many and a book including many moral stories and life lessons.  I do know the very popular tales of course, such as Noah’s Ark, Moses, etc.  One thing that fascinates me most about the bible though is how it helps bring millions of people around the world together, even if those people interpret different passages or parts of it differently.

When searching up “What is a bible”, there is plenty of information to behold, but I am not sure how much is credible and how much is not.  For example, one of the first links that is brought up is from Wikipedia, which anyone can edit.  The first thing to pop up, however, is the dictionary definition of the bible, stating “the Christian scriptures, consisting of the Old and New Testaments.”  That’s what it physically is, I suppose, but not a very deep answer.  Upon scanning the rest of the results, none of the websites seemed to be scholarly or professional, none of these first links that pop up are super reliable upon first glance

Hello, I am Drew Peters and I am a sophomore, majoring in Biochemistry. I am taking this course because of two main reasons: I am a Christian and am very interested in all the different viewpoints and angles that people see the Bible as compared to my viewpoint, and it fulfills my required TI credit for Core Curriculum.

How I would describe a Bible from my own viewpoint would be as multiple books written and influenced by God telling one big story. Many people don’t know what to think of the Bible because of all the stories in it that seem quite unrealistic, and they wonder if it is filled of fictional stories or historical documents. Although it is God’s Word to me as a Christian, I think that it is a lot more to other people, whether it be a historical document or whether it tells people good life lessons. Whatever it may be, I am looking forward to learning more about it.

I believe, like I said earlier, that God was the ultimate influencer and author of the Bible, even though God used many different people to write it out. Some main authors that God used are Moses, David, Paul, and many others. The Old Testament was written before the birth of Jesus, and the New Testament was written after the death of Jesus. There are definitely a ton of other pieces I am missing, and I hope to find those soon.

When I search, “what is a Bible?” it brings up a lot of different answers, and the main ones seemed to be that it is the holy scripture of Christianity, a collection of ideas about God, or even a guide to living life to the full and a road map for the journey of life. One would know if these sources offer reliable and credible information by first looking at the URL. Most of these sites end in “.com” or “.org,” so this shows that they are not academic or scholarly articles, which would be ideal to find reliable information. You would then find information of the author and see the type and the amount of education he or she has had.