[Orblivion]

I can't post all this. it's long. But if you want an interesting read. check out

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/about_the_holy_bible.html

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for the link, Orblivion! I am familiar with the website, and will read the page as soon as I can.

[Krafty123]

I don't have time to refute all of it, but the guy who wrote this made many errors... I'll take an easy one as an example; the story of Elisha... The Talmud explains it as follows: There was a shortage of drinkable water in the area. The youths procured water and were gouging outrageous rates... Elisha prayed to G-d, who cleansed the undrinkable water. The youths than scoffed at him, and they were eaten up.

The Talmud states in another place that Elisha over-reacted, and was punished. However, it is a Biblical commandment to follow the sages, and Elisha was the foremost prophet at the time, so they youths did deserve it.

I just wanted to point out an example of the "scholarship" of this essay...

Ari

[Krafty123]

Here's more easy, and very blatant examples:

"So, in this blessed book is taught the duty of human sacrifice -- the sacrifice of babes. In the 22d chapter is this command: "Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy liquors: the first- born of thy sons thou shalt give unto me.""

Hmm, let's see, if he bothered to read the rest of the Bible he would notice that child sacrific is strictly forbidden (Moloch worship), and that the firstborns are "exchanged" for the Levites. All subsequent firstborns were redeemed monetarily...

"The book of Judges is about the same, nothing but war and bloodshed; the horrible story of Jael and Sisera; of Gideon and his trumpets and pitchers; of Jephtha and his daughter, whom he murdered to please Jehovah. "

OK, Sisera raped Yael 7 different ways, when he fell asleep she put a tent peg through his temple. Any objections? Gideon made a surprise attack in the night; he broke the pots and blew the trumpets to make the enemy think he had a larger force than he did. Jeptha didn't kill his daughter, see Radak - she went up to the mountains for a couple months, the Talmud says that such a vow is invalid, the Bible forbids human sacrifice, and the other opinion which says she died (Rashi) means that she didn't get married and have kids - he is citing the Midrash which explains that a person who doesn't have kids is considered "dead".

The whole article is like this; the author was a total ignoramous.

Ari

[rwfromkansas]

If you are going to try to trick us into reading something attacking the Holy Bible, get it from a better site than "infidels.org"

The fact is, the Bible is the most accurate book ever discovered. Even its textual integrity remains more accurate to this day (through studying its manuscripts) than famous works by Plato etc.