It is most unfortunate that the people who claim that the Bible is inerrant have never taken the time to read it carefully and to think about what they have read. If the creator or the creative force gave man a brain, it was intended to be used for critical and logical thinking and not just for memorization. The claim of biblical inerrancy can be disproved beyond any reasonable doubt by the power of logical deductive reasoning. The disproof involves the examination of two contradictory statements wherein if one is true the other must be false. The following may be used to illustrate the argument.
Question: According to the Bible, does a son inherit the sins of his father? The answer to this question must be either yes or no; it cannot be both. If the answer based upon a passage in the Bible is yes, then any other passage in the Bible that says no must be false. Similarly, if the answer based upon a passage in the Bible is no, then any other passage that says yes must be false.
It so happens that there are some passages in the Bible that say the answer to the above question is yes and others that say the answer is no. The passages that say yes are Genesis 9:20-25; Exodus 34:7; 2 Samuel 12:14; Isaiah 14:21; and Romans 5:19. The passages that say no are Deuteronomy 24:16; Jeremiah 31:30; and Ezekiel 18:20.
I will compare 2 Samuel 12:13-14 and Deuteronomy 24:16, because these two passages illustrate this contradiction most clearly, and both involve putting someone to death as punishment for sin.
Deuteronomy 24:16, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
It is interesting to note that David was not only spared from death even though he had sinned but that his son was clearly put to death because of the sin of his father, thereby contradicting the verse in Deuteronomy. The son, in effect, became the sacrificial lamb to atone for the sins of his father, David.
In short, if the passage in 2 Samuel is true, then the verse in Deuteronomy is false and vice versa. In any event, this proves that the Bible contains at least one false statement and is therefore not inerrant (quod erat demonstrandum).
The above example is but one example of more than 200 directly contradictory passages in the Bible, any pair of which can be used to disprove inerrancy. Furthermore, if the verse in Deuteronomy is correct, it also proves that the concept of original sin is incorrect, because this doctrine holds that the entire human race is responsible for the alleged "sin" of Adam. Thomas Jefferson, who did not believe in the doctrine of original sin, stated in a letter to James Smith (December 8, 1823), "Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against the most monstrous absurdities and like a ship without a rudder is the sport of every wind. With such persons, reason and the mind becomes a wreck." In this matter of biblical inerrancy, many people have regrettably surrendered their reason to a claim that is not true.
(Sol Abrams, 132 Easthampton F, West Palm Beach, FL
33417-1922.)
