Do Christians Realize that the Reason Atheists don't believe in God is Because...?

Question

We HAVE read the Bible, not because we haven't?


The Bible is filled with so many contradictions that if any body read it thoroughly, they would begin to have doubts about Christianity....



Before I read the Bible, I thought that maybe there was a God. I truly almost believed in God. Then, after reading a portion of it, I completely struck out the idea. I thought, if people believe in this archaic junk, there is no way God exists either....

Some points that infuriated me:

Kill Witches

You should not let a sorceress live. (Exodus 22:17 NAB)



Kill Homosexuals
"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)



Kill Fortunetellers

A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. (Leviticus 20:27 NAB)



Death for Hitting Dad

Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)

Answer 1

It sounds like the life-rules of a cruel Egyptian king, or medieval dictator, or muslim Shah to me....

Answer 2

We have to understand that sorcery is evil beyond imagination|

Those who do so, usually do so for an evil intent - wreaking lives and destroying people - so it is like murder - so the penalties laid out for that in the Bible and things similar to that are not out of line|

To assault a parent is a terrible evil, since they are the ones who brought you life| Justice demands that the right penalties be applied to that|


And the so-called contradictions in the Bible|


We have to realize that the Bible is not an accounting of literal facts like you would read a newspaper|

It is a little more profound and deep than that|


Of course it has an historical element to it, but it mainly discusses divine truths in symbolic format|

For example, it would be absurd to take the book of Revelation as if it were an account of literal events|

For example, in Rev. Ch 1, the sharp two edged sword coming out of Jesus' mouth is merely a literary symbol, it is a symbol of the fact that his word has supreme power|

One thing only seems to contradict another in the Bible, because the contexts of the two are different, so that the contradiction is only apparent and not real| For example if one part of the Bible praises a man as being good, and another part says that there is no good in man, the first is simply goodness as the man is doing the best he can and is acting with integrity - which indeed pleases God| But to say that there is no good in man, a far more rigorous standard of judgment is being used in saying that, when it is said that man is no good there, it is in comparison with the infinite holiness of God, which is absolutely incomprehensible|


The Bible is a far deeper and more profound book than anyone can imagine| It has boggled the minds of the most illuminated saints and the greatest intellects| There is infinite depth of truth in it|



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Answer 3

I think the problem may be that you only read a portion of it. And from your statements it seems that you only read part of the old testament. You should read the new testament. It did away with all the laws from the old testament that you were quoting. The story of the new testament is simply this: Jesus Christ (God's son) came to give everyone the hope of eternal life. God is loving and forgiving. Jesus paid for our sins even though we don't deserve it. All we have to do is accept the mercy and grace shown us. The only thing we are required to do is believe. It's that simple and that difficult. Faith comes by hearing and reading the word of God. Please consider reading the new testament. It really is a book of hope and encouragement. If you have any questions while reading it I will try to help if you want. I am no authority I just love Jesus and am grateful for all that He has done for me. You can e-mail me if you want @ [e-mail].

Answer 4

We realize that anyone can read a portion out of the Bible and take it out of context, its better to deeply study the whole thing and then form an opinion.
In most cases in the Bible "put to death" means no life after this one. No eternal life with God.
You said you only read a portion of the Bible. I recommend getting into BSF International. It is a non-denominational Bible Study that anyone can be a member of that deeply and intensly studies the Bible. Verse by verse. Many Jewish, atheists, "agnostics" are members and of course Christians, catholics- any religion or those with no religion. There is no push for you to become religious either. In fact theydeny discussion of any religion- they only discuss participant answers. no answers are wrong. they have a website just google BSF International.

Answer 5

Times have changed, things are not the same, if someone hit their dad back then, they would actually be stoned, if a man slept with a man, they would be murder, if someone claimed to work for the devil, they would have a brutal exorcism put on them (beat with a stick, and drowned in holy water). The bible isn't the same as it was back then either. It is possible that these statements weren't even in the original Latin bible. As for fortune telling, i do not know what to say, fortune telling is one of the Kaballah main magics (Jewish magic). Check the Key of Solomon, there is alot of witchcraft in it, yet many Jews believe it to be a holy book. (My cat is possessed). As for the homosexuals, i believe they are like mentally challenged persons, they are gods servants. I think that homosexuals are supposed to fight their feelings to deserve heaven, just like Mentally handicapped people must have the will to live.

Answer 6

anything in the world man uses is already here, man can create nothing, he can only invent things putting together various substances from things already present, but then that begs the answer where did all the substances he uses come from and how did all this order in nature come about with out any intelligent design or direction, bigbang THEORY? it takes more faith to believe an explosion of epic proportions from an infinite point(where was it when it exploded, since there was no space or time) could produce all we see around us , than to just take a leap of faith and believe that there was and is a Creator who orders all things and exist's outside of this little sphere of understandind and awareness that we call our universe, indeed how can man be the center of universe if all is simply the random result of of a cosmic kaboom!(by the way ,which is still happening after all this time), where is it expanding / exploding into since nothing existed before it susposedly? can you see the absurdity in saying that all that man's little mind can comprehend is all there is to it?

Answer 7

THere are contradictions, but consider this: everything you quoted is from either exodus or leviticus. Those are archaic. they are mainly believed in the jewish faith, not christianity. this is because jesus introduced a new doctrine-"love everyone as yourself". before dissmissing the older parts as junk, consider the context they were writtne in. THey were written thousands of years ago, and the people then were very much different than they are today, and the problems of the time were dealt with---differently. the very different contexts explain the differences.

Answer 8

so what? I read a science text book. does that mean I don't believe in science?

science has been wrong before, why not now? people used to believe in the spontaneous generation of flies, and that was a scientific principle. do you believe that? or how about the belief that energy came from nothing/is self existant. wow, now THEre's a sound theory...

that has to be one of the thinnest arguements I've ever seen. we could argue just as much that evolution is an archaic concept (it didn't happen this millenium, did it now?....).

If you're anti-God, why do you care what I think? or did a lower power instruct you to do so......

Answer 9

Yeah...I see just what your saying and it could be true. People need to understand that the examples you gave were taught to people who didn't know better and the elder of the tribe or clan or whatever needed a way to control the people. Make them fear a punishement of death for their crimes and there wouldn't be as many crimes. I'm actually Agnostic, I don't believe or disbelieve, I just haven't been given enough proof or evidence to go either way. I don't want to be completely closed minded but I also don't want to follow blindly. Hope this makes sense to people.

The Syko Ward

Answer 10

I was never given that option. I was told since youth that I had to believe or else! It was nothing more than a threat. So naturally I rebelled later on. I was tired of the fire and brimstone speech. I figured that if god did exist he couldn't be so negative or close minded.

Answer 11

Just because you don't believe in the Bible doesn't mean you can't believe in God. It is possible to be spiritual but not religious. In fact I know alot of really spiritual people that aren't religious per se and don't read the Bible. But they believe in God. You don't need religion to believe in God. God has no religion.