Contradictions in the Bible

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Dinosaurs, Behemoths and the Great Biblical swindle

A few weekends ago, a friend of mine from Operation 513 (a dangerous terrorist organisation) made a statement that Job 40 proves that humans walked the earth at the same time as dinosaurs. For those of you who don't know, Job 40: states:-

40:15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
40:16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
40:17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
40:18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
40:20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field
play.
40:21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
40:22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
40:23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
40:24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

Now, I had previously read about this and it already appeared that the passage and following passage regarding the leviathan were pretty clearly just imaginings, not unlike faeries or the loch ness monster. Nonetheless, when dealing with fundamentalists it takes significant evidence to persuade them of the silliness of their position. For this reason, I began investigating the matter in detail, and, to my suprise revealed another example of propoganda and coverup which exemplifies the sickening intellectual dishonesty engaged in by the christian agenda.

It was no suprise to me that ancient Jewish legend does tell of three mythical beasts, the Behemoth of the earth, the Leviathan of the Sea and a third entity not mentioned in Job, Ziz, a sky creature of incredible power. The ancient Jewish mystic tradition (Haggi) these three beings would battle against each other at the end of the world.

Some readers consider the behemoth could be put down to some of the massive african fauna such as elephants or hippopotamus, however, this is usually discounted by the description in Job 40:16 that the behemoth has a tail "like a cedar tree". The counter argument to this was that an elephants trunk could be confused for a tail, which makes some sense in that the behemoth is said to never allow humans to get close "it can only be destroyed by its creator". Alternatively, it is noted that the skin of an elephant (or hippo for that matter) has the same texture as a cedar tree and this may be the detail referred to in the passage. Another interpretation is that the "tail" is a miscontruction of the word in Jewish which is more often used to describe a large male genetalia - of which elephants are well blessed.

Creationists, of course, consider the passage, in particular the reference to the tail, describes a large sauropod like apatosaurus or brachiasaurus, of which there are numerous fossilised examples. This is where the scholarship of christians comes into question. The passage above is from the King James Translation of the Bible, whereas newer translations state at 40:16:-

Behold now, his strength in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly

So why would christians replace "his power in the navel of his belly" with "his power in the muscles of his belly"? The reason is simple, dinosaurs were birthed in eggs - that is, they do not have umbilical cords like humans. Accordingly, the behemoth - if a dinosaur - would not have a navel. This proves that behemoth was not a dinosaur and more likely a figment of imagination or forgotten description of an existing species of animal.

But, that alone is not the final word, it mentions that the behemoth eats grass. Yet, fossil records of dinosaurs show they had spoon like teeth and not molar teeth which are required to eat grass or chew cud "like an ox".

Furthermore, in the earlier translations, there is reference to behemoth lying below a lotus tree in Job 40: 21:-

He lies under the lotus trees, In a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus
trees cover him with their shade; The willows by the brook surround him

It is perhaps ironic that of the lotus species, none of the plants grow to more than two meters high. Were these pygmy dinosaurs?

This highlights two points, firstly, the Bible does not describe humans and dinosaurs side by side. Secondly, christians (who are no doubt aware of these facts) are prepared to change their "interpretation" of their own holy text in order to preserve their point of view.

Heaven does not exist

Atheists will usually debate the problem of evil with theists because it is proof that God does not exist. On the flip side however, theists retain a notion of life after death and there being a reward for being good called Heaven. Of course, this is in spite of the fact that God created evil in the first place (Isaiah 45:7).





So, how will God judge our good deeds from our bad? Theists are forced to say there is some objective morality outside of humans - a standard of good and evil. This is clearly bupkis as I have repeatedly asked for theists to produce a copy of this objective morality and they have repeatedly failed. CASE considers the reason for this is simple - morality is determined by the individual and is not beamed into humans from some outside source.


But if there is no objective morality then how would God judge us? Wouldn't it be an arbitary decision from God to promote certain people into Heaven and turn others away? Of course, the clear unfai and arbitrary nature of such a decision is the reason why theists seek to establish 'objective moral' standards in the first place.

Furthermore, if Heaven were a real place within existence then surely is must border on something (in existence) that is not perfect. Thus, in order for heaven not to be contaminated by the surrounding imperfection it would have to be:-

1. Bordered by something that is impermeable
2. Bordered by something that causes all passing objects to become perfect.

Neither of those situations have ever been observed within our universe and furthermore, they both infringe upon the laws of thermodynamics. More importantly, in the first case - if nothing can get in - then neither can departed souls. Furthermore, in the second case by passing through the barrier, any soul would automatically be changed from what it was beforehand including sinners. So, even an evil person would be perfect in Heaven - why can't evil people go there then?

This brings us to the big problem with Heaven - free will. Free will immediately allows the person with free will to do evil acts. Thus a soul in heaven with free will could make that place imperfect by their presence. Would they then be kicked out of Heaven? or would their free will be stripped from them? Any other response would make heaven imperfect.

Another thing about Heaven that annoys me is that the Jewish faith is without any real doctrine of Heaven and yet the Christians who steal their religion do? WTF is that about? Most likely, its the evolution of the meme - a new mutation to coincide with Hell.

Finally, if Heaven did exist and there are souls there - why havent any of them returned to see us? Surely a mother's love is stronger than all the happiness in the world, why havent they come back for their kids?

There are lots of better reasons for Heaven not to exist - but there is no reason to say that it actually exist. That is, except for fear.

What do you have faith in?

All three of the Abrahamic faiths; Judaism, Christianity and Islam insist on conformity of its members to very select texts. Even the varying interpretation of those very texts can be disputed within a single religion, for instance, the split between the Shi'ite and Sunn'ite sects in Islam.

CASE does not understand why an omniscient God would leave his special teachings to us in a vague form, such as in the Torah, Bible and Koran. Surely, he would have been aware of the potential splits between his own followers resulting from his medium of choice: ignorant dung sweepers, goat herders and woodworkers.

Surely it would be easier for God to just announce his existence, without need for invitation, to an entire world audience or to every individual without needing to go through preachers. God, if he existed, could just turn up today and say "Hey dudes, I created you, whats happening?". Being an omniscient being God would have been able to forsee that his message which was handed to a holy goat herder, dung sweeper or carpenter would have only been transferred to Gods creation through preachers. Why preachers? After all, preachers are human (at least on a genetic level), wouldn't God realise through his omniscience that they could and would make mistakes?

Preachers base their entire philosophy and right to proclaim this and that from their personal faith. Recent CASE studies show that almost 5% of all preachers are actually being honest in this regard. The other 95% of course, are in it for the money. But let us put aside the Benny Hinn school of preaching tradition and focus on the issue of faith and the message of God. The 5% of preachers that honestly believe what they are saying are speaking from faith. When asked to produce evidence of their God they usually cannot provide any. This is too bad, CASE funds have been used to construct the new Penn & Teller Pre-memorial Centre for Forensic Examination of Deitic Materials located in Bogota, Columbia. The cost of the facility was approximately 2.5 million dollars.



However, as we have not been provided with any physical evidence of God's existence CASE shall now convert the building into the CASE Penn & Teller Pre-memorial Diety Reaching Under Ground Lab. DRUG Lab will be involved in manufacturing various materials to help us reach deities using the usual ancient means. We also expect DRUG Lab to make a tidy profit for our group this year.



Who knew all that equipment would be useful?

To return to the point, CASE notes that if God exists as described by theists then why does he want us to believe in him and yet give us no evidence for his existence other than ancient manuscripts from third and fourth hand accounts of events that happened to ignorant people two or three millenia ago? The argument is rather perverse, that this God character wants to test your faith, give you no opportunity to use your intellect and the penalty is eternal damnation if you get it wrong.

It seems to CASE that God is not testing your faith in him at all. God can only be testing your willingness to believe the words of past generations. There is no other available way to have knowledge of God and his 'absolute' code of morality unless you have faith in the past generations 'holy texts'. By necessity the faith in your ancestors link is essential in the chain.

Does anyone actually believe that God would test you solely on your belief in the words of your ancestors? What if your ancestors got the message wrong?

So, now we know what God is testing, let us examine for any alternative. Past generations may not have wanted their moral strictures to be assauged by their children - hey presto - faith appears and the self-repeating inculcation of descendents is possible. Of course, Exodus 20: 12 makes this explicit: "Honour your father and mother, that your days be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you".

Theists bind themselves to the 'holy texts' and as a result are restricted in thought to that of previous generations. Is that not what DNA does? Does not the selfish gene allow for exact replication between generations in 99.9 percent of reproduction in order to provide the next generation with the same prospects of survival? Mutations occur in DNA and in social development, but only on an infrequent basis. Does anyone deny that Christianity and Islam are more successful than its parent Judaism? Surely this is a result of the new characteristics, or mutations, from the parent. Would either Christianity or Islam have been born without the parent?

CASE understands that religion can only be passed onto future generations through the publication of Holy Texts. Accordingly, CASE has now released its policy document, BURNING BIBLES, FLAMING KORANS: Find out how to make Holy Books useful which outlines all of the possible methods of using Holy Books as fuel sources in your home, office and even your car.

The CASE 5000 deluxe has excellent fuel efficiency at 12kms per Bible. Koranic conversions available.