Why does the Bible have so many inconsistencies and contradictions???

Question

GE 1:3-5 On the first day, God created light, then separated light and darkness.
GE 1:14-19 The sun (which separates night and day) wasn't created until the fourth day.

This is just one example! I can provide soooooo many more. lol
Your God doesn't seem to be a decider like our president George Bush!!!!

Skalite:
It was a fun thing to do! I love to have fun.

Answer 1

There are plenty of contradicitons. The earliest Bible stories were passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation and show obvious inconsistencies. To try and view them in a literal sense would be unwise and unnecessary.

An example of how those inconsistencies came about would be the present belief that the eath was created in six literal days. As you illustrated, according to the Bible the sun wasn't even present until the fourth day and would be required to measure a 24 hour day. It would be much wiser to view it as six stages, but I have no doubt that the revisionists will eventually find a way to have the bible reflect the 24 hour day theory.

As for the rest of the Bible, there have been mostly evil men in control of the Bible. Rome persecuted anyone who would not surrender copies or even pages of manuscripts during her reign of terror. Just as Rome presumed that she had the authority to change the sabbath from the seventh day(Saturday) to the first day (Sunday), she also saw fit to alter scriptures in order to suit the goal of uniting pagans and Christians. Even though many revisions have been made since, the evidence of Rome's manipulation of the scriptures still exists.

Since then, there have been plenty of revisions made and the resuts of those revisions were scriptures being changed in order to better reflect the mainstream teachings of the day. Just in my lifetime, I have seen many scriptures changed because they didn't fit the mainstream belief. That is what you can expect from religious leaders like Ted Haggard. In case you have never heard of him, he was the goober smoochin', gay bashin', dug using hypocrite that was exposed as a false prophet ( Also a Bush adviser...surprise).

With all of these things considered, I'm sure it wouldn't make much sense to believe any of the Bible. Fortunately, the real beauty of the Bible is its ability to purge itself. No matter how many times they rewrite, they can't hide the truth as it relates to the scriptures.

One of the things that disappoints me most about mainstream thinking is their belief that science is evil and their belief that the bible is infallible or without any contradictions. I believe that the Bible should be studied in linear fashion first, but then truly explored as its multidimensional nature becomes clear. Of course, that requires the ability to hold the entire Bible in your mind at once rather than focusing on one or two verses at a time.

Answer 2

There are no contradictions in the Bible. It may be due to misunderstanding. You may try to gather some more information about the history of the book and then probably will understand that it is the most reliable among ancient manuscripts. It covers a period of almost 1500 years and involves about 40 people from different walks of life. There may be copying errors at the hands of the scribes but those do not affect the meaning and the message the book conveys. It is the greatest and the most powerful book in history. People, individuals and governments, have tried to destroy this book. They have perished but the Bible stands. The Bible has transformed millions of lives for the better. It is the Word of God, whether you believe it or not. Read it for yourself and see what God has to say about you!

Answer 3

The example you have stated is not a contradiction. God created light, then formed it into something, namely the sun, stars and moon. This is no different than man making the light bulb when we had lamps, candles and nature to create light. Light simply existed before a form.

If you are looking for a contradiction, look at the entire story of creation (or stories if you please) Genesis 1 goes by 7 days and creates man on day 6, Genesis Ch. 2 does creation essentially in 1 day, with man coming before the animals. This would seem to be more of a contradiction than your quote. This still is not a contradiction as the context needs to be remembered. Man was created, and yet these stories of creation start before man existed, let alone could have written. These stories of creation however each have different points. The first one in God's creation being perfect. The second story tells of Man's importance (as in Mankind, not men over women) over creation. Anything else considered a contradiction in the bible is simply being taken out of context. Read the whole thing through and think about it carefully if you don't believe me.

Answer 4

It's not a contradiction to create light and then the sun. It's possible that God created light, but hadn't created a way to provide light using the sun yet. Or perhaps the sun was a permanent solution that replaced a temporary source of light.

I've seen lists of "contradictions" before. Most of them are grasping at straws like this one. There are minor contradictions any time you have multiple witnesses for the same event. If they were exact, then they would be accused of copying or getting together to make up the story. The main point of the passages do not contradict each other though.

Answer 5

This is just one example, but the many more that you can provide are no more contradictory than this.

The sun, of course, separates night and day on the earth. It does not separate all light from all darkness. And, as we all know, the light of the sun (for example) is separated from the darkness of the void of space. Indeed, light travels through the darkness without lighting it up!!! Now, *that's* separation!

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 6

Gen 1:3-5 speaks of the creation of what we know as Light what this light is from and what it does other than separate night from day we don't know, Gen 1:14-19 speaks of the formation of the Moon and Stars. All the heavenly bodies seem to bye put in potion.

Answer 7

I like the god questions because I don't believe as others do. I have my own god things.

I do believe that all the inconsistencies and contradictions come from the fact that so many tried to put what they wanted us to believe not the truth. In the book of Kings they Left out a lot because it could be concerted a dirty book. That is the other thing they tried to hide. They had to put some of the dirt in it because nobody would of read it let alone believe it. As you can see I am with you on that book. There might be a few good things in it, but not enough to get me to shell out my bucks to some fly by night church that tell us it is the only way. My god thing does fine for me I don't need the other one.

Answer 8

Many books in the Bible have a number of authors and come from different times. Genesis and Isaiah are good examples of this. Some scholars have taken to calling Isaiah Trisaiah because it has three distinct writing styles. The Genesis story is heavily flavored with Mesopotamian ideas and story lines and this would make sense because Abraham was from what is now Iraq. Certainly we know that there is a version of the flood story all throughout that part of the world.

I realize that your question was tongue-in-cheek, but I think that there is value to be found in the Bible as a wisdom book, just as there is in the Bagavad-Gita and all the Buddhist Sutras.

It is when you start taking in literally that the problems begin (persecution, war etc...)

Answer 9

God does not need the sun, moon, and stars to provide light. God is light! 1 John 1:5 reads, "... God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all."

God Himself was the light for the first three days of Creation, just as He will be in the new heavens and new earth,

“There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

Until He created the sun, moon, and stars, God miraculously provided light during the “day” and did not do so during the “night” (Genesis 1:14).

Answer 10

Try any book written over thousands of years with many authors, especially when much of earlier books were oral renditions at first. And translating the books into English or other languages from ancient languages is another problem, see the same with the Dead Sea scrolls.