Silencing Atheists on Twitter

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Well it has been an interesting couple of days. I have been finding myself discussing the veracity of the Bible on Twitter. Some of the more vocal....disagreement has come from one going by the moniker "Golmer". He tried to carpet bomb me with a bunch of questions designed to show the Bible does not make sense. I promised to respond to each of them. Many of them are raised in Dan Barker's Bible Quiz which is answered and refuted on the Tekton website at Answer Key: Dan Barker's "Bible Quiz"

Golmer:

@mmcelhaney No, I'm denying the veracity of the bible because it is full of archaic, obviously ignorant crap.

Let us see if he has anything to back up his conclusion,

Golmer:

@mmcelhaney You mean you have a GOOD answer for why Genesis (even in summary) gets the order of "creation" wrong?

Of course. Genesis chapter one is a narration of the events as they happened from the vantage of a person who was in the earth's atmosphere.

 Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Do you have a GOOD answer for why the inspired word allows for slavery and debasing of women?

I am a black man -  a descendant of slaves in the United States. Having studied the history of Slavery in this country and comparing it with ancient Israel there is no comparison. Slavery in ancient Israel was important economically and no one was enslaved because of their skin color and were not looked at as less than human. Every 70 years slaves were supposed to be freed unless they wanted to stay. And neither in the New Testament nor in the Old was it okay for  slave holders to mistreat their slaves. I wrote more about this at Dwindling In Unbelief: Collision: Are Douglas Wilson's beliefs good for the world? Part 1


As for hatred towards' women, I wrote a very lengthy response quite a few weeks ago.
An "Evil" of Christianity

Golmer:

 @mmcelhaney Why, after creation, does God need to rest?

Where does the Bible say that God needed to rest?. It only says that he did. 

² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested  from all his work. Geneis 2:2

 Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Why, according to Genesis, were the sun and moon even "placed" in the sky?

  ¹⁴ And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.Genesis 1: 14-19

 Golmer:

@mmcelhaney What kind of food did God eat? Especially if he didn't have a "man like" physical body?

I'll save this one for the inevitable sequel I have to write because I don't get the question

Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Just how much incest is there in the bible anyway? Why is it seemingly okay, or at the very least "normal" in context?

 When is incest okay? When u are trying to repopulate the earth! Why is it a bad idea now? The gene pool is now large enough that close genetic pairings are not only no longer needed but its dangerous!  Even if you reject the Bible you have to agree that species grow and adapted characteristics are passed on because close relatives get together and those traits are passed to the next generation. IF evolution were true, I'd gather that this would be important.

 Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Why is the bible replete with ancient PAGAN numerology (7, 40, 40,000, 9, etc.?) Astrology part of God's plan?

So he wants to know why numbers like 7, 40, 40 thousand, 9 and others like 3 show up all the time. 2 shows up a lot too. I'm not sure if I'd call it pagan. But I think it is because God is a god of numbers. Mathematics is important. It is His language. Why do factors of pi, 2, 3, and i show up in almost every mathematical equation used to describe reality? It's proof of design and how if the constants in those equations were any different we would not be here to discuss it.Answer that.one and I think you will be able to answer why there are all kinds of the same numbers everywhere in the Bible.

Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Just how many different contradictory orders of events to creation are there in Genesis?

Genesis 1 gives the overview over the entire 6 days of creation. Chapter 2 gives further details of what happened on day 6. They do not conflict. It's up to Golmer or anyone else who agrees with his assertion that the order of events in Genesis conflicts. Burden of proof is on him to show that they do conflict.

Golmer:
@mmcelhaney Just how many gods are there, according to the bible?

For this is what the LORD says— he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— he says: "I am the LORD, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:18

Golmer:
@mmcelhaney What is God's deal with not being able to deal with the element Iron?

Judges 1:19

"And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." Skeptics say: "Some omnipotent God! He couldn't even drive out people with iron chariots!" What's the problem here? This was the same God that the Bible says parted the Red Sea, brought Ten Plagues on Egypt, and created everything. Is it really plausible to suggest that some later Biblical writer is now going to say that this same God was limited because a couple of pagans had some iron chariots? Of course not! Obviously, something else is meant here - that the "he" in question is Judah, not God, and "the Lord was with Judah" - i.e., Judah had good tidings - inasmuch as He gave them success in the mountains, but NOT enough to take on iron chariots. The Judges writer is assuring the reader that in spite of Judah's failure in the valley, the Lord was with them. (For a comparison to Joshua 17:18, see here; for why Judah did not succeed, in accord with provisos laid out in the contract of Deuteronomy, see here.) source

Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Whom, besides Adam and Eve, was brought wholesale into existence by God without parents?

 Well, he could not be talking about  Jesus because He had Mary for a mother. Therefore he must be referring to Melchizedek.For look at Hebrew 7:1-4

 ¹This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, ²and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." ³Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.

The passage is not saying that he had no parents it is pointing out that the man was a priest of God and like Jesus was not from the tribe priests were supposed to come through. Jesus is in the Melchizedek order of priests not the levitical priesthood.

 Golmer:

@mmcelhaney What does Dear ol' God think of HUMAN sacrifice?

God hates human sacrifice and never commanded anyone to go through with it. I know you may be referring to Isaac and Abraham but God stopped that. Or you may be referring to Jephthah in Judges 13. If  you look it up you will see that God never told Jephthah to make that stupid vow, but Jephthah still had to follow through because he made a promise and the whole society was looking at him.  That's why it pays to keep your mouth shut. Also recall that for human sacrifice was why all those Canaanite nations were destroyed.

 Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Which are the REAL 12 tribes of Israel? Which are the REAL "10" Commandments? Are there Ten?

According to Genesis,  Jacob had 12 sons and each son founded a tribe. Joseph counts twice because he had 2 sons and each one founded a tribe. Therefore 13. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. And if you break one of them you have broken all of them.

Golmer:

@mmcelhaney Using just a bit of deductive reasoning, and the biblical description, what ACTUALLY destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? (not God) 

Are there natuaral explantions for the destruction? I think it was a meteor storm from the way it was described. There is no way to explain something that large happening at that paticular time under those circumstances. How do you explain it without realizing that God intervened in history.

So did Golmer really offer proof the Bible is in error. Nope. And none of his ideas or questions are original. Pray for him, he can't help it,.

Dr Kent Hovind debates Dr Michael Shermer

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I enjoyed this debate. Is interesting. I don't agree with Kent Hovind on everything...especially the dragons stuff. But I think he answered Shermer pretty well. I lost all respect for Shermer when he said unicorns are in the Bible. That's an argument you use when you are desperate and don't have anything to stand on. IF he truly thinks that the Bible is trying to say that unicorns exist he not only misses the point of the passage but he also misses the fact that no modern English translations even have the word unicorn in them  because there are better ways to translate the Hebrew word. While I think Hovind makes mistakes in his Biblical interpretation, he is way more spot on than. Shermer.Looking over my blog I realize that Shermer does not come up often. My friend Mariano has a lot on Shermer if you want more information at his blog Atheism is Dead.





Dr Kent Hovind debates Dr Michael Shermer

Brennon's Thoughts: Parables and Penal Substitution

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I really enjoyed Brennon's post defending why Jesus' parables do not disprove the doctrine of Penal Substitution. The debt of sin must be paid. In the old covenant, why was there a blood sacrifice? The principle was substitution - life for life. It is clear that as sinners our lives are forfeit. The question is whose blood do you want to pay for your sin: you or Jesus. Please read Brennon's article it is really important.

Brennon's Thoughts: Parables and Penal Substitution

What Hollywood Believes: William Shatner

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Once in an interview William Shatner was asked "Is there a God?" Shatner replied "There is, but we don't know where. Or Who. And, indeed, why."

I hate to disagree, but I think it's a cop out answer. Many times I think people say such a thing because they don't wanna say "I don't know." and want to appear humble or spiritual instead of just coming right out and deal with the question of all questions.I would answer Shatner's questions pretty easily. He says that there is a God but we can't know Him.

God revealed Himself to humanity and the Bible is the record of that revelation spanning 40 authors, 1500 years and three continents.

Where? Everywhere! God is omnipresent and exists simultaneously everywhere and everywhen simultaneously.

Who? YHWH - THE LORD - The I AM THAT I AM - He that sustains Himself with Himself

Why? For His Glory and good pleasure. It's God's reality.

Creationist Kent Hovind Reveals The Truth About Dinosaurs And Evolution!

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I came across this video lecture from Google. It's Kent Hovind giving a lecture entitled Dinosaurs and the Bible. It's interesting. He is a young earth creationist and so he and I don't see eye-to-eye on everything. I think that he does a good job in citing evidence and providing information but I don't think all of his conclusions are correct nor do I think that his presuppositions and theories are totally tenable. For example he suggests that Noah brought large animals on the Ark as babies...that's not heresy but I don't see any way to prove it. I also think he relies too heavily on the genealogies given in Genesis to establish his timeline for the creation of the world.

I looked him up on Wikipedia and have found that he is in prison for tax problems. It seems to me that he was sincere in trying to show people that the Bible is true although he's made some mistakes. I've been fortunate enough to find some decent debates Hovind has had with atheists, scientists, and old-earth creationists and I will be posting them in the future. I do agree with Hovind that the Bible is true, but he seems willing to make assertions that go beyond the text.




Creationist Kent Hovind Reveals The Truth About Dinosaurs And Evolution!