Faith Versus Reason: New Testament Needs An Upgrade ?

Recent commentaries have focused on some of the details written in the bible and whether they stand up to scrutiny. It is the intent of this article to make the case for the Bible to updated and upgraded to match the current state of knowledge of our physical reality that we call the universe. It is increasingly clear that the biblical authors had no knowledge of science and infused some of the fairy tales at the time into the biblical writings. For some reason the deity on whose behalf the texts were being written (God) did not intervene to have the false statements corrected, and can be construed to have either been uninformed himself or simply having no reason to ensure that true facts and figures were written in his book. A few examples of illiteracy, absurdity, contradiction and outright falsehood found in the New Testament are presented in this article. Readers are encouraged to add their comments and draw attention to any other biblical quotations that they are aware of that make no logical sense.

MT 4:8 There is a high mountain from which all the kingdoms of the world can be seen. Comment: There is no such mountain anywhere where one can stand and observe the whole world. This is simply false because the earth is a sphere and not flat, so no matter high up you are on a mountain the earth below curves away from your line of sight so you cannot observe all the kingdoms of the earth from any one point on the earth surface. The biblical author here is basing this on the assumption that the earth is flat. So God did not know that? So why did he not correct the statement being made in his book? Or maybe God himself did not know? Then he is not omniscient, and if true then he is not God, and if that is true then there is no God. So either we have to update the bible to make it more consistent with reality or we acknowledge the writings are by illiterate ancient men who did not know what they were talking about.

MT 4:23-24, 9:32-33, 12:22, 17:14-18, MK 1:23-26, 32-34, 5:2-16, 9:17-29, 16:9, LK 11:14, 4:33-35, 8:2, 27-36, 9:38-42, AC 8:7, 16:16-18 Both physical and mental illness are caused by demon possession and can be cured by exorcism. Comment: A bold faced lie. Diseases are caused by microbes. Mental illness is due to problems in the brain cells. Some Microbes can be killed by antibiotics. Some illnesses require surgery or various therapies. I am waiting to see a hospital where the medical staff use exorcism to cure any of the above illnesses. Why did God not say so in his book and allowed the illiterate scribes to write such nonsense in the Bible?

Luke 3:23-38 gives the genealogy of Jesus as consisting of 37 generations from King David through his son Nathan. Mathew 1:1-17 gives 27 generations from King David through his son King Solomon. Hmm. By the way Nathan was the elder brother of King Solomon, both of them being the sons David had with Bathsheba (Urriah’s wife). So which is which and where are the 10 missing generations? The Mathew account claims one ancestor Salmon had a child with the harlot Rahab, called Boaz, who later married Ruth. But Rahab became wife of Joshua after Jericho was conquered. So Joshua married Rahab but she had a child with Salmon instead? How? And who was Salmon by the way? He was an elder of the tribe of Judah and an ancestor of King David. So did this woman marry two separate Hebrew elders? Comment: Both genealogies whether they are both correct or not give Adam as the first human who lived in the Garden of Eden. Today, testing our DNA we know that the first humans were not Hebrew or what today we call Israelites or Jewish. The first humans were black Africans. The DNA markers from these ancestors are present in the DNA of every single human alive today, with absolutely no exceptions. The DNA markers point to a common female (not male) ancestor who lived around 60,000 years ago in what today we call Namibia. She was a member of a Khoisan tribe what we commonly call the Bushmen. And this can be confirmed by any person, Christian, or not simply going to the medical lab and asking for a DNA test which is currently available in every country in the world, mostly used for determining who impregnated whose daughter etc etc. So yes indeed it would make sense to update the Bible to include this established fact. Otherwise our descendants in the next 50 - 100 years time will laugh at us and wonder why we were so stupid to believe this drivel when all we could have done was a common DNA test.

MT 7:7-8, LK 11:9-10 Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. Everyone who asks, receives. Comment: OK. I want an end to illiteracy in Ghana. I also want an end to all religion in Ghana to be replaced by institutes offering Bachelors degrees, Masters and PhDs. Can I get that?

MT 13:41 Jesus will send his angels to purge his kingdom of evildoers and sin. Comment: How did evildoers get into his kingdom in the first place?

MT 17:20, 21:21, MK 9:23, 10:27, 11:23, LK 17:6 Faith can move mountains. Nothing is impossible if you have faith [as small as] a grain of mustard seed. MT 18:19 If two [believers] agree about anything they ask, God will do it for them. MT 21:22, MK 11:24 Whatever you ask in prayer, if you have faith, you will receive it. Comment: Ha ha ha. Has anybody seen an accident victims head, leg, or arm reattached after asking God? Twea.

MT 24:29-30 Although the sun and the moon have been darkened and the stars have fallen from heaven, there is still enough light to see. Comment: Genesis states that the stars are embedded in the firmament. Oh now they are rather sitting in heaven and can fall down to earth? No mention is made anywhere of the fact that stars exist clustered together in galaxies, and that so far we can observe galaxy after galaxy stretching in all directions for over 13.7 billion light years. So is all that part of heaven?

MK 11:12-14, 20-21 Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season. Comment: Rather than cause the fig tree to wither and to bear fruit never again, he could have performed a miracle and made it bear fruit even out of season.

MK 16:17-18 Those who believe are able to handle snakes and drink any deadly poison without suffering harm. Comment: Yeah, right. So how come poison continues to kill people in the 21st century, and snakes are still biting and killing people everyday all over the world?

LK 1:39-42 The fetus in Elizabeth's womb jumps for joy when Elizabeth hears Mary Comment: What? So who is pregnant with Jesus then? Elizabeth or Mary?

JN 6:24-30 A large crowd of persons (probably several thousand) asks Jesus for a sign so that they might see and believe. Comment: But this happened immediately following the Feeding of the Multitude which should have been one of the greatest miracles and most convincing signs of all time.

JN 8:51 Jesus says: "... if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." Comment: But if they don’t see death how will they move to heaven? So actually death is required before one can then benefit from the alleged resurrection and then everlasting life in heaven. Jesus, express yourself correctly, haba.

JN 16:23 Jesus says: "Whatever you ask in my name, my Father will give you."

RO 10:17-18, CN 1:23 The gospel had already been preached to every living creature even in Paul's time. Comment: So according to the bible, by the time of Paul every living creature had heard the gospel. That includes cockroaches, goats, elephants, sheep, cattle, bees, cassava plants, plantain suckers, beetles, kangaroos, apes, and on and on and on. Wow, so all these have also heard of Jesus? I see. But even if true, then why did Europeans have to introduce Christianity to the forefathers of Ghanaians in the 15th century if everybody had already heard of it? Why is it then a requirement that Christians evangelize and spread their religion to those who have already heard of it? I have not seen anybody preaching to a camel, why?

2CO 12:2 There are at least three heavens. Comment: I see, so which one does God live in? Which one will resurrected Ghanaians be living in and chewing meat for eternity? Which one has the stores, malls, shopping centers, etc etc. Are there chop bars there too?

2CO 12:4 There are things which cannot be told--things which man cannot utter.

GA 1:8-9 An angel (from God?) who preaches a gospel contrary to that of Paul will incur Paul's wrath. Comment: Why would an angel from God preach something else? Would omnipotent god send an angel to preach something against him and then punish that angel? This makes no sense at all.

1TI 5:11 Younger widows want to marry because their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ. Comment: I see. So young people who have lost their spouses prematurely marry because their sex drive will always outweigh their dedication to Jesus? Whaaaaat ?

1TI 6:10 The love of money is the root of all evil(s). Comment: Some translations amend the text to read, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils," or something similar, in an attempt to ameliorate an obvious problem. Those additional words are not there in the Greek of the oldest and most reliable manuscripts.

TS 1:12 "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars ...." Comment: Figure the logic of this verse--if you can!

HE 7:1-3 Melchizedek had no mother or father, no beginning or end. Comment: Then what was he? A god? A Zombie? I mean, so is he still living? Where? I want to meet him.

RE 14:1-4 Heaven is to be inhabited in part by 144,000 virgin men who have not been "defiled" by women. Comment: So how are these men going to be satisfied if there are no women with them? So the presence of women can make men to become defiled?

RE 21:16 The city of New Jerusalem (where the residents of heaven reside) is only about 1500 miles square. Comment: This means from one end to the other would be roughly 40 miles. And how many people live there? Then heaven is smaller than Cairo, London, Tokyo, New York, and many others. Wow, then the place will be highly overcrowded, stinky, congested, smelly, and high poverty.

So at this juncture we shall yield to the religious members and ask they come forward and explain some of the issues raised. Would they join us in asking for the bible to be updated to include new and established scientific facts? For example global earth, the current structure of the universe as we have observed it and as predicted by the Big Bang theory? How about the advances in medicine? Is it not the time to remove statements like disease caused by demons, from the bible as today we know there are viruses and bacteria involved and no demons at all? Genetic testing shows that all humans alive today share a common ancestor who as a black African woman from around 60,000 years ago. Should we not update the Adam and Eve story to make it better match this reality? We also know that the first humans evolved from a species whose descendants include humans and chimpanzees. Should we not also add that in the Bible story? The bible says that plants came first before animals, however we know today this is not true, and that animals evolved in the oceans long before plant life arose on the land surface. Do you think we should make the correct reversal of the creation narrative in Genesis?

Should the Bible be updated?

kwaku ba; February, 2011.