Here is another. In Matthew 27:5, Judas threw down the pieces of silver in the temple that were given to him for betraying Jesus, then he departed and he went and hanged himself. But in the Acts of the Apostles 1:18, Judas kept the silver and he purchased a field with it; he went into it and falling headlong, he burst open and all his bowels gushed out. That is a contradiction. He cannot have both left the money in the temple and purchased a field with it. He cannot have both hanged himself and threw himself face down into a field and exploded. One account MUST be false. Which one should you believe? Why should you be placed in this position of having to choose between scriptures as to which one is true and which one is false? Why?

If the translations are wrong, why would God allow His “Word” to be translated wrongly to millions, leading some of them into disbelief?

How come Jesus was WRONG when he says that “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of Man”? (John 3:13) Why does II Kings 2:11 say that “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven”? How could Jesus/god have made such an obvious and serious blunder?

This, from Matthew, defies all common sense and rationality: “Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when the tempter came to him, he said: ‘If thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’ But he answered, and said: ‘It is written: man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him upon a pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him: “If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone.’ Jesus said unto him: ‘It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’ Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and saith unto him: ‘All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” The Christians claim that Jesus is God. If he was God, of course the devil knew that, and yet, according to this account, the devil took the omnipotent God and placed him upon a pinnacle of the temple, and tried to convince god to throw himself against the earth. Failing in that, he took the creator, owner and governor of the universe up into an exceeding high mountain and offered him this world -- this grain of sand -- if He, the God of all the worlds, would fall down and worship him, a poor devil, without even a tax title to one foot of dirt! Is it possible the devil was such an idiot? Should any great credit be given to this god for not being caught with such cheap trick? Think of it! The devil -- the prince of deceivers-- the king of cunning - the master of finesse, trying to bribe God with a little planet that already belonged to God! Nonsense! Is there in all the religious literature of the world anything more utterly absurd than this? Think about it. The contradictions, errors and moral outrages contained in the bible are far to numerous to mention here, and are conclusive evidence that the bible is NOT “inspired”.

How can we know that the bible is true? The historical record supports the existence of some of the towns mentioned in the bible, but very little else. As far as the New Testament, no first century historian confirms the existence of Jesus. Modern biblical scholars agree that the New Testament scriptures were written 80 to 100 years after the alleged events, and the names Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were attached afterward by the Church.

So, why do people believe the bible is true? To find out the answer, ask a Christian. I have received many answers all along these lines: “It must be true because everybody knows it’s true. How can the whole world be wrong? It’s true because it’s the Perfect Word of God. It is the moral blueprint for Humanity. Nothing written by man approaches its perfection.” Basically, people believe the bible is true because their parents told them it was, and told them not to question it. In the west, we are told the Christian bible is true. In the east, the New Testament is held to be false, and the Jews endorse only the Old Testament. If you are Islamic, the Koran is the only true bible. Other religions have their own sacred writings. What book you believe depends largely on where you were born. You believe what your parents tell you, just like they believe what their parents told them, and so on, since the book was written. To disagree with the book was to face punishment, shame, and even death. (The book itself gives instructions on how to execute non-believers.) No wonder no one questioned it for two thousand years.

The bible does not conform to history as it has been revealed by historians and archeology. The bible is a circular reference with no external support. NO first century historian confirms the existence of Jesus. There were historians (Philo-Judaeus and Justus of Tiberius) living in or near Jerusalem during Christ’s alleged lifetime, but wrote *not one word* about him. Then there is Flavius Josephus, who was born in 37 AD, and has a paragraph on Jesus. But most scholars, including most Christian ones, agree that Josephus’s account is a forgery- earlier versions of his work dating from before the second century do not mention Jesus at all. There are many places where the mention of Jesus would be appropriate, but Josephus makes no mention of him. (see The Jesus Problem, J. M. Robertson, M.P., 1917, chapter 4, The Silence of Josephus, page 121). The paragraph on Jesus was added to Josephus’s work at the beginning of the 4th century, during Constantine’s reign, probably by Bishop Eusebius (who was well known for saying that it was permissible for Christians to lie in order to further the kingdom of God).

The existence of an actual Jesus is very much in doubt. The famous humanitarian Albert Schweitzer studied the problem of Jesus and concluded that he did not exist. Most of the Founding Fathers of America, including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, James Madison and George Washington, did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. The New Testament gospels were written 80-100 AD, and the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were attached to the books that bear their names much later by the early church. Matthew and Luke were constructed from Mark, and John is thought to be written even later by early church leaders. There is no evidence that these people lived at all. The messiah construct was very common 2000+ years ago-- there were dozens of “messiahs”, all who used the same popular fomula. Consider Mithra, a messianic figure who pre-dated Christ by several hundred years, and who also was born of a virgin, had a last supper and was crucified and resurrected 3 days later. His symbol, the cross, was stamped onto thin wafers of bread. And he had 12 apostles. Other messiah figures also had 12 followers-- representing the 12 signs of the zodiac.

Is the bible the perfect source of morality? Was it god, or the devil, who said: “I will strew your flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with your carcass. I will drench the land even to the mountains with your flowing blood...”

Was it god, or the devil, who said: “Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you and sons shall eat their fathers...I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they shall rob you of your children; pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring a sword upon you.” Was it god, or the devil, who said: “Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare and you shall show no pity; slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women...” Was it god, or the devil, who said: “...I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the light of this sun.” Was it god, or the devil, who said: “Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” Was it god, or the devil, who said: “Samar’ia shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.” Was it God, or the devil, who killed every man, woman, child and animal on earth because he lost his temper with them? Was it God, or the devil, who killed 50,000 of his children for merely looking into the ark of the covenant?

Obviously, it is God who did all of these atrocities. But I ask you, under similar circumstances, what would the devil have done? Allow yourself to think about that. Could a devil have done worse?

Let’s end with another mistake of Jesus: In Matt. 23:35, Jesus is quoted as saying, “the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.” However the prophet stoned in the temple in 2 Chron. 24:20-21 is Zechariah the son of *Jehoiada. There does not appear to be a plausible solution other than a mistake. However, it has been suggested that “Matthew” has picked up the name of Zechariah the son of Baruch, who was also murdered in the temple precincts in 68 AD, more than thirty years after Jesus was supposed to have lived (Josephus, Wars of the Jews 4.5.4), but well within the time of the writing of the gospels. Either way, this is a big argument against the perfection of the bible: The New Testament can’t even quote the Old Testament straight.

I constantly am told to “Open up your heart to Jesus”, which I take to mean “Emotionally accept god-belief, because it will make you feel better... Ignore your rational thinking process. Base your opinion on your emotions, not your logic.” Well, sorry, I don’t work that way. I can’t be bribed to suspend my critical thinking for the promise of eternal life, nor with the threats of eternal pain.