Contradictions of the BibleEssay Preview: Contradictions of the BibleReport this essayMany contradictions arise when studying the Bible and the history of religion. One of the many problems that come up in the Bible is whether or not God is completely benevolent. The existence of evil compromises Gods ability to be all knowing, all powerful, and benevolent. This obviously brings about the question of whether or not the perfection God represents is true, or whether he exists as we describe him at all. The recognition of evil in our world does indeed pose a threat to traditional ideas of God, and the Bible is more than willing to display the contradictions involved with the structure of Him and how reality actually exists.
The argument is quite simple really. If God is omniscient and omnipotent, and bad things occur in our world, how is God benevolent? If an evil occurrence can be avoided by Gods aid and power, but it still happens, then that sets God at fault in some way, therefore endangering his benevolence. Possibly one of the first examples we are witness to in Genesis is that of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. In light of the information that the humans have eaten the fruit, God proceeds to punish them. God also punishes the serpent that deceived the two humans into eating the fruit. When thinking of Gods power and the serpents existence, one has to question whether the serpent is a creation of God. If so, why would God create an evil entity that would deceive the humans he had also created? An all knowing God would have seen such an outcome before creating anything; rousing the curious question of why was God surprised at the disobedience?
Genesis, soon after, presents us with the case of Cain and Abel. God purposefully favors Abel when receiving offerings. In doing so, God angers Cain and drives him to kill his own brother. With the knowledge that such an event would happen, due to His omniscience, why would God allow murder? Once again, if we are to believe in Gods perfection, then in this situation God should have saved Abel by stopping Cain, or by favoring neither at all. Not only does he not put a premature means to things to help the two brothers, he then punishes Cain for something that he in turn caused. The image of His benevolence is shattered with this idea. Perhaps God didnt know what was truly going to eventuate. In that case, his powers are severely lacking based on our description of Him, he no longer would be a being capable of creating the universe.
Noahs Arc is especially riddled with samples of the Lords inherent lack of certain foretold powers. The majority of human kind has become wicked and it is said that God is regretful of his creations. The focal point to pay attention to is Gods regret. The fact that a being such as the Lord is capable of regret disproves his all knowing status almost immediately. Regret is an emotion felt by only those that perform a task or make a decision with an insufficient amount of information or knowledge on the situation. God would not have this lack of information, and therefore should feel no sensation of regret. Noahs Arc also inadvertently mocks the Lords benevolence. The God we know that is supposed to be extremely magnanimous to the creatures of this earth decides to eliminate all humans and animals except the chosen to be on the Arc. God doesnt just decide to eliminate all these lives, he does it by drowning them all, a long, drawn out process that would not equate into a short death.
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