This argument claims one simple thing: The bible is the perfect word of God (not necessarily relevant in this case is which bible or which God). Therefor everything written in it is literally true, floods, miracles, resurrections and all. Simple.
Most non-believers would shrug this all off with a laugh. As it happens, the book does contain a fair amount of claims about the natural world, many of which are, to a rational person, physically impossible.
The bible, however, cares nothing of this. It took the time to establish its own set of rules. Rules by which seas can part, suns can stop in their place, and people can be resurrected after death. For us to argue with these biblical stories would be a waste of time. Telling someone the parting of the sea is ridiculous and therefor they should stop believing in a literal bible will simply not work.
And so we must forgo virgin births and Egyptian plagues and find another argument. Such an argument would need to demonstrate that the bible cannot be literally true, within the confines of its own rules. It would need to identify a contradiction within the books own internal logic.
Turns out that’s not so hard to do. The bible, it seems, contradicts itself quite often. One example of this could be found in the book of Genesis. The bible returns to the story of creation several times. Each of those recounts a different order of events. The first story (Genesis 1:11 - 13, 27 - 31) tells us that plants were created before Adam and Eve. The second story (Genesis 2:4 - 7) tells the opposite. It could not have happened both ways. Which came first?
As we can see, and this is only a single example out of many, the bible is known to contradict itself. These contradictions are not reflections of the bibles own rules. This is a completely different kind of mistake. Here we are not complaining that the story does not fit with everything we know about the natural world. Here we argue that it does not fit with itself.
It is at this point that I must ask the obvious question: How can a book which contradicts itself be literally true? And if it still is, is there any evidence that could possibly be brought forward that would change that way of thinking? The bible is the source of the three Abrahamic faiths. If it is not literally true, where do they get their absolutes from?
Truth be told, it is easy to find contradictions in the bible. It was, after all, written and edited very often by many people. That’s the problem with ancient bibles. The Harry Potter novels would never make such mistakes.
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