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Permalink Reply by Galen on February 16, 2011 at 10:52pm

The West Wing did a take on this.  Awesome video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1-ip47WYWc

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Permalink Reply by Boci Boci Tarka on February 16, 2011 at 7:43pm

The Bible has hundreds self contradictions. Therefore, it cannot be true word by word.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Malone on February 16, 2011 at 8:59pm

With someone like this it might not be a great idea to bring up science. They generally think their face is starting to melt whenever they hear that word and think it's a big evil conspiracy. If you think about it, the word 'science' is a lot like the word "christian" really. When you say something like 'evolution' you think one thing, i.e natural selection, and she probably thinks something totally different i.e. kirk cameron holding a banana.

 

My recommendation would be to point out a few utter inconsistencies WITHIN the bible. Then point out how two contradictions can BOTH be true. Hopefully that'll help!

 

GE 1:3-5 On the first day, God created light, then separated light and darkness. 
GE 1:14-19 The sun (which separates night and day) wasn't created until the fourth day. 

GE 4:9 God asks Cain where his brother Able is. 
PR 15:3, JE 16:17, 23:24-25, HE 4:13 God is everywhere. He sees everything. Nothing is hidden from his view. (otherwise is he a trickster then??)

GE 19:30-38 While he is drunk, Lot's two daughters "lie with him," become pregnant, and give birth to his offspring. 
2PE 2:7 Lot was "just" and "righteous."

 

for more beauties like this check out this site: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/inconsistencie...

 

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Permalink Reply by Aaron A on February 16, 2011 at 10:56pm

haha I love that banana video. I posted it on facebook (bc I have a lot of christian friends on there) and none replied lol. It's sad when people ignore stuff like this which makes their religion look retarded.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Malone on February 16, 2011 at 10:58pm

oh i know, trust me. i just got rid of my facebook because of that very thing. i was just posting tons of videos like that and a couple of my "christian" friends were being douche bags about it. i ended one back and forth with "do you believe the world is 6000 years old? if so, we don't have to keep talking about this." 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Aaron A on February 16, 2011 at 10:46pm

These are all great responses which would make her think twice about the bible definitely (I'm arguing with an intellectual person, not a wacko crazyhead christian). 

 

Wish i could link her to this topic, but thing is she would probably be too close minded to even click the link or read the responses even. That's the thing about religious people (especially christians). Whenever something goes against their belief they just shut it out, not even give it a chance. That's what I hate.

 

I will reply to her with some of this stuff and I will see if she gives me a good response hehe. Thanks guys.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Malone on February 16, 2011 at 11:02pm

It's true. They don't like having their "faith" challenged. Most of them are intelligent people (I say most because I'm sooo giving) so what they don't know can't hurt them. But the second you really start looking into things the veil gets lifted. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Mario Rodgers on February 16, 2011 at 11:09pm

I would've been the same way several years ago.  I was my own worst enemy.  I was the atheist puncher.  Pulling back the curtain is often a personal decision(as was in my case), made in response to an external stimulus that shatters their perception.  If somebody else tries to do it, the response is often "The light!  Close those damn curtains!"

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Permalink Reply by Paul Hannah on February 17, 2011 at 1:10am

There are lots of internet pages on this, but you might want to take a different tack.

 

Say oh that's a nice watch (car, house or anything else) - give it to me.

 

When she refuses ask for her bible and show her Luke 6:30

 

"Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again'

 

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Colin Williams on February 17, 2011 at 4:31am

There are a number of approaches to take. These are just a few:

1. Point out that the Bible is internally inconsistent -for example, the Gospels provide very different accounts of the birth of Jesus. The 'jealous God' of the Old Testament is very different to the touchy feely forgiving God of the New Testament.
2. Point out that the 'history' of the Bible is wholly inconsistent with all known scientific evidence - the Earth is categorically not only a few thousand years old and was not created in 6 days; the fossil record and basic geology tell us that.
3. More fundamentally, observe that perhaps she should consider why she believes rather than asking for proof that her beliefs are wrong.
4. Buy her a copy of 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins - the arguments are put there with clinical clarity.

As far as the moral issue is concerned, check out almost any part of the OT, from God directing Isaac to sacrifice one of his sons (!!!!!) to Lot's wife being killed for curiosity, to the wholesale slaughter of the children of Egypt because the Pharaoh wouldn't do what God could presumably have made him do without resorting to mass infanticide! 

 

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Kirk Holden on February 17, 2011 at 5:17pm

Here is a pearl from Jared Diamond. Every single species of animal on the planet today is exactly where they are (Madagascar lemurs, Australian Marsupials...) because of completely and totally true facts that stand up under scientific peer review - facts that demonstrate to the casual observer - that all this biota evolved on an Earth with tectonic plates and changes in climates just like the earth we live in today. The earth with evolution.

 

You cannot even find a recipe for bread in the bible.

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Permalink Reply by Gene Brown on February 17, 2011 at 5:23pm

All she (you) needs to do is to read the Biblical expositories, written by numerous of the leading professors of religion / Bible Studies at various and numerous universities, to see where scholarship has repeatedly proven the Bible wrong. Take authors, such as:

    Dr. Prof. William G. Dever - his archaeological texts. He is the premier archaeologist of the Holy Land;

    Dr. Prof. Barton D. Ehrman - his complete series on who wrote the Bible; where the myths incorporated into

          the Bible come from; how the book as been mistranslated hundreds of times (and, with no original manu-

          scripts to use as a guide, NO ONE can today say with certainty what the Bible either Says nor Means), and

          on and on.

    Dr. Gary Greenberg - his two books on the myths of the Bible

    Dr. Prof. Burton Mack - on the making of the Christian myth

    Dr. Prof. Elain Pagels - her groundbreaking works on the origins of the Bible

    Bishop John Shelby Spong - his series of books in which he 'rethinks' his religion

    Dr. Prof. G.A. Wells - his most famous expository "The Jesus Legend"

    Dr. Prof. Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman - their groundbreaking text "The Bible Unearthed", soundly

          refuting the OT version of the wanderings of the early Jewish tribes.

    Lloyd M. Graham - delightful reading of his "Deceptions & Myths of the Bible"

    Ruth Hurmence Green - available thru FFRF, her book slices and dices Biblical lore in a most entertaining way.

           This would also be an excellent book for her (you) to read regarding the Bible and its vaunted Guide to

            Morality. She likewise skewers that sleight of hand!

 

These are just some of the texst from my personal library. Scholarly data is there and easily accessible; but the true questions is: will a person of 'faith' lose her faith simply because logic disproves the basis for her faith? My guess is: no.

 

gene

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