Like everyone seems like to point out, it the Bible at first glance seems to contain a lot of contradictions or things that don't seem to add up that apologists exist just to tell their interpretations. However, I realized that the fact that there are many things hard to explain in the Bible does not make it invalid and wrong, rather it confirms that it truly happened. Think about it, if the whole thing was just baloney, wouldn't the early Church and the medieval Church would try to correct the contradictions that are hard to explain? But instead it just stays there. That means that the early Christians truly believed that the stories in the Bible truly happened to the extent that what could easily look as a contradiction just stays there. This realization is also one of the few things that convinced me that the Bible truly is the Word of God.- Counter Blitzkrieg
Erm, if it was based of true events there wouldn't be any contradictions because it would be true. If you say it's inaccurate reporting then how can any of the Bible be trusted? Since God doesn't seem to want to give any evidence for his existence without the Bible you have no way of knowing anything about him. Like say, his existence. And anyway, you cant use the Bible to prove the Bible, it's circular reasoning.
The primary reason for contradictions was that the Bible may have been the Word of God, as you say, but it was written by people. A teaching that might be important in one person's life isn't as much in another's. Likewise, the same event is seen from several perspectives.
I think that is a stretch. You are free to believe that but they have weeded out books that did not agree with the editing body at the time. The contradictions are more easily explained that the editors had no vested interests in them and thus did not weed them out. The King James version was translated with the needs of the English Monarchy and the Church of England in mind just as each version pandered to whoever funded their translation or collation. The old Testament is all versions is a hodge podge of the Hebrew Bible with alterations made as well. The new testament is also a hodge podge of works from various sources that were collected to support the viewpoints of the church at the time the church canonized them.- King Manic
It was weeded out because many of those other books contradicted the main teachings of Christianity one way or another. Those minor "contradictions" does not contradict the main teachings of Christianity. Rather, they actually proved that they're written by different people who remembered things differently or that focused on only what they think is the most important part. You must remember that the Gospels were written some time after most of Paul's letters, not before. In other words, they were recited from memory of all their respective writers on what happened a while ago, and were written for different, but related, reasons.
It might also be noted that various translations of the Bible were fiddled with by medieval scholars to try and iron out some inconsistencies that seemed to crop up in it. - Saintheart
Not cool. If that's no good for you, then how about this: God's far more complex than us. When you're a kid, you don't get why your parents act the way they do, and God compared to us is more like a hamster or a mouse compared to a human. It says in the Bible, his way's aren't our ways. Some of the things in the Bible shouldn't make sense. With the Norse, Greek and Egyptian, etc. myths, they involve far less reason and sense. Apollo taking a magic chariot across the sky as the sun is one example of something ludicrous they believed happened everyday. At least with the Bible, the supernatural things are miracles and one time events, not natural phenomena. Besides, some of the contradictions just need to be put into context. -Dandelion Fire
Adults act in ways that confuse children because children do not have the same social situation as adults do. Adults have to keep their jobs, pay their bills, and generally do things that involve other people. God doesn't have that same societal pressure to act a certain way, and if He did, then that would mean He has peers and possibly even superiors.
And I suppose that man being made from dirt and woman being made from man's rib is not ludicrous at all. And please explain to me how contradictions can be explained in context. Some simply can't both be true.
Well, to be fair to God, he could make man out of anything he wanted to. Woman coming from man is supposed to reinforce the idea that women are supposed to submit to man. A lot of the things God does in scripture serve a dual purpose of getting the job done, while providing a symbol for something else. For example, marriage is instituted 1. To give a reliable way for man to reproduce, and 2. As a symbol of Christ's relationship with the Church.
Actually God supposedly does things every day that don't make any sense. In fact, he supposedly does EVERYTHING, which certainly doesn't make any sense if Apollo being the sun doesn't. — Black Humor
I figured some of those things (David having multiple wives and a lot of stuff mentioned in Leviticus, for example) were recorded to give us a picture of those times and so future generations would know better. The Bible WAS written by humans...with the Lord working through them.
This is a statement of personal analysis and a lot of discussion, not an example of fridge brilliance within the word.
Removed:
This is a statement of personal analysis and a lot of discussion, not an example of fridge brilliance within the word.