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Old Testament Contradictions
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Problem: Abraham was 75 or 135 when he left Haran 
Verses: Genesis 12:4, others; Status: Weak

According to Genesis 11:26Genesis 11:32, and Acts 7:4, the following statements seem to be true:

  • Terah was 70 when he fathered Abram.
  • Terah was 205 when he died (i.e. 135 years later).
  • Abram left the land of Haran after Terah died (and therefore, was over 135).

Yet this is Genesis 12:4:

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (ESV)

This is a prima facie contradiction, but there are at least two responses. Firstly, one of the verses I mentioned, Acts 7:4, is part of a speech given by Stephen. Stephen was just a man. If it had been Jesus speaking, I would see the problem, but it's not obvious to me that Stephen's words are endorsed by the Bible as completely accurate.

But lets suppose they are. In that case, another of those verses, Genesis 11:26 becomes crucial:

When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. (ESV)

Looking Unto Jesus says that this verse "simply reveals that Terah began to have children at the age of 70", and then goes on to claim that Terah was 130 when Abram was born. This explanation has some plausibility, if you're willing to accept that the births are not listed in chronological order. However, the ESV translation gives the impression that all three offspring were born when Terah was roughly 70 (though unless they were triplets, there must be some vagueness here). But many other translations more clearly allow the possibility that there was a long period of time between the births. Here's the NIV:

After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. (NIV)

The key difference being the word "after". This seems a fairly technical translation issue, which I can't pass judgement on. Anyway, the argument from Looking Unto Jesus, combined with the fact that you don't necessarily have to take Stephen's speech as completely accurate, leads me to file this as Weak.



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Problem: God's name Yahweh was or wasn't known 
Verses: Genesis 15:7, Exodus 6:3; Status: Serious

Note: It is standard practice in Biblical translation to translate the Hebrew name of God - "Yahweh" - as "the LORD", with capital letters. For the sake of the particular issue I am about to discuss, I shall untranslate it back to "Yahweh" in the relevant Bible quotations. You can verify that the word "Yahweh" does indeed appear in the Hebrew with an online Interlinear translation.

The following (Exodus 6:3) is God talking to Moses:

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them. (ESV)

Yet in fact, God did use the name "Yahweh" when talking to Abraham (also known as Abram). This is the earlier passage Genesis 15:7:

And he said to him [Abram], "I am Yahweh who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." (ESV)

That seems as clear as contradictions come.

Nevertheless, the NIV Study Bible has this to say:

This does not necessarily mean that the patriarchs were totally ignorant of the name Yahweh ("the LORD"), but it indicates that they did not understand its full implications as the name of the One who would redeem his people.

I don't see this as a natural reading of the text. I imagine that anyone who was unaware of Genesis 15:7 would think Exodus 6:3 was a relatively simple statement of fact. Still, something along these lines is an inerrantist's best bet. The NET Bible's notes argue for this position, and may be worth reading. I can't totally rule out that this is correct.



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Problem: Josiah died at Megiddo or Jerusalem 
Verses: 2 Kings 23:29-30, 2 Chronicles 35:23-24; Status: Serious

Josiah was slain by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt. But there is an apparent contradiction as to whether he died at Megiddo where the battle was, or later in Jerusalem. This is 2 Kings 23:29-30:

In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him. Andhis servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place. (ESV)

Note carefully the wording of 2 Kings. It does not just say that the fatal blow was delivered in Megiddo (leaving open the possibility that he died later). It says that his servants carried Josiah's dead body from Megiddo back to Jerusalem. This is no small distance: about 50 miles. By contrast, this is 2 Chronicles 35:23-24:

And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am badly wounded." So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot andbrought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. (ESV)

2 Chronicles seems to say that Josiah was still alive when the chariot reached Jerusalem. The only way out of this problem is to claim that actually, he died during the journey. Does the text of 2 Chronicles allow the possibility that Josiah died in transit? This is not the natural reading - one expects a competent author to write in chronological order - but it's just about possible. I should note though that other Bible translations make it more explicit that Josiah died in Jerusalem. For example, here is the NIV's version of 2 Chronicles 35:24:

So they took him out of his chariot, put him in the other chariot he had and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. (NIV)

The NASB and NRSV translations of 2 Chronicles agree that he died in Jerusalem, in which case 2 Kings is clearly wrong about his dead body being moved from Megiddo.



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Problem: God forbids and commands murder 
Verses: Exodus 20:13, 1 Samuel 15:2-3; Status: Serious

The Sixth Commandment, found in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17 is variously rendered as "You shall not murder" or "You shall not kill".

Yet there are various places in the Bible where God commands or seems to approve of murder. Not all killing is murder, of course, but in some cases it can be described as little else. Here's 1 Samuel 15:2-3:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.' (ESV)

A lot of apologists make much of the fact that the Amalekites were chronically at war with the Israelites for hundreds of years, quite probably inflicting similar horrors on them. But the children would clearly be blameless in that matter, and the women mostly so; and obviously nobody is responsible for events that occurred before their birth.

The strongest inerrantist argument I'm aware of is roughly as follows:

  1. The Amalekites were a persistent problem and had to be dealt with
  2. Upon killing the males, it would be impossible (in those days) to care for the captive women and children...
  3. ...unless God himself intervened to miraculously solve that problem, but God doesn't do large-scale miracles very often
  4. And so killing them quickly was the most merciful course of action possible.

My problem is, the killings still contradict the Sixth Commandment. I also think that point 3 is rather weak - an omnipotent, omniscient God could clearly come up with subtle solutions that wouldn't involve gross manifestations of divine power.



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Problem: The city of Tyre survived 
Verses: Ezekiel 26:7-14; Status: Serious

For about 15 years, the city of Tyre was under seige from King Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet Ezekiel, evidently writing while this was happening, predicted Tyre's sack and total ruin by Nebuchadnezzar. This isEzekiel 26:7-14:

7 For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a host of many soldiers. 8 He will kill with the sword your daughters on the mainland. He will set up a siege wall against you and throw up a mound against you, and raise a roof of shields against you. 9 He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. 10 His horses will be so many that their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen and wagons and chariots, when he enters your gates as men enter a city that has been breached. 11 With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your mighty pillars will fall to the ground. 12 They will plunder your riches and loot your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. Your stones and timber and soil they will cast into the midst of the waters. 13 And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more. 14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the LORD; I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. (ESV)

This is not just a vague prophecy of Tyre's destruction some time in the future. It tells us precisely who will be responsible: Nebuchadnezzar. However, his seige ended in 573 BC with a negotiated settlement. He never did destroy the city, and so Ezekiel's prophecy did not occur. Ezekiel gets one thing right: Tyre wasn't rebuilt after the seige - because it wasn't destroyed.

Repentance?

Stephen McCormick (who gave permission to be named) wrote to me, to suggest that perhaps the people of Tyre repented of their sins in response to the prophecy, and so God did not carry out his threat. Something similar happens in the events of Jonah 3.

This is not a terrible suggestion, but it does suffer from the fact that this repentence, if it occurred, is not recorded, and so the reader of the Bible is left with the wrong idea about what the significance of this prophecy actually is. As it stands, it seems to be a straightforward statement about future events.

The strongest reply

The Tektonics website notes that, at one point, the prophecy refers to the invaders as "they", and argues that "they" are someone else: the "many nations" mentioned at verse 3. This is a very unnatural reading - I expect everyone reading Ezekiel 26 for the first time thinks that "they" refers to Nebuchadnezzar's troops, rather than anyone else.

In any case, most of the prophecy refers to "he", which can only mean Nebuchadnezzar. Verses 10-11 tell us that "he" will enter through the city gates, trampling through all of the streets, and killing the people. But "he" never did. So the problem still stands, even if we ignore the "they" sentences.

Tyre was an island city, with associated suburbs on the mainland. Tektonics claims that these verses refer only to such suburbs, but I don't see why they should. The island was Tyre proper - as shown by verses 4-5predicting that Tyre would become "a bare rock ... in the midst of the sea". These verses surely indicate that Ezekiel understood "Tyre" to mean the island. So when he predicts that Nebuchadnezzar would rampage through all of Tyre's streets, he must mean on the island.

Further support for my position comes from verse 8: "He will kill with the sword your daughters on the mainland." These "daughters" are the mainland suburbs, and so it's clear that Ezekiel distinguishes between them and Tyre proper. In the following verses, he predicts that Nebuchadnezzar will bring devastation not only to "your daughters" but also to "you" - which must therefore mean Tyre itself.

Never rebuilt?

Despite Ezekiel saying it would never be rebuilt, Tyre exists to this day (the island and mainland having been connected now), and its inhabitants are even mentioned, in the present tense, several times in the New Testament (e.g. at Acts 12:20).



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“The Exodus is a Myth”

Un exode qui ne serait qu�un mythe – An exodus which was merely a myth

Click for larger image

From http://hebdo.ahram.org.eg/arab/ahram/2007/4/18/voy2.htm

An exodus which was merely a myth

On the site of an ancient fortress, in northern Sinai, archaeologists of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has announced that it had found some pumice stones, evidence of the terrible disaster and the first known tsunami in history. The volcanic rocks projected in the Sinai during the eruption, 3500 years ago, the volcano Cycladic of Thera, confirm stories Pharaohs.

The cataclysm of Thera, the current Santorini in the Aegean Sea, has been presented through innumerable writings as having preceded or caused the ten plagues of Egypt explained, or a punishment reserved for Levites revolted against Moses. “This discovery is not provided proof of the exodus, archaeology does not confirm this, and it is a myth,” said Zahi Hawas, secretary general of the CSA. That the explosion of the volcano occurred, resulting in the decline of the Minoan civilization, Crete. A massive tidal wave would have resulted in the death of 35000 people on the coast south of the Mediterranean and in ashes villages in Egypt, Palestine and the Arabian peninsula. For Zahi Hawas, “if the exodus has occurred, what we do not know, it can not be at this time, but two centuries later, under Ramses II. However, the presence of ash and volcanic rocks on the site of the ancient fortress of Tharo to Tell Hebwa, confirms, in his view, ancient inscriptions referring to the expulsion of the Hyksos, enemies of the Egyptians. Texts suggest, in fact , natural disasters occurred during the era of the Hyksos, a military caste came from the east, and their exodus before the start of the New Kingdom, carried out shortly by the eruption of the Thera volcano. For example, several stories relating to this war show up on a stele of the temple of Karnak S�ti I do, in a description of the route of Horus in a text under Thoutmotsis III or on a papyrus on the war waged by King Ahmos.

The skeletons hyksos

The team also discovered in the Sinai desert the ruins of a fort with four rectangular towers, which date from the eighteenth pharaonic dynasty. This fortress is now considered the oldest structure on the military line of defense, also known as Route Horus. But there was not the slightest proof of the story of the Old Testament, the story of Moses and the Jews, and their exodus from Egypt and their wandering in the wilderness. Two female skeletons, pottery and jewelry were recovered. Those remains were members of the civilization hyksos, an enemy of the people of the ancient Egyptians.

The researchers argue that this discovery is particularly interesting because of the volcanic rocks found on the site of the excavations. They believe that these are traces left by the eruption of Santorini volcano, more than 15 centuries before Christ. Santorini is a small archipelago of volcanic islands in the Aegean Sea, south-east of mainland Greece. This volcano would then have killed more than 35000 people and wiped out the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete.

The intersection of war

Showing the foundations of the fort of the XVIIIth dynasty, the oldest ever found in this line of defense, known as the road of Horus, Mohamad Abdel-Maqsoud, the leader of excavations and the director of the central administration of Egyptian antiquities, said that it is testimony to the fierceness of the fighting. “It is here that was established the first large lock of the empire against the conquerors from the east, as the Hyksos,” he says, whereas today the Suez Canal is only 5 km. But the basis for subsequent attacks in the Pharaonic empire in the direction of Palestine, with the establishment of a chain composed of a dozen strongholds until what is now known as the Gaza Strip.

This story may have inspired the biblical story of the exodus, according to some scholars. “They can say what they want, I detailed, did not hesitate to say Hawas. I am an archaeologist and my job is to tell the truth. If the truth disturbed, it’s not my problem. ” The story of the exodus is celebrated as a crucial moment in the creation of the Jewish people. According to the Old Testament, Moses was the son of a Jewish slave who had abandoned on the Nile in a wicker basket to protect the Pharaoh’s persecution. Rescued from the waters by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in the court, he will discover the secret of its origins and, with God’s help, will free his people. But archaeologists working in the region have never managed to substantiate the biblical narrative, as to the presence of the Jews in Egypt, there is only one archaeological discovery may confirm it. Many books have been written on the subject, but the debate is for the most part remained quiet in order not to offend believers.

“Without historical evidence, we are forced to say that some things are never arrived: it is the job of an archaeologist,” Hawas. The site is a two-hour drive from Cairo, after the bridge Mubarak, in the northern Sinai, in a region called East Qantara. For nearly a decade, archaeologists returning Egyptian soil with the help of surrounding towns daily to try to unearth remnants of the past. This desolate landscape, which is the monotony broken only by a few electrical towers, has generated enthusiasm because it confirms stories told in hieroglyphics or going back to antiquity. The archaeological remains dating in fact more or less at the time, according to the Bible, the Jews fled Egypt and then spent forty years wandering in the wilderness in search of the Promised Land. “The exodus is a myth,” said Hawas front of a wall built during the period known as the New Kingdom.



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Did the Red Sea Part? No Evidence, Archaeologists Say

Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times

A worker removed sand from the remains of a military fort. The ruins roughly coincide with the timing of the Israelites’ biblical flight from Egypt

Published: April 3, 2007

NORTH SINAI, Egypt, April 2 — On the eve of Passover, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the story of Moses leading the Israelites through this wilderness out of slavery, Egypt’s chief archaeologisttook a bus full of journalists into the North Sinai to showcase his agency’s latest discovery.

Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times

A grave containing a female skeleton near the military fort. Egyptian archaeologists say no evidence has surfaced to confirm the Exodus story.

It didn’t look like much — some ancient buried walls of a military fort and a few pieces of volcanic lava. The archaeologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, often promotes mummies and tombs and pharaonic antiquities that command international attention and high ticket prices. But this bleak landscape, broken only by electric pylons, excited him because it provided physical evidence of stories told in hieroglyphics. It was proof of accounts from antiquity.

That prompted a reporter to ask about the Exodus, and if the new evidence was linked in any way to the story of Passover. The archaeological discoveries roughly coincided with the timing of the Israelites’ biblical flight from Egypt and the 40 years of wandering the desert in search of the Promised Land.

“Really, it’s a myth,” Dr. Hawass said of the story of the Exodus, as he stood at the foot of a wall built during what is called the New Kingdom.

Egypt is one of the world’s primary warehouses of ancient history. People here joke that wherever you stick a shovel in the ground you find antiquities. When workers built a sewage system in the downtown Cairo neighborhood of Dokki, they accidentally scattered shards of Roman pottery. In the middle-class neighborhood of Heliopolis, tombs have been discovered beneath homes.

But Egypt is also a spiritual center, where for centuries men have searched for the meaning of life. Sometimes the two converge, and sometimes the archaeological record confirms the history of the faithful. Often it does not, however, as Dr. Hawass said with detached certainty.

“If they get upset, I don’t care,” Dr. Hawass said. “This is my career as an archaeologist. I should tell them the truth. If the people are upset, that is not my problem.”

The story of the Exodus is celebrated as the pivotal moment in the creation of the Jewish people. As the Bible tells it, Moses was born the son of a Jewish slave, who cast him into the Nile in a basket so the baby could escape being killed by the pharaoh. He was saved by the pharaoh’s daughter, raised in the royal court, discovered his Jewish roots and, with divine help, led the Jewish people to freedom. Moses is said to have ascended Mt. Sinai, where God appeared in a burning bush and Moses received the Ten Commandments.

In Egypt today, visitors to Mount Sinai are sometimes shown a bush by tour guides and told it is the actual bush that burned before Moses.

But archaeologists who have worked here have never turned up evidence to support the account in the Bible, and there is only one archaeological find that even suggests the Jews were ever in Egypt. Books have been written on the topic, but the discussion has, for the most part, remained low-key as the empirically minded have tried not to incite the spiritually minded.

“Sometimes as archaeologists we have to say that never happened because there is no historical evidence,” Dr. Hawass said, as he led the journalists across a rutted field of stiff and rocky sand.

The site was a two-hour drive from Cairo, over the Mubarak Peace Bridge into the Northern Sinai area called Qantara East. For nearly 10 years, Egyptian archaeologists have scratched away at the soil here, using day laborers from nearby towns to help unearth bits of history. It is a vast expanse of nothingness, a flat desert moonscape. Two human skeletons were recently uncovered, their bones positioned besides pottery and Egyptian scarabs.

As archaeological sites go, it is clearly a stepchild to the more sought-after digs in other parts of the country that have revealed treasures of pharaonic times. A barefoot worker in a track suit tried to press through the crowd to get the officials leading the tour to give him his pay, and tramped off angrily when he was rebuffed.

Recently, diggers found evidence of lava from a volcano in the Mediterranean Sea that erupted in 1500 B.C. and is believed to have killed 35,000 people and wiped out villages in Egypt, Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula, officials here said. The same diggers found evidence of a military fort with four rectangular towers, now considered the oldest fort on the Horus military road.

But nothing was showing up that might help prove the Old Testament story of Moses and the Israelites fleeing Egypt, or wandering in the desert. Dr. Hawass said he was not surprised, given the lack of archaeological evidence to date. But even scientists can find room to hold on to beliefs.

Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, the head of the excavation, seemed to sense that such a conclusion might disappoint some. People always have doubts until something is discovered to confirm it, he noted.

Then he offered another theory, one that he said he drew from modern Egypt.

“A pharaoh drowned and a whole army was killed,” he said recounting the portion of the story that holds that God parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape, then closed the waters on the pursuing army.

“This is a crisis for Egypt, and Egyptians do not document their crises.”



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A DAY IS A DAY, NO EXCUSES!

 

    Have you been reading the latest from the Catholic church?  Apparently they have decided to admit in the face of OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE that Evolution did indeed happen.  Gee, they’ve come along way!  I suppose since they aren’t a government any more that can’t poke out the eyes of leading scientists like they did in Galileo’s day.  Shouldn’t evolution invalidate the Biblical/Pentateuch creation account, hence throwing Christianity in the toilet?  (Even orthodox Jews are now claiming that Genesis is metaphorical and not literal.)  Why yes it should, but the Catholic church presented a loop hole that the masses have been touting as a mantra ever since.  I’m sure you all heard the lie they are spreading, the lie which tries to reconcile evolution with the 6 days of creation.  It’s the “a day can be like a thousand years to god” lie!  Here is an excellent example of this lie in use:

The Jehovah’s Witnesses argument that each of the six days encompasses thousands of years:

    “... some may say even the idea of this planet passing from a ‘formless and waste’ condition to its present form with continents, forests, plants, animals, and men, all in just six 24-hour days--this still is incredible!  But where does the Genesis account say that the 6 days were 24-hours each?  Though some religious groups teach this, the Genesis account does not say it.  You yourself use the expression ‘day’ in a broad sense of your ‘grandfather’s day.’  Likewise the Bible often used the word ‘day’ in a broad sense-Genesis 2:4.  Keep in mind that the works spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis are those of God, not of man... Are God’s ‘days’ of work controlled by the rotation of this globe?  Obviously not.  Of God, the Bible says: ’One day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day’(2 Peter 3:8). And that even to God a ‘day’ can have more than one meaning is seen when comparing this text with Psalm 90:4 which says: ‘A thousand years are in your eyes but. . .as a watch during the night.’ So it is plain that the word ‘day’ can be used to refer to a 24-hour day, a person’s lifetime, 1,000 years or even longer” (Is the Bible Really the Word of God, p.18-19).

    You free thinkers reading this are surely nodding your head knowing the fault in this circular reasoning.  You Christians reading this are probably still clinging to the mantra like a pedophile to a 6 year old boy.  Well, no matter how hard you try to hold on Jesus pimps, I’m going to blow a hole through your lie and spread it’s short comings to everyone I meet.  We all know I find it my self appointed duty to expose the Christian/Jewish scriptures.  Which is precisely what I’ll do right now:

    FACT: the world is at least 4.6 billion years old.  The bible claims to be approximately 6,500.  Christians try to argue this by saying the usage of the word “day” in genesis is actually a term for thousands of years in time.  This rationalization, they believe can help evolution be accepted into the bible. In other words Christians are trying to say that the word “day” is not meant to be as a 24 hour period.  This idea is COMPLETELY FALSE AND NOT PLAUSIBLE.  All it takes is a little research into the meaning of the Hebrew word for day and the usage of it in consistency.  Of course, it should be common knowledge that the first five books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew.  The Hebrew word for day used in the genesis is account is “yom”, which is a definite 24-hour period.  Christians attempt to say that because there was no sun until the fourth day, that the word yom is null and void.  This cant be, for the lord claimed there was light, a morning and an evening PRIOR to the sun being created, hence the sun was not even needed.  (Also note another contradiction here, that Christians/Jews refuse to notice. They’ll claim the word yom is void because there is no sun, yet that would mean that there couldn’t have been light or a way to decipher between morning and evening. Obviously this is a MAJOR scientific blunder on Jehovah’s behalf.)  Now this fact alone pretty much blows the **** out of the bible, but let’s pretend to accept the word yom is really meant for eons of time, how then can we reconcile the following?:

1) If a day is an era, why are an evening and a morning even mentioned?  Actual days must be intended, otherwise, men who lived hundreds of years, e.g., Seth and Noah, would really have lived millions of years.  If a day is an era, then a year must be tremendously long, perhaps encompassing hundreds of millions of years;

2) If a day is an era, then much of the Old Testament becomes chaotic.  For example, in each of the following verses the same Hebrew word “yom” is employed: “And the flood was forty days upon the earth” (Genesis 7: 1 7), “And he [Moses] was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 34:28), and “Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights...” (Deuteronomy 9:25). If “yom” means era instead of a 24-hour period, Moses was “there with the Lord” for a VERY long time.

3) If a day means more than 24-hour period, then how are we to interpret the following verses, as well as scores of others.  “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath. . . . in it thou shalt not work... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth… and rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:9-11).

4) Genesis 1:16 (“And God made two great lights: The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night”) states the sun rules the day and the moon rules the night.  This obviously is referring to time as we know it, time with days that are 24 hours long with daylight ruling half of each.

5) Adam was made on the sixth day (Genesis 1:26-31) which was supposedly thousand of years long.  This was followed by the 7th day which was also thousands of years long. Following the 7th day, Adam fell into sin and was expelled from the Garden.  This would mean Adam lived thousands of years, which is false, since he died at age 930 (Genesis 5:5).

6) Genesis 1:5 surely spoke of literal day and literal night, and the inference from the statement, “And the evening and the morning were the first day,” is that it was a literal day of evening and morning, 24-hours.  There is no Biblical evidence that the days of this chapter were longer periods.

7) If we do try to buy into what the Jehovah’s quote as “a day can be a thousand years” even this isn’t sufficient enough time.  For the earth is at least 4.6 billion.  The biblical passages concerning time should’ve read that days can be like MILLIONS of years.  Obviously, their claim falls apart under mathematic speculation.

For those of you Christians who are STILL clinging to the idea that evolution can be reconciled with the bible, take a little advice from one of your own brethren on the matter. The following is a CHRISTIAN AUTHOR who admits that the word yom does mean a 24 hour period in the creation account:

"The Hebrew word for ‘day’ is ‘yom’ and this word can occasionally be used to mean an indefinite period of time, if the content warrants.  In the overwhelming preponderance of its occurrences in the O.T., however, it means a literal day…  Still further, the plural form of the word (Hebrew 'yamim') is used over 700 times in the O.T. and always, without exception, refers to literal ‘days.’"  (The Bible Has the Answers, Henry Morris, p. 94).

Obviously even Creationist Morris admits the idea that each day represented an era is ridiculous. Not only is the day-age theory unacceptable scripturally, but it also is grossly in conflict with the geological position with which it attempts to compromise.  My suggestion?  Make a valid justification as to how the creation account can be plausible, until then don’t pimp feeble lies to cover up for your even more errant book.



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Absurd Torah “Science”

 

    The Torah is VERY errant and contradictive to that of scientific facts.  The first book of Genesis alone should be enough to invalidate Judaism to any INTELLIGENT person.  Sadly, not only is Judaism still one of the world’s leading religions, but it has spawned the most insane theism (Christianity).  The goal of this page is to expose the inaccuracies of the Torah, hence shooting down its divine claim.  All the verses shall appear in chronological order.  Feel free to copy what ever you wish.

1) The Genesis 1 creation account conflicts with the order of events that are known to science. Genesis 1:1 The earth is created before light and stars, birds and whales before reptiles and insects, and flowering plants before any animals.  From science, we know that the true order of events was just the opposite.

2) “And God said, Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) and “. . .And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1 :5), versus “And God said, ‘Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night....’ “And God made two lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also…  And the evening and morning were the fourth day” (Genesis 1 :14-19).  These violates two major facts.  Light cannot exist without a sun, and secondly, how can morning be distinguished from evening unless there is a sun and moon?  Christians try to claim that god is the light he is referring to yet, considering the context it is quite obvious that the light god is speaking of is the light emitted by the sun.  Just another feeble attempt at trying to rationalize such a MAJOR blunder.

3) God spends one-sixth of his entire creative effort (the second day) working on a solid firmament (Genesis 1:6-8).  This strange structure, which God calls heaven, is intended to separate the higher waters from the lower waters.  This firmament, if it existed, would have been quite an obstacle to our space program.

4) Plants are made on the third day (Genesis 1:11) before there was a sun to drive their photosynthetic processes (Genesis 1:14-19).

5) “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind…  ‘And the evening and the morning were the third day” (Genesis 1:11-13), versus “And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life…  And God created - great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly…  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day” (Genesis 1:20-23).  Genesis says that life existed first on the land as plants and later the seas teemed with living creatures.  Geological science can prove that the sea teemed with animals and vegetable life long before vegetation and life appeared on land.

6) “And God said, ‘Let the water bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (Genesis 1:20).  Birds did not emerge from water.

7) "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, the beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.  And God made…every thing that creepth upon the earth after his kind…" (Genesis 1:24-25).  Science contends that reptiles were created long before mammals, not simultaneously.  While reptiles existed in the Carboniferous Age, mammals did not appear until the close of the Reptilian Age.

8) “So God created man in his own image,...male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27), and “the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31). If Adam was created on the 6th day, approximately 6,000 years ago (Bishop Usher’s calculations), then nobody lived before 4,000 B.C. Prehistoric men would be fictitious.  By tracing the genealogy of Jesus back 77 generations to Adam, the third chapter of Luke also supports belief in a very young earth.  If each man had lived approximately 100 years, then the world would be no more than 9,684 (7,700 + 1984) years old.  If each of Jesus’ ancestors had lived to be 1,000 years old (an age not even reached by Methuselah), the earth would still be only 78,984 (77,000 + 1984) years old, according to creationists.

9) “And to every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Genesis 1:30).  Carnivorous beasts and fowl do not eat green herbs, nor were all animals originally herbivores. Simply consider tapeworms, vampire bats, mosquitoes, barracudas, tigers, etc.

10) In Genesis 1, the entire creation takes 6 days (Genesis 1:31), at the end of which the earth and its living things are pretty much as they are today.  But we know from modern science that the universe (including the earth and life on earth) evolved slowly over billions of years.

11) In Genesis 2:7 humans are created instantaneously from dust and breath, whereas they actually evolved over millions of years from simpler life forms.  Science can in fact trace back human evolution CONCLUSIVELY 3 .2 million years.

12) God makes the animals (Genesis 2:18) and parades them before Adam to see if any would strike his fancy.  But none seem to have what it takes to please him.  After making the animals, God has Adam name them all.  The naming of several million species must have kept Adam busy for a while, why Adam would still have to be living for we haven’t even discovered nor named all the species.  Also consider the idea of every living creature being brought to the Middle East, that would have killed many animals due to climatic changes.

13) God curses the serpent, making him crawl on his belly and eat dust (Genesis 3:14).  One wonders how he got around before -- by hopping on his tail, perhaps?  But snakes don’t eat dust, do they?

14) “There were giants in the earth in those days.” Genesis 6:4 But there is no archaeological evidence for the existence of these giants.  Also there is a reference to the “Nephilim” being on the earth.  Which is a term used for half angel, half human.  Why is there no archaeological evidence for the existence of the Nephilim either?

15) Noah is told to make an ark that is 450 feet long (Genesis 6:14-15).  The largest wooden ships ever built were just over 300 feet, and they required diagonal iron strapping for support.  Even so, they leaked so badly that they had to be pumped constantly.  Are we to believe that Noah, with no shipbuilding knowledge and no shipbuilding tradition to rely upon, was able to construct a wooden ship that was longer than any that has been built since?

16) Whether by twos or by sevens, Noah takes male and female representatives from each species of “every thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 7:8).  Now this must have taken some time, along with expert knowledge of taxonomy, genetics, biogeography, and anatomy.  How did Noah manage to collect the endemic species from the New World, Australia, Polynesia, and other remote regions entirely unknown to him?  How, once he found them, did he transport them back to his Near Eastern home?  How could he tell the male and female beetles (there are more than 500,000 species) apart?  How did he know how to care for these new and unfamiliar animals?  How did he find the space on the ark?  How did he manage to find and care for the hundreds of thousands of parasitic species or the hundreds of thousands of plant species?  (Plants are ignored in the Genesis account, but the animals wouldn’t last long if the plants died in the flood.)  No, wait, don’t tell me, a miracle happened, millions of them.

17) All of the animals boarded the ark “in the selfsame day” (Genesis 7:13-14).  Since there were several million species involved, they must have boarded at a rate of at least 100 per second.  How did poor Noah and his family make sure that the correct number of each species entered through the door and then get them all settled into their proper living quarters so efficiently?  I wish the airline companies could do as well!

18) The flood covered the highest mountain tops (Mount Everest?) with fifteen cubits to spare (Genesis 7:20).  Where did all the water come from?  Where did it all go?  Why is there no evidence of such a massive flood in the geological record?

19) When the animals left the ark (Genesis 8:19), what would they have eaten?  There would have been no plants after the ground had been submerged for nearly a year.  What would the carnivores have eaten?  Whatever prey they ate would have gone extinct.  And how did the New World primates or the Australian marsupials find there way back after the flood subsided?

20) Noah kills the “clean beasts” and burns their dead bodies for God (Genesis 8:20).  According to Genesis 7:8 this would have caused the extinction of all “clean” animals since only two of each were taken onto the ark.  So why is it that we still have “clean” animals?

21) God is filled with remorse for having drowned his creatures in the flood.  He even puts the rainbow in the sky so that whenever the animals see it they will remember God’s promise not to do it again (Genesis 9:13).  But rainbows are caused by the nature of light, the refractive index of water, and the shape of raindrops.  There were rainbows billions of years before humans existed.

22) “The whole earth was of one language” (Genesis 11:1).  But this could not be true, since by this time (around 2400 BCE) there were already many languages, each unintelligible to the others.

23) (Genesis. 11:4) According to the Tower of Babel story, the many human languages were created instantaneously by God (Genesis 11:9)  But actually the various languages evolved gradually over long periods of time.

24) (Genesis 14:14) Abram goes into pursuit looking for his captive relative in the city of Dan.  The problem here is that the city of Dan did not exist until over 300 years after Moses died.  How is it that Abram could enter the city of Dan, when the city did not even exist?

25) Jacob displays his (and God’s) knowledge of biology by having goats copulate while looking at streaked rods.  The result is streaked baby goats (Genesis 30:37).  The author of Genesis (God?) believed that genetic characteristics of the offspring are determined by what the parents see at the moment of conception.  This is a laughable belief.  Ask any animal husbandrist.

26) Camels don’t divide the hoof (Leviticus 11:4).  This statement is completely moronic for every TEENAGER knows what a “camel toe” and how it used to describe a specific split.

27) The bible says that hares and conies are unclean because they “chew the cud” but do not part the hoof (Leviticus 11:5-6).  But hares and coneys are not ruminants and they do not “chew the cud.”

28) Bats are birds to the biblical God (Leviticus 11:13-19 & Deuteronomy 14:11-18).

29) Some birds have four feet (Leviticus 11:20-21).

30) If there is a God, there is one thing we know for sure about him: He really likes insects (particularly beetles).  There are more species of insects, by far, than all other species of life on earth.  As JBS Haldane said, “he has an inordinate fondness for beetles.”  Yet insects are said to have four legs in Leviticus 11:22-23.

31) Unicorns have never existed, yet they are said to in Deuteronomy 33:17.

32) Fiery serpents have NEVER existed yet Numbers 21:6 claims they do and TO THIS DAY STILL inhabit certain cities.



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Evils, Atrocities and Injustices of the Torah

    The following is a very SHORT list of sadistic acts that are commanded, allowed, or threatened by God and his “righteous” men.  All of these verses can be found in the Torah.  (which are the first five books of the Bible.)  I have put them in chronological order so that you may verify them as you read along.  (Keep in mind that the scriptures literally have an atrocity on every other page.  So this list will keep evolving as I work through the Pentateuch yet again.  To compile a full list may take months, so feel free to check back in later.)  God entraps humans by placing the tree of knowledge in the garden and telling Adam and Eve not to eat of it.  This is rather similar to placing a toy in front of a child and telling them they are not allowed to play with it.  God created us with instinct, rebellion, and curiosity.  Soon he punishes us for only doing what is part of our nature.  Genesis 2:16.47

God now commands that all women must have health hazardous labors for Eve ate the fruit. In no way shape or form is it just that I must pay for the sins of my ancestors. Genesis 3:16

God caused sibling rivalry by favoring Abel over Cain, with absolutely no attempt at justification.  This act of favoritism led to Abel’s death.  Genesis 4:3-5

Genesis 7:23 He killed, intentionally, every man, woman, and child on the planet save eight of them.

God commands Hagar go back into servanthood and bear children for her master though she does not want to.  Genesis 16:7-9

Genesis 19:23-25 God burns down a whole city (women and children included) simply because they were supposedly homosexual.

Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and that the Lord slew him.  How was Er wicked? The Bible doesn’t give us this bit of information, only that Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord.  Genesis 38:7

Genesis 38:10 God murders Onan for refusing to commit incest with his sister in law.

Exodus 12:29 God repeatedly tells Moses exactly what calamity he will next visit upon the Egyptians if the Pharaoh does not allow the Israelites to be set free from slavery.  Then he tells Moses (also repeatedly) that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to allow the Israelites to go, thus bringing a calamity upon his own people, as well as showing him the awesome power of the Israelites’ Lord.  This occurs over and over, bringing calamity upon calamity upon the Egyptian people.  What is troubling about this verse is that when god “hardens the pharaoh’s heart” he is interfering with the Pharaoh’s free will and ultimately bringing punishment on the Egyptians for something they are not responsible for.  As a final punishment god decides to kill all the first born of Egypt.  The lord reduced himself to murdering innocent kids when he could have simply freed the Israelites himself with his “omnipotent” power.

God punishes children for the sins of their fathers, unto the third and fourth generations.  Punishing a child for the sins of their ancestors is not very just. Exodus 20:5&34:7

God endorses slavery. He even set up laws as to how slavery was to be carried out, and goes as far as Okaying beating them.  Exodus 21:2-6

God sanctioned the selling of ones daughter.  How can any being tell another to literally sell their child into slavery?  Disgusting!  Exodus 21:7

Exodus 22:18  God orders the death of witches, sorceresses and anyone who practices magic.  Sadly enough, this verse was justification for the Inquisition.

Exodus 32:27 God ordered to be killed, 3,000 Israelites for no greater crime than worshipping a golden calf.  I don’t know about you but death is a pretty harsh ****ing punishment.

Leviticus 20:9-10 God commands death for cursing out ones parents and death for adultery.  Gee, with these types of laws the population should be almost nil by now.

Once again god is a homophobe, or at the very least, a bigot.  Leviticus 20:13

Handicapped people must not approach the altar.  Leviticus 21:16-23

Leviticus 26:30 “And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shill ye eat.”

Leviticus 27:28-29 God ordered and allowed human sacrifices.

Numbers 16:27 God buries alive Korah and his family.

Numbers 16:35 God killed 250 Levite princes who disagreed with Moses’ leadership. He was so bloodthirsty that he wanted to slay more until he was talked out of it.  Later he put a plague upon 14,700 Jews who thought there was something wrong in killing 250 princes.

Numbers 21:1-3 God utterly destroyed the Canaanites at Hormah as a favor to the Jews.

Numbers 21:27-35 God abetted Moses in utterly destroying the Amorites at Heshbon - “…the men, the women, and the little ones.”

Numbers 31:17-18 God commands Moses to kill all the Medianite people including children and women.  To top it off he commands that the virgins be saved for later raping by Moses’ soldiers.

Deuteronomy 3:3-7 God ordered Moses’ army to “utterly destroy” 60 cities, killing all the women and children within!

Deuteronomy 7:12 God ordered the Israelites to kill all the people of seven nations.  He even adds, “show no mercy unto them”.

Deuteronomy 20:16 God orders that we kill everything that breathes in the cities that he gives us for an inheritance

A bastard can’t attend church “even to his tenth generation.” As if denying an innocent child rights to worship isn’t cruel. Deuteronomy 23:2



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