Why do religious texts (the bible in particular) contrdict themselves?
147236
Excellent Question;\nThere are lots of literial inconsistancies.  "Bible" means library, the bible is a compilation of books witten from various sources.  This is particularly so in the Old Testament. The stories of groups or tribes that all believed in one God rather than many.\nAs in all litreature, you need to respect the author and his intended audience.  Our question is how did these ancient people understand God and what consistant message do we get about a God who never changes.  Read, reflect and ask yourself how could I apply their experience of God to my life.\nA God who protected Israel from Egypt might help me get a Job or help me defend my faith in an argument.  A person who is violent might be destroyed by their own anger rather than us needing to smite him.  When Jesus said: offer the other cheek, he is talking about ultimate peace between people - his Father's Kingdom.  St Paul said those who do not work should not be feed from the community food.  Everyone should contribute but we should feed the hungry.\nWith a little understanding, its not difficult to make sense of what people are saying.\nDon't expect the Bible to be a work of logic or science, it was never intended to be.
566548
The Bible is just ancient MEN's view of the world.  The moral codes within it represent the ancient moral codes of a Greek subculture considered a bunch of nutjobs in their day.\n\nWhy should you, or anyone else, bind themselves to such an arbitrary set of nonsense?
993985
It's typical Christian behaviour. \n\nThey are right, everyone else is wrong, and God /did/ tell them what to write in the Bible.\n\nWRONG. The Bible is man's interpretation of his God. If God is real, which I don't believe, the Bible does not reflect his wishes properly.
803877
The Bible is very reliable and the message has not been changed with new translations.\n\nThere is contradictions in the Bible but I would like you to ask specific contradiction so we would be able to help ou to understand.\n\nThere is very big change that the Bible will not make any sense to you if you do not let Holy Spirit in your heart to guide you.\n\nThe Bible is written by men but inspired by God.Feel free to contact me personally....and if you ask specific contradiction questions here, you will get great answers.\n\nGod bless.
126540
Hi,\n    My simple answer to is "lack of knowledge" causes such problems. None of the religious in this world is bad or have wrong things write.
375977
Don't you have that backwards? I've met many people who believe every word in the bible even if you can prove that it is a miss translation, or against known facts. The bible can be used to "prove" anything you like if you take it out of context and add your own spin.
1003687
The bible is designed for anyone to read it... but it can be hard to follow.. that's why we have churches. Just beware of the churches that bash every other church and "enforce" THEIR rules (most baptist churches)
384528
The reality is, as you are so correctly noting, that anyone can take the bible and use it to back up or justify just about any opinion.  So simply quoting some text out of context is no way to settle anything.  It is a waste of time.\n\nBetter, consider the overall theme and purpose of the bible which is simple that people come closer to God by coming closer to people.  So the point is we are to be kind to one another and work at getting along.\n\nStay nice.  Stay happy.
522625
good question the christian bible is one of the most contradicting books ever
1145032
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html\n\nhttp://www.bigissueground.com/atheistground/ash-biblecontradictions.shtml\n\nhttp://www.evilbible.com/Biblical%20Contradictions.htm\n\nhttp://www.submission.org/christians/bible-contradictions.html
769935
The trouble with readibg the bible is that people like you tend to misinterpret it.
459634
I'm sure this is tongue in cheek, but obviously one can be christian and not think that the bible is meant to be read as literal truth in every word.  you'd go crazy reconciling the contradictions.
648313
I don't think enough religious people are suspicious of "science".  Modern science is constantly contradicting itself.\n\nAnd, I don't think the Bible contradicts itself.  Man's interpretations may contradict themselves; thus, the interpretations may be wrong.  Also, the Books of the Bible were written at different times, the subjects may have changed.  That is, if I wrote a Book three hundred years ago and said "there are no aircrafts in the sky" and someone else wrote a Book today, saying "there are aircrafts everywhere in the sky", it does not mean that the collective works (the two Books, plus) contradict themselves.  And, there is so much not understood between the alleged contradictions such that one could not say for certain that they contradict.  That is, one Book (written 700 years ago) might say  "There are no aircrafts in the sky"; then Books (written 300 years ago) might say "There are aircrafts on the sky everywhere".  The part in between the two alleged contradictions and not understood or misinterpreted [coded by those big names or terms we don't understand] (actually) means "The following is hogwash; I had to say it for my own and mankind's protection".  Thus, in actuality, the Books do not contradict themselves (it's just misunderstood).\n\nPossible.\n\nPeace.
757829
I am reminded of Mark Twain's statements: "Its not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me, its the parts I do."\n\nOften the Bible is so simple that we need help to misunderstand it.
1030028
the scriptures were written by man not god.  God did not magically create a book.  The important thing to understand is that the scriptures were written many many years after the events that they are documenting supposedly occurred.  As with any story, things were changed through time and the relaying of these stories and they are also in the viewpoint of the people writing them.  Christians believe that the stories are written with the writers being a conduit for God and therefore are infallable.  Personally I believe that many very intelligent men wrote many drafts and revisions to create a book of parables to keep us from following our animal instinct to kill eachother.  It has caused both restraint in that area of our humanity and also it has caused many wars.  What you need to figure out within yourself is what you believe.  Do you want to be but another pathetic sheep following the herd, or do you want to think for yourself and come to your own conclusions thus making whatever faith you choose strong and heartfelt?
1046399
Wow, this is an easy question. I think you know the answer already, but basically this is simple combination of ignorance, brainwashed mindsets, and fear.\n\nThrough these qualities they foolishly think the bible is the literal word of god, so they just blindly follow that no matter how absurd out-dated their reasoning is.\n\nhere is a great list of absurdities listed in the bible:\nhttp://skepticsannotatedbible.com/abs/long.htm
172212
Many of the bible stories, especially the early ones, have contridictions because they were combined from two sources.  \n\nThese parts of the old testament came from different jewish tribes that were politically seperated.  When they were later reunited, editors combined the stories by basically sticking them together.  Often they couldn't leave out parts that contradicted because it would offend one of the tribes, and so it all stayed, making it the wacky adventure it is now.\n\nWhen scholars seperate the passages from the two sources (which is possible because they had different writing styles and spelling of words), each one comprises a full story that makes more sense.