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Xref: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu talk.religion.misc:82764 alt.atheism:51138 Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!husc-news.harvard.edu!hsdndev!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pitt.edu!pogo.isp.pitt.edu!joslin Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc,alt.atheism Subject: Re: *** The list of Biblical contradictions Message-ID: <7912@blue.cis.pitt.edu> From: joslin@pogo.isp.pitt.edu (David Joslin) Date: 5 Apr 93 20:41:08 GMT Sender: news+@pitt.edu Followup-To: talk.religion.misc References: Organization: Intelligent Systems Program Someone writes: >I found a list of Biblical contradictions and cleaned it up a bit, but >now I'd like some help with it. I'm curious to know what purpose people think these lists serve. Lists like this seem to value quantity over quality, an "argument from article length." And the list you have here is of poorer quality than most. Since the quotes seem to be taken from an on-line bible, I doubt that there will be much problem with verses quoted inaccurately. But that isn't the problem here. I've known a lot of fundamentalists in my life, but none who denied that there were errors in transmission, etc. And many of the contradictions here -- Solomon having 40,000 horse stalls in one verse, and 4,000 in another -- are just the sort of contradiction that fundies don't have a problem with, in my experience. So how do these sorts of contradictions amount to anything more than attacking a straw man? Some of the others are just silly, or rely on taking quotes out of context, or have reasonable explanations. But even the ones that are genuine contradictions need to have more said about them than what is given here. (At the very least, some effort should be made to understand and respond to the common replies given by fundies.) Look for example at the research that Dave Butler put into an article examining a false prophecy about Tyre. That would be an excellent start for an anti-inerrancy list that would have some teeth. (One well-researched and documented contradiction is worth more than one hundred quotes taken out of context and thrown together in a list.) Lists like this that just toss a bunch of quotes together to make a bible verse salad just don't cut it. Those of us who want to argue against inerrancy should find this sort of thing as embarassing as the fundies should find Josh McDowell. dj P.S. You can find some good material at ftp.rutgers.edu in /pub/soc.religion.christian/others/contradictions. The quality is very uneven on both sides of the argument (it is just a compilation of things many people have written), but some of it would be useful in an anti-inerrancy FAQ. After exams, I might be willing to help put it together.
dift1010@iro.umontreal.ca