I don't care about bible contradictions.

[Longhorn]

I like to capitalize Atheist and not capitalize god.

I don't capitalize god either, but atheist is not a proper noun ._.

[vorlon13]

Jesus asking questions of the folks at the temple could be an odd thing too. They won't be able to tell him anything he doesn't already know, and as we've seen repeatedly, if child Jesus starts pointing out boo-boos in the writings (something that isn't very hard to do at all), the folks at the temple are going to wash his mouth out with naphtha.

Asking questions to see what they know can get ugly too, I got in trouble in high school for trying (and succeeding) to show up the American Government instructor. I can't imagine the temple staff would like to be quizzed.

[vorlon13]

Also regarding contradictions, if you knowingly use one on a christer, and they counter with the conflicting verse, you get to ask them how bringing up bible contradictions helps advance their cause.

[emjay]

Basically as far as I'm concerned, Bible contradictions have served their purpose for me in helping me to stop believing, but once you've seen one you've seen 'em all. So in other words it's just a fact to me that the bible is contradictory and therefore not the perfect word of god; rather the word of man. Nothing could change that belief for me now - that the Bible cannot be taken literally - so that's why I'm not particularly interested in discussions about Bible contradictions though occasionally they're interesting.

[robvalue]

Clearly Christians don't care about them either

2/10 God, good first attempt, needs a lot of work

[Pyrrho]

Clearly Christians don't care about them either

2/10 God, good first attempt, needs a lot of work

Many Christians are unaware of the contradictions in the Bible.  If they were aware of the contradictions, many Christians who presently "don't care" about them would care.  Of course, some people are crazy and have no problems believing contradictory things, and those people are likely unreachable.

[Minimalist]

Bible disproving itself eliminates any need to invoke the ultra-super-duper-mega-plethora of external evidence that disproves it too.  Makes it more fun to torment the fucktard christers by staying entirely intramural.

And as bad as the bible is, you would not believe (well, maybe you would) just how much WORSE the Book of Mormon is.

I agree.  If one can destroy it from the inside, it works much better than if one is going to try to use something external to disprove it.  After all, the religionist can simply deny the truth of whatever external thing is put forth as evidence against it.  But with Bible contradictions, they cannot just dismiss one of the claims without rejecting the idea that the Bible is all the word of God and is therefore correct.  Of course, they try to "reinterpret" one or the other of the contradictory things to eliminate the contradiction, but that wears thin after a while for those who are not completely brain dead.

I think some of the best sorts of contradictions are the ones that are not explicit, like the fact that Jesus parents are told (before he was born) that Jesus is God's son, and then later on we have things like:

Luke 2:

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.
42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.


The thing is, if the earlier story were true, that an angel visited Joseph and Mary and told them about God being the father, with Mary still a virgin, that is not the kind of thing that they could forget even if they wanted to.  So when Jesus later on talks about doing his father's business, they would obviously know what that meant, unless that earlier story were a total falsehood.

I have never heard a credible story from any Christian for these sorts of things, and they are the kind of thing that cause doubt for Christians who are not totally brain dead.  And it does not rely on believing any source other than what is in the Bible.  The stories are just not compatible with each other, so at least one of them must be false.

Not invented - just stolen.

I was myself brought up with my brother, whose name was Matthias, for he was my own brother, by both father and mother; and I made mighty proficiency in the improvements of my learning, and appeared to have both a great memory and understanding. Moreover, when I was a child, and about fourteen years of age, I was commended by all for the love I had to learning; on which account the high priests and principal men of the city came then frequently to me together, in order to know my opinion about the accurate understanding of points of the law.

The Life of Flavius Josephus  Chapter 2

http://sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/autobiog.htm
Note how Josephus at least makes himself 14 which would be an adult in that culture whereas the jesus shits think they can make their hero do it as a child of 12.

[Rhondazvous]

There are a constant series of threads that nitpick various bible quotes where it contradicts with itself in some way or another. Of course this isn't surprising because the bible was written by dozens of people over the course of a millennia+. As an Atheist it comes as no surprise that there are contradictions. There is a far bigger problem with the bible then it contradicting with itself. It contradicts with the fundamental nature of the universe. I think to even point on contradictions with itself is to give the bible too much validity to start with. Both the old testament and new are so full of nonsense and fables that we know are false that it doesn't matter to me what else it says. The constant references to witches, demons, magic, angels, people living to be hundreds of years old, talking animals are enough for me to dismiss it's validity without having to nitpick small passages against each other.

That is the difference between a Christian and an atheist.

You ask a Christian why he believes something and after a few convoluted attempts to explain things, he will finally get down to "Well, I just believe it and I don't care what the evidence says."

Ask an atheist why he believes what he does and he can tell you with concrete, empirical, verifiable evidence. No, the atheist is not obligated to explain himself to anyone, but he is still able to do so when challenged and is never at a loss.

Bible contradictions played a big part in moving me away and keeping me away from Christianity. Yes, the Bible should be Shipped High In Transit. Still Christian evangelist and proselytizers don't sleep or rest, so it's always good to remind ourselves why we left the church. For many people it's not a once and for all decision.

[Exian]

I'm with you, Cap. I can't get passed the notion of a magic book to even get into the details. I started a fruitless thread on the topic to nail down a consensus of what the working mechanism is that imbued the bible with magical powers, or how it was "divinely inspired", whatever that means.

[Thumpalumpacus]

There are a constant series of threads that nitpick various bible quotes where it contradicts with itself in some way or another. Of course this isn't surprising because the bible was written by dozens of people over the course of a millennia+. As an Atheist it comes as no surprise that there are contradictions. There is a far bigger problem with the bible then it contradicting with itself. It contradicts with the fundamental nature of the universe. I think to even point on contradictions with itself is to give the bible too much validity to start with. Both the old testament and new are so full of nonsense and fables that we know are false that it doesn't matter to me what else it says. The constant references to witches, demons, magic, angels, people living to be hundreds of years old, talking animals are enough for me to dismiss it's validity without having to nitpick small passages against each other.

Internal contradictions remove the argument from metaphor.