This isn’t mine, it’s Stephen King’s, but I do kind of wonder: Who the hell was in Nod for Cain to go shack up with if his Mom was the first woman on earth?
[Renee Zellweger]
"You had me from the word “Neeeeeigh!”
[/Renee Zellweger[
How was Adam supposed to resist the serpent? Not having eaten from the tree, he had no knowledge of good and evil, so he had no ability to judge whether he should do what the serpent told him to. Until he disobeyd God and ate from the tree, he had no way of knowing that he shouldn’t disobey God. The only explanation I have ever been able come up with is that God was playing mind games with Adam.
I have developed the theory that, if there is a God and He created Earth, that we’re all just a really elaborate game of The Sims for Him.
Jesus refers to himself as “the Son of Man” a whole bunch of times. Which MAN was he the Son of?
A very good question, Annie, which raises another issue: Who was Jesus’s father?
MAT 1:15-16 Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
LUK 3:23-24 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melki, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph
Please save your venom – if you look at the Bible with an honest heart and an open mind, it is perfectly consistent.
Really Number six? Lately I’ve come to believe that we’re the TV God left on when he left the room…
As for Cain. Gen. says God created Adam and Eve, but (!!) it doesn’t say God only created them. In fact, if you read the Cain and Able story carefully, you’ll note that after Cain kills Able he protests his exile.
Gen 4:13 Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 4:14Behold, you have driven me out this day from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. ** It will happen that whoever finds me will kill me.”**
4:15Yahweh said to him, “Therefore whoever slays Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should strike him. "
Where we to believe that the bible is not omitting the creations of any other humans, the conversation would never have taken place, because the only other humans would have been Adam and Eve, who were presumably staying where they were. Adam and Eve didn’t even have another child (Seth)until after this point, so there were no other children to account for the “whoever” that God and Cain spoke about.
I tried to get an explanation from a friend of my parents who was a church elder (back in my early teens when I had more faith) but she couldn’t explain it.
Oh, really? Care to explain some of the apparent contradictions pointed out out in this thread then? What were Jesus’ last words, Kommissar?
Yes, yes, everyone–this is all well and good. But the point is to go and point all this out in the middle of church.
I have pointed out the contradiction I posted in church. And others.
Good, good!
Now we just have to lobby Congress…
When I was a religious teenager (Baptist) I was uncomfortably aware that there were references to the Messiah being dead for three days and nights before rising again. But a simple count of the days of easter showed that this wasn’t so. Nobody tried to explain it, and I thought it would be impolite or irreverent to mention it. Well, I was young…
Fellow Dopers, forgive me for having no cites; my bibles are in storage (with most of my other possessions), and - well, frankly I don’t care enough about it to go to the library.
But a more conscientious poster will probably provide the reference.
But more strength to you MEB, and Andros, that horse ain’t dead!
:shrug:
There are apparent contradictions in the Bible.
Some Christians accept this as a byproduct of thousands of years of transliteration and translation.
Others maintain that there are in fact no contradictions.
All the while, non-Christians continue to revel in pointing out the inconsistencies.
Folks, harping on the faults of the Bible won’t change anyone’s mind, just as drive-by witnessing won’t make anyone a Christian.
It’s not like you have to go looking really hard. There’s a contradiction right on the first page. The first and second chapters of Genesis describe how God created the universe. However, the two chapters undeniably contradict each other. Genesis 1 says God made plants on the third day, sea animals on the fifth day, and land animals and mankind on the sixth day. Genesis 2 then says man was the first living thing God created.
Personally, I’ve always figured this was God’s way of warning people that they shouldn’t regard the Bible as perfect. You can believe that God is perfect and has a message for mankind, but still acknowledge that the Bible is a product of human hands and therefore not beyond reproach.
Well, it’s certainly true that having a big Christian prayer fest on the steps of my state capitol didn’t convert me to fundamentalist Christianity. So, having a government-sponsored day of pointing out Bible contradictions probably wouldn’t lead to a mass exodus from evangelicalism to secular humanism…but hey, we can’t know for sure unless we give it a try, huh?
Ok, but does that mean that we can call people fools? Is “but Paul did it too” a valid defense when you’re arguing for your life in front of God?
But what about those of us who atribute it to the fact that the bible was written down by men, who had both free will and opinions of their own, and that the errors probably resulted from them messing with “God’s word”? Now, had * women* been the scribes, you wouldn’t need so many of them to get the to the truth… Just kidding. I’m an elitist, not a feminist, because I know gender has little to do with how much of a #$^ up a person is…
Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.
Luke 23:46
Really? Well, then, it’s two against one at the eyewitness level isn’t it? Why are are Matthew and John lying about the last words of Christ? How did you determine Luke’s version to be accurate? Enlighten us, please?
“cried again with a loud voice”
You seem to have answered your own question, friend.
Again, I suggest that you look at the BIBLE with an HONEST heart and an OPEN mind. Your own soul hangs in the balance.