About Skeptic's Annotated Bible: I've been to that website before many times when I was answering BCs on another site I go to, so this is really just old school for me.
Easy questions get easy answers.
The acclaimed contradictions are in
bold and answers are in regular type as usual.
Who makes people deaf and blind?
God:
Exodus 4:11. Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?
Foul spirits:
Mark 9: 17, 25. And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit. Jesus ... rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
Easy pickings.
Moses wanted to exclude himself from God's plan of removing the Jews from Egyptian bondage. He said he was "slow of speech and slow of tongue." (Exodus 4:10). When God asked Moses who makes the dumb, deaf, seeing, and blond--er, blind people, He declares he is the Lord and Creator of everything. Him making all deaf people deaf, or all blind people blind is not His point. Some people become blind or deaf accidentally, or in Mark, a demon possessed someone to become that way. What is my point? My point is that we don't own the right to exclude ourselves from anything God wants us to do based on the mere reason of "disability." God is God. He can remedy that.
No contradiction.
Is death final?
Yes:
Job 20:7. Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung.
Isaiah 26:14. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased they shall not rise.
No:
Luke 14:14. Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
1 Corinthians 15:16. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
No, death isn't final.
In Job the text talks about what will happen to the wicked, saying that he will perish forever. The wicked
are resurrected, but to a resurrection of condemnation.
In Isaiah,
read the text before and after it! It's a song by the people of Judah, praising the Lord for deliverance from their enemies. They weren't saying that their enemies wouldn't rise up again in the resurrection. This wasn't the point of the song. Please read the contradiction before posting it.
When was Jesus born?
Before 4 BCE:
Matthew 2:1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king.
(Herod the Great died in 4 BCE.)
After 6 CE:
Luke 2:1. And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
(Quirinius became governer of Syria in 6 CE, ten years after king Herod's death.)
The only census that was taken outside the Bible near this time under Quirinius (a.k.a. "Cyrenius" in the Greek) is the one referred to by the historian Josephus, which says took place in 6 A.D.
But Luke 2:2 says that the census taken at about the time Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. This means that there was a later census, which was most likely the one referred to by Josephus, which Luke would have also certainly known about when writing the gospel.
According to a Latin inscription discovered in 1764, there is good reason to believe that Quirinius was in a position of command twice over the province of Syria, which included Israel as a political subdivision. The first time would have been when he was leading the military against the Homonadensians during the period between 12 and 2 B.C. His title may even have been "military governor," not your ordinary governor.
During this time there was definitely a taxing. Therefore, it is very possible that an associated census had the details which may have been common knowledge in Luke's time, but are lost to modern history records of today.
Did Jesus know everything?
Yes:
Colossians 2:2-3. Of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
No:
Mark 13:32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Jesus only knows everything earthly and relevent to this life and the everything between Himself and God the Father. He doesn't know what only God the Father knows. All the knowledge and wisdom that could be gained
by humans is what Jesus knew. Everything the Father told Jesus is what He told everyone else.
No contradiction.
Who brought evil on Job?
Satan:
Job 2:7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
God:
Job 42:11. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread
with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him.
Notice how it says in 2:7, "So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD..." This obviously shows how Satan, no matter how powerful he may be, is still under God's control. God allowed Satan to bring evil upon Job to test himso he would trust the Lord in all things. In return, since he never cursed God or anything, he received everything doubled except for his children, since his other children were alive with God in Heaven.
Plus, 42:11 speaks of what Job and his family comforted him from. They had no idea Satan was the one who did it. However, God allowed it. There's no contradiction.
Should we try to please others?
Yes:
1 Corinthians 10:33. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
No:
Galatians 1:10. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Paul is trying to be everything to everyone to win them to Jesus, but it doesn't include agreeing with the truth. 1 Corinthians and Galatians were letters.
Does righteousness come from following the Law?
Yes:
Luke 1:6. They [Zacharias and Elisabeth] were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
No:
Galatians 2:21. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Luke never implies that Zacharias and Elisabeth were righteous because they obeyed they commandments. It just says they walked in righteousness
and obeyed the commandments. A better way to say the passage would be, "They were both righteous before God. And because they were both righteous they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."
Can God be seen?
Yes:
Genesis 32:30. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Numbers 14:14. For they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face.
No:
Exodus 33:20. There shall no man see me, and live.
John 1:18. No man hath seen God at any time.
No man can see the Lord as He is. One scripture of yours states that He
"...alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."
--I Timothy 6:16
When we read of someone in the Bible seeing the Lord, they have not seen Him in this unapproachable form.
For there to be a contradiction, you need to produce a passage which states that someone has approached the Lord's "...unapproachable light..." We find several times in Scripture the Lord appearing in various forms, such as -- a burning bush (Exodus 3; not given but still relevant); with the appearance of a man (Ezekiel 1:26; same as the burning bush); as the Angel of the Lord (Numbers 22:27; Judges 6:22); and through a cloud and pillar of fire (Numbers 14:14; like the one you gave).
The only time it seems that a man came close to seeing the Lord in His unapproachable form is Moses in Exodus 33. The face to face meeting with the Lord in verse 11 is not with His "unapproachable light", for in verses 20-23, the Lord tells Moses he cannot see His face. Moses could not see while the glory of the Lord passed by.
PSA 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
JER 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.Jeremiah refers to God punishing those who stand against Him in wickedness. In the Psalms, King David talks about how the Lord is good to all men who obey and seek Him. He is righteous when He destroys, for whenever He does destroy anyone in the Bible, He does it out of righeousness. He put the Israelites into bondage because they turned their backs on Him. He even implies in two scriptures before that God is merciful and good to all who obey Him:
"And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness."
--Psalms 145:6-7
This scripture refers to "goodness" as being "righteousness."
EXO 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
ROM 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.God is characterized by both. So was Ronald Reagan. So what?
heavycola wrote:If the bible is so apparently specific about same-sex relationships, abortions, where the universe came from, how to get into heaven, etc etc you'd think it might give a specific explanation as to why god decides to drown, starve, infect and maim thousands of men, women, children and babies day in, day out through no fault of their own. You would think it might have something more to say than a completely open-to-interpretation passage about a few earthquakes happening before jesus returns.
heavycola wrote:what other story? Famines, disease, hurricanes - an all-loving god lets us know that the tribulation may or may not be on its way soon, or some time in teh future, by killing millions of people in incredibly nasty ways. I think the thing that gets atheists most is how christians can gvet around these massive contradictions - and i think an all-loving god who uses ebola, Katrina, bird flu, HIV and the famines in Africa as convenient roadsigns is a massive fucking contradiction - with sophistry and self-delusion.
sully800 wrote:God is supposed to be omnipotent and omnibenevolent (all powerful and all loving). However, these two terms contradict each other based on the world in which we live because great suffering exists. If God was all powerful he must not be all loving because people continue to suffer and he doesn't stop it. Or, if God is all loving he must not be all powerful because he cannot stop the suffering.
sully800 wrote:Also- If God is all powerful, can he create a boulder so heavy that he himself cannot lift it?
Here's the fallacy. Everything you are both saying implies already that man is basically good, when this is simply not the case. If God intervened with every major and minor thing that happened on earth then He wouldn't be God. There would be no free will since he'd be a bodyguard to everyone and everything. God is letting "the suffering" occur because of man's sin. I answered this perfectly on page 20 of "Logic Dictates there is a God!" as well as I answered the boulder with God analogy.
Who makes statements like that? Idiots who bring God down to their level. Tell me, both of you. Can you taste color? Can you see color? Sure you can see the basic spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. There are other parts of the spectrum like ultraviolet and what not. But what if you could see the entire spetrum, no special equipment required? I've got an even better one. What if you could see the whole spectrum itself? And I'm not talking about new shades of yellow. I'm talking about whole new colors that no one has ever dreamed of. Can you imagine it? That's less than a thousandth of a fraction of what God is capable of. Here's an analogy on God. I think you'll understand about this subject a little after I give it.
In plane geometry, you deal with just flat substances. Now, we'll suppose we have two people: Mr. and Mrs. Flat. They are squares that live in Flatland on a piece of paper. They have no comprehention of the third dimension at all. We are three-dimensional people. We can see two-dimensions, and we understand width, height, and depth. But, in a sense, we really don't see depth. You can take a photograph of what you're looking at but you would still perceive the depth in it, even though it's a flat substance. 3D is just something we perceive; we cannot see it. Mr. Flat would see Mrs. Flat as a straight line. He can walk around her and understand she's a square. She can do the same, but they both only see each other as straight lines. Suppose I put a finger on the paper on Mr. Flat's side while Mrs. Flat wasn't looking. Since I created them by drawing them, I'd like them to get to understand me, the creator. Now, I cannot put a 3D object into a 2D land, I can only put my finger on the paper. So Mr. Flat comes along and sees my finger and tells Mrs. Flat, "I've seen him: he's a circle." He only saw the cross section of my finger. Then, I put three fingers on the paper next to Mrs. Flat while Mr. Flat wasn't looking. Mrs. Flat goes over to Mr. Flat and says, "Oh no honey, I've seen him. He's three circles." Both have a very small and limited view of what I truely am. Both are right...and wrong at the same time. There is no possible way that I'll ever be able to explain who I am to the 2D people. But yet, I have the capacity of being closer to them, than they are to each other, and they aren't even aware of my presence.
I think God has a completely different deminsion to begin with. He is beyond length, width, height, and depth. He's beyond time and other dimensions. God's vision of the universe is beyond all nature, since He created it. The people who invented the car, the computer, and the calculator are above and beyond their creation. Those things can't envision it, however, if they were alive, since they can only understand the data put into the calculator, or car, or computer. The creators of these things aren't affected by them. The inventor of the watch isn't affected by it. He made the watch! And since God is the creator, and since He wouldn't be affected by His creation, this would rule out the god of the pantheist view, like god is the rock, or god is the tree, or god is the water. This is a very limited and pantheistic view of God. He's really above and beyond his creation: unaffected by it. If He wants to come down and walk on water or raise the dead He could if He wanted to. He is unlimited totally to it. That is the Christian God: the God that says "Poof! There's the world." And if it sounds fantastic to you, does God care?
Here's the post I made on "Logic Dictates There is a God!":
"I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior Who died for me on the Cross, and I try to serve Him as best I can, and try to lead others to accept Him. Most Christians are afraid to say this anywhere, but I'm not.
On the subject of the 'Origin of Life,' I'm creationist. I've heard the many idiotic arguments evolutionists or skeptics put up on how "All creationists say is..." blah blah blah, whatever. I've heard 'em all. All of 'em. Every one. All the lies and dumb people who are basically saying 'I'm smart, you're dumb. I'm right, you're wrong; and there's nothing you can do about it.' It's basic Matilda talk [in case you've read the book or seen the movie].
Do I understand what I'm talking about? Yes. I've debated two atheists in two VERY long debates on a different website (I won't say the name, because many will go there and join, but never post except maybe one time and say how skeptical they are and leave for good). One atheist had several college degrees (as he claims he does), and one was studying in college. I defeated both according to the rules of debate. Both of them failed to respond to each statement I made and said things at the end like, 'All you've said is...' and 'You don't understand the scientific method.' Whatever. Idiots, the both of them. It's true, I cannot lie. If only I could post my statements here on any 'Creation vs. Evolution' subject (if one ever comes up). The only problem is, no one likes to read long statements on this forum, and over there, it's common to post extremely long messages of wisdom (whatever you'd want to call it, I don't care; I call them "messages of wisdom" ). And most everyone reads the entire statement.
How smart am I? I couldn't tell you because there are many public school kids in here and I wish not to offend anyone. I was considered on that site as '...the most knowledgable on the subject of creation and intelligent design,' and most admitted the fact that, though I was young, knew much about science....at least the Christians there did. .
So, what am I saying? I'm saying there is a God, that there's overwhelming amounts of evidence to prove it, and even Einstein said there must have been a beginning. Well, I'll ask this. Is it more logical to believe: In the beginning God... or In the beginning Dirt (note the capital 'D').
Another thing to ponder, does anyone know everything? No.
...
Does anyone know half of everything? No.
...
Ok, imagine you knew half of everything. Is it possible that God exists in the other half you don't know? Then someone might say, 'No, because god is undefined, and there is no reason to believe in something that natural phenomena can explain.' I told you I knew all the responses. Well, I've got to say to that person, "The God of the Bible is indeed defined, and if you'd look into the information found, it is much more logical to believe God created it than a rock did." Where could information come from? The First Law of Thermodynamics states roughly that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Well then, how could evolution occur? Hmm, I sense a problem. But, they'll say, "Well God couldn't do it then either! HA!" Question, who did you just say couldn't do it? God, right? Since when is God brought down to the level of man?
I get this kind of idiotic statement many times, put into different forms. A rough form of it could be asking something like, 'Can God make a rock so big He can't lift it?' Right there you're bringing God down to the level of man, and not considering He's God. This question is based on 'Can God do everything?' Of course not. He can't learn for one (already knows it all). He can't sin. He can't do anything unrighteous. This is something I get all the time, on how 'God is so cruel; he puts people in hell cause he's mean.' Whatever. This is based on the assumption that man is good, when he is not. Have you lied? You're a lier then. Have you stolen? Then you're a thief. Have you looked lustfully at another woman? Jesus said those who do this have committed adultery already in their hearts. Have you done this? Yes, so you're an adulterer. These are just three of the Ten Commandments (and there are more than just the Ten Commandments to live by). You are a thieving, lying, adulterer. Sounds pretty just to throw you into Hell. God cannot stand sin. You can't walk in like it's a bar. It's not like the cartoons where it's an eternal dream taking place in the clouds. It's holy. How do you get there? Commit your heart to Jesus. Duh.
Back to the 'God can't lift the rock' thing. Anyway, Jesus often answered a question with a question. What do you say to these morons who ask this crap? Well 'In geometry, a ray goes on forever in one direction, and a line goes on forever in both directions. Tell me, which one is longer?' You ask 'em to answer that and then you'll tell him about the rock.
That's pretty much all I have to say, and this post is very long, considering most of you hate long posts (I can't imagine why; just read the damn thing instead of sitting around taking Africa or whatever)."
That's my response. I'm ready for the next contradiction.
