hallq

Take any well-respected book on freethought or skepticism: Why I am Not a Christian, The Demon Haunted World, etc. Find one error. Double points for an internal contradiction.

There's one catch, however. The error must be proven to the same standard of proof demanded of those who allege contradictions in the Bible.

Go.

Diogenes the Cynic

What is an "infallible atheist?"

I'm not aware of any factual errors in Demon-Haunted World and I really don't care to look but I wouldn't be shocked to find out they existed. It would also be meaningless if they did.

If you want to allege that Carl Sagan or any other "skeptic" was a fallible human being, I would agree with you. So what?

The great thing about empirical method is that it takes human fallibility out of the equation. It's self correcting. It does not rely on bald assertions or arguments from authority.

If you want to assert that Sagan or some other respected empiricist has made a factual error or contradicted himself, you are welcome to show us some examples. You might even be able to find something, but it still won't have any significance to Biblical errors. Empiricism is about the method and the evidence, not the authority of the book or the person presenting it. It's not an ideology. Don't confuse it with religion.

Amaleq13

I think the idea is that hallq will defend the text using the same arguments as inerrantists.

Diogenes the Cynic

OK, I get it. I totally misunderstood the the OP. I thought it was a challenge to atheists.

David Vestal

I once challenged a theist to prove that three or four accounts of the Robin Hood Archery Contest weren't inerrant. Sadly, he didn't bite.

hallq

Yes - fundamentalists talk of the Bible's "amazing accuracy," but all it really means is that if you try really hard, you might be able to resolve all the problems, and even if you can't, you can resolve enough to persuade yourself that the others have resolutions somewhere.

Jack the Bodiless

Actually, using Biblical apologetic techniques, you don't have to limit it to a single book (the Bible is, after all, an anthology).

After debating inerrantists for far too long, I could probably fuse Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Karl Marx's Das Kapital, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kamf, and the Constitution of the United States of America into a single "contradiction-free" book.

Bracer

Lest we forget: One of the best from one of our best and brightest...

Selsaral

Similarly, there have been threads in EoG where Santa Claus was defended with the exact same techniques that theists use to defend God, with great success.

Toto

And don't forget Sherlock Holmes. According to a New Yorker article from last December (Dec 13th issue - not online) apparently Arthur Canon Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories somewhat hastily, leaving some apparent contradictions. But true believing fans have managed to reconcile them, although they have theological arguments about how to do it.