1:06 PM// Perfectly Inerrant: A Rebuttal to an Evangelical Christian's Analysis of the Qur'an

This morning, an old friend of mine forwarded me an email from a weekly Christian audio program she subscribes to called "The Weekly Walk". On the air this week, we have a chapter from their series on "Iraq, Islam, and the Middle East" with Dr. James MacDonald. To summarize his position: Christianity is morally superior to Islam. The good doctor supplies several examples from the Koran as evidence that all Muslims follow a doctrine of hate & violence while all Christians believe in peace and love derived from a "perfect source of absolute, authoritative, inerrant truth" (the Bible).

This is an interesting set to compare, considering one is a collection of beliefs and ideals (Christianity), and the other is a book upon which beliefs and ideals are based (Koran). I have not written much on the subject of religion, so I feel I am long overdue.

Firstly, comparing Christianity to Islam or the Bible to the Koran might make for an interesting discussion. But comparing "what I personally believe" to "an old text many Muslims may base their faith on" is not a fair comparison at all. For example, the Koran speaks of Allah-sanctioned war. So the immediate conclusion from Professor Objective is that all Muslims are violent-seeking warmongers, while all Christians believe in peace and love.

Before I proceed, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I harbor no negative feelings towards Christian beliefs in any way. I believe the Bible has a good message of peace and love. While listening to MacDonald lay out his evidence against Islam, it occurred to me that I could locate similar "evidence" in the Bible against Christianity. Imagine for a moment someone who knew of Christianity, but knew very little about it, the way many Christians know very little about Islam. If they were to take selected passages from the Bible, what conclusions regarding Christians would they draw?

What follows is intended as satire, to show that if one only looks at a few selected Biblical passages, one could paint almost any picture one wanted about Christianity. In short, I'm doing to the Bible what Dr. MacDonald did to the Koran. Here's what I've come up with:

The Wrath of God

Many acts are punishable by death in the Bible. Here are crimes for which God Himself administers the death sentence:

• Prayer - God performs an abortion at Hosea's request, "drying up her womb" - Hosea 9:11-16


• God orders Abraham to slay his own son - Genesis 22:9-10


• Masterbation (spilling seed upon the ground to avoid impregnating his brother's wife) - Genesis 38:8-10


• Passover. God's Tenth Plague was to strike down the firstborn sons of all of Egypt. - Exodus 12:29


• Obesity (a "great plague" in Numbers 11:32-33, "God slew the fattest of them" in Psalms 78:31)


• Making fun of others. In 2 Kings 2:23-24 God sends a squadron of bears to maul 42 children for making fun of ugly people.


• Promiscuity. In Ezekiel 23:25-27 God says promiscuous woman will not actually be put to death, but instead their ears and noses will be cut off and burned, their children taken away, be made to walk naked so that everyone will know of their "whoredom", and they will be banished from Egypt. In Leviticus 21:9, they are simply burned to death.


• Failure to give to the poor. In Acts 5:1-10 Jesus strikes a couple dead for holding back some of the profits of a sale intended to provide charity to the poor.


• Blasphemy. Leviticus 10:16: God told Moses that a child held in custody for blasphemy should be stoned to death by the townspeople.

Here are other acts punishable by death:

• Wearing garments sown of two different threads - Deuteronomy 22:11


• Unruly children aught be put to death (Deuteronomy 21:20-21, Mark 7:10, Exodus 21:15,17)


• Working on the Sabbath - Exodus 35:2


• Adultery - Leviticus 20:10

God, it seems, is particularly violent against many acts that we consider trivial today.

Promotion of Violence:

The following are passages in the Bible that glorify, encourage, sanction, or otherwise promote violent acts

• "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones" - Psalms 137:9 (song of a vengeance obtained by smashing children's heads into stone.)


• "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every women that hath known man by lying with him" - Moses 31:17


• If a man causes a woman to miscarry, he is subject to whatever punishment the woman's husband doles out to him, and he is subject to a fine. - Exodus 21:22


• Numbers 5:11-21 describes a painful ritual performed on wives suspected of adultery to induce an abortion and rid her of another man's possible child. Suspicion of adultery includes "the spirit of jealously" coming to the husband. If she is found guilty, she must bear the full blame, while her husband specifically takes none. The woman is given a medicine to "enter her and cause bitter pain" inducing a painful abortion that makes "your womb discharge and your uterus drop". However, if she is innocent, then the medicine goes right through her without causing pain.

Restrictions on Sex:

The Bible has quite a bit to say on the subject of sex. Here are a few selected passages:

• The well-known Leviticus 18:22 verse condemning homosexuality "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination" is often quoted by Christians as proof that God condones the restriction of homosexual rights. However, immediately afterword the Bible condemns adultery with equal vehemence in Leviticus 20:10: "And the man that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death", yet I am not aware of any groups which exist to promote the restriction of rights of adulteresses.


• Leviticus 18:23 condemns bestiality


• Matthew 5:31-32 suggests that marrying a divorced woman is adultery, punishable by death according to Leviticus 20:10.


• Leviticus 20:18 forbids sex during menstruation. In fact, menstruation is called "her sickness". The punishment for violation is "both of them shall be cut off from among their people."


• Crossdressing is evil. "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God." - Deuteronomy 22:5

Treatment of Children:

• A woman relates a story in which she agreed to trade sons with another woman so they might boil and eat each other's children. After the first woman gave up her son to be eaten by the second, the second woman then hid her own son. - Kings 6:28


• A king cuts a living child in half to settle a dispute concerning parentage. - Kings 3:24-25


• God sends bears to maul 42 children for making fun of ugly people. - 2 Kings 2:23-24


• Unruly children aught be put to death - Deuteronomy 21:20-21, Mark 7:10, & Exodus 21:15,17

Slavery, especially of women

• Leviticus 19:20 says a woman who has sex with a man while engaged to another should be whipped, but not put to death because she is a slave to her fiance.


• Moses tells his soldiers they should "keep alive for yourselves" virgin girls of the city they are about to attack - Numbers 31:18


• If a man rapes a virgin, he must pay her father 50 shekels of silver and marry her. In general, the Bible regards rape as a violation of property. Hence, the rape of a virgin is more like laying claim to an unclaimed woman. The passage is
  

  "If a man finds a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days" - Deuteronomy 22:28-29

  
  That is, if a man happens across a virgin not promised to any other man, and he claims her, has sex with her, and someone finds out, then the man must pay off her father and take the woman as his wife.


• Exodus 21:7 sanctions selling your daughter into slavery


• It is wrong for a man to marry his mother, not because of the incestual relation, but because it would be a violation of his father's rights. - Deuteronomy 22:30

Now I'm sure that I've enraged thousands of good Christians, but that is not my intent. Of course, I do not believe that the above selected Biblical teachings are an accurate representation of Christian values. But if you think this exercise ridiculous or are enraged, then you must surely see my point: a 2,000 year old text upon which a faith is based is not a fair assessment of the moral superiority of that religion. That is, the Koran has some passages that perhaps lend negative feelings towards Islam. But if you're going to base your feelings towards Muslims entirely on those passages, then what would a Muslim "Professor" have to say about Christianity based only on the Bible?

This radio address suggested multiple times that Christians believe the Bible is a "perfect source of absolute, authoritative, inerrant truth", while "Muslims study a book that is in constant flux". By this latter statement he meant that Muslims believe the wickedness of an act depends on its context. First of all, let's assume he was comparing his personal beliefs to what Islam means to him and that he did not presume to speak for all Christians or Muslims.

He suggests that in Islam, Allah judges individual acts to be good or evil depending on their context, unlike Christianity in which all evil acts are always evil. While I admittedly know little about the Koran, I know that for the Biblical God, virtue does depend on context. For example, "Thou shalt not kill" is a well-known Commandment dictated to Moses on Mt. Sinai, straight from the Lord's mouth. Yet, there are numerous instances in the Bible where God orders someone be put to death, as in the case of the child who took the Lord's name in vain. If God is good and infallible, then disobeying a direct order from Him would be evil. So either God is commanding an entire congregation to commit evil, or He does consider the context of the situation. That is, an act may be deemed good in one context, and evil in another. This is precisely the point MacDonald makes regarding the Koran to illustrate that Christianity is morally superior, yet clearly this is not a valid argument.

"Perfect source of absolute, authoritative, inerrant truth"

This is hard to believe coming from someone with a doctoral degree. Show me a Bible that is completely free from errors and I will remove this entire article. I've heard estimates of inconsistencies and errors in the Bible total over 150,000. I will present a small subset here. Let's start with contradictions.

Contradictions

• The Sabbath
  
  "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." -- Exodus 20:8
  
  "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." -- Romans 14:5
  
• Permanency of Earth
  
  "… the earth abideth for ever." -- Ecclesiastes1:4
  
  "… the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." -- 2 Peter 3:10
  
• Seeing God
  
  "… I have seen God face to face …" -- Genesis 32:30
  
  "No man hath seen God at any time…" -- John 1:18
  
• God's Omnipotence
  
  "…with God all things are possible." -- Matthew 19:26
  
  "…The LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." -- Judges 1:19
  
• Circumcision
  
  "This is my covenant, which ye shall keep,between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised." -- Genesis 17:10
  
  "…if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." -- Galatians 5:2
  

The following table concerns the morning following Jesus' crucifixion:

Question	Yes	No
2. Was it still dark out?	John 20:1	Mt 28:1; Mk 16:2
3. Did Mary Magdalene tell any men about the tomb?	Mt 28:8; Lu 24:9-10; John 20:2	Mk 16:8
4. Did she go back to the tomb with any of them?	John 20:2-11	Mt 28:1-10,16; Mk 16:8-14; Lu 24:9-12
5. Was there just one angel at Jesus's tomb?	Mt 28:2-5; Mk 16:5-6	(There were two.) Lu 24:4-5; John 20:11-13
6. Were the angels inside the tomb?	Mk 16:5; John 20:11-12	(The one angel was outside.) Mt 28:2
7. Were there guards at the tomb?	Mt 27:62-66, 28:2-4,11-15	Mk 15:44-16:10; Lu 23:50-24:12; John 19:38-20:12
8. Did the angel(s) look like lightning?	Mt 28:2-4	(Humanlike) Mk 16:5; Lu 24:4
9. Did the angel(s) get to the tomb first?	Mk 16:5	Lu 24:2-4; John 20:1-12
10. Did Peter go alone?	Lu 24:12	John 20:2-6
11. Did Jesus appear first to Cephas (Peter)?	1Co 15:3-5	Mt 28:9; Mk 16:9; Lu 24:9-15; John 20:14
12. Did he appear at all to Mary Magdalene?	Mt 28:9; Mk 16:9 John 20:11-14	Lu 24:1-51; 1Co 15:3-8
13. Did he appear to her at the tomb after the disciples were told?	John 20:1-14	(Not at the tomb, and before they were told) Mt 28:1-9; Mk 16:1-10
14. Was she alone when Jesus appeared to her?	Mk 16:9-10; John 20:10-14	(The other Mary was with her.) Mt 28:1-9
15. Did she recognize him immediately?	Mt 28:9; Mk 16:9-10	John 20:14
16. Did Peter go to the tomb before the others were told about it?	(But he was not alone.) John 20:1-3,18	(It was after, and he went alone.) Lu 24:9-12
17. Did Jesus specially appear to two disciples?	Mk 16:12; Lu 24:13-31	Mt 28:16-18; John 20:19-29
18. Did they recognize him immediately?	Mk 16:12-13	Lu 24:13-16
19. Did he later appear as they spoke to the others?	Lu 24:36	(It was after.) Mk 16:14
20. Did he scold the others for not believing them?	Mk 16:14	Lu 24:35-51
21. Did Jesus appear just once to the disciples?	Mk 16:14-19; Lu 24:36-51	(It was thrice.) John 20:19-26, 21:1-2,14
22. Was the 1st appearance to them in Galilee?	Mt 28:9-10,16-18	Lu 24:33-36,49-51; John 20:18-26; Ac 1:4
23. Did they all recognize him immediately?	Mk 16:14-20; John 20:19-20	Mt 28:16-17; Lu 24:36-41
24. Did he ascend to heaven immediately afterwards?	Mt 28:9-10,16-20; Mk 16:14-19; Lu 24:36-51	John 20:19-26, 21:1; Ac 1:1-9; 1Co 15:3-8
25. Did he appear to them twice, eight days apart?	John 20:19-26	Mt 28:9-20; Mk 16:14-19; Lu 24:36-51
26. Did he appear to the Twelve, to over 500, & then specially to James?	1Co 15:5-7	Mt 27, 28; Mk 16; Lu 24; John 20, 21
27. Did Jesus ascend to heaven from Bethany?	Lu 24:50-51	(From Mt. Olivet) Ac 1:9-12; (Jerusalem) Mk 16:14-19
28. Was Jesus the only one to ascend to heaven?	John 3:13	(Enoch and Elijah too) Heb 11:5; 2Ki 2:11
29. Did Paul's companions hear Jesus's voice?	Ac 9:7	Ac 22:9, 26:14

Source: Drange, Theodore, The Argument from the Bible, (1996), collected from the World Wide Web February 9, 2005. Reproduced without permission.

Clearly the Bible is not free of contradictions. How can two completely different things happen? While these might seem like minor "nit-picky" contradictions, it is very important if you are going to claim that the Bible is a source of "absolute, inerrant truth".

Inerrant?

Contradictions aside, one may cite many factual errors as well:

• 1 Kings 7:23 says pi is not greater than 3, yet we know pi is approximately 3.14159…, much greater than 3. I don't think this passage is God telling us pi is exactly three, as the passage states only that a "round sea" of diameter 10 can be enclosed in a line of circumference 30 (not exactly equal to). Still, God is apparently telling us that pi is less than or equal to three, which is wrong.


• The Bible estimates the Earth at about 6,000 years old, yet there is enormous scientific evidence suggesting the Earth is at least 4.5 billion years old.


• There is irrefutable evidence to show the earth does not rest upon pillars, as suggested in Genesis 9:6.


• Genesis 1:16 places the Earth in the Universe before the stars, while we know entire galaxies of stars existed for billions of years before the earth.


• Genesis 2:7 suggests God created mankind in his image from dust and gave him life by breathing into his nostrils. However, there is enormous evidence suggesting that Man evolved from other primates over the course of millions of years and did not suddenly come into existence by the breath of God.

I am unable to fathom how anyone can claim the Bible is a source of "inerrant truth", when clearly even a cursory investigation reveals it to be rife with error. I think the message is good, but let's not kid ourselves about the rampant incongruities abounding throughout this holy document.

Religiously Inspired Military Conquest

Another of MacDonald's claims is that much of what is now Islamic holy land was originally obtained through military conquest. He goes on to condemn any religion which would actively promote violence in the name of religion. Sure, Christians have never done that before. This one is so obvious, I don't think I need to elaborate on the leagues of blood lost in the name of Christ. To quote Monty Python:

"Jesus said 'love thy neighbor', and for the next two thousand years, people are killing each other because they can't agree on how he said it." -- Terry Jones

Conclusions

Remember, I am not trying to convince you to disregard the Bible, or to "disprove" the Bible. In fact, I think that the Bible provides an excellent message of peace and love. However, this is essentially what MacDonald has done to the Koran. If you're going to dismiss an entire religion based on its major text, it is easy to be hypocritical. I have tried to create one possible image of Christianity based solely on a selective analysis of the Bible to demonstrate the ease and danger of inciting negative feelings towards an entire people.

Also, I don't mind promotions of the Bible and its message; just don't provide some obscure passage in the Bible as "proof" that something is evil (i.e. homosexuality). If you're using the Bible as your axioms for life, then you can't be quite so selective. Why not legalize slavery and beat your wife whenever you feel the "spirit of jealousy"? Or stone small children to death for blasphemy as ordered by God Himself? If you really believe homosexuals are going to burn in Hell for their sins based only on the Bible, are you ready to accept the same fate for a second marriage? Why accept one passage in the Bible and disregard the other? After all, the Bible is a perfect source of absolute truth.

But that is an argument for another time. My only purpose here is to satirize our evangelical friend's work on the Koran by providing exactly the same service on the Bible. Perhaps this will make the ridiculousness of his arguments against Islam apparent.