debate-points, resources-references, bibleI am interested in documenting the Bible stories that show that the Bible cannot and should not be taken literally. What particular resources exist that document the various contradictions, absurdities, or grotesque acts of the Bible?
Here is a pretty cool picture that shows most (if not all) contradictions in a graphical form
Where did Cain’s wife come from? Did someone pull off another creation in the next county?
Elisha and the She-Bears (good band name, that, eh?)
From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
2 Kings 2: 23-25.
My “go-to” unbelievable stories are those that should be reflected in outside historic documentation but aren’t. Among these, my favorites are:
I’m personally partial to the story of Lot’s daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. (And after Lot’s wife had turned to a pillar of salt.)
Lot and his daughters didn’t know if there was anyone else left alive on earth and, the girls worried that this could mean the end of the human race. So they conspired to:
They both succeeded and essentially bore his grandchildren.
If Lot shared his daughter’s concerns for the continuity of the human race, why did they have to do it secretly? Even if they were all put-off by the idea, they would have to at least agree that it was their only option … at least if they were certain that there weren’t any other living humans. And if they were put off by it, maybe it would’ve been prudent to try and find out before jumping into the drunken rape/incest thing…
The Skeptics Annotated Bible is my favourite Internet source: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/
Here’s a trick I learned many decades ago: Pop into your local Christian bookshop and buy something like The Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason Archer, or Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible by John Haley. These books have all the “difficult” verses clearly listed, along with the most popular explanations that Christians will use in their debates with atheists.
But don’t stop there. Now that you know which verses most Christians will use to explain a Bible difficulty, head back to the Skeptics Annotated Bible and find even more verses that contradict those which the Apologist is using as explanations for the original difficulty.
The routine goes like this:
It may happen that the Christian has an explanation for this “new” problem, but it is too late - this new problem has already destroyed the Christian’s explanation for the original difficulty.
OK, not as easy as it sounds, but worth a try.
I am currently reading "God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible"
It lists inconcistencies in the Bible with humour
You may prefer a more serious book as it may seeems a little bit light
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.