What is your complaint with Christianity?

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

1. The incredible similarities between OT stories and the Gospel accounts to various contemporary myths.

Did you ever stop to think that christianity became so popular that the false religions had to change their religious writings to con some of the people? Or that before Babel, the world was one nation, who all descended from Noah and his sons, they all had the same stories told to them by Noah, etc., and when they started to stray from God, they altered those accounts to fit their ever changing beliefs?

No, because 1. It's impossible for the world population to have grown as large as it did in the relatively short time span between the time Noah and his family started multiplying and the time Jesus supposedly existed. 2. Historical research indicates the stories in the Bible came later being adopted from various myths

2. The gross contradictions (and yes, I've heard your "solutions." I own three books that attempt to solve all these "difficulties

What contradictions? If you mean the gospels, think about the fact that different writers include different details and are not really contradicting the other authors but simply containing different information about the same event.

In the case of the civil war, who is the one telling lies--Catton, Foote or Mcpherson? They are all writing about the same event yet do not agree with each other 100%. Are they contradicting each other/ Are there works filled with contradictions? neither are the biblical books.

The contradictions in the Gospels are not simply slight differences from different points of view. These are gross contradictions that cannot be solved outside of apologists proposing fantastical self-serving ad-hoc solutions that they would never do unless they were operating under the unsupported notion that the text is inspired. Here's one of my favorites: http://jcnot4me.com/page44.html

3. The earth is described as being flat, the sky being metal, and the universe as geocentric throughout both the OT and NT.

You will have to give me some verses so I can see exactly what you are talkiong about BUT for flat earth, the Bible does not teach that. it does say the '4 corners' but then so do sailors who say, when asked where they have been, I sailed to the four corners of the globe. Are they saying the world is flay? Of course not, they are saying they traveled the whole earth. The Bible is doing the same thing.

The metal reference you gave is probably a metaphor or comparison and I know of no passage that says the sun revolves around the earth. But you might be refering to the passages that talk about the sun rising and setting well so did Einstein--is he saying the sun revolves around the earth? of course not, he is speaking in terms everyone understands.
So is the Bible.

Of course, when even yourself can see that something in the Bible plainly contradicts reality, it must be a metaphor!

The sailors got the expression from the Bible. The only reason the sailors use it as a figure of speech is because they know for sure the Earth isn't flat. The ancient culture in which the Bible arose did not know that. The descriptions of the Earth in the Bible are all common concepts that were all shared by the different cultures in that region of the world. And yes, they all literally believed it. It wasn't a metaphor. See Chapter 5 of "The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails" which has extensive scholarly research on ancient cosmology. You probably won't though since you enjoy your echo chamber.

4. Failed prophecy.

these you would have to list. The terms you used are too general for me to respond to.

There's a bunch, but my favorite one is the fact that the earth was suppose to come to an end in the 1st century. That obviously hasn't happened, so Christians changed the interpretation of the Gospel verses on the end of the world.

5. Some books of the Bible are forgeries.

False accusations an dno evidence to support such allegations. Metzger dealt with this in an interview with Lee Strobel in his book The Case for Christ page 69. There is no forgery going on.

Before you go touting Strobel's book, you should look into many of the damaging refutations of that shoddy piece of work. Robert M. Price wrote a book called "The Case Against the Case for Christ." There's many free refutations of it online as well. Here's one: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/j...robel.html

Forgery can be seen in the NT works by the writers having a very different vocabulary, different eschatology, and anachronisms. Also, forgery wasn't an accepted practice back then. You can find distain for forgery back then. See chapter 6 of "The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails."

6. The fact that God failed at sending a clear message of his truth and desires. Christians groups for 2000 years have yet to arrive to a consensus on fundamental issues.

God sent the message, is it His fault that people screwed it up? The message of the Bible is very clear and easy to understand but John 16, I believe it is, says believers get the help of the HS to learn the truth unbelievers do not.

Apparently you're the first generation to have the holy spirit then.

7. Slavery, genocide, mandated child sacrifice by OT law (yes, that's really in there).

Question: Are you putting modern western definitions to a Book written by God using middle eastern men 2,000+ years ago and not modern western people living today?

Understanding plays a large part in grasping what the Bible teaches and God is allowed to punish His creation. He set the rules and from Cain on down people have been breaking them.

What do you do when your child disobeys? reward them?

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I certainly don't kill them. And nice one ignoring the child sacrifice point. Here's some verses that indicate the practice:

"Exodus 22:29-30: "You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day you shall give it to me."

This is plainly child sacrifice.

Later on, this practice was stopped:

Ezekiel 20:25-26: "Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life; and I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they might know that I am the LORD."