Brother Jeff Posted May 14, 2014 Posted May 14, 2014 I once believed the Bible to be the inerrant, infallible Word of God. That was a long time ago now, but it was true for fifteen years of my life. If you are a fundamentalist Christian, chances are good that you believe that too. My question to you would be: Do you believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God because you’ve been told that it is and been assured by Christian apologists that it is, or have you actually read and studied the Bible and come to that conclusion for yourself? My educated guess is that you believe these things about the Bible because you’ve been told that it is so and because it is an article of your faith. Please allow me to explain why I no longer find belief in the Bible as the inerrant, infallible Word of God rationally possible. First, there is the matter of the contradictions contained in the Bible. If the Bible is inerrant, it should be free from contradictions, correct? But… the fact is that the Bible contains hundreds of meaningful contradictions. These are outlined for easy access at sites such as http://www.infidels.org. Relevant Link: http://infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html Also, check out http://bibviz.com/. This glorious site graphically illustrates the hundreds of contradictions contained in the Bible. Glory! Second, there is the matter of the atrocities contained in the Bible. If God is a God of Love, should He be ordering or directly committing mass murder or genocide? Of course not…yet that is exactly what He is depicted as doing numerous times in the Old Testament. Here are just a few examples: http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible3.htm I didn’t know about any of these atrocities back when I was a Christian believer. My educated guess would be that if you are a Christian believer reading this, then this is news to you too! The Bible does say that God is Love (1 John 4:8), but that is contradicted by God’s actions in the Old Testament. In fact, it is also contradicted by God’s actions in the New Testament! In Acts 5, God kills two people simply for lying to Him about their finances. When was the last time you killed somebody simply for lying to you? Doesn’t that seem just a tad bit extreme? And then we have Paul claiming that God will come “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thessalonians 1:8). Then we have the Book of Revelation, which, if it were to come true today, would see BILLIONS of non-Christian people killed in horrible ways. None of that sounds very loving, does it? Third, there is the matter of the absurdities in the Bible. The very first verse of the Book of Genesis is wrong (the universe wasn’t created by a god, and the verse makes no mention of the billions of years that passed between the creation of the universe and the creation of the earth), and it just goes downhill from there. The Book of Genesis clearly depicts the primitive, pre-scientific cosmology of the time in which it was written. Do insects have four legs (Leviticus 11:20)? Do snails melt (Psalm 58:8)? Does the moon give off its own light (Isaiah 13:10, Ezekiel 32:7, Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:24)? Is the earth flat (Daniel 4:11, Matthew 4:8)? Does the flat earth rest on pillars (1 Samuel 2:8)? Can stars fall to the earth and destroy it (Revelation 6:13)? The answer to all of these questions, according to the Bible is… yes! Fourth, there is the matter of known bad history in the Bible. The Bible gets much history wrong, and that’s without even leaving the pages of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible)! The creation myths (there are two of them) are wrong, Noah’s Flood never happened, Abraham and Moses likely never existed, and the list goes on from there — on and on and on and on! Relevant links: http://religionisbullshit.me/non-historical-history-in-the-bible/ http://www.american-buddha.com/falsetestament.htm Fifth, there is the matter of false prophecy in the Bible, of which there is much. Relevant link: http://religionisbullshit.me/false-prophecies-bible/ Sixth, there is the character of God, which the Bible calls into serious question. Relevant link: http://religionisbullshit.me/the-character-of-the-bible-god-2/ Seventh, there is the matter of known forgeries in the Bible. Most of the books of the Bible were written anonymously, but several of them are known to be forgeries! These include Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2, & 3 John, and Revelation. Relevant link: http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net/authornt.html We also know that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not written by disciples of Jesus, but rather by anonymous men decades after the events portrayed in them allegedly occurred. Relevant link: http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net/jesus.html#sources With all of these serious problems with the Bible, which I have outlined, how am I supposed to take it seriously as the Word of God? The fact is that I no longer can. LINK: http://religionisbullshit.me/longer-believe-bible/ 4
FreeThinkerNZ Posted May 14, 2014 Posted May 14, 2014 Thanks for this, I have bookmarked it for future reference in the Lion's Den. Can I add another one? The misogyny of the bible, with its 200 verses that specifically demean and belittle women: http://ffrf.org/component/k2/item/18512-why-women-need-freedom-from-religion 1
amateur Posted May 14, 2014 Posted May 14, 2014 Excellent! Very concise reference, Brother Jeff! All glory to the melted snails! 1
francesco Posted May 15, 2014 Posted May 15, 2014 excellent bro jeff I would like to add that in some part of his letters, paul was pretty straight that he gave his own opinion like 1 Corinthians 7:12 "But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away." if paul himself said that it was his opinion, how come men 2000 years later claim that it's the inerrant word of god? and most importantly nowhere in bible says that bible itself is the Word of god Bible word for Word are logos, rhema, and davar substitute all the "Word" in bible with bible and it's sound absurd logos: john 1:1 in the beginning was the bible (logos) , and the bible (logos) was with god, and the bible (logos) was god rhema (rhematous christou): matthew 27:14 And he [Jesus] answered him to never a bible (rhema); insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly davar: isaiah 55:11 so is my bible (davar) that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it I raised in liberal church so I never been taught about "bible as inerrant word of god" doctrine
Recommended Posts