The Argument from Biblical Defects is Sound

Thank you for your swift reply. It is a pleasure to be debating you and I am looking forward to the rest of this debate. My opponent is correct in asserting that the argument is not sound if its premises are more likely to be false than true. Indeed, by very definition of "sound" it is an argument that is valid and has true premises.My opponent begins by attacking premise 2 which states, "Thus, if that diety [The God of Christianity] were to exist, then he would probably see to it that the Bible is perfectly clear and authoritative, and lack the appearance of merely human authorship."My opponent's attack is that I misunderstand Biblical inspiration. 2 Timothy does state that all Scripture is inspired. My opponent states that it is the Islamic doctrine as opposed to the Christian doctrine that believes that the Quran is down from above with no possibility of an error. However, my attack is valid for several reasons: If God were to exist, then it would be fit that he cannot lie. As Matthew Slick notes [1]: "Thus says the Lord" occurs over 400 times in the Old Testament; "God said" occurs 42 times in the Old Testament and 3 times in the New Testament; "The Spirit of the Lord spoke" through the people in 2 Samuel 23:2 "Jesus acknowledged this when he said that the Word of God, the Scripture, cannot be broken. This means that it cannot fail. Why? because the written form of the word of God, which is Scripture, is inspired; and because it is inspired, it cannot fail, it must be fulfilled." Therefore, because the Bible is God's Word, it must be infallable because God's nature is infallable. Moreover, if the Bible were to have errors as far as contradictions or is incomprehensible to understand, then the Bible would be no different from books written by man. Next, my opponent attempted to reconcile the errors and the other attacks on the Bible beginning in premise 3 which notes that there are contradictions within the Bible, First, on the genealogy of Jesus he quotes from Michael Brown. The problem is that Michael Brown never did answer the difficulty on why there were two difficulties. Indeed, early Christians noted the problem and deemed it as serious. As such, they have came up with three different and contradictory ways to reconcile these contradictions. Note how different these reconciliations are [2]: The Levirate marriage Africanus' "Half Brothers" Plus Levirate; and Mary's genealogy. The genealogies were a serious problem and the early church did notice it. However, we must ask ourselves: Why, if there is no contradiction between the genealogies and if the church/the Bible is inerrant [3], is there three distinct ways of reconciling the contradictions?My opponent drops the date of Jesus' birth contradiction. My opponent surprisingly states that Nebuchadnezzar did conquer Egypt. However, we must remember that the records of that time period were not necessarily 100% reliable because they often were manipulated to support their king and their kingdom [4]. Moreover, this does not answer the facts that: Egypt has never been desolate and waste; Men and people always walked through it; There has never been a single moment (let alone 40 years) when Egypt was uninhabited; Its cities have never been desolate for any period of time; and Finally, there was no Egyptian diaspora [5]. Finally, my opponent has dropped the Isaiah prophecy concerning the drying up of the Nile.I am out of time. I will respond to the other objections to the argument later. Remember, these are not dropped arguments though I will response to them in the next round. References1. Slick, M. (n.d.) "The Bible Isn't the Word of God. It contains the Word of God." Retrieved 24 Sep 2012 from http://carm.org...; 2. Tobin, P. (2000). "The Genealogies in Matthew and Luke." Retrieved 24 Sep 2012 from http://tinyurl.com...;3. Note, the Catholic church believes that the church is infallable. I am well aware that the Protestant church does not teach that. Zia, M. (n.d.) "The Inerrancy of Scripture and the Second Vatican Council" Retrieved 24 Sep 2012 from http://www.catholicculture.org...4. For example, the Bible records an account when king Hezekiah destroyed king Sennacherib's army by the help of God. Although the Bible has an account where Israel is victorious and Sennacherib fleas back to Assyria, the Assyrian account is much different. The Assyrian account states that it was not a loss, but it was a great victory. In the Taylor Prism, Sennacherib states that he had "shut up Hezekiah the Judahite within Jerusalem, his own royal city, like a caged bird." http://www.kchanson.com...;.5. Tobin, P. "Failed Prophecies." Retrieved 24 Sep 2012 from http://tinyurl.com...;