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"Faith is not a good reason to believe in any one thing. It's a bad reason to believe in everything. Faith is not synonymous with any one idea; it is synonymous with any strongly held idea, true or not. But one thing faith is not synonymous with is a logically justified idea."

March 18, 2010

Inconsistencies in the Bible?... Never!

To say that the Bible is consistent with the world as we see it is true. The Bible is consistent with the universe as we see it from our limited point of view. The Earth is flat in the Bible, and it certainly seems flat when you stand on it. The Sun revolves around the Earth in time with the Moon, and it certainly seems like that when we watch day turn into night.
The Bible tells us that Pi is 3.14, which it is and certainly seems like that's all it is when you calculate it using rudimentary tools of measurement. The Bible tells us that disease is caused by demons that come into weak people and cause them to act wildly or die, and it certainly would seem like that from first glance...

However, to say that the Bible is accurately consistent with the world we live in is ridiculous. All of the above mentioned examples fit the world as we see it, but not the world as we know it. The Earth is not the center of the universe. It revolves around the sun and moon around us. Pi is 3.14, but in the case of an all knowing and all powerful being such as God, wouldn't he be able to calculate it further than the second decimal place? After all, the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks had already calculated it to the fifth decimal. Why can't God? I would expect God to fill a whole page with Pi. Disease is not caused by demons, unless demons is a synonym for germs and viruses. Which it is not. Since the two might do the same things but are not "banished" the same way. Prayer medicine does not cure disease, it worsens it. Therefore, demons and disease are not synonyms.

God doesn't have to clarify these vast inaccuracies we find in the Bible. He's God and he doesn't have to do anything if he doesn't want to. He can sit on his throne and watch us work it out amongst ourselves if he wants to. But I ask you this... If God is all knowing, all powerful, all loving, all everything... Why would he not want to explain things that would save countless lives? Why would he not want to explain things that would advance human culture and understanding, and thus prove his all mighty intelligence and ultimately his existence to all around the world? Why would he not want this? He tells us he wants us all to "know him and love him" but how can we if he holds back? Perhaps he wasn't holding back and the Bible is his attempt at making these ideas clear to us. Perhaps every word in the Bible is God's best attempt to make us understand the creation he has made for us... In that case, why is he so incapable of getting it right? He's wrong time and time again about everything. Some of it can be passed off as symbolism, but some cannot, and all certainly cannot. The conclusion I find from reading the Bible, and be sure I have read the Bible, is this... There is no insight within the pages of the Bible that brings greater understanding to the ways of society, science, morality, and culture that could not have come from a 3,000 year old, slightly educated, morally bankrupt desert scribe who was motivated to write in order to make his words fit the prophecies before him. There is certainly no insight in the Bible that would represent the intellect one would expect from a God. The Bible is full of passages that tell its readers to dismiss and ignore all new ideas that contradict its passages. This is not wise, and it is not something to be revered. This is a safety mechanism for a book whose author knew that one day, science and culture would advance beyond the borders of this book's pages and something would be needed to hold them back. Telling people to ignore intelligence is a good way to ensure the strongest of believers stays in the shadows, gripping their Bibles for comfort as the rest of the civilized and rational world moves on to bigger and better things. I assure you, if man ever reaches the far away stars and we begin to colonize the galaxy, your Bible which you hold so dear, which you believe accurately depicts the world you live in, that Bible will not be brought along by any of the travelers. There is far more in the skies to explore than that book says is between heaven and Earth.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on the Foxhole Atheist Blog do not necessarily represent those of Atheism or all Atheists, seeing as how Atheism has no tenets, dogma or doctrines. So Suck it!