The Bible

Evangelicals and other Christians claim that the Bible is the very word of God. They claim that the Bible writers wrote under the inspiration of a god who is perfectly good and wise and therefore every word is infallible (completely trustworthy) and inerrant (incapable of error).

“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.” Southern Baptist Convention

“We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” National Association of Evangelicals

“We believe the Bible (i.e., the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments) is the Word of God, comprises the totality of Holy Scripture, is verbally inspired and inerrant in the original text, remains inerrant and infallible in all its substance, and is sufficient for salvation and sanctification. Therefore, it is the supreme, final, and authoritative standard for faith, theology, and life. We seek to teach the Word of God in such a way that its message can be applied to an individual’s life, leading that person to greater maturity in Christ. ” Calvary Chapel

These are bold statements that pretty much sum up the view of most “born again” evangelical, conservative christian types....can such a view be defended rationally? It seems that if only ONE mistake or contradiction is found then the whole religion will need to be rethought. Also, it raises...in at least my mind... a question; if it is true that the bible is “ the supreme, final, and authoritative standard for faith, theology, and life.” Then how do believers know if the people who compiled the cannon of scripture got it right? I do not think that the table of contents is considered infallible. Maybe some books were left out and perhaps a few of the books that were put into the bible were not meant to be in. The reformer Martin Luther removed the Book of James and Revelation from his bible. The Mormons and Catholics have numerous other books that they claim are Holy Scripture. It appears that no appeal to the Bible itself could settle this type of theological dispute and that a higher authority than the Bible is needed.

While evangelicals do not claim that the Bible is a book of science they do claim that it is perfect in its MORAL teachings. The Bible itself claims to be a moral authority.

2 Timothy 3:6

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

But does the bible teach “good morality?” Well if you consider genocide, child killing, slavery, the subjugation of women, theocracy, incest, and religious intolerance good morality then YEAH. Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHQoxeIdg4w&feature=player_embedded#at=149 are some of my favorite passages (caution extreme violence). From my perspective, the Bible is NOT a book that teaches good morals...but rather it teaches the morality of the primitive and superstitious people who wrote it and for whom it was written...and not even the most committed christian follows the morality of the Bible (or they would be in jail) but I guess everyone will have to judge for themselves.

Here is a great moral passage where the LORD get angry because his people were too merciful.

Number 31: 7-18

They fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every man. Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho. Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.

“Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people.Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

What about contradictions? Are there any parts of the Bible that contradict other parts? Yeah, a lot... in fact there are so many I wonder how anyone can take the doctrine of inerrancy seriously. A few of these can probably be explained away but ALL of them? I doubt it.. it appears that the Bible is unremarkable when it come to reporting events and that mistakes were made JUST AS ONE WOULD EXPECT from any book that was not written by a god.

A few of my favorite outright contradictions....

With God all things are possible.

- Matthew 29:26

And the Lord was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants of

the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the

valley, because they had chariots of iron.

- Judges 1:19

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And no man hath ascended up to heaven, even the Son of man which

is in heaven.

- John 3:13

... and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

- 2 Kings 2:11

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If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

- John 5:31

I am one that bear witness of myself...

- John 8:18

[Jesus was the speaker in both of these quotes]

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Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign.

- 2 Kings 8:26

Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign.

- 2 Chronicles 22:2

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Thou shalt not kill

- Exodus 20:13

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his

side... and slay every man his brother...

- Exodus 32:27

My advice to all is to ignore the bible, just think for yourself and use your senses and rational faculties. Read books about philosophy and science and stop going to church.

Thank you.