anyone know of a good book that points out obvious (and maybe not so obvious) flaws in the bible?

Question

for example Noah's flood is just a copy of tons of other flood myths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_%28mythology%29#Flood_myths_in_various_cultures

Also, how some "christian" holidays didn't start out that way. Not limited to these things this is just an example but I would like to see someone that has truly studied it and done a lot of research.

"What holidays are you talking about? Maybe we can help with a little more information"

Christmas is a perfect example:

http://de.essortment.com/christmaspagan_rece.htm

Answer 1

Hmmm well just for your example given about Noah's Ark..... you really shouldn't think, "Since many civilizations have a flood myth, Noah's Ark is more than likely wrong or stolen from those". I think there is great insight here. From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the tale of Atlantis to Noah's Ark, from North American tribes to Brazilian tribes to Hawaiian tribes, they all speak of a massive flood that decimated humanity. In short, an ice age. Naturally very few people survived and those that did passed down their tales of the disaster, tending to dramaticize it. But with so many stories of a flood, it is obvious one happened. You see many myths have some truth to them. The Illiad - we know there was a war at Troy and its city walls were strong. But certain details are dramaticized. In the same way there may really have been someone named Noah who took his family on a boat and had refuge away from the cataclysm, but was he the ONLY one, or did ALL the animals come on the ark, those things we'll never really know.

And........... I can guess where you are going with the holidays stuff but its all for naught. Holidays are just a symbol to make us reflect on something. We can argue all day about the "origin" of holidays but I think its useless. The Wiccans used a pentagram, so did the Christians to symbolize the five wounds of Christ, and so did the Jews for their Star of David. The Evergreen tree was known by the pagans as a symbol of fertility because it thrives in the winter, and Christmas is a celebration of the birth (i.e. a day of fertility) for Jesus. Easter is another day for the Christians to celebrate fertility (the new-life) of Jesus, and rabbits and eggs are both symbols of fertility. Christianity was born in a highly pagan environment, so the way to appeal to the people was to appeal to them in their native tongue, by using their language, their symbols, etc. When the Spanish came to America they related Jesus to the most precious symbol of the Americans, in most cases it was the sun. Now it doesn't mean Christians made up the idea of Jesus from the sun, it is just a parallel. You don't go to preach to the Chinese and speak ancient Greek to them. You speak to them in their language, use symbols they could understand.

But to answer your question, Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason". It used to be my favorite book but after reading Ben Franklin I came to agree that polemic arguments were not productive. A polemic argument is basically saying, "My God is better than your God, my religion is better than yours, my doctrine is truer than yours, I am smarter than you". Thomas Paine kind of does a lot of that. He tries to shroud it with claims of religious tolerance but he was a very disrespectful person. If I talk to a Muslim I do not call Islam the most destructive religion known to mankind and then turn around and say, "but I respect your right to disagree". That is not respect. Respect is to not insult their religion in the first place. Thats why Age of Reason is quickly falling from grace. I'm realizing how disrespectful he was, and because of that I do not really care what he argues. When someone is entirely disrespectful in a debate there is no purpose in continuing with them.

Answer 2

A Christian here, with much better suggestions than you're getting from atheists above.

The absolute best stuff I've seen is from Joseph Campbell. In Occidental Mythology he basically proves that Moses was an Egyptian lord exiled with his serfs, the Hebrews, for being a fanatic monotheist, picked up the Midianite God Yahweh in the desert, etc. And he demonstrates that the Torah was unknown on the earth until around 650 BC when the priests of Yahweh supposedly discovered it in the walls of their temple (and all the Jews had simply forgotten about Yahweh and Moses and Egypt and the Law!). This is in 2 Kings 22, by the way.

Another great author is Bart Ehrman. His book Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium he shows thet Jesus predicted that the end of time and judgment of man was so immanent many people then living would still be alive for it. He verifies the accuracy of this historical claim and then question what it means for Jesus to have been wrong about this.

I got a million of them.

But I'm far more interested in why it is so important to you.

Answer 3

The book of Noah would have to have been copied before time. There are not flaws in the Bible, just flaws in us. The readers. What holidays are you talking about? Maybe we can help with a little more information.

Answer 4

'Misquoting Jesus'. Very good. Skips over the stories and the obvious and gets right down to the verifiable mistranslations, additions to and deletions from the new testament. The author, Bart D. Ehrman, was a born again, attended Moody Bible College, then Weaton (both very conservative, evangelical institutes) and then Princeton Theological Seminary. During his journey he learned Latin, Greek, German and Aramaic so that he could study the oldest scriptures in existence and perform critical comparison. It is written in a scholarly, and respectful tone.

Answer 5

"The Perfect Mirror? The Question of Bible Perfection" by Darrel Henschell.

http://fayfreethinkers.com/ourbooks/mirrorsample.shtml

Answer 6

The Bible Unmasked

Answer 7

there are many obvious flaws in the bible, and this is coming from a Catholic. its important not to take it literally and to get the right message from the different passages. with regards to the article you put id hardly call that a flaw, more that they applied a common story to the Bible to teach a message.

Answer 8

I'm not sure about books, but here's some stuff I know for a fact is true--

The ancient Egyptians believed that their Queen Hatshepsut was born of a virgin mother who was impregnated by Amon, the Sun God.
Also, pictures inside ancient Egyptian temples depict the Goddess Isis with her baby, Horace, on her lap with the halo of light around her head as christian paintings depict Mary and Jesus. (I have seen these pictures myself, so I know it's true)
In the Hindu religion, the Lord Krishna was greeted at his birth by three kings who gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh.

You see, christians are not original, nor true. They put together a bunch of stuff from different religions, pass it off as their own, and try to convert people by scaring them and saying they'll either convert or go to hell. And many, unfortunately, do get brainwashed.

Answer 9

The Bible is the very word of God. You will never find a true flaw or untruth in it, because God does not have a single flaw, neither is He a lier.

Answer 10

richard dawkins' 'the god delusion' points out some obvious ones like there being no roman census in palestine anytime around 1 ad, and there being strong evidence that nazareth wasn't even settled until the fourth century.

but christians don't really pay much attention to evidence in the ordinary sense of that word.