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Well, it's not so much about the bible as a user manual, but more so about descriptions of events which either can't have happened or simply contradict other events. This is both confusing and suspicious, because obviously they can't both be right.




Well, what obviously should be avoided is an approach, where you take the next best quote from the Bible and say: "That´s it, this must be the will of God", or "It´s written in the Bible, so it must have really happened".

How would a judge determine the "truth", if there is a lawyer and a prosecutor, who usually describe the same event in a very different way ...
The answer: It´s a lot of work.
You have to look at the evidence, you have to compare, you are by no way limited to the Bible. Avoid preconceptions and personal taste, try to be a good judge, imagine the context.

For me it would be much more suspicious, if everything would be "polished" and "perfect". I believe, that God was gradually discovered by REAL human beings at a REAL time and space. A later prophet can compare, what was revealed to him with his predecessors and can build upon the knowledge and see, if it still makes sense etc.

Only the individual human being, that reads the text can gradually decide, which attempts are better and which attempts are false.

And btw: If I assume, that God is the Spirit of everything, it is only logical to assume, that such a Spirit is big and not easy to discover or understand.

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If the bible is wrong about a lot of things, why would it still be right about God? Why would it still be right about Jesus?




Well is it right about God? In my view: sometimes it is, sometimes it isn´t.
But God - over many years - became a certainty for me not only because of the Bible, but because of everything. I wasn´t religious for thirty years of my life, until something happened, which is described in the Bible like this:

Isaiah 65:1
I made myself available to those who did not ask for me;
I appeared to those who did not look for me.

God revealed His spirit to me - an absolute ignorant to all religious stuff - in seven days in 1997.
Once you have found a Spirit, that is absolute, perfect, good, indestructible, free from contradiction it must be God.

This Spirit btw. is inside everyone - it is your soul - and it wants to be discovered. In a mystic condition, there is some kind of identity.

The search for oneself and the search for God are one and the same.

If I wouldn´t have found this Spirit in the Bible, I would certainly have a less favorable opinion about this book.

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Still if all Christians at one point say, 'okey fine, you've proven the Bible is wrong or at least has many errors and some big contradictions', then they will still say 'ha, but ya didn't really disprove our God!'.
In my opinion eventhough they're right in saying this, all they really are doing is back paddling, desperately trying to hold on to something ...




Nope, I think, they are either less concerned about the Bible than you and me, or they will like so many other people simply ignore, what they don´t like.
I mean, come on - who does really believe in a version of God, who tells His people to go out for some mass-murder.

Everyone with an inch of grain will assume, that Moses, or whoever received such a message was eventually misled by a different Spirit and one should also keep in mind, that certain passages reflect a generally more archaic athmosphere.

There is a famous Sura in the Qur´an btw, where Mohammed received a message, which he later attributed to Satan, and which was consequently removed from the book: the famous Satanic Verses.

Try to imagine, you´re a prophet and live in 900 BC and all your tribesmen have just escaped from the stone-age, you probably will not discuss with them about the latest divine trends, such as equal rights for chickens, you will start to tell them, that eventually they do not need to murder themselves all the time and such stuff.
An elegant solution is: Thou shall not kill! - because it leaves room for future updates and maybe one day even chickens will be included in the divine covenant.