Was Thomas Paine correct that the Bible is the most effective weapon against Christianity one can use?

Question

As an atheist I've noticed that using science and logic on the fundies doesn't really work, but break open their own book and start debating it, and suddenly they're all keen. Should atheists maybe focus on an approach that uses the Bible to refute the Bible? It has enough contradictions in it. I've successfully employed this approach, and have gotten people to give up Christianity.

Answer 1

As a Christian, I'd certainly agree that any Christian whose beliefs depend on the Bible being entirely consistent is likely to have trouble maintaining those beliefs, if shown what the Bible says.



The Bible is not a single work by a single author. Nor is it some kind of divine manifesto. It's a collection of installments in over a thousand years of discussion and argument. Naturally, over that length of time, it included points of view of very different people in very different circumstances. They even wrote in two very different languages (plus a smattering of a third one). And quite a few of them were inspired to write partly by a belief that earlier contributors had gotten something wrong, or at least failed to make something clear.



If you bother to read it, you either understand that, or you don't comprehend it.











‘When will people understand that it is useless for a man to read his Bible unless he also reads everybody else’s Bible? A printer reads a Bible for misprints. A Mormon reads his Bible and finds polygamy; a Christian Scientist reads his and finds we have no arms and legs. [...] Of course, he read the Old Testament rather than the New. Of course, he found in the Old Testament anything that he wanted – lust, tyranny, treason. Oh, I dare say he was honest, as you call it. But what is the good of a man being honest in his worship of dishonesty?’

-- G.K. Chesterton, "The Sign of the Broken Sword"; collected in "The Innocence of Father Brown"

Answer 2

I cannot find that Thomas Paine ever made that statement. He did say " The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason."



And:



It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man. -- Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine



The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind. -- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1793-5), quoted from Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations



What is it the New Testament teaches us? To believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith. -- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794)



The Bible is a book that has been read more, and examined less, than any book that ever existed. -- Thomas Paine, as quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine



Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon that the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.

-- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason



And also important are the following quotes:



I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

-- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason



An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

-- Thomas Paine, Dissertations on First Principles of Government (July 7, 1795), thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, The Writer's Rights (2002) p. 31



To argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead.

-- Thomas Paine, The Crisis

Answer 3

You can't use the Bible to refute the Bible because why should I have to take your interpretation of the Bible seriously, esp when you don't even believe in the Bible?

Answer 4

If you really know and study the bible, You know there are NO contradictions. More Christians need to know their bible, so as to NOT be shaken by lame tactics of the unbeliever.



1 John 2:5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:

Answer 5

I have a whole list of evil bible verses, but I'm too scared to show to people. Right now I don't have many friends as it is. They will read this stuff one day and find it for themselves.

Answer 6

Only a fool thinks he can fight against God



100% of all atheists who have gone before you are dead and in hell



that is the path they have blazed for you



Meanwhile Christianity is doing just fine

Answer 7

Yes.

Answer 8

No, he was wrong. You can try and use the Bible, sure, but atheists have consistently failed to provide any decent arguments.



"I've successfully employed this approach, and have gotten people to give up Christianity."

- Yeah, sure you have.



"Yes I have."

- Sure. I'll bet.

Answer 9

Christianity is the most barbaric death cult in history:



1) Colonization of the Americas, 1492 to 1800, 145 million dead natives. (the Spaniards and other European conquistadors used Christianity to justify their killing of Native Pagans. Most natives did die from disease but then again most deaths in most major wars/genocides were caused by disease/famine.)



2) 30 years religious war in Europe between Catholics and Protestants, 1618 to 1648, 8 million deaths.

3) French wars of religion, Catholics vs Protestants, 1562 to 1598, 3 million deaths.



4) Christian terrorist group Lord's Resistance army kills 65,000 to 100,000 civilians (more than Taliban, ISIS and Boko Haram combined) throughout Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic in their war to rule Uganda under the 10 commandments, 1987 to present.



5) Christian terrorist group National Liberation Front of Tripura kill thousands of Hindus in the name of Christ in Eastern India, 1989 to present.



Bible:

Kill anyone who works on the Sabbath (Ex 31:15), kill disobedient children (Ex 21:15), kill adulterers (Lv 20:10), kill non-Hebrews (Dt 20:16-17), kill witches (Ex 22:18), kill gays (Rom 1:21-32), kill blasphemers (Lv 24:14), kill any bride who's not a virgin (Dt 22:21).

After winning battles, kill all male prisoners and take the women, children, and cattle for yourselves. - Dt 20:13-14



http://meekmess.com/murders-for-jesus.htm - Christians killed 150 million people in the name of Christ.

https://espressostalinist.com/genocide/native-american-genocide/ - Christians slaughtered 100 million Native Americans.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army_insurgency - modern Christian terror group kills 100,000 people in the last 30 years, since 1987.



Also, other savagery committed by Christians, not religiously motivated but still committed by Christians:



1)Gothic wars (535 to 554) 5 million deaths.

2)100 years war (1337-1453) - 3 million deaths

3)Atlantic slave trade - David Stannard estimates 60 million deaths.

4)Napoleon's wars, (1803 to 1815) - 5 million deaths.

5) Paraguayan war (1864 to 1870) - 1 million deaths.

6)The British Empire's policies cause 29 million Indians to starve to death - In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, published in 2001, Mike Davis tells the story of the famines which killed between 12 and 29 million Indians. These people were, he demonstrates, murdered by British state policy.

7)Mexican revolt, (1910 to 1920) - 1 million deaths.

8)WW1 (1914 to 1918) - 15 million deaths.

9)WW2 (1939 to 1945) - 40 million deaths just in Europe.

10)Algerian independence war (1954 to 1962) - French Christians kill 1 million Algerian civilians.

11) Rwanda genocide (1994)- 1 million deaths.

12) 2nd Congo war (1998 to 2003) - 5 million deaths.

13) NATO kills 4 million Arab civilians, half of them children (1990 to present). George Bush starts 5 wars, each time saying that it's in the name of God and, in 2001, even calling it a 'crusade'.

www.mintpressnews.com/4-million-muslims...



So, including the 150 million people slain directly in the name of Christ (http://meekmess.com/murders-for-jesus.htm) and now adding the non-religious atrocities which were still committed by Christians, that's at least 320 million people slain by the followers of the barbaric death cult Christianity.



'At least' because were are MANY MANY other genocides committed by Christians, with tens of millions of more deaths, especially when they destroyed paganism in Europe and when they colonised, plundered and raped 85% of the world.



Also, Christians invented pistols, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, grenades, tanks, war helicopters, war planes, nukes and concentration camps.



Christianity is incomparably the most savage death cult in history.