The contradiction challenge

[DavidGYoung]

I throw down the gauntlet to anyone who maintains there are no contradictions in the Bible.

Please write two sentences in the English language which, in your opinion, blatantly contradict each other.

[Athanasius]

I throw down the gauntlet to anyone who maintains there are no contradictions in the Bible.

Please write two sentences in the English language which, in your opinion, blatantly contradict each other.

Low effort gets low effort I guess.

Jesse is married to Jane. Jane is not married to Jesse.

[DavidGYoung]

Using pretty much the same lines of argument that Biblical apologists employ, I can now show they are not contradictory.

When the author of the second sentence uses the phrase 'not married to', it's a figure of speech such as not being married to an idea. However, in the first sentence the word 'married' is used in its literal sense. Jesse is the husband of Jane, but Jane is not all that keen on her husband.

[Athanasius]

Using pretty much the same lines of argument that Biblical apologists employ, I can now show they are not contradictory.

When the author of the second sentence uses the phrase 'not married to', it's a figure of speech such as not being married to an idea. However, in the first sentence the word 'married' is used in its literal sense. Jesse is the husband of Jane, but Jane is not all that keen on her husband.

And being the unimpressed sceptic, I'd point out the contemporaneous nature of the two utterances, their concrete nature, the literal/factualness of what was said (given the genre), and so on.

[DavidGYoung]

You might be missing the point though.

The starting position, if I copy the Christian apologists, is that there is no contradiction in front of me, no matter what it is that I am looking at. Once I take this as indisputable, all I need to do is create whatever back story harmonises them. If any additional information is also available which challenges my harmonisation, I merely have to treat it as subordinate to the unalterable idea of no contradictions.

The fact that the original author is no longer able to come back with an objection, as the writers of the various parts of the Bible are long deceased, also helps.

[Athanasius]

You might be missing the point though.

The starting position, if I copy the Christian apologists, is that there is no contradiction in front of me, no matter what it is that I am looking at. Once I take this as indisputable, all I need to do is create whatever back story harmonises them. If any additional information is also available which challenges my harmonisation, I merely have to treat it as subordinate to the unalterable idea of no contradictions.

The fact that the original author is no longer able to come back with an objection, as the writers of the various parts of the Bible are long deceased, also helps.

Yes, I got that.

[Fenris]

I throw down the gauntlet to anyone who maintains there are no contradictions in the Bible.

Instead of playing this game, why don't you show us some of these so called "biblical contradictions"?

[Athanasius]

I throw down the gauntlet to anyone who maintains there are no contradictions in the Bible.

Instead of playing this game, why don't you show us some of these so called "biblical contradictions"?

Be a sport, Fenris; he's trying to demonstrate that we wouldn't accept in any other area of life the kind of reasoning some apologists apparently employ. Well, along with the faults with such reasoning, and so on and so forth, until at some point, after the point has been boringly beleaguered, we get on with the main stuff.

Because apparently, we're just a bit daft and need the point spelled out.

[DavidGYoung]

Would you agree then that the assertion "There are no contradictions in the Bible" can only be defended in the same way that "There is no such thing as a contradiction" can be?

[Athanasius]

Would you agree then that the assertion "There are no contradictions in the Bible" can only be defended in the same way that "There is no such thing as a contradiction" can be?

As I was saying... No, that would clearly be absurd. Did you plan on getting to a concrete example of the irrefutable contradiction before we all die of old age?

[DavidGYoung]

I could make a variation to the challenge.

Can anyone write a sentence which, if it were in the Bible, would mean that there was now a contradiction in the Bible?

[Athanasius]

I could make a variation to the challenge.

Can anyone write a sentence which, if it were in the Bible, would mean that there was now a contradiction in the Bible?

Mein Gott, das Alter wird uns umbringen...

[DavidGYoung]

Jest prosta pytania. Czy jest możliwe, aby dać przykład czy nie?

[Athanasius]

Jest prosta pytania. Czy jest możliwe, aby dać przykład czy nie?

Simple to the point of patronising, and in both instances.

I don't feel like being bored to death, so drop the assumptions concerning how any of us here would approach biblical inerrancy and get into the meat of your challenge. If this is all the challenge is I'm going to close it for being less than well thought out.

"Can anyone write a negation?" No I suppose such things are beyond us. Get on with it.

[Sojourner]

I believe we understand what we think he said, but I'm not sure we realize what we read is not what he meant.