Atheism Vs Christianity

"We find collected in this book [The Bible] the superstitious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, with indistinct echoes of Indian and Persian fables, mistaken imitation of Egyptian theories and customs, historical chronicles as dry as they are unreliable and miscellaneous poems, amatory, human and Jewish-national, which is rarely distinguished by beauties of the highest order but frequently by superfluity of expression, coarseness, bad taste, and genuine Oriental sensuality." ~Max Nordau (1849-1923) Contention 1: Contradictions A contradiction is defined as two or more propositions that are logically incompatible with each other. There are many contradictions in the Bible. I will list only two here. DATE OF JESUS’ BIRTH According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great. However, Luke 2 states that Jesus was born when Qurinnius was Governor of Syria and was born during a census. This is impossible as Herod the Great died in 4 BCE and the census took place during 6 CE, about 10 years after Herod died http://www.infidels.org... CHRONOLOGY OF THE NATIVITY There are multiple other problems with the story of Christ’s birth as well. Here is the chronology given by both: Matthew's Chronology Bethlehem - Egypt - Nazareth 1:24-2:1 2:13-16 2:21-23 Luke's Chronology Nazareth - Bethlehem - Jerusalem - Nazareth 1:26-27 2:1-4 2:22 2:39 http://rejectionofpascalswager.net... After Jesus was born in Bethlehem (at least according to Matthew), Herod is duped by the wise men and slaughters all the babies in Bethlehem 2 years of age and under (this shows that the timing between Jesus’ birth and now is probably about 2 years). Therefore, Mary and Joseph escape to Egypt to flee Herod’s wrath. However, Luke’s Chronology is incompatible. After Jesus is born, he is taken to the High Priest in Jerusalem and is circumcised, he leaves Bethlehem and goes to Nazareth. This whole process takes about 40 days, not enough time to go from Nazareth – Bethlehem – Jerusalem – Egypt – Nazareth. Contention 2: Failed Prophecies According Deuteronomy 18:21-22, if a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and that prophecy fails then he is obviously a false prophet. There are prophecies within the Bible that have failed. EZEKIEL Failed Prophecy on Tyre Ezekiel 26:7-14, “For thus says the Lord: "Behold I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a hosts of many soldiers. He will slay with the sword your daughters on the mainland; he will set up a seige wall against you. He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers...With the hoofs os his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword and your mighty pillar will fall to the ground...they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses... I will make you a bare rock...you shall never be rebuilt, for I have spoken," says the Lord God.” The whole passage prophesied the attack and destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. However, none of this happened. After a long siege of 13 years, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his siege and compromised with the people of Tyre. Thus, king Nebuchadnezzar did not destroy Tyre as Ezekiel said that it would.4 Ezekiel later admitted his error: Ezekiel 29:17-20, ...the Lord God came to me: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labour hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labour that he had performed against it...” I rest my case. Over to con. Note, due to the lack of time I may add more contentions in the next round if you don’t mind.