Due to a suggestion from The Irish Ram, I have decided to start this thread about the contradictions in the Bible as a means to address problems people may have with it. If you don't have anything reasonable or constructive to say, please don't post here.
Go ahead, post any contradictions or problems you have with Bible and we shall debate it (please cite the passages used, I don't feel like spending my whole day searching through the Bible).
Many people can probably list endless specific contradictions many of which i have read.
However these are a few of my personal observations which may not be specific contradictions within biblical verse but instead just overall contradictory ideas.
First of all some of the miracles which the bible describes.
People of ancient ( biblical ) times were obviously more primitive and not as scientifically advanced and therefore were more likely to place some supernatural blame on something like earthquakes, floods disease or whatever other disaster they were faced with.
Therefore it seems that they did not need miracles to believe in god so much as they needed miracles to believe in a specific god.
On the other hand today we have a much more clear understanding of what causes various disasters and so it would seem that if a deity wanted us to believe in it that we would get more miracles and bigger ones in order to convince us that it is not nature causing the calamities we face.
Obviously we do not however. Miracles seem to have stopped some time after the ascension. A couple of minor ones took place but hardly as significant as walking on water.
Even more puzzling however is the earlier miracles of the Old testament.
Even though I stated above that the people were more primitive and not as scientifically educated they were not stupid. Yet this is how the ancient Hebrews seem to be described.
The Hebrews were held captive in egypt and forced to be slaves until moses came along as Gods agent to lead them to freedom.
One of the first miracles we see when he begins this mission is two staffs ( pieces of wood ) turning into snakes. One belonged to his brother Aaron and one to a magician of the Pharoh. The Snake which was once Aarons staff swallowed up the other thus one proving the hebrew gods superiority. However we are led to believe that there is only one God. If that is so then it would have made more sense to have ONLY Aarons staff turn into a snake while the other one just remained a piece of wood.
After this minor miracle the Hebrews and Egyptians are witness to the biggest and most spectacular miracles of the bible. The nile turning to blood etc. Then the Hebrews finally are liberated and run for it. Of course Pharoh pursues and they are nearly cornered at the Red sea. They then witness the mother of all miracles when the water parts, they cross the dry space between the water, pharohs army pursues and is promptly destroyed when the force ( god ) holding back the water releases the sea.
Now lots of criticism can be said here but I'll get back to that. The main point is that after watching this miracle which defies all the laws of physics the Hebrews head into the desert near Mt. Sinai and wait while Moses heads up the mountian to recieve the ten commandments. What do they do in the meantime? They make themselves an idol of gold in the shape of a cow and start worshipping it instead.
It seems to me that most people having witnessed the miracles these people are supposed to have seen would never again doubt the existence of god but they toss their belief out the door at the first opportunity. I know such a miracle would make me a believer until the day I died.
I find it hard to believe that anyone would be that stupid. Now some will say it was teaching a lesson about mans disloyalty to god and the consequences and so forth. I agree that many biblical stories are filled with such lessons but this one makes no sense and if it IS just a story then it undermines the whole idea of god in the first place.
Getting back to the whole parting of the sea I would think that word would spread quickly about such an event and with Egypt defenseless ( their army was destroyed ) other rival kingdoms would have taken advantage. Not to mention that the pharoh dumb enough to send his Army into such an obvious death trap could never hope to maintain his throne for long.
Hope that this is sort of what you were looking for
