Skeptical Views of 
    Christianity and the Bible
                   
                                
Joseph Francis Alward


"Everything in the Old Testament is perverted and distorted into meanings never intended by the writers. The practice which the writers of the books employ is not more false than it is absurd. They state some trifling case of the person they call Jesus Christ, and then cut out a sentence from some passage of the OT and call it a prophecy of that case. But when the words thus cut out are restored to the places they are taken from, and read with the words before and after them, they give the lie to the New Testament."--Thomas Paine 


Send comments, suggestions, and criticisms to: JFAlward@aol.com.


     Moses Meets God on Mt. Sinai

 

 

Calling Things by Their Right Name 

"As long as people believed in the miraculous inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, of course they accepted every page as literally true, and thought that there could not be any contradiction between the different accounts or representations of Scripture.  The worst of all such pre-conceived ideas is, that they compel those who hold them to do violence to their own sense of truth.  When so-called religious prejudices come into play, people are afraid to call things by their right names, and without knowing it themselves, become guilty of all kinds of evasive and arbitrary practices; for what would be thought quite unjustifiable in any other case is here considered a duty, inasmuch as it is supposed to tend toward the maintenance of faith and the glory of God!" --T.W. Doane, "Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions."

Shattering the Sacred Myths

An online book that examines the conflict between science and religion and dispels the myths and superstitions that have long been used as an excuse for political and religious extremism.

Features: An easy-to-read explanation of natural evolution. Unravels the true stories behind the formation of the traditional religions. Explores how democracy rose out of the violent struggle for wealth and power. Explains why modern democratic values must continue to replace traditional religious moral values. Contemplates the existence of the universe and questions whether consciousness has any kind of cosmic purpose.
 

Skeptics’ Dictionary

 

False Prophecy
Triumphal Entry   
Virgin Birth
Bethlehem Birth
Herod Prophecy
Potter's Field
The Nazarene
Jesus' Sword

...........................
Absurdities
Jacob's Branches
Balaam's Donkey

Stilled Sun
Risen Saints
Tax Census
Herod Murders
Walk on Water
Yahweh's Quail

..........................
Number Errors
Crucifixion Hour
Forty Days
Babylon Census
David's Census
Solomon's Stalls
Value of Pi
Miscount
................................
Jesus Said
Peter's Denials
I'll Be Back
Three Days/Nights
Honor Thy Parents
Jesus' Parables
Jesus Curses Fig Tree

Women
Not Glory of God
May Not Teach

.....................................
Bad Science
Flat Earth
Three Hours of Darkness
.....................................
Conflict
Visiting the Tomb
Mary and Jesus
Judas' Death
Seeing God
Disciples Staves
Moral Guide
Mark's Error
.....................................
Synoptics
Feedings Parallels
Wicked Tenant Parable
.....................................
Satan
Lucifer and Satan
.....................................
Apostle Martyrs
Would They Die for a Lie?
.....................................
Paul
What Did Paul Know?

 

Gospels
Strobel's Case for Christ 
Who Wrote Luke? 
Legend Development
Sleeping Disciples 
Was Jesus a Carpenter?  
 
Jesus Stills Storm  
 
David and Jesus  
 
Jesus Walks on Water
Loaves and Fishes

Mark's Wicked Tenants 
Matthew Eyewitness?  
Fatigue in Synoptics?
.........................................
Genesis
Did the Serpent Have Legs?
Man or Beast First?
Two Flood Stories
Noah Nonsense
Light Before Sun
First Rainbow
.........................................
Atrocities
Death Penalty
Murdered Babes
A Hateful God?
Slavery

Doctrine
Love Thy Enemy?
Trinity Forgery
Jesus Names Simon
Man's Fate
Inerrancy
Salvation

Salvation Contradictions
Exclude Gentiles
Cephas
 
....................................
God
Is Jesus God?
Is Jesus Jehovah?
God Tests Man
God-Breathed?
Omniscience
Omnibenevolence
The Paradox of God
Yahweh's Name
A Forgiving Jesus?

....................................
Genealogies
Prophetic Pattern
Two Weeks
Mary Davidic?

..................................
Plagues
First Born
Ten Plagues

 

Bibles
Bible Keeper
Compare Translations
Septuagint
Gateway Bible
Greek Bible
Bible in Greek/Hebrew
Bible Harmony
Strong's Numbers
New English Translation
New Amer. Bible
Unbound Bible
Virtual Bibles List
Bible Study Tools
Bible Resources
Skeptic's Annotated Bible
Bible Variants
Lego Bible
....................................
Debate
Theology Web
Jehovahs Witness Forum
Errancy II
Ontario Skeptics
Canadian Skeptics Society

Creation Debate Advice

Creationism Links
Eugenie Scott: Debates
Speakers' Bureau
Logical Fallacies
Illogical Questions
Pascal's Wager
Science
Errancy Archives
Errancy Archives (Compl.)
Errancy Members

Markan Discussion
Academic EList
XTalk Archives
Synoptic Archives
....................................
References
Bible Dictionary
Audio Greek NT
Greek NT
Learning NT Greek
NT Greek Lexicon
Greek Lessons
Bible History
Secular Web Library
Skeptics Dictionary
HR Books: Religion
Books: Bible History
Bible History
NASA FAQ
The World Religions

UOP Library
Academic Departments
Jour. Bib. Studies
Till's Skeptical Review

..................................
Existence of God

Debating Religion
DesignTranscendental
MiraclesCosmological
ExperienceMoral


..................................................
The Apostles
Apostles Martyrs? 

Images
Bible Pictures  
Three-Tiered Universe
International Art
Illustrated Story of Jesus
Bible Pictures

Art Concordance
KJV Illustrated
Dore Prints
Mythological Pictures
Mythology Art
Artist Index
Advent Images
Index of Images
Jerusalem Maps
Boston Museum
Roman Sites Archive

.......................................
Historicity 
List of Historians
Jesus Puzzle (Doherty)
Debunking Prophecy
Did Jesus Exist?
Jesus Myth Discussion
Jesus Birth Date
Jesus Miracles
The Jesus Mysteries
Ancient Jesus Accounts
Christ Fiction (Price)
Fact and Fiction
Xtianity (Peter Kirby)
Resurrection (Singer)
Resurrection Debate
Josephus (Scott Oser)
Josephus (Excellent)
Jesus Character
Roman Emperors
.......................................
Miscellaneous
Beyond Born Again.
List of Saviors
Archko Volume
Archeology and the Bible
Archaeology/Bible
Missing Day
Kiss Hank's Ass
Huber's Bible Thumper
The Bible Code
Bible Codes 1
Bible Codes 2
Slavery and the Bible
19th Century in Print
Bible Issues
Christian Answers
Resurrection
Errancy
The Chicago Statement

75 Prophecies
Failed Prophecies

100 Prophecies
Trolls
Watchtower Observer
Cartoon on Blood Issue
Scientology Cult
God Experience Biological?
Bible/Koran and Science
......................................
Languages
Perseus Project
Hebrew Institute
 

Literature
Pylos Evidence?
Iliad
Odyssey
Greek Myth Encycloped
Myth, Folklore, Legend
Classic Literature
Babylonian Glossary

...................................
Problems
Speckled Bands
McRoberts: Gospels
Critical Look at Bible
Old Testament Problems
Flood Story (McKinsey)
Has Ark Been Found?
Ark Find Debunked
Flood Story (Mark Isaak)
McDowell's (Lowder)
Contradictions (Drange)
A List (Merritt)
Problems (Morgan)
Contradictions (Barker)
Hoax or Hope
Resurrection (Lowder)
Apologetics

....................................
Books-Magazines
Organizations


Scientology Cult

The Skeptical Inquirer
American Atheist
Errancy (McKinsey)
God's Word (Wheless)
Forgery (Wheless)
Robert Green Ingersoll
Secular Web
Ontario Skeptics
Canadian Skeptics Soc
Jesus Seminar

Christian Atheism
...............................
Miscellaneous
Ten Commandments
Cliff Pickover
Bartlett Quotations
Quotations
Quotations (McKinsey)
Apologetics
Criticism
Prophecy

The Mind Virus
Walk Away

.............................
Personal
Vietnam Stories
Medal

Jokes

...............................
Prayer and
Health


Efficacy of Prayer
Why Religion Matters
Religion and Health

Bible Origin
The Great Lie
Who Wrote the Bible?
Eyewitnesses?  
Moses WrotePentateuch?
Gospel Parallels 1  
Gospel Parallels 2
Mark Without Q
Synoptic Problem
Existence of Q
Dating Mark
Early Writings
Homer or Not Homer?
Bible Origins
Writers Copied Mark
Voting for a Bible
Origins of Christianity
Formation of NT Canon
Markan Priority
Bible Versions
Dating Gospels
Homer-Mark (Carrier)
Two-Gospel Theory
Fatique in the Gospels
 
Fatique in the Synoptics
 
Form Criticism  
..................................
Documents
Scripture
Church
Documents
Textus Receptus
Books: Apochrypha
Catholic Encyclopedia
..................................
Former Believers
Steve McRoberts (JW)
Escape the Watchtower
Satan Letter
Faith (Barker)
I Quit (Runyon)
Agnostic
Robert Price
Mormon
Mormon Stories
Why Fear Religion ?
Religion and Violence
Mormons a Cult?
Cults and Suicides
Ex-Christians
Truth Set You Free
Interview with an Atheist
Rise from Christianity  
Visions of Glory 
Escaping Mormonism
...................................
Darwin
Did He Recant?
Debunking Myth
Was He a Christian?

Abortion

Abortion in the Bible
Why Abortion is Moral

 

The Great Lie 

By Michael Kalopoulos, XLibris Publishing House, 2003.  Perhaps the most interesting book on the Bible I've read yet.  Among the many remarkable  achievements of this author is his construction of a convincing case that stories of the "divine" plagues and miracles allegedly worked by God on Abraham's behalf were disguised versions of the true stories of scams worked by Abraham and his wife, Sarah.  

Many more examples of religious fraud abound in this wonderful book, and the last chapter, in which Kalopoulos scientifically analyzes and explains the reasons that these frauds have gone so long largely unexposed, is alone worth the price of the book.

Interested readers may click here to go to Kalopoulos' home page, or here to go to the 
introduction page for his book.

Why I Left Christianity:  A Former Apologist Explains
by John W. Loftus

 

The Uncreated Creator

"If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu's view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, "How about the tortoise?" the Indian said, "Suppose we change the subject." The argument is really no better than that. There is no reason why the world could not have come into being without a cause; nor, on the other hand, is there any reason why it should not have always existed. There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination. Therefore, perhaps, I need not waste any more time upon the argument about the First Cause." --Bertrand Russell

 

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, British-born American writer and Revolutionary leader wrote the pamphlet Common Sense (1776) arguing for American independence from
Britain. In England he published The Rights of Man (1791-1792), a defense of the French Revolution.  On May 12, 1797 while living in Paris, Paine wrote the following letter to a Christian friend:

"
It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man. That bloodthirsty man, called the prophet Samuel, makes God to say, (I Samuel 15:3) `Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.'

"That Samuel or some other impostor might say this, is what, at this distance of time, can neither be proved nor disproved, but in my opinion it is blasphemy to say, or to believe, that God said it. All our ideas of the justice and goodness of God revolt at the impious cruelty of the Bible. It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.

"What makes this pretended order to destroy the Amalekites appear the worse, is the reason given for it. The Amalekites, four hundred years before, according to the account in Exodus 18 (but which has the appearance of fable from the magical account it gives of Moses holding up his hands), had opposed the Israelites coming into their country, and this the Amalekites had a right to do, because the Israelites were the invaders, as the Spaniards were the invaders of Mexico. This opposition by the Amalekites, at that time, is given as a reason, that the men, women, infants and sucklings, sheep and oxen, camels and asses, that were born four hundred years afterward, should be put to death; and to complete the horror, Samuel hewed Agag, the chief of the Amalekites, in pieces, as you would hew a stick of wood. I will bestow a few observations on this case.

"In the first place, nobody knows who the author, or writer, of the book of Samuel was, and, therefore, the fact itself has no other proof than anonymous or hearsay evidence, which is no evidence at all. In the second place, this anonymous book says, that this slaughter was done by the express command of God: but all our ideas of the justice and goodness of God give the lie to the book, and as I never will believe any book that ascribes cruelty and injustice to God, I therefore reject the Bible as unworthy of credit.

"As I have now given you my reasons for believing that the Bible is not the Word of God, that it is a falsehood, I have a right to ask you your reasons for believing the contrary; but I know you can give me none, except that you were educated to believe the Bible; and as the Turks give the same reason for believing the Koran, it is evident that education makes all the difference, and that reason and truth have nothing to do in the case.

"You believe in the Bible from the accident of birth, and the Turks believe in the Koran from the same accident, and each calls the other infidel. But leaving the prejudice of education out of the case, the unprejudiced truth is, that all are infidels who believe falsely of God, whether they draw their creed from the Bible, or from the Koran, from the Old Testament, or from the New.

"When you have examined the Bible with the attention that I have done (for I do not think you know much about it), and permit yourself to have just ideas of God, you will most probably believe as I do. But I wish you to know that this answer to your letter is not written for the purpose of changing your opinion. It is written to satisfy you, and some other friends whom I esteem, that my disbelief of the Bible is founded on a pure and religious belief in God; for in my opinion the Bible is a gross libel against the justice and goodness of God, in almost every part of it."

(Click here to access Paine's writings.)

 

The Origin of the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy 

St.
Augustine (354-430) was one of the founders of the Roman Catholic Church.  He well understood that Christianity was like a house of cards; if the church dared to admit to even a single error in the Bible, who could say there wasn't an error on every page? The resurrection story might then be false and everyone's hopes are in vain.  This is what he said:


"The most disastrous consequences must follow upon our believing that anything false is found in the sacred books....If you [even] once admit into such a high sanctuary of authority one false statement, there will not be left a single sentence of those books, which, if appearing to anyone difficult in practice or hard to believe, may not by the same fatal rule be explained away as a statement, in which intentionally, the author declared what was not true."
--St. Augustine in Epistula, p. 28.

 

"There is no prophecy in the OT foretelling the coming of Jesus Christ. There is not one word in the OT referring to him in any way--not one word. The only way to prove this is to take your Bible, and wherever you find these words; "That it might be fulfilled" and "which was spoken" turn to the OT and find what was written, and you will see that it had not the slightest possible reference to the thing recounted in the NT--not the slightest."
 -- Robert Green Ingersoll


"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov 


"Whoever will take the trouble to read attentively, will find in all those passages where the OT is cited, only an obvious abuse of words, and the seal of falsehood on almost every page." -- Voltaire

 

"Reasons to Doubt the Divinity of the Bible" (Robert Green Ingersoll)

If a revelation from God was actually necessary to the happiness of man here and to his salvation hereafter, it is not easy to see why such revelation was not given to all the nations of the earth. Why were the millions of Asia, Egypt, and America left to the insufficient light of nature. Why was not a written, or what is still better, printed revelation given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? And why were the Jews themselves without a Bible until the days of Ezra the scribe? Why was nature not so made that it would give light enough? Why did God make men and leave them in darkness -- a darkness that he knew would fill the world with want and crime, and crowd with damned souls the dungeons of hell? Were the Jews the only people who needed a revelation? It may be said that God had no time to waste with other nations, and gave the Bible to the Jews that other nations through them might learn of his existence and his will. If he wished other nations to be informed, and revealed himself to but one, why did he not choose a people that mingled with others? Why did he give the message to those who had no commerce, who were obscure and unknown, and who regarded other nations with the hatred born of bigotry and weakness? What would we now think of a God who made his will known to the South Sea Islanders for the benefit of the civilized world? If it was of such vast importance for man to know that there is a God, why did not God make himself known? This fact could have been revealed by an infinite being instantly to all, and there certainly was no necessity of telling it alone to the Jews, and allowing millions for thousands of years to die in utter ignorance.

Twenty-first The Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Tartars, Africans, Eskimo, Persians, Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Polynesians, and many other peoples, are substantially ignorant of the Bible. All the Bible societies of the world have produced only about one hundred and twenty millions of Bibles, and there are about fourteen hundred million people. There are hundreds of languages and tongues in which no Bible has yet been printed. Why did God allow, and why does he still allow, a vast majority of his children to remain in ignorance of his will?

If the Bible is the foundation of all civilization, of all just ideas of right and wrong, of our duties to God and each other, why did God not give to each nation at least one copy to start with? He must have known that no nation could get along successfully without a Bible, and he also knew that man could not make one for himself. Why, then, were not the books furnished? He must have known that the light of nature was not sufficient to reveal the scheme of the atonement, the necessity of baptism, the immaculate conception, transubstantiation, the arithmetic of the Trinity, or the resurrection of the dead.

It is probably safe to say that not one-third of the inhabitants of this world ever heard of the Bible, and not one- tenth ever read it. It is also safe to say that no two persons who ever read it agreed as to its meaning, and it is not likely that even one person has ever understood it. Nothing is more needed at the present time than an inspired translator. Then we shall need an inspired commentator, and the translation and the commentary should be written in an inspired universal language, incapable of change, and then the whole world should be inspired to understand this language precisely the same. Until these things are accomplished, all written revelations from God will fill the world with contending sects, contradictory creeds and opinions.

Why should a man, because he has done a bad action, go and kill a sheep? How can man make friends with God by cutting the throats of bullocks and goats? Why should God delight in the shedding of blood? Why should he want his altar sprinkled with blood, and the horns of his altar tipped with blood, and his priests covered with blood? Why should burning flesh be a sweet savor in the nostrils of God? Why did he compel his priests to be butchers, cutters and stabbers? Why should the same God kill a man for eating the fat of an ox, a sheep, or a goat?

Is it not wonderful that the creator of all worlds, infinite in power and wisdom, could not hold his own against the gods of wood and stone? Is it not strange that after he had appeared to his chosen people, delivered them from slavery, fed them by miracles, opened the sea for a path, led them by cloud and fire, and overthrown their pursuers, they still preferred a calf of their own making? Is it not beyond belief that this God, by statutes and commandments, by punishments and penalties, by rewards and promises, by wonders and plagues, by earthquakes and pestilence, could not in the least civilize the Jews -- could not get them beyond a point where they deserved killing? What shall we think of a God who gave his entire time for forty years to the work of converting three millions of people, and succeeded in getting only two men, and not a single woman, decent enough to enter the promised land? Was there ever in the history of man so detestable an administration of public affairs?


 "Proofs" of God's Existence:  http://godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm

 

The links below are to various topics on the website,  Religious Tolerance:

Beliefs About the Resurrection
The Hebrew Scriptures  
Stories in the Hebrew Scriptures 
The Christian Scriptures  
How Christians interpret the Bible
Is the Bible inerrant?
Were the Bible's authors inspired by the Holy Spirit?
Bible versions
Tools for searching the Bible
Downloadable copies of the Bible and other Christian material  





Referring to Copernicus's theory that the sun was the center of the solar system, Martin Luther exclaimed, "This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth. ”  (Tischreden, 1743, Vol. 22, page 2260.)

Those who can induce you to believe absurdities can induce you to commit attrocities -- Voltaire


But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
(1 Peter 3:15)

Justification offered by Jehovah's Witnesses for persecuting those who've been baptized and then abandoned their faith:  

"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." (Hebrews 6:4-6)

"I contend that we are both atheists, I just believe in one less god than you do. When you understand why
you dismiss all other possible gods, then you will know why I dismiss yours."  (Stephen F. Roberts)


"The Allwise Creator hath been dishonored by being made the author of fable and the human mind degraded
by believing it."--Thomas Paine

"You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say we are the ones that need help?"--Mark Twain

"Anyone inexperienced puts faith in every word, but the shrewd one considers his steps." 
(Proverbs 14:15)

"Test everything. Hold on to the good." 
(1 Thessalonians 5:21)

----------------------------

Josephus wrote of challenges to Roman authority, but not about the one led by Jesus and his followers:

Prophetic movements:  Theudas (Acts 5:36; Josephus's,.Antiquities of the Jews, 2.259).
Movements of resistance against the Roman occupiers: Judas the Galilean (Acts 5:37; Josephus: 17.271-2)
Simon (Ant. 17:273-6)
Athronges (Jos., Ant. 17.278-84)
------------------------------

Check authenticity of the "Letter" to Roman Senate from Herod Antipas:  http://www.bibleprobe.com/antipas.htm:
 It's bogus.  See Archko Volume fakery articles.

Α, α: alpha
a, father, bat

Η, η: eta
long e, hey

Ν, ν: nu
n, noo

Τ, τ: tau
t

Β, β: beta,
b, vino or bino

Θ, θ: theta
th, thin

Ξ, ξ: xi
ks, kuh-see

Υ, υ: upsilon
u, ü, ooh

Γ, γ: gamma
g, google    

Ι, ι: iota
i, machine, bit

Ο, ο: omicron
short o, rot

Φ, φ: phi
 f

Δ, δ: delta
d, thus

Κ, κ: kappa
k

Π, π: pi
p

Χ, χ: chi
ch, loch, say key

Ε, ε: epsilon
short e, echo

Λ, λ: lambda
 l

Ρ, ρ: rho
r

Ψ, ψ: psi
ps

Ζ, ζ: zeta
z, zulu

Μ, μ: mu
m, mew

Σ, σ, s: sigma
s

Ω, ω: omega
long o, rote