Biblical Contradictions

Originally Posted by GDwarf

A census is recorded, yes, but most scholars agree that it couldn't have been the one Luke mentions.


In fact, most conclude that Luke inserted the census whole-cloth to try and make the prophecies work.

well,, the majority of scholars with whom i have talked say the opposite

Originally Posted by Azarimanka

well,, the majority of scholars with whom i have talked say the opposite

Were they, perhaps, not really scholars, and in fact theologists and priests?

Originally Posted by Sage of Earth

Were they, perhaps, not really scholars, and in fact theologists and priests?

well...no

Originally Posted by Liquid Fire

I just thought I'd start with a big contradiction.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

If you look in the Bible, there are an amazing number of people that God wants his followers to murder. For example, in Exodus 35:2 God lays down this commandment:

For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.

Think about that how many people work on the Sabbath -- all the employees of Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Linnens & things, grocery stores, convenience stores, power plants, airlines, hospitals, emergency services and on and on and on. Don't rabbis, priests and preachers work on the Sabbath? God wants all of them dead.

Then look at Deut 21:18-21. It says:

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.

That is a whole lot of teenagers that we need to kill.

Then there is Leviticus 20:13:

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

All homosexuals need to be killed. What about this:

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

That's a lot of people who need to be killed.

In other words, if we actually listened to what God says, we would need to kill at least half of the people in America tomorrow. After all, Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever." The word of the Lord tells us to kill half of the U.S. population.

There are two things in this that show you that God is imaginary. First there is the utter stupidity of these verses. Second, there is this fact: If God is an all-powerful being, he would kill them himself. There would be no need for people to do the murdering. These people would already be dead, and Wal-Mart would be closed on the Sabbath through lack of employees.

Notice that believers completely ignore these parts of the Bible. That is because they know that the verses are insane. By acknowledging that their God is insane, they prove that their God is imaginary.

Questions?

Hebrew used in that commandment: Ratsach. It means murder. Not all killing is murder.
Because of this, your entire post falls apart.

Also, all those killing laws were meant for Israel in the time of the Old Covenant. Are we still part of the Old Covenant? No. The law of God still stands tall, but the law of Moses is no more.

Also, if we were to go around killing every sinner there is.. We'd have to go around killing everyone in the world. Also, God DOES kill many people in the bible without the use of Israel. (Sodom and Gomorrah, everyone besides Noah, David's son, etc.) He also kills many people today with natural disasters, diseases, etc. He brings judgment on us in many ways.

Also, in my opinion, any one who doesn't like the Old Testament because of the things God does is not a believer, besides maybe a few exceptions...

"the law of Moses is no more"? Are you saying that the the Ten Commandments are no longer in effect?

Are you saying that God was responsible for Katrina, Myanmar, the quake in China, etc. Killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people? Wow, God is such a nice guy.

God knows and sees all. He knows who will follow Him. If they know of God, and they do not listen to Him, why should God let them keep living? No, God does not kill everyone who does not follow Him, He just removes some. Why? I cannot answer, because I have not been gifted to understand Gods wills or plans.

I believe someone has pointed out that the Bible claims the earth is flat. To answer this, I will say that the Bible was written to the common man at that time. I mean, do you know the earth is round? Have you seen it? There are no 3D pictures of it, even today.

Originally Posted by Surio

Hebrew used in that commandment: Ratsach. It means murder. Not all killing is murder.
Because of this, your entire post falls apart.

Regardless of what the original text says, the translation says "thou shalt not kill", and most Christians follow the translation, yet still don't follow it.

Also, all those killing laws were meant for Israel in the time of the Old Covenant. Are we still part of the Old Covenant? No. The law of God still stands tall, but the law of Moses is no more.

God dictated that law to Moses. And since God knows the future, he should've written laws that will apply forever. He seems to change his mind on a whim, knowing that he'll change it again later on.

Also: "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever." Since those laws are God's word, they stand forever. You can't say they're outdated.

Also, if we were to go around killing every sinner there is.. We'd have to go around killing everyone in the world. Also, God DOES kill many people in the bible without the use of Israel. (Sodom and Gomorrah, everyone besides Noah, David's son, etc.) He also kills many people today with natural disasters, diseases, etc. He brings judgment on us in many ways.

Because there's no better way to say "I love you" than to cause suffering amirite?

Natural disasters are caused purely by chance, and diseases are simply microscopic organisms that cause illness when they come into contact with the human body. There's no reason to think God did any of that, or you might as well be jumping at shadows.

Also, in my opinion, any one who doesn't like the Old Testament because of the things God does is not a believer, besides maybe a few exceptions...

So you completely support God's jealous, selfish, totalitarian genocidal rampages?

Why should God let them keep living? So that they may enjoy their few precious moments of life they have before the eternal suffering God will give them.

At the time people knew the Earth was round. Saying that people thought the Earth was flat back then was a myth.

http://www.eps.mcgill.ca/Images/earth_for_ESS.jpg

We have pictures of the Earth.

Originally Posted by Eternal Paradox

Why should God let them keep living? So that they may enjoy their few precious moments of life they have before the eternal suffering God will give them.

At the time people knew the Earth was round. Saying that people thought the Earth was flat back then was a myth.

http://www.eps.mcgill.ca/Images/earth_for_ESS.jpg

We have pictures of the Earth.

...what are you saying? People thought the earth was a disc, hence "round".

Originally Posted by Alter

I believe someone has pointed out that the Bible claims the earth is flat. To answer this, I will say that the Bible was written to the common man at that time. I mean, do you know the earth is round? Have you seen it? There are no 3D pictures of it, even today.

So?

If you're going to cite the Bible as an infallible source of truth, then it must, in fact, be infallible. If it has something wrong in it, then it is not infallible.

Originally Posted by Sage of Earth

...what are you saying? People thought the earth was a disc, hence "round".

The Myth of the Flat Earth or Flat Earth mythology refers to the modern belief that the prevailing cosmological view during the Middle Ages saw the Earth as flat, instead of spherical. During the early Middle Ages, many scholars maintained the spherical viewpoint first expressed by the Anciest Greeks. By the 14th century, belief in a flat earth among the educated was essentially dead.

According to Stephen Jay Gould, "there never was a period of “flat earth darkness” among scholars (regardless of how the public at large may have conceptualized our planet both then and now). Greek knowledge of sphericity never faded, and all major medieval scholars accepted the earth’s roundness as an established fact of cosmology."[1] David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers also write: "there was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference."[2]

In 1945 the Historical Association listed "Columbus and the Flat Earth Conception" second of 20 in its first-published pamphlet on common errors in history.[3]

Myth of the Flat Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Alter

God knows and sees all. He knows who will follow Him. If they know of God, and they do not listen to Him, why should God let them keep living? No, God does not kill everyone who does not follow Him, He just removes some. Why? I cannot answer, because I have not been gifted to understand Gods wills or plans.

No, you have free thought. Your thought leads you to think "God is bad", but somehow your mind registers this as incorrect, therefore you choose not to exercise this thought because you know it leads you to a conclusion that you don't want to accept. So you wave it off by saying "Well, he's God, so he knows better than I do". Which you may think is an acceptable answer, but it ISN'T. There are two choices: God is a dick, or God doesn't exist. By saying "Well, we can't understand God", you are inserting a third choice in there for yourself, a choice which isn't actually POSSIBLE.

I and many others fully understand God's behaviours, and the only possible motivations for his actions. You and many others CHOOSE not to because you don't WANT to.

I believe someone has pointed out that the Bible claims the earth is flat. To answer this, I will say that the Bible was written to the common man at that time. I mean, do you know the earth is round? Have you seen it? There are no 3D pictures of it, even today.

Uh, yes there are. Also the Bible actually contains the words "this Earth is round", but this meant that it was a disc. Which we know it's not. It probably originally meant something along the lines of nature acts in cycles or something, more of a metaphor, but that's beside the point.

Originally Posted by Eternal Paradox

Myth of the Flat Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hm. You learn something new every day. So what about Christopher Columbus? "Don't sail over the edge!"?

Originally Posted by Sage of Earth

No, you have free thought. Your thought leads you to think "God is bad", but somehow your mind registers this as incorrect, therefore you choose not to exercise this thought because you know it leads you to a conclusion that you don't want to accept. So you wave it off by saying "Well, he's God, so he knows better than I do". Which you may think is an acceptable answer, but it ISN'T. There are two choices: God is a dick, or God doesn't exist. By saying "Well, we can't understand God", you are inserting a third choice in there for yourself, a choice which isn't actually POSSIBLE.

I and many others fully understand God's behaviours, and the only possible motivations for his actions. You and many others CHOOSE not to because you don't WANT to.



Uh, yes there are. Also the Bible actually contains the words "this Earth is round", but this meant that it was a disc. Which we know it's not. It probably originally meant something along the lines of nature acts in cycles or something, more of a metaphor, but that's beside the point.

So then, tell me; What are God's motivations. God says that he created us to have a relationship with us. When I said that I don't understand Gods will, I meant that I do not know why He allows certain evil people to live. When I say evil, I mean people who know of God, yet hate Him all the same.

How can you fully understand your Creator?? I believe the reason you think God is "bad" (I think that's what your trying to say) is because you don't want to be judged or held responsible.

Yes, you are correct. The Bible says that the earth is round. But what makes you think is meant that it was a disk? The Bible does not say that. Give me the verse where is says it's a flat disk. Otherwise, I think your assuming to much.

P.S. Good 'ol Chris C. really wasn't that smart. Do you know the whole story? (Besides that fact He thought he landed in China or wherever.) If not, look it up on wiki.

Eternal Paradox, I meant 3D pictures. That pic just looks like a disc to me.

lol GDwarf, I love it when people quote Richard Dawkins. Especially after the Expelled movie came out. Wasn't that great? He really did make quite a fool of himself...

Anyway, the exact phrase is "I saw four angels standing at the corners of the earth". (Depending on which version you're reading.) Does it say that the earth is flat? No. Would it have made sense to the common man at that time? Yes.