Belief in God is irrational

You are mistaken in your representation of "the God portrayed in the Bible" Have you read the Bible or are you just misrepresenting its teaching by hearsay? Have I read the Bible cover to cover? No. Catholic school for 8 years/worked with and studied the Bible a fair amount And based from what I have read, I have not misrepresented the God portrayed in the Bible as I will show further down the page. Let’s establish a few known truths about the origins of the Bible: Written over a span of 1600 years Multiple translations from Hebrew->Aramaic->Koine Greek->Latin->English Over 40 divine authors o How many people today claim to be divine/have a special relationship with God? Written on 3 continents John being the only divine author alive when Jesus was alive MULTIPLE contradictions-> both direct and indirect of God’s nature and teachings (http://www.evilbible.com...) Multiple unscientific fallacies: age of the earth, rejection of evolution (Adam and eve first), miracles, Noah’s Ark, Jonah and the fish, etc. At best we can consider the Bible to be a work of anecdotal evidence propagated by hearsay. For example, we know a great deal more about Pontius Pilate than we do about Jesus. Pilate was a Roman aristocrat, and Procurator of Judea as representative of the Emperor Tiberius. There is also little to mention of the virgin birth throughout the Bible, which we can agree is a large component of the high esteem people hold Jesus to. Not to mention any historical evidence for any of Jesus’ many miracles. Without these components --> Jesus is merely another man proclaiming divinity. Where have we seen this before? How often does this occur today and in the past? http://articles.cnn.com... http://news.ninemsn.com.au... http://www.infoniac.com... Alexander the Great even thought he was divine, not to mention numerous kings, emperors, presidents, pastors, priests, etc. Furthermore, Philo of Alexandria, who was a contemporary of Jesus and Paul, does not mention Christ or the Christians at all throughout his works; and the brief account of Flavius Josephus in the Testamonium Flavianum (C.E. 93) appears to have been added by a later hand. Even the reference by Tacitus is second-hand hearsay (probably from his friend and correspondent Pliny the Younger, who was Governor of Bithynia, and would have had access to the historical records and reports of the region). Quote: http://www.tektonics.org... Not to mention the massive list of banned books and Christian theocrats burning any and all historical works that would have gone against the Christian view that was just beginning to take form. As concerned as the inquisitors were in the burning of heretics, they were just as concerned in the burning of books (~over 6000). Even though hundreds of thousands of books have been burned, there is still a plethora of evidence suggesting that not only is Christianity false, but the belief in God as such. All one need to criticize such a religion is the very book the religion is grounded on. “Perhaps the greatest single intellectual loss of the classical world was the destruction of the library of Alexandria. At one time, it was reputed to house about 700,000 books on subjects ranging from literature and history to science and philosophy. In the year 391, the bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus (d.412), in his quest to destroy paganism, lead a group of crazed monks and laymen, destroyed all the books in the great library.” “No other great libraries were spared by the Christians. Up to the fifth century many Greco Roman cities had libraries which housed more than 100,000 books. These were all destroyed by the Christians. Pope Gregory The Great (c.540-604) was the person responsible for destroying the last collection of older Roman works in the city.” Forbes, C. "Books for the Burning"Transactions of the American Philological Society 67 (1936): p114-25 http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net... I'm not going to insult the intellect of you and the readers of this debate but pointing to the obvious message of all these statements; let us all form our own conclusions as to the religion of Christianity and the validity of the Bible and such a belief in God. Either way your representation is merely prejudicial conjecture. What is the basis of your assumption? What is your concrete evidence? My representation of the Bible and my “prejucial” nature is predicated upon the very work itself! This is straight from the very work you claim to be the word of God. The very work in which the Christian faith in grounded upon! Yes, arguments that are based upon the Bible are words of conjecture, which is exactly why I said this text cannot be deemed valid in proving the existence of God in the first place. For example these quotes are straight from the Bible: If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her. Deuteronomy 22:28-29 Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst. And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city. (Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB) Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and posses the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants. (Isaiah 14:21 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son Genesis 22:10 The LORD is a man of war Genesis 15:3 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them Numbers 11:1 "The one who has stolen what was set apart for destruction will himself be burned with fire, along with everything he has, for he has broken the covenant of the LORD and has done a horrible thing in Israel." Joshua 7:15 "Consecrate to me every first-born that opens the womb among Israelites, both man and beast, for it belongs to me." Exodus 13:2 As you approach a town to attack it, first offer its people terms for peace. If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you. Deuteronomy 20:10-14 If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. Zechariah 13:3 Confirmed and historically correct? For mankind's sake, let's hope you're wrong. NEED I SAY MORE? These quotes are my concrete evidence. The real question is: what if your concrete evidence for not only the validity of the Bible, but in justifying your belief in a just, loving, compassionate, omnipotent, omniscient God?It's not so much the belief in a God that is irrational, but the extent one has to suspend disbelief and rely so heavily on faith to justify their beliefs. Especially when the evidence, conjecture or not, is so strong to the contrary. This is what ultimately makes believing in such a God portrayed by the Bible to be an irrational belief. At character limit, I'll continue with the rest of your first rebuttal in my next round.