Toto

Cognitive dissonance at all levels.

Discrepancies don't shake Christians' faith in the Bible

show_no_mercy

Pointing out errors in the bible is one of those things that atheists new to "positive atheism" like to obsess about. In the end it does little good if that's the be-all-end-all strategy, since they can be hand-waved away like the NT scholar does in the article. It might be a lot more effective to point out why the errors are there in the first place. Of course this takes a lot more effort than simply memorizing discrepant bible verses.

Roger Pearse

Not if the bible is someone else's views, and we instead merely live for convenience.

J.F. Gaul

Pointing out the errors in a holy book everyone owns but very few read probably shouldn't be a major method of religious critique. You'll always have the "it-makes-so-little-sense-it-must-be-true" Christians.

Instead of what exactly?

ChristMyth

Simple answer: nope.

Vic333

I don't think so. At least I've never noticed anyone to raise an eyebrow about them. People either just tune them out (assuming they must have some "deeper" meaning), or they honestly don't even care that much about the Bible. My guess is the latter. After all, how could someone have a book on their shelf written by God himself and never read it?

mountainman

Craig Evans is an avid HJ proponent.
To him, Sunday has a special significance.

Exposing the ethical blunders in the bible and of its authors is a waste of time.
What needs exploration is considering and exposing the false (Eusebian) history of the new testament canon.


In the long run the case against the authenticity of "Christian Origins" will rely on pointing out the lack of credible corroborative history concerning the existence of Jesus Henry and the "Tribe So-Named after him" and the new testament canon. The situation can be simply summarised by the Holy Grail state of the field of "New Testament Archaeology".

We also need to understand that this field has for centuries been despotically controlled by the Church.

John Kesler

One of the things that started me on the deconversion road was the presence of discrepancies in the Bible. Whether it "does any good" depends on whether the Christian to whom you are showing the errors is willing to entertain the idea that some could exist, and that if they do exist, this is of some consequence. Some Christians already acknowledge that the Bible has mistakes (look at this footnote from the New American Bible, for example), and so showing them errors may not make as much difference as it would to someone who, like the NIV translators, has "[a] commitment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God's Word in written form."

DCHindley

I assume the fully stated version of your rhetorical question is "Does it do any good to point out errors in the Bible [to someone who believes it is inerrant]? If so, the answer will be "Yes and No."

Cognitive Dissonance will only occur to someone who is internally aware of problems or errors of facts of the bible.

According to Leon Festinger, the sociologist who developed the theory of cognitive dissonance, the person experiencing it can reduce that feeling of dissonance in several different ways:

There are three major ways by which dissonance can be reduced:
1 By changing one or more of the elements involved in dissonant relations.
2 By adding new cognitive elements that are consonant with already existing cognition.
3 By decreasing the importance of the elements involved in the dissonant relations.

Practically, these generally fall into these categories:
1 Postdecision dissonance may be reduced by increasing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative, decreasing the attractiveness of the unchosen alternatives, or both.
2 Postdecision dissonance may be reduced by perceiving some characteristics of the chosen and unchosen alternatives as identical.
3 Postdecision dissonance may be reduced by decreasing the importance of various aspects of the decision.
4 If forced compliance has been elicited, the dissonance may be reduced by changing private opinion to bring it into line with the overt behavior or by magnifying the amount of reward or punishment involved.
5 If forced compliance has been elicited, dissonance may be reduced by intensifying the original private opinion or by minimizing the (private opinion about the) reward or punishment involved.
6 The presence of dissonance leads to seeking new information which will provide cognition consonant with existing cognitive elements and to avoiding those sources of new information which would be likely to increase the existing dissonance.
7 When some of the cognitive elements involved in a dissonance are cognitions about one's own behavior, the dissonance can be reduced by changing the behavior, thus directly changing the cognitive elements.
8 Forced or accidental exposure to new information which tends to increase dissonance will frequently result in misinterpretation and misperception of the new information by the person thus exposed in an effort to avoid (the resulting) dissonance increase.
9 Dissonance introduced by disagreement expressed by other persons (with whom one associates) may be reduced by changing one's own opinion, by influencing the others (with whom one associates) to change their opinion, and rejecting (association with) those who disagree.
10 The existence of dissonance will lead to seeking out others who already agree with a cognition that one wants to establish or maintain, and will also lead to the initiation of communication and influence processes in an effort to obtain more social support.
11 Influence exerted on a person will be more effective in producing opinion change to the extent that the indicated change of opinion reduces dissonance for that person.
12 In situations where many persons in situations where many persons who associate with one another all suffer from identical dissonance, dissonance reduction by obtaining social support is very easy to accomplish.

Only one of the twelve practical tactics to reduce dissonance given above (#9) involves changing one's mind about the matter. It seems these 12 dissonance reduction strategies are reactive in nature, where the person experiencing the dissonance retreats into a defensive posture.

My suggestion would be to make the information available to those who have inquiring minds, leave out value judgements and rhetoric so the interested party does not feel pressure or feel the intense need to avoid you like the plague, and let them sort it out on their own.

DCH

aa5874

But, Craig Evans seems to live in some dream world of fallacies.

It is precisely because of discrepancies in the Bible why people who were once christians deconvert.

And people who may have wanted to become christians may be reluctant to do so if they notice discrepancies in the Bible.

It must logically follow that discrepancies must have a negative effect on christianity.

I was once a believer, it is now extremely unlikely for me to accept the NT canon as historical since I have discovered massive discrepancies within the writers' reports of events in the NT.