The Nutshell Argument
A Christian makes some claim, e.g. It would be a good thing to roast all the gay people alive.
~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)
I say Why do you think that?
They say The bible says so.
I say So what?
They say Its the word of God.
I say It could not possibly be. If you read the bible cover to cover you soon discover it was written by a band of pompous, uneducated, control freaks. It is full of errors and inconsistencies. If God wrote it, it would have to be perfect. It is nowhere near the quality you would expect of the creator of the universe. Further, God is depicted as evil, sadistic, cruel, devious, deceptive, capricious and frankly nuts. Surely he would not make himself look more Satanic than Satan while simultaneously claiming to be infinitely merciful. The authors of the bible did not even know the earth was round, that π was not 3, that stars were distant suns, that there was no celestial ocean, how to cure leprosy, how to breed animals, much less anything about atoms, molecules, relativity black holes, the age of the earth and quantum mechanics. How could the creator of the universe not know all those things?
They say You lie. The bible is 100% true, and 100% the inerrant word of god. It contains no inconsistencies. You must be taking things out of context.
I say Have you read it cover to cover yet? I can’t see how you possibly could have and failed to notice what a mess most of it is. You sound like someone who has only read the cherry picked highlights.
They say Well no. But experts have and they agree with me..
I say Did anyone ever give you a reason why you should trust that the bible is the word of God?.
They say Well no, but everyone has known that since Adam.
I say So you just took it on faith, trusting someone else who trusted someone else…. However, there is no way you will ever convince me without some reason. I have never heard any reason why god likely composed the bible and thousands of reasons why a deity could not have composed it. It is thus insane to believe it is a god’s handiwork. Further, since I have read the bible cover to cover and you have not, it would not make sense for me to be taking instruction from you on what it contains.