Jonah David Conner - All Thats Wrong with the Bible: Contradictions, Absurdities, and More

It is quite obvious to me that many people out there are more qualified to be writing something of this nature, and I make no attempt to present myself as any more advanced of a scholar than they are. That being said, it is equally true that I am no outsider to Christianity or biblical studies. Born into a conservative Protestant home and taught the Bible from an early age, I attended private Christian schools my entire childhood, from kindergarten to the end of my Bachelors degree. One of my earliest memories from elementary school was being the fastest in my class to recite all 66 books of the Bible in order.

My religious indoctrination did not take a break in summer either, with Bible camps and other Christian activities such as Ken Hams Answers in Genesis conferences, where speakers routinely claimed to have pictures of Noahs ark from the mountains of Turkey. Even my baseball league was run by Christians and would start every game with a devotional talk and prayer. On top of all this, I regularly attended church, normally two or three times per week, and remember daily reading the King James Bible by myself before school, eagerly underlining and commenting on my favorite verses. Everything I remember from my childhood revolved around Christianity.

Even after high school, my religious bubble remained intact. I completed a six-month training and missionary trip through the American Southwest with the organization Youth with a Mission (YWAM), based in Tyler, Texas. We traveled from city to city on a bus, sleeping anywhere we could (sometimes on the concrete floor of a church basement) while doing volunteer work and talking about the gospel to all who would listen. I distinctly recall going to the red-light district of Houston where a small group of us handed out tracts to transgender prostitutes.

Shortly thereafter, I moved to the Northeast and completed a one-year certificate program at Word of Life Bible Institute. Located in rural Schroon Lake, New York, it was the closest I have ever been to life on a cult compound. Completely isolated from any secular influence, we were bathed 24 hours a day in the fundamentalist dogma of conservative Protestantism. As is to be expected, every single activity there had to do with the Bible. Every class was on the subject, every day we had obligatory quiet time in which we would read and pray, and everyone had to belong to a ministry team of some sort. The one I chose went on two trips to New York City to preach the gospel on the street corners of busy intersections. I am one of a small percentage in the world who can honestly say that they have preached on the streets of Manhattan. It is embarrassing to think about doing that today, but it was all normal activity at Word of Life Bible Institute. Anything like a traditional college experience was prohibited, including watching movies or listening to music in the dorms, and certainly any physical contact with the opposite gender. Ironically, however, it was there that I met my wife and we spent hours together canoeing on the lakes and local rivers, even though we were not supposed to do so unchaperoned. We have now been together for 15 years.

After my year in New York, I then transferred to Liberty University, Jerry Falwells bastion of Christian fundamentalism, where I received a B.A. My academic focus there shifted and I and began to concentrate on Linguistics and Translation, specifically in regard to Spanish and Classical Greek, but also with other languages such as Portuguese, Latin, and Hebrew. I obtained an M.A. in Spanish from Northern Illinois University and wrote my thesis on Spanish Translation of the Greek New Testament. I later finished my Ph.D. in Linguistics with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin, with a minor in Classical Greek.

It was not until my late twenties that I began to question my beliefs. It was a slow process that took place over a period of about three years and involved detailed study of Textual Criticism, It is safe to say, however, that religion has marked me for life and left a permanent effect on my view of humans and the universe.

The great irony is that the Bible itself was the biggest reason why I stopped believing the Bible. Comparative study of passages like the ones analyzed here made it undeniable that many of its claims were simply false. Time and time again it failed the test of reliability. My desire is that the contents of this book will aid others in seeing this as well.

My purpose, then, is twofold. First, I hope to open the eyes of the layman believer who has been taught that Scripture is perfect by ignorant or dishonest pastors and teachers. Second, I wish to provide a concise and informative resource for skeptics who do not come from a religious background but are interested in delving deeper into this important topic.