The Christian way of explaining contradictions

[Barry114149]

Hi, I have been arguing with my very religious sister and she has come at me with this

http://www.christiancourier.com/arti...contradictions


I have some ideas on how to refute but was wondering if there were any ideas out there.

[rayne]

From what I understand the article is stating that there are two types of people who assert that the bible contains contradictions: those who are misinformed (I.e wrong) and those who hate the bible.

The article gives a nice explanation as to what a contradiction is. Yu could give your sister some examples of bible contradiction directly from the scripture itself. Books and passage numbers with the contradicting passages.

This link
more links
and the links continue
shock horror more links!
and a nifty poster

[Barry114149]

I did try but she just said this:


"Context - one is Old Testament, one is new. Not a contradiction"

[rayne]

Originally Posted by Barry114149

I did try but she just said this:


"Context - one is Old Testament, one is new. Not a contradiction"

Rationalisation fail much?

[Xeno]

There are many more contradictions than are mentioned in that article, as people have linked. Consider the many tales of the death of Saul, or the king (I forget his name) who was older than his father.

The ploy to which the writer resorts later in the piece, about the blind men and Jericho, is to dream up a plausible or not disproven explanation and say therefore there is no contradiction. Pretty much any contradiction in any text can be "explained" by this post facto method of story invention. It is at once rational and silly, and that is no contradiction.

[rayne]

As her if she understands the concept of "taken out of context". The article states that a contradiction is "In logic, the Law of Contradiction is stated succinctly as follows: “Nothing can both be and not be”. Contradictions in the bible include:

The Order of Creation

Genesis 1:11-12 and 1:26-27 Trees came before Adam.
Genesis 2:4-9 Trees came after Adam.
Genesis 1:20-21 and 26-27 Birds were created before Adam.
Genesis 2:7 and 2:19 Birds were created after Adam.
Genesis 1:24-27 Animals were created before Adam.
Genesis 2:7 and 2:19 Animals were created after Adam.
Genesis 1:26-27 Adam and Eve were created at the same time.
Genesis 2:7 and 2:21-22 Adam was created first, woman sometime later.

Reference

So the bible being a book of (apparently) historical accounts written by various people that have conflicting accounts of the same story, if she doesn't believe the accounts contradict themselves then the story tellers must have taken the accounts they've heard, quote mined the best bits and retold them out of context.

[Barry114149]

Originally Posted by The Irreverent Mr Black

Crikey, Barry.

Small job, eh?

the job of a lifetime I fear

[Barry114149]

many thanks to all for this.

to answer Mr Black:

I am sure i want to blow a valve about this. I can not leave her to this as she is smarter than this. She is a bio chemist with an atheist husband it should not be like this.

[Loki]

[rayne]

Originally Posted by Barry114149

many thanks to all for this.

to answer Mr Black:

I am sure i want to blow a valve about this. I can not leave her to this as she is smarter than this. She is a bio chemist with an atheist husband it should not be like this.

A biochemist who is a believer?! I'm appalled at her lack of critical thinking skills. I expect and demand better from someone who has made a career utilising science.