Where in the bible does it say you must take the bible literally?

It doesn’t. Or? :o

The sins of the father ISA 14:21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. DEU 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.

The bat is not a bird LEV 11:13 And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, LEV 11:14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; LEV 11:15 Every raven after his kind; LEV 11:16 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, LEV 11:17 And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, LEV 11:18 And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, LEV 11:19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. DEU 14:11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat. DEU 14:12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, DEU 14:13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, DEU 14:14 And every raven after his kind, DEU 14:15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, DEU 14:16 The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, DEU 14:17 And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant, DEU 14:18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

Rabbits do not chew their cud LEV 11:6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. “Gerah,” the term which appears in the MT means (chewed) cud, and also perhaps grain, or berry (also a 20th of a sheckel, but I think that we can agree that that is irrelevant here). It does not mean dung, and there is a perfectly adequate Hebrew word for that, which could have been used. Furthermore, the phrase translated “chew the cud” in the KJV is more exactly “bring up the cud.” Rabbits do not bring up anything; they let it go all the way through, then eat it again. The description given in Leviticus is inaccurate, and that’s that. Rabbits do eat their own dung; they do not bring anything up and chew on it.

Insects do NOT have four feet LEV 11:21 Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; LEV 11:22 Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. LEV 11:23 But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.

Snails do not melt PSA 58:8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

Fowl from waters or ground? GEN 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. GEN 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

After reading the Bible I was inspired to write a warning label for it.

WARNING: This is a work of fiction. Do NOT take it literally.

CONTENT ADVISORY: Contains verses descriptive or advocating suicide, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, sexual activity in a violent context, murder, morbid violence, use of drugs or alcohol, homosexuality, voyeurism, revenge, undermining of authority figures, lawlessness, and human rights violations and atrocities.

EXPOSURE WARNING: Exposure to contents for extended periods of time or during formative years in children may cause delusions, hallucinations, decreased cognitive and objective reasoning abilities, and, in extreme cases, pathological disorders, hatred, bigotry, and violence including, but not limited to fanaticism, murder, and genocide.

Honestly anybody who would take it literally has never actually read it.

Could you please be a little more specific with contradiction?

:) true, I did copy and paste, but I have actually taken a class in it (only I was too lazy to actually reiterate what I learnt). perhaps you need to talk to scholars who actually have studied this stuff. I dont really care about this to study enough into it… and obviously neither do you or maybe you wouldnt copy and paste a website either…

By the way, “rules” didn’t “change”. It was a man named Jesus(and some other guys) that came up with a sequel to the old testament… and the only thing it changed was increasing the amount of religious people.

and yeah, what the hell does context have to do with the amount of animals being taken on the ark?

Suppose for a moment that the Bible DID say you have to take it literally. How could you know that statement was true? After all, don’t people make claims like that all the time and they are lying or themselves deceived?

In the end, it’s up to you to decide whether the Bible makes sense in whole, in part according to one type of analysis or another. It doesn’t matter what the Bible itself says, or what anyone else says about. You have to either blindly trust, or discern.

You have to decide whether or not to accept such arguments from authority.

I cant remember the exact quote from the bible, but it definitly says that you should kill people who dont believe in god. It was on a documentary about christianity and where the bible came from. But if one of the ten commandments says thou shalt not kill and thats the word of god apparently, so why on earth does the bible which is also the word of god say to kill people who dont beleive? Im confused.

they went INTO the ark two by two. not two of each animal. if it had said one by one, that doesnt mean there’s only one of each animal, it means they went single file.

I THINK the bible is both literallly and metaphorical they tell true stories and the stories are lessons which we all should live by. thou shall not kill.well how about if someone attacks you lethally.\?or if your a soldier??I believe there are exceptions and that the bible has very exact laws and laws that are basic but if have reason then are debatable.I think if you truly have a relationship with god you will know if what you are doing is right or wrong.

The Holy Spirit is the one who inspired the bible, he is the one you need to seek to interput it.

Contradictions in the bible

God good to all, or just a few? PSA 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. JER 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

War or Peace? EXO 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name. ROM 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Who is the father of Joseph? MAT 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. LUK 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.

Who was at the Empty Tomb? Is it: MAT 28:1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. MAR 16:1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. JOH 20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

Is Jesus equal to or lesser than? JOH 10:30 I and my Father are one. JOH 14:28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

Which first–beasts or man? GEN 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. GEN 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. GEN 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

The number of beasts in the ark GEN 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. GEN 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, GEN 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

How many stalls and horsemen? 1KI 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. 2CH 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

Is it folly to be wise or not? PRO 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. ECC 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. 1CO 1:19: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

Human vs. ghostly impregnation ACT 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; MAT 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

That web site didn’t ‘debunk’ anything. It was subjective… and just provided interpretations that gave rise to MORE questions, of which it did not answer.

“I cant remember the exact quote from the bible, but it definitly says that you should kill people who dont believe in god. It was on a documentary about christianity and where the bible came from. But if one of the ten commandments says thou shalt not kill and thats the word of god apparently, so why on earth does the bible which is also the word of god say to kill people who dont beleive? Im confused.”

One of the problems with reading the bible in English and trying to make any complete sense of it is because of problems with translation and not understanding the cultural context of the text (not to mention the transliterations - copies - that were copied incorrectly over time). Taking your example, here, the original text does not say “thou shalt not kill,” it says, “thou shalt not MURDER.” Now, if God himself tells you to kill someone or commit genocide, is it murder? Perhaps that’s the distinction that the authors might have seen. Also consider that the texts of both the old and the new testaments were written at widely different times and places and by widely different people even within each of the books (no, Moses didn’t write the first 5 books… or did he write about himself after he was dead?). They were then transliterated (copied, as older scrolls/books began to deteriorate), translated, re-translated and so on, until we have the imperfect copies/translations we have today. This is why the Bible is contradictory, and why (while it is a source of some good philosophy) is should not be taken at face value, and why I’m an agnostic. :)