Ten Fatal Flaws of the Bible
The contradictions and immoralities are just two of them.
What seems to be the number one reason people stop believing the Bible, is them reading it. While it is extremely difficult, and very understandable for many who have been indoctrinated as a young child to do so, especially those who were taught that they would spend an eternity burning in hell fire if they ever did, more and more are doing so. The availability of information and the ability to fact-check, in addition to the many discoveries in science and history makes the change for many inevitable, despite the emotional reality that what their parents and grandparents told them was true, was not. They of course, just like the parents and grandparents of all the other thousands of religions invented by humans throughout history, were taught by their parents and grandparents. Most were very sincere, but all of them required blind faith.
The second most likely cause of people leaving the faith is the political and social issues that their religion was promoting. Those include racism and a disregard for science and basic human rights.
Mark Twain’s fun and lovable character, Huckleberry Finn, when he decided his loyalty and love for Jim was more important than obeying his religion that required him to return his aunts property to her (which was Jim, her runaway slave), said to himself, “well then, I will just go to hell.” He made this decision based on morality, decency, and love, regardless of the consequences. Now, having Google to fact-check and numerous books, podcasts, and YouTube, it is so much easier.
Below are ten reasons why it is objectively impossible to view the Bible as being inspired by a good and perfect God, assuming of course that we define the words “good” and “perfect” the same way they are used in everyday life.
1. The New Testament manuscripts contain more differences than it has words:
Bart Ehrman, a former evangelical and fundamentalist, who graduated from Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College before obtaining his Masters in Divinity and PhD at Princeton Theological Seminary and now one of the world’s most respected New Testament scholars, cites a fact that has been documented by many other scholars that the New Testament manuscripts have more variants than there are words in the New Testament…well over 200,000 of them. Some scholars now count closer to 400,000 of them.
While most do not affect any doctrine, there are some that make a big difference in how it is interpreted. Dr. Ehrman explains many of these in detail in his sixth New York Times bestselling book, Misquoting Jesus, the Story Behind who Changed the Bible and Why.
If it was the intention for a perfect, all-knowing God to inspire a perfect book so that His creatures would have His word and instructions, it would be of little value unless He made sure all copies of it were also correctly copied. Surely, one should expect that a perfect God would have his word made available to every creature that is 100% accurate and not have over 200,000 variants in the copies.
2. It declares many erroneous things about basic facts and the reality of proven science:
If basic facts about how the earth came to be and how it operates were mistaken by the authors of the Bible, a perfect God certainly could not have inspired them to write the things they did.
Despite what the Bible tells us in Joshua 10:12–14, the sun did not stand still nor did the earth stop rotating. Physics is clear; if the earth ever stopped spinning for even a second, all people, animals, rocks, topsoil, trees, buildings, and so on, would be swept away into the atmosphere. In addition, there is no recorded history anywhere in the world about areas having a long day or long night.
Adam and Eve never existed. The fossil record, DNA, and other sciences all prove how human sapiens came to be. And it was long after our sun and many stars existed, and long after many species of plants and animals lived and became extinct, despite the chronology seen in Genesis.
When was Eve created? Genesis 1:24–27 says it was at the same time that Adam was (on the sixth day) but Genesis 2:18–23 says it was after Adam and the animals were created in order to find a better companion for Adam.
Despite the Bible saying otherwise, there is no need to explain that rain and snow are not released through windows in the sky, or that two and a half million people outran the Egyptian army, or that Solomon was the wisest man on earth, or that Lot was righteous (see reason #4). And of course, everybody except a Biblical author knows that bats are not birds nor is leprosy cured by sprinkling the blood of birds seven times throughout the house (Leviticus 14:49–53).
3. The food chain and innocent helpless animals:
In Genesis 1 we hear God say several times that His creation was good.
But how is it possible for a good God to create the animal kingdom, millions of various creatures, most of whom must kill and eat each other in order to stay alive. Innocent animals who must live in constant fear and then die a painful death, whether by disease, starvation, drought or torn apart piece by piece while being eaten alive, unless they are killed and eaten by humans first.
All He had to do was make them with solar cells in ears or with any other energy producing device that a smart God could easily have designed or just spoke into existence. These creatures are totally innocent, and their near universal suffering serves no purpose in a world created by a good God. Solomon was even honored in 1 Kings 8:63 for killing 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep as a sacrifice to God while dedicating the new temple.
Apologists often say it was because Eve ate the apple. If that satisfies you, then go out and enjoy watching them suffer a painful and slow death while praising God for the wonderful and “good” world he created. Do not forget to enjoy watching the mourning and painful grief that many will visibly show when they see their child or parent dead or dying. After all, it would be your God’s doing. As an aside, could it be that how we evolved, explains our history of cruelty and racist tribalism?
4. Immoral to the extreme…just a couple examples of many:
Lot offered his two daughters to a group of sex seeking men to do to them whatever they wished (Genesis 19:8). Later, he impregnated both daughters, but the Bible of course blames the girls, and accuses them of conspiring to get their father drunk so that they could rape him to become pregnant. (Genesis 19:30–36). In the New Testament 2 Peter 2:7 says that he, their father was righteous.
Deuteronomy 21:10–13: ”When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her (that means to rape her) and be her husband and she shall be your wife.” (Rape and kidnapping were not only approved by the Bible, but they were expressly authorized as part of God’s Law)
Deuteronomy 22:28–29 mandates that if a young virgin is raped, she must marry the rapist if he pays her father 50 shekels of silver.
Yes, those above and many other similar immoral events and laws are right from the “good book” itself.
If right and wrong means anything, can anyone truly call the Bible a good book?
5. Defies reasonable logic:
Ever since Homo sapiens organized into groups, they created thousands of Gods who they worshiped and sacrificed to with utmost devotion. Their worship was generally based on superstitions and fear of the unknown. Other times, the common people were just conned by a person seeking power, control, and/or money. There was never any evidence for their faith, except maybe a little fake magic trick now and then, or a leader’s superior understanding of how things work; yet thousands of Gods were believed by the masses to be real and true. Yes, THOUSANDS of them were really and truly believed to be Gods! Believed by smart, normal, and ordinary people.
If there was in fact, one good God who was actually real who had all power and who loved his or her creatures, why did he or she never intervene in the thousands of deceptions taking place during the thousands of years that their creatures were being fooled? Christians claim that He finally did, 2000 years ago. Yet billions of people before and after never got a word from him. Would an all-powerful God who loved his creatures and desired them to know him, just refuse to or not know how to communicate with them?
Is there any difference between that and a person who beats an untrained dog for not knowing what the words “sit” or “fetch” mean?
6. Numerous contradictions:
There are literally hundreds of clear contradictions in the Bible and only apologists and their followers try to explain them away. Just a few examples that show the impossibility of a perfect God inspiring this book follows. (To be perfect is to be without error or mistake).
When was the empty tomb first discovered by Mary Magdalene? It was after sunrise according to Mark 16:2, but John 20:1 said it was still dark. Worse yet, John even tells us she saw that the stone had already been removed while it was dark but in Mark, we see her going to the tomb after the sun came up wondering who would move the stone for her to get in. Any attempt to reconcile this will only dig their hole deeper.
1 Kings 7:15–22 says that the two pillars at the temple were 18 cubits high. However, 2 Chronicles 3:15–17 disagrees and say they were 35 cubits high.
Has anyone ever seen God? Saying no are John 1:18, 1 Timothy 6:16 and 1 John 4:12. Saying yes are Genesis 32:30 and Exodus 33:11.
How is a person saved? Just a few of over two dozen ways the Bible gives are: Paul says in Galatians 2:16 & Romans 3:20 that it is by faith alone. James 2:21–24 states that it is by works. Acts 2:21 & Romans 10:13 say to just call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. However, Matthew 7:21 states that not everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Matthew 25:34–46 teaches that heaven is obtained only by helping the poor and needy and without doing those things one is eternally condemned. Romans 8:29–30 & Romans 9:15–16 clearly states that salvation is only the result of election and predestination by God, regardless of what anyone does. Many more “roads to salvation” are documented in the above link.
The “perfect and good God” has admitted He made a mistake in Genesis 6:6 so he decided to drown everyone except eight, including all the pregnant women, babies, toddlers, and animals. Elsewhere in 1 Samuel 15:29 and Numbers 23:19 His word declares that He never changes His mind or repents about anything.
A careful reading of Genesis 11:26 & 32 and that of Genesis 12:4 and Acts 7:4 will show that Abram was only 75 years old after he had already lived 135 years. You really must read the fine print if you are going to stake your life on this book.
7. Not a good God by any definition:
Dan Barker was an evangelical and fundamentalist pastor for almost 20 years and who also composed many songs, some of which are still sung in churches today. His book Godless (without a God) is his autobiography explaining how he lost his faith with many chapters explaining why. His latest book, God, the Most Unpleasant Character in all of Fiction, quotes word for word over a thousand verses (all quoted in full) that describes certain attributes of the God of the Bible. He gives each attribute a separate and sizable chapter. Just a few chapters are Blood Thirsty, Ethnic Cleanser, Infanticidal, Aborticidal, and Misogynistic. The book contains 300 pages of word for word “inspired scripture” for anyone who wants to know the full story. Most of the passages are obviously ignored by Christian preachers and authors who only dwell on a few of the nicer stories and verses. I stole a couple of his chapter titles in the paragraph which follows below.
Just like most Christians, most Muslims are Muslims because they believed their loving parents who taught them it was true. The same for Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Zeus, Osiris, Baal, Diana, Apollo, the many Egyptian Pharaohs, who were believed to have divine attributes, and thousands more. To condemn a person with eternal torture for the sin of obeying and respecting the teachings of their loving and caring parents is not anything a good God or even an evil person would think was fair. Given the fact that almost none of them had a Bible (despite its dozens of contradictory ways one must be saved by and its 200,000 plus variants), I rest my case. It would make him nothing but a merciless, sadomasochistic, unforgiving, unjust, and a capriciously malevolent monster.
Thomas Jefferson had the same thoughts when he wrote his “adoptive son” and secretary who was also a career diplomat William Short on August 4, 1820. In his letter (see it here) he writes referring to the God of the Bible as “a terrible character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.” His evidence was solely based on the scriptures themselves.
8. Broken promises:
John 14:13–14 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Matthew 16:28 “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” If true, some people are now 2000 years old.
John 16:23–24 “And on that day, you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
Matthew 18:19–20 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” If true, why is there still cancer and malaria?
Luke 12:6–7: “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” Yet every year 600,000,000 birds are killed by colliding with window glass and another two billion are killed by cats. Those figures are just in the United States.
There are many people who are always claiming that God has healed them…but never has an amputee ever grown a new arm or a new leg. Explanations such as natural remissions which occur quite frequently, or the placebo effect are seldom ever considered. It seems the most miracles he is credited of performing by his faithful followers are finding lost car keys, giving goosebumps and healing headaches.
9. Is unabashed child abuse:
Religious Trauma Syndrome is a real psychological and serious problem with millions of children and even adults.
Untold thousands of children suffer nightmares and/or depression believing that their dead alcoholic father or best friend whose loving parents taught them another religion is burning in hell.
Parents do not own their children. They have a duty to help their children grow and to think and make good decisions by using critical thinking skills. Sadly, many parents and Christian organizations promote instruction and indoctrination that is absolutely the same as brain washing…the same way they would build a robot; to program it to think and act only in the way the “builder” decides.
Many innocent children are punished for asking questions and are told that to doubt is a serious sin. Many thousands are kicked out of the house and some have all support denied for the sole reason that their logical working brain sought answers and explanations to things that were not clear or did not seem to make logical sense to them.
To believe the Bible literally, is the same as concluding most of human history, science discoveries, biology, physics, geology, astrophysics and others are all frauds. Such blind faith stunts their intellectual and social growth and prevents the necessary skill of critical thinking to develop. That is why many cult members and followers of crazy conspiracy theories are those who were indoctrinated to accept things on blind faith. In essence, they were taught that obtaining and weighing evidence was not important. Many were taught that that was downright dangerous…that it could destroy their faith. It is no coincidence that the majority of climate deniers, flat-earthers, and QAnon followers also espouse strong religious views. Sadly, they lack the skill to think critically.
For a deeper understanding of this neglected problem, please explore the many resources at Recovering from Religion and Journey Free. Qualified therapists can be found at the Secular Therapist Project.
10. Absurdities beyond any logical basis:
In order to cure and remove leprosy, Leviticus 14:49–53 says “to cleanse the house then, he shall take two birds, cedar wood, a scarlet string, and hyssop, and he shall slaughter the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water. Then he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet string, with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird as well as in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. So he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water, along with the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet string. However, he shall let the live bird go free outside the city into the open field. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.”
Numbers 22:21–30 is about a talking donkey. Surely, an all-powerful God could very easily make a donkey or snake to talk (remember Mr. Ed)? That is not the issue. The absurdity is the two-way discussion that the donkey had with his master, Balaam. Read it and decide for yourself if it has the least bit of plausibility. Balaam speaks to the donkey exactly as he would another person…shows no surprise or shock that he is talking to an animal.
Only the most ignorant man could write, in Leviticus 12:1–5 and say that the mother is unclean for seven days and must be segregated for 33 days whenever she has a baby boy or is unclean for 14 days and must be segregated for 66 days whenever her baby is a girl. And millions of people say that every word of the Bible is inspired by an all-knowing and perfect God.
Believing anything without evidence, is not only foolish but it is dangerous. Thousands of Gods and religions have once existed, most of which have now completely vanished, and all were based on blind faith, wishful thinking, superstitious or childhood indoctrination…yet most had fervent believers willing to die (and many did) for their non-existing God. It’s one thing to think that a God may have started the universe, but it’s another thing to ignore the many flaws of the Bible and still claim that it contains no errors and was inspired by a “good” and “perfect” all-knowing God.
The evidence is in and it is overwhelming! To suggest that faith without evidence (blind faith) somehow supersedes or is more credible than scientific facts or obvious and logical realities, that has been proven over and over again is not reasonable. It is pure and simple, utter nonsense for adults to continue in such thinking and to refuse to use the wonderful brain that evolution has developed.
