Bible vs. Veda
Bible vs. Veda
Bible vs. Veda
HOLY BIBLE
A COMPARATIVE STUDY
HOLY VEDAS
AND
HOLY BIBLE
A Comparative Study
BY: SOG (SON OF GOD)
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Contents
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UNDERSTANDING GOD
Meaning
1
JustMeans GOD does not do any partiality, his rules are not
changeable, if he changes his rules then it means he was not sure of
his first rule and that is why he modified the rule, this will violate
his property of Omnisciense. Thus he does not forgive any soul for
its sins nor does he forget to award soul for its good deeds.
If God is to forgive the sins, the way it is done in some faith where
person can commit any number of crimes and go to a temple for
repentance. This kind of justice will allow more and more people
to commit mistakes. Moreover if GOD starts forgiving each and
everyone for crime then he is doing injustice with other person on
whom the crime was committed - Such law of justice is of no
logic and will be full of corruption. This violates his property of
Omniscience and Bliss resulting in men and women being sinful.
Knowing that their sins will be forgiven in front of a priest who
makes a call to GOD, people will become fearless and sinful thus
committing more crimes. GOD must be just which means he gives
souls the just fruits of their deeds and does not forgive their sins.
Such a GOD will be impartial, imagine if GOD starts listening to
ISIS -an Islamic militants, fighting in the name of GOD, they pray
5 times in a day, more than anyone else. So, if GOD listens to them
then it means he favors cruelty by punishing other side. On the
contrary imagine if 2 billion Christians ask for killing 1.6 billion
Muslims and vice versa then whom will GOD listen. Such GOD
will go mad as all are crying, shouting with full heart towards
GOD to make their wish true.
One who has done good will bear good fruits but one who in full
conscience has committed a wrong must bear the fruit of wrong
deed. The law of GOD is perfect.
2
Even after million years we have not forgotten Ravan who was
scholar of four Vedas but committed crime of abducting Sita. This
is an example that even after reading Vedas one cannot improve
until his or her deeds are improved.
Still, very few exceptions do take place but they are not even 1%
worldwide. If GOD really exists and meet our requirement the way
it is taught by priests and pundits then we must have 99.9% of the
above points as normal cases and 0.1% exceptions, means GOD
must help us in curing diseases, living without food, no poverty,
passing exams by worshipping him and so on. Some of the
followers say GOD is required but we must do Hard work. I will
ask them why do you need GOD for, if you are doing hard work,
your fellow doctor who is human is helping you, your brother is
farming and producing food, your clothes made by humans and
everything which we do in life is done by one or other human
being then why not to love each other and see GOD in one another
rather than searching for someone which does not exist in front of
you and cannot help you.
3
It is to be kept in mind that even after death, one has to face the
consequences of his actions so it is advisable to think before doing
or saying anything and be sure that the laws of action and reaction
are eternal. Man acts and God reacts.
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The Garden of Eden
(Big Dilemma)
1. Why did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil in the Garden of Eden?
2. What purpose did it serve?
3. Did He have to take a piece of the magical fruit now and
again to refresh His memory? Of course not.
4. Did any of the animals of the Garden need the Tree? We
can assume not.
5. How could a tree-- an organism of wood and sap-- contain
the "knowledge of good and evil"?
6. What capacity did it have for storing such knowledge, and
how was that knowledge passed on by eating and digesting
it? Allow yourself to think about that…
7. Why, therefore, among all the useful and decorative trees in
the Garden of Eden, did God deliberately include this tree,
the tree that carries the warning: "In the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die"?
8. Did He put it in the Garden as a temptation for Adam and
Eve? The bible says very clearly that this cannot be the
case. God does not tempt: “Let no man say . . . I am
tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth He any man.” (James 1:13) So if God
didn't put the tree in Adam and Eve's home in order to
tempt them, why did he put it there?
9. Did God know Eve would eat the fruit? Of course He
did! We are told by the bible that God knows all things
from the Beginning unto the End. Did He not know Eve
would give it to Adam? Of course He did.
10. Did He not know that the serpent would tempt Eve? He
did, if we are to accept the bible.
11. Therefore, did Eve have any freewill in the matter? Could
she have acted in a manner other than God had foreseen for
her? Of course not! How could she?
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12. How was the serpent able to speak? Did it give itself this
remarkable ability?
13. How does the mouth of a snake, with no lips or proper
teeth, and no articulate tongue, form human words?
14. How did the tiny brain of a snake become wise and
subtle? Did the serpent make itself that way?
15. Who was responsible for putting the principal actors--
Adam, Eve, the serpent and the Tree-- all together in the
Garden of Eden? God, of course. The inescapable
conclusion? That He put all the pieces on the game board
and enacted His own little drama, resulting in the deliberate
and unavoidable eternal damnation of Humankind. In the
words of Robert Ingersoll: "Could a devil have done
worse"?
But here is another problem. We are told in Genesis 3:14 that after
the speaking serpent had completed the mission for which he had
been placed into the Garden of Eden-- that of tempting Eve-- God
cursed the serpent: "Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt
thou eat all the days of thy life." (Does the devil have a finite
life?) Why did God curse the serpent for carrying out the mission
for which he was created? This implies that before the
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transgression, snakes had legs, which would have made them
lizards. But lizards still exist today. So, somewhere out in the
world, the Christian must believe, there is a 6000-year-old talking
snake that eats dust! (And they say that we're the irrational ones.)
So, God's punishment to Satan for the damnation of humanity was
being transformed from a lizard into a snake... so what! That's
pathetic. If Satan was cursed by God to spend the rest of his
existence as a serpent, then how does he reappear later in the New
Testament, and take Christ up to the top of the mountain to tempt
him? How can this be? Did he release himself from the curse of
God by his own power? What about the devil's activities in the
Book of Revelation? If he is slithering around as a serpent, what is
the great danger? Why doesn't someone simply step on him or cut
his head off with a shovel? The whole story is revealed as a
childish myth, to anyone who has eyes to see.
We are told that at their creation, Adam and Eve, like small
children, did not possess the knowledge of good and evil, of right
from wrong. I wonder why God wanted to withhold this from
them... Did He want credulous and ignorant followers? But a far
more important question arises here. Should Adam and Eve be
held responsible for committing an action prior to them having the
Knowledge of Good and Evil? I would not think so. We do not
hold certain people responsible for their actions, such as children
or the mentally handicapped, because they did not know what they
were doing was wrong, or had no conception of the ideas of right
and wrong. Here, Adam and Eve disobeyed an instruction before
they knew it was wrong to disobey. They did not know about good
and evil, right and wrong. They had no idea about the
consequences of their actions (certainly they were ignorant of the
"eternal" consequences for all their decendants). Was this
the Ultimate Sin, for which every human being ever born was to
pay with their eternal soul? I say no! Was that the worse thing that
Adam and Eve could have done? Of course not. They could have
beaten and slaughtered each other, and destroyed their paradise,
burning it to the ground. But they did not do anything so cruel or
barbaric. They ate a piece of fruit, contrary to the will of an
arbitrary god. People disobey God's commands millions of times
every day all over the earth-- from lying and stealing to murdering
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and worshipping other gods… so then why was Adam and Eve's
simple disobedience to carry so heavy a price?
God told Adam that the day he ate of the tree, he would surely die.
What could that have meant to Adam, before he had knowledge of
good and evil? He would have had no idea what death was... he
had never seen anyone or anything die prior.
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convince us that they alone have the remedy. Christianity cuts you
and then tries to sell you a Band-Aid.
Because of the Fall of Man, we are told that it is not enough that
we are good and caring people, not enough that we do unto others
as we would have them do unto us, not enough that we forgive
those who trespass against us. We must be baptized-- have our
heads wet by a priest-- a meaningless gesture, and proclaim that we
accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior. We must believe the
unbelievable. A Hindu, who happened to be more charitable and
humane than the best Christian, is nonetheless consigned to eternal
damnation, just as the kind and gentle native of some tropical
island who never heard of Jesus and his cross.
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following Cain and Abel, when the number of persons on earth
could be counted on one hand? Or he could have come after he
killed nearly everyone in the world with the Flood. The task of
convincing people that Jesus was in fact God would have been
effortless. In such a scenario, every human ever born would have a
much fairer chance of attaining salvation. Because of God's failure
to do this, however, the vast majority of people who ever lived
were doomed without hope.
If Jesus Christ was in fact God, and if he came into this world to
suffer for us as Christians tell us he did, then the only real suffering
he could have endured would have been to live. His existence on
earth was a state of exile or banishment from Heaven, the most
perfect place, and the only way back to the paradise that was his
home was to die. Everything in this strange system of Christianity
is the reverse of what it pretends to be.
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significance was his suffering? The Church should know all about
causing pain and suffering, by the way, they did it enough. Their
devices of torture were state of the art. Christ's suffering was
nothing compared to those who disagreed with His Church.
If in fact Jesus was God, and God is all powerful, then Jesus could
have easily stopped his killers at any time. Therefore, the death of
Jesus is more correctly labled as a suicide.
Christians claim that the price for sin was so high that Man could
not pay it-- only God could pay the debt. Like a father who
assumes the debt that his son cannot pay, we are told that God
allowed Himself to be sacrificed on the cross so that he can forgive
us. So, your child has just taken a cookie out of the cookie jar
when he wasn't supposed to. Now, to forgive him, you tell
him: “Take this hammer and these nail, and nail me up onto a
piece of wood until I die. Murder me, perform a human sacrifice,
and then I'll forgive you for taking a cookie.” The basis of
Christianity is to sacrifice the guiltless in order to forgive those
who did no wrong, for a crime that was no crime in the first place.
Imagine that a man had been convicted of murder, and was about
to be electrocuted. The governor watches over the execution. Now
suppose that at the moment the switch was about to be thrown,
someone in the crowd steps forward and says, “I am willing to die
in the place of that murderer. He has a family, and I don’t.” And
suppose further, that the governor replies, “Step up, young man,
your offer is accepted. A murder has been committed and
somebody must be killed, and your death will satisfy the law just
as well as the death of the murderer." Is this situation acceptable
to any civilized person? Yet this is the Christian doctrine of
sacrifice. I say, let the guilty pay for their own crimes, and let the
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punishment fit the crime. If I commit a crime, I will take
responsibility for my own actions.
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they will fall down and beg for forgiveness, and if accepts Jesus
Christ as their savior. But God will not pardon the person who uses
reason and honesty, and who finally decides: "I just can't believe
it." I am told that it doesn't matter how good of a person I am
during my life, because at the end of it, I will be asked: "Did you
believe the one about the Garden of Eden?" I'll have to be honest
and say, "No, I didn't. It was just too far-fetched... sorry."
According to story, God told Adam that on the day he ate the fruit,
he would die. The serpent, however, told Eve that they would not
die if they ate it, but that they would attain the knowledge of good
and evil. Therefore, according to the Bible, the first lie told to
humanity was told by God, and the first truth told to humanity was
told by Satan. For me, I cannot swallow it, no matter how much I
am threatened. I can't help it. It has to make sense to me... that's
the way my brain works. If there is a god floating somewhere up in
the vacuum of space, then God is sure to understand that.
I tried searching any such story in Hindu Vedas but no such a story
exists in all the four Vedas. One can see oneself in next few pages.
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1
Verily He is one
Single, indivisible, supreme reality.
Atharva Veda 13/4/20
He is one, unparalleled
Through His wondrous, mighty
And formidable laws and deeds.
Rig Veda 8/1/27
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By the people.
Atharva Veda 2/2/1
Holy Vedas declare that God alone is the unchallenged Lord of the
whole creation. All sorts of eulogy, adoration and prayer befit
Him only. Man does not deserve to be eulogised and deified by
man. The deification of man by man is not permitted by Vedic
religion. Therefore, it behoves man to worship the Great Lord of
the cosmos only :
O friends,
Adore none else but Providence
Who is supreme bestower of bliss
And thus thou wilt not suffer;
Eulogise Him in congregation
And sing songs of His glory repeatedly
Sam Veda 242
God is singular, but his names are plural. All the epithets
mentioned in Holy Vedas are ascribed to one God, who is Creator
of the cosmos. Shiva, Shankara, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh,
Ganesh, Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, Yama etc. are the epithets of
one Supreme Being, who is formless, featureless, birthless and
bodiless. He is unborn, eternal, immortal and everlasting. He has
no agents, no intermediaries, no representatives, no incarnations
and no partners. He has neither father, nor mother. He has neither
wife, nor sons, nor daughters. He has no attachment. But He is
Benevolent Father of all his children, and imparts equal love
impartially to all his creatures. He is kind to all, cruel to,
none. His first name is Om. But He is evoked and adored by
several other names which are written in Vedas
He is One Brahma
The Creator of the cosmos
Who pervades and protects
And enlightens aft beings
He is One Supreme Entity
Whom sages call by various names
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Such as Indra, the glorious
Mitra, the benign friend
Varuna, the greatest, the noblest
Agni, the resplendent, the bright
Yama, the dispenser of justice
Matarishwa, the almighty.
Rig Veda 1/164/46
God does not have face, form, features, signs and symbols. He has
no body. He is formless, featureless and bodiless. He is birthless
and deathless. When He does not take birth, He cannot assume
body. He cannot be seen, He can be felt. Hence no picture or
portrait, idol or statue of God can be made.
The Western scholars, who drank deep from Vedic spring, have
never lagged behind in admiring and appreciating the oneness of
God as revealed in Vedas, from the core of their hearts. Count
17
Bjornstjerne, the Norway’s national poet, who was awarded the
Nobel Prize for literature in 1903, observes :
Livi, the famous Arabic poet, honours and admires the blessed
land of Hindusthan and Holy Vedas as under :
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that warn us to turn towards that goal (universal
brotherhood).
- Livi
Dara Shakoh, the son of king Shah Jehan and elder brother of
Aurangzeb, comes to the conclusion in Persian language as under :
1.. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.
- 1 John, 5/7
19
The above text appears on page 1279 of the authorised (King
James) version of the Holy Bible printed by the Gideons
International in U.S.A. in 1979. But, later on it is omitted from the
Bible. In this connection W.P. Ball and G.W. Foote write in their
The Bible Handbook as under :
One may utter words that have no sense, but one cannot
believe what has no sense - one cannot believe that God is,
at the same time, both One and also Three4
1
W.P. Ball, G.W. Foote, John Bowden, Richard, M. Smith : “The Bible Handbook”,
Revised Edition, 1986, U.S.A., p. 96
2
Charles Smith : “The Bible in the Balance”, published in the West, reprinted by Hindu
Writers’ Forum, New Delhi, p.4
3
James A. Haught : “Holy Horrors”, published by Prometheus Books, New York, 1990, p.
53
20
- Leo Tolstoy
- Matthew 28/19
4
(i) Leo Tolstoy : “Essays and Letters”, translated by Aylmer Maude, Oxford University
Press, London, 1911
(ii) N.S. Rajaram : “Christianity’s Collapsing Empire and It’s Designs in India”, New
Delhi, 1999, p, 15
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that they must baptize and convert all persons of all nations on the
earth.
The New Testament declares that the man who blasphemes against
the Holy Ghost will be damned eternally:
- Mark, 3/29
The New Testament states that God manifested His love to the
people by sending His only begotten Son to the world
- 1 John, 4/9
The New Testament declares that Jesus Christ is in God, and God
is in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Bible (the New Testament) confirms oneness of God and
Christ in the following verse:
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6. I and my Father are one.
- John, 10/30
The Holy Bible (the New Testament) mentions that God gave all
powers to Jesus Christ not only on the earth, but also in heaven.
7. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth.
- Matthew, 28118
8. The Father loveth the Son, and bath given all things into his
hand.
- John, 3/35
The New Testament states that Christ was in the form of God and
that He had full right to be equal to God :
10. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the
weakness of God is stronger than men.
- 1 Corinthians, 1/25
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(ii) Laelius Socinus rejected the Doctrine of Trinity
Rev. William Adam was assigned the duty of converting Raja Ram
Mohan Roy to Christianity. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a staunch
monotheist. So instead of being converted to Christianity, he
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influenced and impressed William Adam to give up his belief in
three Christian gods and embrace Vedic monotheism. Thus Rev.
William Adam, a Christian missionary, who had set out to convert
Raja Ram Mohan Roy to Christian trideism, ultimately became a
Vedantist5. He was, therefore, expelled from the Church and
declared a heretic and a Socinian. His conversion to Vedic religion
was reported in the “Annual London Report of the Missionary
Society” as under :
5
Anglo India, Vol. III, p. 238
6
The Annual London Report of the Missionary Society, dated June 20, 1822
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2
27
17. “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law
against her mother in law.”
- Matthew, 10/35
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Unlike Bible God, who Himself declares in Bible that He has come
to create rift in families, Vedic God declares in Atharva Veda that
He has bound all men with common bond, so all should sit
together, eat together, drink together and pray together.
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May you be inspired
By common ideal.
May you offer worship
With common oblation
- Rig Veda 10/191/3
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3
The Holy Bible states that Noah, the hero of righteousness, drank
wine, and was so much intoxicated that he made himself naked in
his tent. Ham, the son of Noah, saw the nakedness of his father
and informed his two brothers Shem and Japheth, who took a
garment and covered the nakedness of their father. Here is the text
:
- Genesis, 9/20
67. “21. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he
was uncovered within his tent.”
- Genesis, 9/21
68. “22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of
his father, and told his two brethren without.”
- Genesis, 9/22
69. “23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it
upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered
the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward,
and they saw not their father’s nakedness.”
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- Genesis, 9/23
70. “24. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his
younger son had done unto him.”
- Genesis, 9/24
- Genesis, 9/25
72. “And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that
Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and
Israel heard it.”
- Genesis, 35/22
Holy Bible mentions that Judah instructed his son Onan to marry
(have sexual intercourse with) his elder brother’s widow Tamar
and produce children in the name of his brother (not in his
name). Onan did not like that the children produced by his sperm
might be called the progeny of his brother; hence he slept with his
brother’s widow, had sexual intercourse with her, but spilled his
sperm (semen) on the ground, because he did not want to produce
children out of his sperm for his brother. This action on the part of
Onan displeased Biblical God, and the Lord killed him. Here is the
text :
73. “8. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s
wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.”
- Genesis, 38/8
32
74. “19. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it
came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he
spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his
brother.”
- Genesis, 38/9
75. “10. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord;
wherefore he slew him also.”
- Genesis. 38/10
The Holy Bible states that when Tamar, the widowed daughter-in-
law of Judah came to know that her father-in-law was to go to
Timnath to shear his sheep, she put off her widow’s garment,
wrapped herself in veil and sat on the way to Timnath. When
Judah saw her, he, not knowing that she was his widowed
daughter-in-law, requested her to allow him to have sexual
intercourse with her. She said to him. “What will you give me for
having intercourse with you ?” Judah replied, “I shall send one kid
out of flock of my goats.” She said, “Till you send the kid to me,
you may keep with me your tokens like signet (seal), bracelets and
7
Brahm Datt Bharti : “The Vedas and the Bible”, New Delhi, 1967, p. 38
33
your staff (stick) which is in your hand.” Judah gave these things
to her and had sexual intercourse with her, and she conceived by
him. Read the Biblical text :
76. “13. And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in
law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.”
- Genesis, 38/13
77. “14. And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and
covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an
open place, which is by the way to Timnath;”
- Genesis, 38/14
- Genesis, 38/15
79. “16. And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I
pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she
was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give
me, that thou mayest come in unto me?”
- Genesis, 38/16
80. “17. And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And
she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?”
- Genesis, 38/17
81. “18. And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she
said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine
hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she
conceived by him.”
- Genesis, 38/18
34
(v) Biblical God caused his prophet Isaiah to walk stark
naked for three years
Holy Bible narrates that God caused his prophet Isaiah to walk
stark naked for three years. The Lord said that it was a sign for the
people of Egypt and Ethiopia, and the king of Assyria will heap the
same type of shame upon Egypt by displaying the Egyptian and
Ethiopian prisoners, young and old, naked and barefooted, even
with their buttocks uncovered. Read the following three verses :
82. “2. At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of
Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins,
and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking
naked and barefoot.”
- Isaiah, 20/2
83. “3. And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah bath
walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder
upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;”
- Isaiah, 20/3
84. “4. So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian
prisoners, and the Ethiopian captives, young and old, naked
and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame
of Egypt.”
- Isaiah, 20/4
Count Tolstoy, the renowned Russian writer and thinker, opines
unambiguously :
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absurd and immoral, and run so counter to right feeling
and to commonsense, that men cannot believe in them.”8
- Count Tolstoy
85. “12. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from
their mother’s womb; and there are some eunuchs, which were
made eunuchs of men; and there be eunuchs, which have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that
is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
- Matthew, 19/12
Origen, (c. 185-c. 254), the most influential theologian of the early
Greek church, castrated himself so as to work freely in instructing
female catechumens.12
8
(i) Count Tolstoy : “What is Religion ?”
(ii) Brahm Datt Bharti : “The Vedas and the Bible”, New Delhi, 1967, p. 41
9
Victor Shklovsky : “Lev Tolstoy”, translated by Olga Shartse, Raduga Publishers, Moscow,
1988, pp. 572-573
10
Ibid., p. 406
11
W.P. Ball and G.W. Foote : “The Bible Handbook”, Revised Edition, 1986, U.S.A., p. 245
12
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 16, U.S.A., 1967, p. 1094
36
The two daughters of Lot, who was the nephew of prophet
Abraham, made their father drink wine at night, slept with him,
had sexual intercourse with him and gave birth to two male
children by their father. The elder daughter gave birth to a son
named Moab. He is called the father of Moabites till today. The
younger daughter gave birth to a son by her father. He was named
Benammi. He is called the father of the children of Ammon till
today. Here is the full text consisting of seven verses :
86. “32. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will
lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.”
- Genesis, 19/32
87. “33. And they made their father drink wine that night; and
the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived
not when she lay down, nor when she arose.”
- Genesis, 19/33
88. “34. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn
said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my
father; let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou
in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.”
- Genesis, 19/34
89. “35. And they made their father drink wine that night also;
and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not
when she lay down, nor when she arose.”
- Genesis, 19/35
90. “36. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by
their father.”
- Genesis, 19/36
37
91. “37. And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name
Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.”
- Genesis, 19/37
92. “38. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his
name Ben-am-mi: the same is the father of the children of
Ammon unto this day.”
- Genesis, 19/38
38
not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in
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professing to believe what he does not believe.”
- Thomas Paine
Almost all educated persons, who read the above verses regarding
sexual intercourse of the two daughters with their father, will
surely scoff at Ronald Reagan’s above remark.
93. “8. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not
known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and
do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men (two
angels) do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow
of my roof.”
- Genesis, 19/8
13
Thowas Paine : “The Age of Reason”, published by Watts and Co., London, 1796, p. 1
14
“Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio”, dated November 5, 1984
39
Holy Bible states that Abram’s wife Sarai was barren. So she
gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to her husband Abram to be his
wife. When the Egyptian maid conceived, Sarai felt that she was
despised in the eyes of her maid, so she (Sarai) drove her to
wilderness with the consent of Abram. Hagar gave birth to a son
named Ishmael. At that time Abram was 86 years old. Read the
following five verses :
94. “3. And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the
Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of
Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.”
- Genesis, 16/3
95. “4. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived; and
when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was
despised in her eyes.”
- Genesis, 16/4
96. “5. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee; I
have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she
had conceived, I was despised in her eyes; the Lord judge
between me and thee.”
- Genesis, 16/5
97. “6. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy
hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt
hardly with her, she fled from her face.”
- Genesis, 16/6
98. “16. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when
Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.”
- Genesis, 16/16
40
Is it morality that Abram, the prophet, debauches his maidservant
and later on drives her along with the child produced by her of
him, to wilderness ?
The Holy Bible states that Abimelech, the king of Gerar, took
away Sarai, the wife of the prophet Abram, and kept her in his
palace. Abram, the prophet, himself admitted to king Abimelech
that Sarai, his wife, was his sister, the daughter of his father. Read
the following verse :
99. “12. And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of
my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became
my wife.”
- Genesis, 20/12
Holy Bible mentions that when Abram, the prophet, along with his
wife Sarai went to Egypt, he said to his wife, “You look beautiful;
when the Egyptians will see you, they will kill me and will allow
you to remain alive, hence you may announce that you are my
sister. In this way I shall be saved.” Here is the text
15
(i) Count Tolstoy : “What is Religion ?”
(ii) Brahm Datt Bharti : “Max Muller - A Lifelong Masquerade”, 1992, p. 218
41
100. “11. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter
into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I
know that thou art a fair woman to look upon;”
- Genesis, 12/11
- Genesis, 12/12
102. “13. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be
well with we for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of
thee.”
- Genesis, 12/13
- Genesis, 12/15
42
104. “16. And he entreated Abram well for her sake; and he
had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and
maidservants, and she asses, and camels.”
- Genesis, 12/16
The Holy Bible continues saying that when God plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues, he (Pharaoh) sent her back to her
husband, Abram, who, however did not seem to have returned the
gifts which he had received from the king.
The prophet Abram played the same trick with Abimelech, the
king of Gerar, and received from him the gifts of sheep, oxen,
male-servants, maidservants and one thousand pieces of
silver. Here is the Biblical text
- Genesis, 20/14
106. “16. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, 1 have given thy
brother a thousand pieces of silver;”
- Genesis. 20/16
Joseph Lewis, the president of Free Thinkers of America and the
editor of “The Age of Reason”, writes :
43
from the perverse teachings of the Bible, then it is about
time to bring them to their senses.”16
- Joseph Lewis
107. “3. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to
put away all the wives, and such as are born of them”
- Ezra, 10/3
108. “3. And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the
king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to
keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went
not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their
death, living in widowhood.”
- II Samuel, 20/3
(xiv) Moses : Keep alive virgins for your enjoyment and kill
non-virgins
The Holy Bible states that Moses, one of the towering figures in
Bible, instructed his soldiers to kill all boys and all those girls who
had lost their virginity by sleeping with males, but to keep alive for
their enjoyment those virgins, who did not have sexual intercourse
with males. Read the following five verses :
16
Brahm Datt Bharti : “The Vedas and the Bible”, New Delhi, 1967, p. 45
44
109. “17. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones,
and kill every woman that bath known man by lying with
him.”
- Numbers, 31/17
110. “18. But all the women children, that have not known a
man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”
- Numbers, 31/18
111. “32. And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the
men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy
thousand and five thousand sheep.”
- Numbers, 31/32
112. “35. And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women
that had not known man by lying with him.”
- Numbers, 31/35
113. “40. And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the
Lord’s tribute was thirty and two persons,”
- Numbers, 31/40
45
into slavery; the worst of slaveries; bed slavery; to excite
lust and satisfy it with their bodies; slavery to any buyer,
be he gentleman, or be he coarse and filthy ruffian.
(Letters From the Earth)”17
- Mark Twain
17
Colin Maine : “The Bible : What It says ?”, reprinted by Voice of India., New Delhi, p. 15
Mark Twain died in 1910, but the letters were suppressed by his daughter,
Clara Clemens Samossoud, for a long time for their irreverent tone. They were published
half a century later by Harper and Row, New York
18
Thomas Paine : “The Age of Reason”, published by Watts and Co., London, 1796, p. 42
19
Charles Smith : “The Bible In the Balance”, first published in Europe, reprinted by Hindu
Writers’ Forum, New Delhi, p. 20
46
- Exodus, 21/7
115. “8. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to
himself, then shall he let her be redeemed; to sell her unto a
strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he bath dealt
deceitfully with her.”
- Exodus, 21/8
The Britishers often boasted that they were the civilized nation for
centuries. Will they dare deny that sale of daughters was practised
in England for seven hundred years, after the introduction of
Christianity ? Ms. Matilda Joslyn Gage, renowned American
writer, corroborates the above statement as under
20
Matilda Joslyn Gage : “Woman, Church and State”, New York, 1893, reprinted by Voice
of India, New Delhi, 1997, p. 301
47
abandoning them later on if such captive wives do not give sexual
satisfaction. Here are five Biblical verses in this connection :
116. “10. When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies,
and the Lord thy God bath delivered them into thine hands,
and thou hast taken them captive.”
- Deuteronomy, 21/10
117. “11. And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and
hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy
wife;”
- Deuteronomy, 21/11
118. “12. Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and
she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;”
- Deuteronomy, 21/12
119. “13. And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from
off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father
and her mother a full month; and after that thou shalt go in
unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.”
- Deuteronomy, 21/13
120. “14. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then
thou shalt let her go whither she will;”
- Deuteronomy, 21/14
48
Here is another passage in Holy Bible, which allows and justifies
killing all male enemies, and taking away their women folk for
sexual gratification
121. “13. And when the Lord thy God bath delivered it into
thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge
of the sword:”
- Deuteronomy, 20/13
122. “14. But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and
all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take
unto thyself., and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies,
which the Lord thy God hath given thee.”
- Deuteronomy, 20/14
With all this, the Christian missionaries claim that only the religion
of Christ and Holy Bible will lead men and women to moral
progress. The readers, after having read the afore-mentioned
instances, will themselves judge whether the religion of Christ and
Holy Bible will lead men and women to moral progress or
retrogress. In this connection the remark of Bertrand Russell, the
renowned philosopher, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature in 1950, is worth quoting. He says :
21
Bertrand Russell : “Why I am not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion”, latest
seventh edition, 1996, London, p. 25
49
Thomas Paine, one of the founders of the U.S.A., opines :
22
Thomas Paine : “The Age of Reason”, published by Watts and Co., London, 1796, pp. 7-8
50
May the omniscient Lord
Make me pure and pious.
- Yajur Veda, 19/39
Prof. Pall Thema, the great thinker of the West, appreciates Holy
Vedas in the following words :
51
Holy Vedas condemn and criticise lustful life in the form of
unrestrained looseness in sex. To indulge in sexual conjugation
with wife of another person is nothing but immorality and
intemperance, debasement and debauchery, lewdness and
lechery. The lewd and lecherous man as well as woman is not
entitled to participate in yajna according to Rig Veda :
In the world,
There is no other sin,
Which reduces age so quickly
As that of sexual intercourse
With wife of another man.
- Manu, 4/134
52
In the service of supreme Lord.
- Rig Veda 1/89/8
====================================
“Bharat is one nation with only one culture. Culture is the soul of
Bharat. It is only our culture that can protect and develop Bharat.”
53
4
According to Holy Bible, the value of a man’s life is less than that
of the grass, and the trees !
124. “5. And to them it was given that they should not kill
them, but that they should be tormented five months; and their
torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a
man.”
- Revelation, 9/5
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of America, admits
candidly :
23
Charles Smith : “The Bible In the Balance”, reprinted by Hindu Writers’ Forum, New
Delhi, p. 2
55
Joseph Lewis, President of “Free Thinkers of America” and editor
of “The Age of Reason”, states :
24
Brahm Datt Bharti : “The Vedas and the Bible”, New Delhi, 1967, p. 34
25
Matlida Joslyn Gage : “Woman, Church and State”, New York, 1893, reprinted by Voice
of India, New Delhi, 1997, p. 267
56
foot, was drawn up and down while the body was weighted
with stones. So that the torturers would not be disturbed by
the shrieking of the victim, his mouth was stuffed with
cloth. Three-and-four-hour sessions of torture were
nothing unusual. During the procedure the instruments
were frequently sprinkled with holy water.”26
- James A. Haught
“This goes to confirm the popular belief that the Vedas are
eternal and not answerable to any human agency and that
they emanated from Brahm, the creator himself.”
- Schopenhour
26
James A. Haught : “Holy Horrors”, published by Prometheus Books, New York 1990, pp.
61-63
27
Ibid., p. 68.
57
philosophy of Vedas revolves round fraternity and equality of all
men of the globe. All men have equal rights on the earth. All
belong to Nature and Nature belongs to all. If Nature is kind to all,
why should men hate one another on the pretext of difference of
religion ? Holy Vedas. therefore, emphatically urge all men of the
earth to love one another from the core of their hearts.
====================================
28
(i) Bhagavad Datta : “Western Indologists - A Study in Motives”, p. 6
(ii) Brahm Datt Bharti : “Max Muller - A Lifelong Masquerade”, 1992, p. 198
58
“It behoves us all to lovingly devote ourselves with all our heart,
with all our wealth and even with our lives, to the good of our
country, the land of our birth, the land that nourishes us and will
sustain us in future.”
“Mother and Motherland are dearer than heaven itself. Gods and
cows, Brahmins and the faith, these are to be protected. When
faith is dead, death is better than life.”
59
5
(i) Kill your own brother and son, if they entice you to serve
other gods
Holy Bible ordains : “Kill your own brother, son, daughter, wife, if
they entice you to serve other gods”. Here are five Biblical verses
in this connection :
125. “6. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy
daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as
thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve
other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;”
- Deuteronomy, 13/6
126. “7. Namely, of the gods of the people which are round
about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one
end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;”
- Deuteronomy, 13/7
127. “8. Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto
him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare,
neither shalt thou conceal him;”
- Deuteronomy, 13/8
61
128. “9. But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first
upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all
the people.”
- Deuteronomy, 13/9
129. “10. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die;
because he bath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy
God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage.”
- Deuteronomy, 13/10
The above verses indicate categorically that Holy Bible does. not
allow freedom of thought as well as freedom of worship. It is a
matter of agony and amazement that Holy Bible ordains a father to
kill his own daughter, son, wife for a difference of religion !
29
Peter Kemp : “H.G. Wells and the Culminating Ape”, London, 1996. p. 156
30
Thomas Paine : “The Age of Reason”, published by Watts and Co., London, 1796, p. 87
62
Roman emperor Constantine, a man who had his own son
executed and his wife boiled alive,31 saw in Christianity a
pragmatic means of bolstering his own military power and uniting
the vast and troubled Roman Empire.32
Holy Bible says : “If any man or woman in your town serves and
worships other gods, like the sun, the moon etc. which God has not
commanded, kill them with stone”. Here is the Biblical text
consisting of four verses :
130. “2. If there be found among you, within any of thy gates
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that bath
wrought wickedness in. the sight of the Lord thy God, in
transgressing his covenant,”
- Deuteronomy, 17/2
31
(i) Riane Eisler : “The Chalice and the Blade”, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1987, p.
131
(ii) Helen Ellerbe : “The Dark Side of Christian History”, U.S.A., August, 1998, p. 17
32
Ibid
33
Thomas Paine : “The Age of Reason”, published by Watts and Co., London, 1796, pp. 42-
43
63
131. “3. And bath gone and served other gods, and worshipped
them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven,
which I have not commanded;”
- Deuteronomy, 17/3
132. “4. And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and
inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing
certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel;”
- Deuteronomy, 17/4
133. “5. Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman,
which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even
that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till
they die.”
- Deuteronomy, 17/5
St. Bernard of Clairvaux had declared in launching the Second
Crusade :
134. “16. Samaria shall become desolate; for she bath rebelled
against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall
be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped
up.”
34
James A. Haught : “Holy Horrors”, published by Prometheus Books, New York, 1990, p.
26
64
- Hosea, 13/16
(iv) Killing infants by stoning
Should the infants be dashed against stones, even if they are born
of enemies ? Not at all. But Holy Bible makes mention of it in the
following verse :
135. “9. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little
ones against the stones.”
- Psalms, 137/9
Note : Here “thy” stands for daughter of Babylon.
136. “27. And they (children of Dan) took the things which
Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto
Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure; and they
smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with
fire.”
-Judges, 18/27
(vi) Kill each being that breathes
Holy Bible ordains the followers not to save alive any one in the
cities conquered by them. Each one that breathes must be
slaughtered. Here is the text :
137. “16. But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy
God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive
nothing that breatheth;”
- Deuteronomy, 20/16
65
2. VEDAS PREACH FRATERNITY
“If this belief from heaven be sent If such be nature’s holy plan
Have I no reason to lament What man has made of man?”
- Wordsworth
66
The Creator of the Cosmos has created the lovely earth with
fascinating phenomena of nature and beautiful boons for
enjoyment of mankind. But instead of enjoying life in toto on this
alluring earth, men have created chaos, conflicts, controversies and
calamities on the petty pretext of different modes of
worship. They do not know what worship means. Worship does
not consist of rites and rituals, nor of uttering and muttering of
prescribed religious syllables only. According to Hindu
philosophy, worship signifies love - love for not only human
beings but also birds and beasts. Samuel Coleridge expresses the
same idea in his poem, “Ancient Mariner” :
He prayeth well, who loveth well, Both man and bird and beast, He
prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For
the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.
- Samuel Coleridge
Vedas emphasise that souls of all men, birds, beasts and insects
have the same Divine lustre. None is devoid of Celestial grace,
grandeur and glory. All beings originate from the Supreme
Being who is the Father of all His children. If it is so, why to
despise one another ? Providence permeates all beings, whether
high or low, pauper or prince, sinner or saint
67
“He who sees all beings
In his own self
And finds the reflection
Of his own self in all beings
Never looks down upon any body.”
- Yajur Veda 40/6
“O Arjuna
Supreme Being dwells
In the hearts of all creatures.”
- Gita 18/61
====================================
“Solution of world’s problems lies in Hinduism and not in
socialism.”
68
6
138. “1. And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him
out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,”
- Leviticus, 1/1
139. “2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, if
any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring
your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.”
- Leviticus, 1/2
(ii) Sprinkling of bullock’s blood on the altar
140. “5. And he shall kill the bullock before the lord; and the
priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the
blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation.”
- Leviticus, 1/5
Holy Vedas teach that souls of all men, birds, beasts and insects
have the same divine lustre. None is devoid of celestial
radiance. All men, birds and beasts originate from the same
69
Supreme Being who is kind Father of all His children. If it is so,
why to slay dumb animals, which are brothers and sisters of men ?
Man is so frail and feeble creature that he cannot grant life to any
one. He who cannot give life, has no right to take it. The tongue-
tied dumb animals, who are unfailing friends and faithful
companions of man in weal and woe, are so ungratefully
slaughtered by faithless flesh-eaters just to fill their stomach and
by superstitious sacrificers to make an offering at the altar of God !
How can God, being Father of all creatures, wish the slaughter and
sacrifice of His children ? He, who demands animal sacrifice, must
not be real God !
Vedic God admonishes all men of the earth to love not only human
beings, but also birds and beasts. To slay innocent dumb animals
is the most heinous sin, which can never be pardoned under any
circumstances.
====================================
“The cow happens to be the archstone of Bharat’s economy.”
70
7
This is the first and most fundamental claim that Christians make
when Evangelizing. It is just taken for granted that it is true, but if
you analyze the weight of the evidence for this doctrine, you find
that it is in actuality both weak and nearly non-existent. First of
all, the first sentence of this argument, that the “Bible is the word
of God” implies that the text in the Bible books are God’s words
verbatim. However, we all know, including the Christians, that
humans wrote those books. The only difference is that Christians
believe that the humans (the identity of many of them are
unknown) who wrote the Bible were guided by God the Holy
Spirit, and therefore, they are God’s words verbatim and without
flaw. The question then becomes, were they? Furthermore, they
argue that since we would assume that God would protect his own
word, that the Bible has remain unchanged.
Now these are huge assumptions for one thing. It would take A
LOT to prove or even demonstrate such outlandish claims
literally. However, not only do Christian Evangelists make these
assumptions, but they just assume it to be true as well without any
real basis. In general, the issue is not questioned or analyzed in the
church as to whether the Bible is God’s word or not. It is simply
ASSUMED to be so. It’s a GIVEN. And it rests on a very shaky
foundation, much more so than they could imagine. What most
Christians don’t realize and never think about is that God
himself never actually told them directly that the Bible was his
word. Fallible imperfect human beings did!
71
To demonstrate this, here’s an interesting and simple test that you
can try. Go to a church, and ask ten people the question “How do
you know that the Bible is God’s word?” From most of them
you’ll get a look of confusion or puzzlement, and some of them
will just say “Because it says so.” offering no other reason. Of
course, a few more knowledgeable ones will use some of the
arguments in this book that I refute. But what you can learn from
this experiment is that most Christians don’t know why they
should believe that the Bible is God’s word. You see, they’ve been
socially and psychologically engineered to assume that it’s a given
fact that it is. They’ve been unconsciously taught that it’s a simple
fact just like the sky is blue and the grass is green. That’s why in
their normal line of thinking they would never question why they
should believe that the Bible is God’s word.
72
God” either. (i.e. if a tree inspires me to write a poem about it, are
they my words or the tree’s words?)
In any case, the Bible itself does NOT even claim that all 66 books
in it are infallible. Nowhere. Period. That’s something Christians
say, not the Bible or God. In fact, many of the authors of the Bible
had no idea that their books would be canonized into an
“infallible word of God” book. Even in Paul’s epistles, he made it
clear that he was writing personal letters, not dictating infallible
words from God. He even says literally in three verses in his
epistles that these are his words, and not God’s! (see the examples
below)
But even if the Bible did claim to be God’s word or infallible, that
wouldn’t make it so either. I could take any of the millions of
books in the world, and write in somewhere, “This book is the
word of God. It is infallible.” But would that make it so?
There are two vague verses though, that Christians use to attempt
to prove that the Bible is God’s word. These two verses though,
pose problems and raise more questions that preachers don’t
address, cause they can’t. Let’s look at them now. Here’s the first
one.
2 Timothy 3:16
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
1) First of all, the term “All Scripture” could easily and logically
refer to the Old Testament or the Ten Commandments because a)
Jesus used the word scripture many times to refer to the Old
Testament canons, so to be consistent we must assume that here as
well, and b) at the time this verse was written, the New Testament
as we have it today was not even put together yet! Now, since
modern Evangelical Christian theology is based mainly on the
teachings of the New Testament of course, that means that this
verse doesn’t really support the core Christian theological
teachings of today!
73
2) Second, just because someone was “inspired” by something to
write does not mean that that which caused the inspiration wrote it
directly verbatim. That’s not what the word “inspiration” even
means. For example, if a beautiful sunset inspired me to write a
poem, that doesn’t mean that the sunset itself wrote the poem, only
that the sunset motivated me to write it. The definition of the word
“inspire” obviously is not that the “inspirer” is dictating their
words verbatim as if it were their own. Here is the definition of
“inspire” from the American Heritage Dictionary:
3) Third, no matter what this verse referred to, one verse out of
over 33,000 Bible verses does not make all the verses divinely
inspired, especially the verses of the other books of the Bible
which don’t always even agree with each other. So the idea of one
verse out of one book proving divinity in all 66 books is
completely absurd and non-sensical. And as we know, words are
just that - words. They don’t create reality or fact. Therefore, just
because a verse like this implies that the Bible is the word of God
doesn’t make the whole Bible the word of God. In fact, the
majority of the books of the Bible do not even claim to be the word
of God. Not even Paul claimed that his letters and epistles were
the word of God. But nevertheless, even if hundreds or thousands
of verses in the Bible said that they were the word of God, that still
wouldn’t make it so either. I could take any book in the world, and
pen in them somewhere the words, “All words in this book are
given by inspiration of God…..” but would that make them
God’s infallible word?!
74
Although the Bible claims to contain the words of God when it
says “The Lord spoke” or “Thus sayeth the Lord”, even if God
really did say those things, that doesn’t mean that when Paul said
“I say” this and that, that it is the same thing. Nor does it mean
that all the verses where God speaks directly reflect what he
actually said either.
Now, here’s the other verse they use to claim divine inspiration of
the Bible.
2 Peter 1: 20-21
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any
private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the
will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost.”
Three verses that say the Bible is NOT the word of God
Now, here’s the kicker. There are THREE verses in the New
Testament that claim that the Bible is NOT the exact word of
God! Here let me show you!
1 Corinthians 7:12
“But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that
believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put
her away.”
The Apostle Paul clearly says here in the first sentence “speak I,
NOT the Lord”. He is saying that these words he is about to say
are from him and not God! It’s in plain language. This alone
technically invalidates the fundamentalist doctrine that every word
in the Bible is uttered directly by God. It alone shatters this
75
absolute claim of theirs. There is no defense. However, there are
two more similar verses like it to shatter the doctrine even further
beyond what’s necessary. Later on in the same chapter, Paul says:
1 Corinthians 7:25
“Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet
I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to
be faithful.”
You see here how Paul is saying that he is using his best personal
judgment, and that what he’s saying is not directly from God? He
is telling you that he is writing his own opinion. Then, in Paul’s
next letter to the Corinthians, he says:
2 Corinthians 11:17
“That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were
foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.”
Now those are very bizarre explanations indeed, which don’t even
address this issue. Either way, even if those two explanations are
true, they still shatter the doctrine of Biblical infallibility. And
furthermore, in regards to the second explanation, why would God
“inspire” Paul to say that his words were NOT from God?!
Now add up the score. ONE verse versus THREE! This extreme
doctrine is shattered three times over. It’s been disproven by 300
percent! Game over.
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is obvious in clear language that they were writing a letter for
certain people or congregations, to either instruct them or give
them encouragement, and not writing some infallible scriptures to
be placed in a Bible to represent God’s word verbatim to all
mankind!
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The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine, a great eloquent religious
critic and freethinker.
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8
http://www.wordwiz72.com/bible.html
“But the real question is: What does the Bible itself say about its own
“infallibility”? Actually, it says nothing. The Bible in its current
compilation didn’t even exist until several centuries after the last
book was written. Why are religious zealots so quick to claim
divine authorship of a book that doesn’t even claim it for itself (with
the exception of specific portions of law and prophecy such as “Thus
sayeth the Lord...,” but not to the modern Bible as a whole)? The
Bible was a collection of separate writings (laws, plays, poems,
songs, histories and letters) by individual religious commentators
who never imagined their writings would ever be considered divine.
They are just like modern writers, making commentary and
analysis, who just happened to have their works assembled and voted
on by later believers who then canonized their words. They refer to
the sanctity of sacred scripture (the body already canonized before
their time -- such as the Law of Moses and the writings of the Old
Testament prophets) never imagining that someday THEIR writings,
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letters, or whatever will be added to the canon. Paul the Apostle, who
clearly believed that the established scripture of his day was inspired
(see 2Tim 3:16), also clearly acknowledged that some of his own
writings were NOT, as when he wrote in 1 Cor 7:12 ”But to the rest
speak I, NOT THE LORD...” (emphasis added); and 2
Cor 11:17 ”That which I speak, I speak [it] NOT AFTER THE
LORD...” (emphasis added).
Christians are also fond of adding that “The word of God cannot
have contradictions because God cannot contradict
himself.” Again, it’s done with the a priori belief that it must be
so since it was divinely inspired by God. Despite all logic and
reason, fundamentalists will hold steadfast to this doctrine. The
book Fundamentalism: Hazards and Heartbreaks explains well
why this doctrine is so appealing to the believers and their faith:
(page 26-27)
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problems. Fundamentalists view the Bible as the final authority on
all matters of important in their life, and many believe that it is
reliable only if it is entirely inerrant… It is, then, the apparent
simplicity of Biblical inerrancy that is appealing to many
fundamentalists, and that simplicity is basic to their approach not
only to the Bible but also to the world around them. To many
people, the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy and the fundamentalist
system of thought in which it is embedded are enormously
attractive... Systems of thought that generalize about the world, then,
can simplify, or at least seem to simplify, an otherwise chaotic
world... A system of thought that denounces all alternative ways of
thinking is often enormously attractive, especially in times of
widespread moral and religious uncertainty. It offers an anchor in
the whirlpool of cultural change. By requiring uncritical acceptance
of black-and-white definitions, such systems of thought can appeal to
millions of people, who find ambiguity and ambivalence
disturbing.”
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light vs. the dark. And it also stunts any intellectual growth or
learning, because anything that doesn’t fit within the belief system
is rejected as unwholesome or evil. In addition, this also leads to
the inability to relate to those who don’t share your belief system,
thus alienating them from you. Here’s an example of what this
kind of thinking could lead to in the worst case scenario:
(Fundamentalism: Hazards and Heartbreaks, page 28)
“Indeed, by overgeneralizing and not questioning assumptions
and definitions, entire systems of thought can inadequately describe
the world and fail to do justice to its complexity. Perhaps the most
tragic example of oversimplified thought is Naziism, which relied on
uncritical definitions of Jews and the uncritical acceptance of the
idea of the Germans’ being a chosen people.”
- St. Augustine
“The Roman Church has never erred, nor will it err to all eternity. No
one may be considered a Catholic Christian who does not agree with
the Catholic Church. No book is authoritative unless it has received
the papal sanction...”
“If the Bible had said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I would
believe it.”
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- William Jennings Bryan
“To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to
claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.”
- Floyd E. Hamilton,
The Basis of the Christian Faith, 1964,
Harper and Row, New York, page 14.
“Any person who reads the whole Bible, without being told I
advance that it is a work that is supposed to
be entirely true, entirely in agreement, and nowhere contradictory,
would have to conclude that it is a collection of strands of thought
that sometimes conflict. The books of the Bible were written over
more than a thousand years, and reflect the views of various cultures
and numerous writers.”
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without contradictions? Of course not. And you should expect
no less from the Bible, though it may contain words of
wisdom.
2) Second, if the Bible were truly God’s word verbatim, then why
would there be stylistic differences among the different
authors? (in addition to differences in content and ideas) Even
Christians acknowledge the individualistic differences in
writing styles of the authors of the Bible. But in doing so, they
face a contradiction that they don’t even realize. While they
acknowledge that the 40+ writers of the Bible were using their
own style of writing in their books, they are at the same time
saying that every word in the Bible comes directly from
God! But if every word of the Bible were from God, there
wouldn’t be different styles and points of view. How can God
have different styles of writing?
Use of foreshadowing
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The Bible often uses a technique called foreshadowing, which
is used by literary fiction writers, not by writers of historical
documents. Here are some examples.
Literary dialogue
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don’t talk like that. In real life, people talk in phrases and get
interrupted. They use informal language, and don’t have such
a logical and clear purpose behind everything they say. Also,
the dialogues and the plots in the Bible just seem kind of
wooden and contrived, it doesn’t flow the way real dialogue
does.
4) Fourth, the Bible may contain good and bad parts, true things
and false things, etc. but it is definitely not inerrant. In fact, the
Bible is not only full of contradictions too numerous to list, but
also contains differences in theology between the Old and New
Testaments, a series of unfulfilled prophecies, prophecies in the
New Testament which don’t exist in the Old Testament, false
scientific facts, deliberate manipulation by the New Testament
writers, etc. (We will go into these more later.)
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To see how tedious debating Bible contradictions can become,
see these transcripts of public debates on the issue.
A review of the above articles will show you that the debate
over Bible contradictions is a never-ending tedious battle over
semantics and translations that never really gets anywhere,
with each side seeing what it wants to see. That is why I do not
need to get into it here. They usually devolve into a tedious
debate over the correct translation of the meaning of Hebrew or
Greek verses of Bible transcripts. Without a background in
Hebrew, Greek, or a study of ancient Bible manuscripts, one
cannot even engage in such debate. But even amongst
themselves, Christians will debate differences in theology or
doctrine in the same way, arguing their different interpretations
of various verses, and over correct translations of Hebrew or
Greek manuscripts.
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baptism is required for salvation. Those who believe that water
baptism is required for salvation will quote John 3:5 which
says:
Mark 16:16 ”He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but
he that believeth not shall be damned.”
The water baptism people say the word “baptized” above refers
to water baptism while the grace through faith proponents
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claim that it refers to the spiritual baptism of the Holy Spirit
when one becomes saved.
There are thousands of other verses like this which are disputed
within the Christian community between believers and
denominations. And it can often get a lot more elaborate than
in my example above. You see how tedious and pointless this
kind of debate over Bible interpretation gets?
“And he cast down the pieces of silver into the temple and
departed, and went out and hanged himself.” (Matt. 27:5)
“Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and
falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his
bowels gushed out.” (Acts 1:18)
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symbolic and therefore not literal enough to cause a
contradiction. Another is to reinterpret the meaning of any
contradictory verses which doesn’t support the doctrines you
believe in. As you might have guessed, the variety of ways
they can do this is countless and never-ending. (It is not in the
scope of this book to address every single doctrinal issue and
verse being debated in the Christian community though.)
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consensus of secular history. Only the Christian apologists
and Evangelists don’t seem to know about this,
conveniently. Now, if the Bible is the infallible verbatim
word of God, whose word is unchanging throughout all
time, then how could it be privy and changeable according
to such cultural influences and timelines? (See the
section Evolution of Heaven and Hell in the Bible from
Zoroastrianism – Good news for the fearful)
“And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master,
what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there
is none good but one, that is,God: but if thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him,
Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt
not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt
not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy
mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I
kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto
him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast,
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven: and come and follow me.”
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your neighbor and God, the doctrine now was that you had
to believe that Jesus died for your sins in order to be
saved. Our modern Evangelical Christianity is based on the
Gospel of John, and that’s why if you look at a Christian
Gospel tract or literature, you will see it always quoting
verses from the Gospel of John. For example:
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, so that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 8:24 ”I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your
sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your
sins.”
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
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took Mark’s narrative and expanded on them, and using
another source which scholars believe to have existed
and label the “Q Gospel”. Then John then took the first
three Gospels and added even more to them to create
his comprehensive Gospel. Now, if these Gospels are
the word of God, why does God have to expand on his
own words over and over again? Why can’t an all
knowing omniscient God write the perfect final draft
the first time, instead of making so many rough drafts
first? Also, if the gospels are eyewitness testimony,
then why is 91 percent of Mark contained in
Matthew? Why would anyone need to copy their own
eyewitness testimony from someone else?
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4) In Mark Jesus goes around everywhere and casts out
demons. In John he never does this once.
8) John tells us that the event where Jesus drives out the
money-changers from the temple occurred at the
beginning of his ministry, while Matthew, Mark and
Luke tell us that it occurred near the end of his
evangelization ministry.
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the English language, says: “We cannot perhaps venture
to assert positively that there was a city of Nazareth in
Jesus’ time.”
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reinterpret all the other conflicting verses to agree with it, or vice
versa.
Sometimes, they try to claim that the Holy Spirit in the true
believer will correctly interpret the Bible for him/her. The obvious
problem with that is that lots of “true believers” do not agree on
their interpretation of the Bible, even within the same
denomination. And of course, they can easily claim that the other
“true believers” who disagree with them are either not true
believers or not being guided properly by the Holy Spirit. But that
is just getting insane.
“Wu,
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The Holy Apostle Paul said, “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and
hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by
word, or our epistle.” 2 Thessalonians 2:15. One must
understand and experience the patristic tradition of the Church to
experience the fullness of Christ. The epistles alone will never
do it.
John”
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9
99
(See Did Jesus Christ Really Live? by Marshall Gauvin,
and Did a historical Jesus exist? by Jim Walker. For a
scholarly analysis of the subject, see The Jesus Puzzle by
James Doherty.)
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful
to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a
teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew
over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He
was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the
principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those
that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to
them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had
foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things
concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him
are not extinct at this day.”
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written it. The first Church father to mention is was Eusebius,
and this man also said that it is permissible to lie for the
Christian faith! Therefore, it is feasible that Eusebius could
have embellished or forged this passage. In addition, Church
fathers such as Origen quoted Josephus often but never this
passage, which would indicate that it didn’t exist at the time,
since it would have had enormous apologetic value had it did.
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at http://www.jesusseminar.com/Jesus_Seminar/jesus_seminar.htm
l
(To learn about the secular historical view of Jesus, see the
website of PBS’s Frontline series, From Jesus to Christ: The
First Christians at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/ or
you can check your local public library to see if the video of
this series is available for rent. I have seen all episodes and
found it a great informative program filled with vivid pictures,
scenery and music.)
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“Controversial and explosive, The Christ Conspiracy marshals
an enormous amount of startling evidence that the religion of
Christianity and Jesus Christ were created by members of
various secret societies, mystery schools and religions in order to
unify the Roman Empire under one state religion! This powerful
book maintains that these groups drew upon a multitude of
myths and rituals that already existed long before the Christian
era and reworked them into the story the Christian religion
presents today-known to most Westerners as the Bible.
Author Acharya makes the case that there was no actual person
named Jesus, but that several characters were rolled into one
mythic being inspired by the deities Mithras, Heracles/Hercules,
Dionysus and many others of the Roman Empire. She
demonstrates that the story of Jesus, as portrayed in the Gospels,
is nearly identical in detail to those of the earlier savior-
gods Krishna and Horus, and concludes that Jesus was certainly
neither original nor unique, nor was he the divine revelation.
Rather, he represents the very ancient body of knowledge
derived from celestial observation and natural forces. A book
that will initiate heated debate and inner struggle, it is
intelligently written and referenced. The only book of its kind, it
is destined for controversy.”
Another great work out there is Earl Doherty’s The Jesus Puzzle.
Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ?: Challenging the
Existence of an Historical Jesus. It is also very scholarly and
informative. The publisher’s introduction on Amazon.com raves:
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ever a real man on Earth!
104
10
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus
said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be
a lunatic-on the level with the man who says he is a poached
egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your
choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else
a madman or something worse.”
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“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish
thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept
Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be
God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the
sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He
would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is
a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must
make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:
or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for
a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can
fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come
with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human
teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
The apologist claims that we cannot just say that Jesus was a great
moral teacher because he claimed to be God and that the eternal
destiny of our souls was in his hands. No moral teacher would
make such claims, they argue. Only a lunatic, liar, or God himself
would say such things. Those are the only three choices they
claim. The Christian apologist tries to logically rule out the Liar
conclusion by claiming that everything Jesus said came true, so he
was honest, especially in his claim that he would rise from the
dead. And also that Jesus showed high impeccable morals as well,
which a liar wouldn’t do. He then tries to rule out
the Lunatic conclusion by claiming that no insane man could utter
such words of wisdom that are out of this world, such as the
Beatitudes and other teachings of love. Therefore, they claim, a
sensible man could only accept that he is Lord and God, like he
said he is.
1) First of all, these apologists do not successfully rule out the Liar
or Lunatic choices. Their attempts to do so are based on
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shabby conjecture. One can say wise things and be honest, yet
still be insane in some of their beliefs, for example. Also, just
because someone is generally honest doesn’t mean that 100
percent of everything he said must be honest as well. It can
even be argued that not everything Jesus said came to pass,
since as mentioned in Argument # 3 he stated many times that
he would return in the lifetimes of the First Century Christians,
to rapture the end of the world, and he didn’t. Furthermore, the
apologists do not rule out the possibility of Jesus being a great
moral teacher either, since a) being crazy does not make one
immoral, and b) you can lie and still preach great morals in
principle (US Presidents and politicians have done that
throughout history in fact).
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11
Now, that’s all fine and dandy. I don’t dispute that there are many
such cases where people’s lives were changed by the Christian
faith for the better, given fulfillment and meaning, made happier,
and given kinder hearts and improved morality, etc. In fact, I was
such a case myself, for when I was a Christian fundamentalist, my
life was made more meaningful and gave me a sense of strong
inner purpose as well. I also agree that there seems to be some
supernatural power behind these changed lives, answered prayers,
and miracles.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrecti
on/
109
“Any belief system that involves a radical break with past belief
toward a positive acceptance of new hope or wisdom will have a
powerful transformative effect on a person, whether their new
belief is true or not. I myself “converted” from an all-but-
areligious childhood to Taoism, and its effect on me was
certainly profound. Am I so ignorant of the world that I would
actually claim that “only the true Tao could have such a
transforming power in a person’s life”? No. I am more honest
than that, and more aware of the ways of the world. I was
overcome by the genius and beauty of a belief, and the hope and
wisdom it granted in a shining moment of revelation. But after
long examination I found it was not the correct world view, that
there were flaws only visible to careful study.”
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evil since they do not acknowledge Jesus as the only way to
God).
The problem for them is that claiming that Satan is behind the
testimonials of other religions/spiritual practices DOES NOT
erase or invalidate them. They seem to think that claiming
that Satan is behind it is some kind of a “magic eraser” that
can delete all contrary evidence! Not only is it a total cop out,
but it’s insulting to others as well. I would ask them how they
would feel and how they would like it if I used the “Satan is
behind it” explanation to explain away their evidence of
Christian testimonials too?
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NEVER seem to count it as points against them, nor do they
acknowledge this fact at all! Instead, if someone has fallen
away, they are considered “backsliders” and presumed to be
lovers of sin and pleasure, or else were deceived by false
religion, secular passions, or Satan. It’s never the fault of the
Christian religion of course. It’s another classic case of
blaming the victims (much like Amway and multi-level
marketing companies blame those who fail the “business
system” rather than the inherent flaws of the system).
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nonsensical, so much that many of them end up deconverting.
Obviously since this doesn’t fit in with the Christian paradigm, it is
ignored through cognitive dissonance. One time, I had a discussion
with two Christian missionaries in Moscow who brought up this
argument, which proved to be highly circular. It went something
like this:
Me: But I know many people who are happy and fulfilled
in other beliefs and religions.
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Me: But many of these were honest devout Bible thumpers
who gave their whole lives for their faith, evangelizing all
along the way, just like you!
114
even find more fulfillment and meaning in Buddhism than
Christianity, as it makes far more sense and is far less
controversial.
115
12
117
ailment. They feel that they are impossible because they defy
everything we know about science and anatomy.
History has shown that those who use the word “impossible” are
usually proven wrong one way or another. Many things that were
said to be impossible at one point were later proved to be possible
such as flight, travel into space, relativity, quantum theory, etc. As
Arthur C. Clarke, inventor of the communications satellite and
author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, states:
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“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something
is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that
something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
- Arthur C. Clarke’s First Law
119
named Vittorio Michelli was admitted to the Military Hospital of
Verona, Italy, with a large cancerous tumor on his left hip (see
fig. 11). So dire was his prognosis that he was sent home
without treatment, and within ten months his hip had completely
disintegrated, leaving a the bone of his upper leg floating in
nothing more than a mass of soft tissue. He was, quite literally,
falling apart. As a last resort he traveled to Lourdes and had
himself bathed in the spring (by this time he was in a plaster
case, and his movements were quite restricted). Immediately on
entering the water he had a sensation of heat moving through his
body. After the bath his appetite returned and he felt renewed
energy. He had several more baths and then returned home.
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that result in a sudden complete recovery or go into
spontaneous remission are then noticed and attributed to
prayer or divine intervention. These cases of course, are
the ones that get media attention.”
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2) Second, as I heard one preacher said “If answered prayer is
coincidence, then there sure are many more coincidences that
come up when I pray than when I don’t pray.” For spiritual or
religious people, praying results in a higher rate of
coincidences that help manifest the desire or wish, often higher
than by ordinary chance. Of course, there are countless
anecdotal accounts of prayer answered in miraculous or
sometimes humorous ways. As Theology Professor Greg Boyd
of Bethel University told me in an email:
“My wife prayed that God would honor a “deal” with her about
who she would marry (this deal included her future husband
saying a certain particularly unusual phrase), and despite all my
frustration with knowing she had made such a deal, I said what
was “included” in her deal with God without ever actually
knowing what the phrase was, not only that, it was the last thing
I said to her, several times, immediately before I distinctly felt
God leading me to propose to her.”
“The phrase was “It’s good to be alive.” This seems like a fairly
unusual thing to say since it is so obvious at one level. Anyway,
it is not something that I would be likely to say on an average
day. On the day of our “engagement” I said it several times at
just the right moment (during a prayer about our relationship)
and actually the prayer (we were praying together) immediately
followed a longish conversation about why I didn’t believe in
engagement periods at all. It seems God has quite a sense of
humor at times.”
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send me some Christian friends. Two nights later, I got a call
from an old friend that I hadn’t spoken to in over a year. He’s
not the type of person to make phone calls either, so neither of
us knew why he just decided to call me. After talking a few
times, we got to the subject of church and religion. We were
surprised to find out that we were both devout
Christians! When I explained to him that I had no Christian
friends or church to go to, he warmly invited me to an outing
with his Church Youth Group which he attended on a regular
basis. That Friday night, we went to his Youth Group for an all
night outing. We went haystack riding, played miniature
golf, charades, Pictionary, kick-the-can and had a lot of fun. I
liked the people in his Youth Group, they were sincere and
didn’t have attitudes or pre-judgments. I felt very comfortable
around them. From that point on, I started attending the Youth
Group regularly. Now a skeptic could argue that the friend
called me out of coincidence, but I don’t buy that because it
was strange how this friend I hadn’t talked to in over a year
suddenly out of nowhere kept calling me a few times. Not
even he knew why he did that. Yet it led to my prayer for
Christian fellowship being answered.
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lengths to find you just to help you out for free and for no
reason! That does not seem like an ordinary coincidence. This
stranger even offered to pay all the expenses of lifting the boat
out! (I’ve heard of random acts of kindness, but this is
phenomenal!) It turns out that he barely got it out and it almost
sank again after it was lifted, but the rescuer saved it just in
time. The next day, a short story about his boat (the boat’s
name was mentioned in the headline) being “resurrected” from
the sea appeared at the top of the front page headline, even
above the story of Pope John Paul’s arrival in
town! Astonished, Nick called the newspaper to find out how
his trivial story appeared on the front page headline since it
was not a significant event to the public. However, no one
there seemed to know why it was there or how it got there.
(Very strange!) This served was such a powerful sign from
God and testament of faith to Nick, that from then on he led a
faith-based life in God. Many other Christians have personal
accounts of answered prayer similar to this of course. It would
seem that God somehow hypnotizes people (for lack of a better
word) into answering someone else’s prayer, since these people
don’t know themselves why they’re doing something that
results in another’s answered prayer. But this happens
nevertheless, and my own example in the above paragraph
attests to this as well.
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While we don’t know for sure whether God himself is
answering these prayers, or if they are being answered by the
psychic abilities of those praying, the bottom line is that prayer
does seem to work in ways that ordinary coincidences can’t
explain.
125
I had these discussions with, then started explaining to me about
“metaphysical societies.” It made a lot of sense to me and
provided a unified theory.
126
permission of that goddess, they often reap bad or disastrous
consequences, until they go back and ask permission of the
goddess to leave. Perhaps, these goddess that Wiccans pledge to
are also metaphysically created, either in some other dimension or
the mind of the believers, so that they do exist in a metaphysical
sense, having power and influence in our lives, physical world and
dimension.
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13
This argument presupposes that all non-Christians are evil and bad,
just because the Bible says so (which is not a good or logical
reason). Now I don’t have to tell you this is a potentially dangerous
belief. It is also very black and white as well. I could name many
wonderful, kind, honest, caring, moralistic non-Christians to
debunk this, but as the circular reasoning of the related argument
of Argument # 10 demonstrated, they will simply rationalize it
away and say that by God’s perfect standards, even the nicest,
kindest people on Earth are sinners, and that’s that.
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God himself has no morals, what makes humans so bad? It doesn’t
make sense.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God.”
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lead good or bad lives, since it makes no difference. It’s no
different than damning zebras for being born with stripes or
damning turtles for being born with shells. It’s not only unjust
and psychotic to do such a thing, but completely nonsensical
too. In fact, that one act of original sin brought death, disease,
and suffering into the world. How just and fair, isn’t it? (See
the Imponderables section for a philosophical evaluation of this
whole concept.) In a great book on
fundamentalism: Fundamentalism: Hazards and Heartbreaks,
page 70-71, the authors raise a good point on this issue:
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ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Therefore, they argue, how can the
created judge the creator? Besides, they say, since those are God’s
rules, and he is the creator and master of the universe, we have no
choice but to abide by them. And since it’s better to be safe than
sorry (especially when it concerns your eternal destiny) it’s best to
accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and become saved.
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14
John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me.”
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
And since the Bible says that Satan is the “Father of lies”
(John 8:44) that explains away anything good or credible about
other religions.
1) If all other religions were the product of Satan, then why have
they improved the lives and attitudes of their followers? Why
have they helped them to be better people? Would Satan do
such things?
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should God limit himself to working through only one
religion? It wouldn’t make any sense. Did it ever cross your
mind that those New Testament verses you are so fond of
citing, such as John 14:6 could just be possibly wrong? Why
can’t you believe in Jesus and God without the Bible being
inerrant?
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