The Bible is not Inerrant.

My opponent is a confident one. But so am I. Without further ado - Rebuttals - 1. Serpent eats dust - While discussing the tale of the poor cursed serpent, I should add that there isn't the slightest evidence that the "serpent" had any connection with "Satan." That's a later Christian invention. "Satan" is not even mentioned in the whole book of Genesis, not when Cain kills Abel, nor when the "whole world" turns away from God prior to "the Flood," nor at "the tower of Babel" incident, which also "displeased" God. No mention of "Satan" anywhere. Compare the way Isaiah employed a very similar phrase to the one found in Genesis: "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and DUST SHALL BE THE SERPENT'S MEAT. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord." Isa. 65:25 In this verse the "dust" the serpent eats is its literal "meat," and not a metaphor at all. And let us not forget, God curses the serpent, making him crawl on his belly - One wonders how he got around before -- by hopping on his tail, perhaps? 2. Giants- The Bible claims that before and after the flood there were "giants". Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; Numbers 13:33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, ... And we were in our own sight as grasshopper, and so we were in their sight. A male Neanderthals average height was about 5'5", but there have been fossils discovered that were upwards of 6 ft. But I doubt that they were running around before AND after the flood- didn't God kill every living thing? Not to mention Neanderthals might have been scary, but unless humans were 6" tall, DCB, my faithful grasshopper, not even you could have seen them as giants. And I am pretty sure Genesis is more recent than 30,000 years ago, the age when the Neanderthal disappeared. Sorry, but theory fails. Can you verify your claims that including women, children, and older men would mean a population of more than 2,000,000? Even at a conservative 4 per family, (and you know how those Israelites loved to breed- The Israelite population went from 70 (or 75) to several million in a few hundred years. EX 1:5,7, 12:37, 38:26) - 603,550 x 4 = 2,414,200. This population of Israelites for several centuries, survived attacks by armies larger than those commanded by Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the generals of the American Civil War, and even the massive forces of Prussia and France in 1870. Even Napoleon in his march through Russia only had 500,000 troops. Absurd.. I relent on the snail issue - but not on the flat earth issue. The only plausible reason for the "very high mountain" was that the altitude would make it possible to see to the ends of the earth. Only on a flat earth would this be remotely possible, so the New Testament writers were as ignorant as the Old. Although supernatural, the writers needed it to be believable, showing the ignorance of their time. And how exactly do we know what the ancients believed about the earth? The Bible. Sword death - Metaphor -maybe. But Jesus clearly says ALL who live by the sword die by the sword. Exactly when are you to read the Bible poetically, and when is it to be read literally? Is there a Cliff Notes? Recall that when the Bible mentions excrement, even cow's excrement (that Yahweh allowed Ezekiel to use instead of human excrement to bake bread over) the mention of the "excrement" coupled with disgust is quite evident. If an ancient Hebrew had seen animals eating their own excrement they would probably have mentioned that fact rather than disguising it as merely "chewing the cud" [sic]. And likewise I doubt that the Hebrews studied hares or rock badgers/coneys so carefully and employed such a wide definition of "chewing the cud/regurgitation in the Hebrew" as to include eating one's own defecation. Odds are they probably simply assumed that rabbits, like cows, chewed their grassy meals and "brought them up again" (isn't that the meaning of the Hebrew?) to chew them some more. Glaring ignorance, and you'd think God would have been clear on this note. Poop wasn't a favorite substance of the ancients. There's even an obscure verse in the O.T. that contains a curse, about holding a "sh*t stick" up to one's nose. Talking Outta Your *ss - There are tons of these kinds of screwy stories. There's the ultimate tale of "put your trust in God" with the story of Doubting Thomas, who wouldn't accept that Jesus had risen until he actually poked his fingers into the deity's wounds. The bible is filled to the brim with these kinds of stories, teaching the "value" of belief without evidence is always superior than having evidence of belief. It isn't. The Flood was local, not global. I must say you are the first apologist I have ever spoken with that states this. Most point to the Grand Canyon as evidence. BUT - I disagree with the all humans in Mesopotamia - Chinese, anyone? (No thanks, I'm not hungry - joking is so rare in this type of discussion.) Pi = Cubit variations mean nothing - Note that the passage in I Kings explicitly gives both the diameter and the circumference. An estimate of pi is simply the ratio of the circumference to the diameter: 30/10 or exactly three. A circle cannot exist that uses this value. Two key examples illustrate the critical nature of the variations in Scripture. Two of the most striking additions occur in the last 12 verses of the Gospel of Mark, and in 1 John. The last 12 verses of the Gospel of Mark have been added on to the original text many years later, as even the New International Version, an evangelical favorite translation, notes. Unlike some other scribal errors that had little bearing on the major tenets of Christian dogma, this addition to the text has significant implications. In Mark, Jesus' reappearance to his disciples is mentioned only in the added verses. Bearing in mind that this is generally regarded as the earliest of the three synoptic gospels, and one of the primary sources for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the addition of these verses has an important effect. In the First Epistle of John there is a passage often taken as an explicit reference to the doctrine of the Trinity. This section does not appear in any Greek manuscript before the 9th century. Now onto more contradictions and absurdities. 1. Jesus did not fulfill the Messianic Prophecy - The Messiah must be a physical descendant of David (Romans 1:3 & Acts 2:30). Yet, how could Jesus meet this requirement since his genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 show he descended from David through Joseph, who was not his natural father because of the Virgin Birth. Hence, this prophecy could not have been fulfilled. 2.The gospels (especially Matthew 21:4 and John 12:14-15) claim that Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. But the next few verses (Zechariah 9:10-13) show that the person referred to in this verse is a military king that would rule "from sea to sea". Since Jesus had neither an army nor a kingdom, he could not have fulfilled this prophecy. 3.Matthew (Matthew 2:17-18) quotes Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:15), claiming that it was a prophecy of King Herod's alleged slaughter of the children in and around Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. But this passage refers to the Babylonian captivity, as is clear by reading the next two verses (Jeremiah 31:16-17), and, thus, has nothing to do with Herod's massacre. 4.In John 14:13-14 Jesus stated: "And whatsoever ye ask in my name I do, that the Father may be glorified in the son. If ye ask any thing in my name, I will do it." In reality, millions of people have made millions of requests in Jesus' name and failed to receive satisfaction. This promise or prophecy has failed completely. Out of room - glad I have 2 more rounds - Thank you.