Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The folly of Bill Maher

This past week Bill Maher in his never ending quest to garner attention by offending every person of faith made the following statement:

"What kind of tyrant punishes everyone just to get back at the few he's mad at? I mean, besides Chris Christie."
"Hey, God, you know you're kind of a dick when you're in a movie with Russell Crowe and you're the one with anger issues."
"You know conservatives are always going on about how Americans are losing their values and their morality, well maybe it's because you worship a guy who drowns babies."
"If we were a dog and God owned us, the cops would come and take us away."

It's not the first time Bill Maher has made statements like this. These same tired arguments are routinely regurgitated in his diatribes. What strikes me as ironic is Bill Maher doesn't believe in God or the bible yet be believes in the parts of the bible which he believes makes it look bad.  You can't have it both ways Bill. Either you believe in all of it or you believe in none of it. And if you don't believe it then what does it bother you so much of those who do believe in it?

As if to up his own ante in hypocrisy Maher accuses God of being a genocidal tyrant. This is the same Bill Maher who in his own words said “I’m pro-choice, I’m for assisted suicide, I’m for regular suicide, I’m for whatever gets the freeway moving – that’s what I’m for... It’s too crowded, the planet is too crowded and we need to promote death.”. Maher supports abortion which has killed 50 million babies since Roe v. Wade. If the six million Jews that were killed in during the holocaust was a genocide, what does that make 50 million babies? And somehow Bill Maher has the audacity to make a moral judgement against a God he doesn't even believe in.

I asked previously why it bothers them so much if people believe in God when they don't believe in it themselves? Why should it matter right? I believe what it comes down to is ideologies. Religion can be defined as a worldview and an ideology which either revolves around a deity or around an individual. Everyone has one, even Bill Maher. Christianity is the religion (or worldview) that runs counter to Bill Maher and his ilk's god-less religion and this is something progressives can't stand. They can't stand opposing ideologies. To them it is intolerable and they must demonize and marginalize Christianity every chance they get.

In defense of God's action's he is the supreme being which has made everything that exists. He is sovereign and there is no authority higher than His, that gives him every right to judge and to judge justly. For man to make a moral judgement against God is like a nail telling the hammer what to do. But when God judges it is never done without the chance for repentance first. The people of Ninevah was given a chance of repentance and were sparred judgement. The people in Noah's day were given 120 years to repent, from the time God issued the decree to Noah to build the ark until the flood. But they did not. One may wonder how babies could be allowed to die in the flood, but the babies would grow up and become just like their parents. Each generation waxing worse and worse. When does it end? The cycle of violence had to be broken in some way. But those that died under the age of accountability would have gone to paradise while those that died in their transgressions would have gone to torment. I would add that there may have been circumstances in God decision to flood the earth that encompassed more than just man's wickedness. In particular the identity of the sons of God and the Nephilim that would further add context to the flood. I won't go into that right now, but suffice to say people speak on things that they do not fully understand.

Concerning Noah's flood. Bill Maher mocks the idea that Noah lived over 900 years. We must differentiate the world we live in today from the world Noah lived in. It was a different world prior to the flood that allowed them to live longer life spans. Many believe there existed a water vapor canopy around the earth prior to the flood. The water canopy would shield against harmful solar radiation and prevent toxic ozone gas from filtering down, both of which contribute to the aging process. A water vapor canopy would basically be like living in a giant hyperberic chamber. The increased oxygen would vastly increase stamina and possibly increase brain cells which would mean higher IQ's. Also we have seen with hyperberic chambers that wounds heal a lot faster. Other benefits of a canopy would be tropical temperatures from pole to pole all year round and plants and animals would grow larger, which explains the size of the dinosaurs. Also Dr. Jacob D. Liedmann, a neurosurgeon, belives the human body is capable of living about 1,000 years if certain glands were to continue functioning.
There were many befits to the pre-flood world that would have allowed for a greater life span.

Bill Maher claims Noah and his family loaded over 3 million animals onto the ark in one day. In no way does it say they loaded all the animals on the ark in one day, and where does he get 3 million from? The bible doesn't say two of every single animal on earth, only two or seven of each "kind". And there were certain animals that didn't need to go on the ark, such as fish, water snakes, whales, insects, and other marine life. Also every creature on earth had a single pair of ancestors. There might be 300 dog varieties today, for example, but they all have a common ancestor. That would narrow it down to 3,700 kinds of mammals, 8,600 kinds of birds, 6,300 kinds of reptiles, and 2,500 kinds of amphibians. It is estimated the ark could hold around 100,000 animals with room left over. There may have been as few animals as 2,400 or as much as 50,000. We also don't know how young the animals were or if God put them all in hibernation as there doesn't seem to be any procreation on the ark. Two went in and two went out.

 It is noted that the account of the flood is universal story that appears in the oral history or written words of nearly every society on earth. How is this possible without a common source? It should also be noted that recorded history does not go back that far, which insinuates there was a restart a couple thousand years ago. Even after 2,000 years things start to get sketchy. There are no contemporary sources of Alexander the Great, for example, who lived 356-323 BC. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Who killed Goliath, David or Elhanan?


Who killed Goliath, David or Elhanan?

1. David did (1 Samuel 17:50) - "Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand."

2. Elhanan did (2 Sam. 21:19)- "And there was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam."


Objection: While 2 Sam 21:19 says Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath. The words "the brother of" do not appear in the Hebrew Text.

Answer: The mostly likely clarification lies in 1 Ch 20:5:

"Again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam." (1Ch 20:5)

The apparent contradiction between 1 Ch 20:5 and 2 Sam 21:19 is likely a transcription error. According to Gleason Archer's Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties on page 179, it says,

1. The sign of the direct object, which in Chronicles comes just before "Lahmi," was '-t; the copyist mistook it for b-t or b-y-t ("Beth") and thus got Bet hal-Lahmi ("the Bethlehemite") out of it.
2. He misread the word for "brother" ('-h) as the sign of the direct object ('-t) right before g-l-y-t ("Goliath"). Thus he made "Goliath" the object of "killed" (wayyak), instead of the "brother" of Goliath (as the Chronicles passage does).
3. The copyist misplaced the word for "weavers" ('-r-g-ym) so as to put it right after "Elhanan" as his patronymic (ben Y-'-r-y'-r--g-ym, or ben ya 'arey 'ore -gim -- "the son of the forests of weavers" -- a most unlikely name for anyone's father!). In Chronicles the 'ore grim ("weavers") comes right after menor ("a beam of ") -- thus making perfectly good sense.


Objection: If David found favor in Saul’s sight, how could Saul not know whom he had just sent out to fight with Goliath? Saul would have known who he was because David was already a favorite in the royal court.

And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight. (1 Sam. 16:21-22.)

Whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Inquire thou whose son the stripling is. (1 Sam. 17:55.)

Answer:
a. Saul does not ask who David is, but who David's father is.
b. He does, after all, promise that David's father's household will be exempt from paying taxes (see 17:25).
c. Jesse was an old man during the days of Saul, it is unlikely that they had any personal contact. (17:12)
d. Why would we assume that Saul remembers who David's father is?
e. Previous contact had been through messengers and servants.


Objection: After David killed Goliath, the text says that he brought the head to Jerusalem, but during Saul’s reign Jerusalem was in the hands of the Jebusites. It didn’t come into Israelite hands, according to the bible, until after David became king. This suggests that in the original story David was already king when Goliath died.

Answer: This is most likely a flash forward since a few verses later he is said to have taken the head to Saul:

And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. (1Sa 17:54)

Then, as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. (1Sa 17:57)


Conclusion:For Elhanan to have killed Goliath it would have to discount the entire story of David and Goliath. When a single verse is weighed against an entire chapter the conclusion should be clear,  David killed Goliath. Incidentally David picked up five smooth stones from the brook, Goliath plus the four giants mentioned in first Chronicles make five. One stone for each giant.

Part of the confusion arises because many verses in 1 Samuel 17-19 appears contradictory and out of chronological order. The Masoretic Text (MT) appears to be juxtaposition of two separate accounts of the event. Both accounts cover the same event but with differing details. As a result, when the two versions were joined, the combined text displayed a certain amount of redundancy and inconsistency. Much of the inconsistencies can be resolved by reading the Septuagint (LXX) account which is over 1,000 years older than the MT and 44% smaller.