Wow! This Sam Harris guy sure is an idiot. He must be the Benny Hinn of the atheists: He says what people want to hear and he says it in a most colourful way(i.e. the graph). Truth be damned! What I find most amusing is how many of his disciples on here have been sticking their chests out and proclaiming the superiority of their science and reason to christianity. Really where is your science and reason? Sam Harris used none in developing his graph and you all blindly believed him without an ounce of critical thinking.
When I first seen this thread I rolled my eyes: Another thread taking pot shots at christianity. You would think that you guys would get tired of regurgitating the same old arguments and go off and live your godless lives. But obviously your faith in a godless universe needs to constantly be reinforced by belittling and in your weak minds destroying the pillars of christian orthodoxy.
Perhaps I'm being a little too hard on you guys. I mean I do have some advantages; I actually have read the bible and studied it from time to time. Also, I do have some interest in religious history. What do you guys got? An ardent faith in a godless universe? Blind devotion to your religious leaders such as Sam Harris or Dawkins?
Sam Harris must have scoured the internet to come up with his 395 questions about the bible. He might have even raided christian sites for questions all the while ignoring any answers he got along the way. That would have been the hard part (Ignoring the answers he got along the way). Because these questions aren't new ones. They've been asked and answered for the last 1900 years. The only difference is today you've got idiots like Sam Harris who find a question and go: Aha! I've just disproved the bible. He does this without any attempt to find a reasonable answer himself or looking at any christain apologists who have addressed the same questions over the centuries. After all if Sam did that his chart wouldn't look nearly as pretty and his predetermined conclusion nearly as strong.
Lets look at just the first 2 of Sam's questions which Sam concludes as evidence that the bible isn't reliable:
The first is an apparent discrepancy between the number of men Adino killed at one time between IISam 23:8 and IChron 11:11. In IISam 23:8 the number is 800 and in IChron 11:11 the number is 300. Also in IChron 11:11 the name of the warrior is Jashobeam not Adino. Both Adino and Jashobeam are identified in their passage as the chief of the captains but, of course they both could have been the chief of the captains being as IChron 11 records the beginning of David's 40 year reign as king of Israel whereas IISam23 records the time of David's death. So what exactly is making Sam go "Aha!" ?
The second discrepancy Sam identifies is in Rom 4:2,3 and James 2:21. In Rom 4:2,3 it says Abraham wasn't justified by works before God but, rather by belief. In James 2:21 it says the Abraham was justified by works. It goes on in the verse 22 to explain that Abraham's faith is what produced Abraham's work and then is verse 23 to affirm that Abraham's belief was imputed to him for righteousness. I guess Sam didn't feel the need to read beyond verse 21. After all verse 21 gave Sam his (Aha!). Why read on and spoil it?
When I first went to Sam's chart I was going to go through the first ten questions but,after I seen the calibre of the first 2 I realized the futility of the exercise. Sam isn't asking to find answers. He is building an argument on a bed of sand.
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