Quickie Post: The Bible, America's Favorite "Fictional" Storybook

Peter Griffin: [opening drawer] Hey, Lois, there's a Bible in here! [He opens the book and dances around with it] Hey, look at me! I'm a Christian! I'm reading the Bible!

- Family Guy

What if I was to tell you that there was a fantastic story book? In this book, we could hear stories in which mere mortal men could split the sea, could gather two of each species, raise men from the dead, and even get pregnant without doing the deed! Now, if you are one of the 1.5 to 2.1 billion Christians out there (or you read the title of this blog post/Family Guy quote), you probably got the fact that I was talking about the bible (a.k.a. The good book).

Now, many Christians hold this book as their authority when it comes to all decisions, for one reason. Just one simple reason. The bible is the word of "God", who's divine inspiration helped the writers craft such wondrous reading material. Thus, the bible is infallible and is perfect in all matters.

But what if I told you that the bible was "wrong"? What if the very book that many Christians base their lives on is not God's divine word, and thus fallible?

Well, your "good book" has a couple problems with it. It's major problem is that it has numerous, NUMEROUS contradictions (For the sake of not dragging things out, we are going to focus on three alone)

(NOTE: Please understand that the blog itself does not represent the opinions of any group. This blog is solely for discussion/informative/editorial positions. I understand that some feel strongly about the bible and their faith, but this is my personal view. Also note though that any attempts at re-conversion/trolling/spiteful remarks via comments will have their comments instantly deleted)

Now, contradiction one deals with conflicting stories on how man and woman were made. In Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Basically, "God" made man and woman at the same exact time.
But, in the very next chapter of Genesis, specifically in Genesis 2: 18-22

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.... And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

The story has now changed that man came first, then came the animals, and Adam made Eve from his spare rib.

Hmm... "God" first makes Adam and Eve, but he then decides to take it back and start with Adam.

Contradiction 2 deals with where John baptized Jesus.
According to Matthew 3:4-6...

And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

... and Mark 1:9...

And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

they clearly state that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River.
BUT, in John 1:28 it clearly states that...

These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

it was not done in the Jordan River, but beyond there in Bethabara!
Now, its one thing if the two locations were close together, but apparently they were far beyond apart!

The final contradiction that we are going to point out is well, when we die, do we just die?
There are numerous quotes that contradictory for both sides, but we'll focus on two quotes, one on each side.

On the side of "You just die and that's it" we have Job 7:9 which state...

As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

that you become dinner for the worms, but in Isaiah 26:19, it states...

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

that those who died will live again!
But, in Job, didn't state that we just die?


Good, you pointed out three problems with the bible, so what?

Well, there are over 1400 contradictions, according to Skeptic's Annotated Bible, but even with three errors we can prove that the bible is not God's word.

We are going to use a simple logic theory, known as the transitive property, which states...

If a = b and b = c, then a = c

Now, most Christians state that the infallible "God" wrote the bible. The bible has contradictions. The equation would look like this:

infallible = "God" = bible (word of God) = contradictions

thus, the infallible word of "God" has contradictions.

BUT WAIT!
That doesn't make sense!
Contradictions can't be infallible because contradictions are wrong in the first place!
That means the bible is... is... incorrect!

Yes, the facts may seem to be pointing towards the fact that the book that Christianity bases its beliefs on is incorrect!

Now...

There are numerous reasons why the bible has some of these contradictions.
Some of the issues deal with translations made in the past.
This might have led to different translations.

Also, different versions of the bible contain different passages and may exclude some passages/books.

In conclusion, I barely scratched the surface on this issue and I plan to go no further with this issue in the near future.

The purpose of this was to expose the fact that the basis of the Christian faith may be flawed and thus, possibly not written by "God"

Before we leave:
"Quickie Posts" are usually me ranting on one issue or another mainly out of something I have noticed that I want to note.

They might also be (like in this case) more of a basic introduction to themes like this one.

- TORM