This is my next response for my treatise on Why Chrisitianity is REAL, in response to an article at Atheists Alliance International in Bill Flavell’s article, entitled “Eight Reasons Christianity is False”
Atheist Bill’s sixth reason against Christianity:
“6. There is clear evidence that the Bible, supposedly inspired by God, is liberally sprinkled with the type of errors we would expect from its Iron Age authors but would not expect from the creator of the universe.”
The default assumptions here:
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- The writers are from the Iron Age.
- The writing is sprinkled with errors.
- If its inspired by God, there should be no errors.
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When was the Bible written?
The Iron Age in the Near East occurred from about 1300 BC to 930 BC . The first task in discounting Bill’s article is determining when did the writers live. The cannonical Old Testament has 39 books, all completed before the birth of Christ. Moses is the author associated with Genesis, and the span of his lifetime remains unconfirmed. It is usually projected that he lived in the 5th or 6th century BC. This article on Genesis is a useful starting point. Overall, the span of time in which the Old Testament was written is greater than the time of the Iron Age.
Errors in the text
Bill does not explain or even acknowledge where such errors come from, nor how the errors are confirmed.
– No transcription errors
In this article, called “Why you can Believe the Bible”, the writer points out: “The accuracy of today’s Old Testament was confirmed in 1947 when archaeologists found “The Dead Sea Scrolls” along today’s West Bank in Israel. “The Dead Sea Scrolls” contained Old Testament scripture dating 1,000 years older than any manuscripts we had. When comparing the manuscripts at hand with these, from 1,000 years earlier, we find agreement 99.5% of the time. And the .5% differences are minor spelling variances and sentence structure that doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence.
-Archaeology confirms accuracy
In the same article , it says “The Bible has a tremendous amount of historical detail, so not everything mentioned in it has yet been found through archaeology. However, not one archaeological find has conflicted with what the Bible records.”
Bill’s argument has no merit without examples of these supposed errors.
If its inspired, there should be no errors
Inspiration of the Bible is a tough nut to crack, since it depends on your theological background. There are multiple views of how to explain inspiration, and what it means. Wikipedia had an interesting overview on the inspiration of the Bible, so I would refer my readers here rather than repeat what was offered. There are several views, but the possibility of errors is defined by one of these understandings of inspiration. I see the Bible as inspired, and in matters relating to salvation, always accurate. In matters related to worldly understanding, any “errors” can be attributed to the writer’s understanding of the times.
