Chapter 1: Why
This Book?
The author’s
purpose is to give atheists and other skeptics a resource they can use to debate Christian fundamentalists more effectively.
A broader purpose is to expose and discredit the irrational thinking that underlies Christian belief, and so promote respect
for reason and logic in the society at large. For wavering Christians who may be just beginning to doubt the truth of Christianity,
the book’s message is, “You can relax. You are not going to hell.”
Chapter 2: Bible Basics and Translation Traps
This chapter gives readers a basic overview of the themes
and characters of the New Testament, in order to place the contradictions in their proper context and understand their significance
in relation to Christian doctrines. There’s also a discussion of how the language of the Bible relates to the issue
of biblical contradictions. You’ll see how differently the same Bible verse can be rendered when translated into English,
and how contradictions in the original can be, and have been, obscured by misleading translations.
Chapter 3: Rebutting the Rebuttals
Learn how Christian apologists try to refute the many
contradictions in their holy scruptures. Their rebuttals fall into patterns, and this chapter gives some general suggestions
on how skeptics can respond to them. Offers some new insights into the logic behind Bible contradictions.
Chapter 4: Contradictions in the Stories of Jesus’s
Birth
Explores the
many discrepancies between Matthew and Luke in their portrayals of Jesus’s birth and early childhood – including
the conflicting genealogies of Matthew and Luke, and why Luke’s genealogy cannot be that of Mary, as some apologists
have claimed.
Chapter
5: Contradictions in the Crucifixion and Resurrection Stories
What time of day was Jesus crucified? What were Jesus’s last words on the
cross? Was it dark or light when the women came to Jesus’s tomb on Sunday morning? And who were those women? The four
gospel writers give conflicting answers to these and many other questions about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
And when the disciples were told that Jesus had been raised from the dead, why didn’t they believe it? And why didn’t
they recognize him?
Chapter 6: Sin, Forgiveness and Salvation
Shows that the contradictions of the Bible are not just confined to trivial details, but undermine the central thesis of
the Christian religion. You’ll see that the Bible says God himself created sin, and predetermines who is going to be
saved.
Chapter 7: Jesus - God or Man?
Was Jesus divine? Or only human? Christians think he was
both, but the Bible is inconsistent on the question. Still, there’s plenty of evidence in the New Testament to show
that the people who knew Jesus best thought of him as merely human.
Chapter 8: The End Was Near
This chapter delivers the knockout punch,
showing that Jesus expected the kingdom of God to arrive during the lifetime of those he was preaching to. But it didn’t!
The predicted events never occurred, and therefore Jesus was completely mistaken about the reality of the kingdom of God,
and Jesus’s own second coming. You’ll see how the numerous attempts by the apologists to wiggle out of this can
be easily refuted.
Chapter 9: Paul Against Himself
Not even Paul, the architect of Christian theology, is free
of inconsistencies. Not only is Paul’s salvation scheme inconsistent, but you’ll see that Jesus himself was not
free from sin, and thus not the perfect, unblemished sacrifice required by Paul’s theology to save mankind from its
sins.
Chapter
10: Phony Prophecies about Jesus from the Old Testament
This chapter examines several of the famous Old Testament “prophecies” cited by
the gospel writers and shows how they are taken out of context and misinterpreted to claim that the Hebrew scriptures predicted
the coming of Jesus as messiah. You’ll also see how the same techniques can be used to show that the Old Testament warns
against Jesus as a false prophet.
Chapter 11: Fighting Dirty: A Guide to Using Ad
Hominem Arguments against Christian Hypocrites
Expose Christian hypocrites by showing them these Bible passages that they don’t live up to.
And what about those passages supporting slavery and the subjection of women? Are the Christians going to defend those positions,
too?
