One other thing, how did Noah fit all those damn creatures in that boat..?? I mean considering every variation of species known today, and even those unknown, that boat must have been the size of a country if not larger, and what about the insects??? Did he actually capture 2 of every insect and put on the boat?
Genesis 6
19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
in verse 20 that it says "will come to you to be kept alive". God called all the creatures to gather at the boat. noah's job was to get them on the boat and stay there through the flood.
also, you say "I mean considering every variation of species known today"... well, not as many variations existed then. do you really think they had poodles, german shepherds, dauschunds, cocker spaniels, golden retrievers? chimps, orangutangs, and all sorts of crazy african monkeys? all the millions of kind of birds? i think "breeds"--the variations you must be talking about in such great numbers--have occured through a very long period of time of genetic mixing from the original creatures. when god wanted birds to come, i don't think he meant two of each blue jay, two of each mockingbird, two of each parrot, etc. also, it is quite possible for God to have invented other creatures after the flood without telling us...
what's to stop Him, He is God!But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Gen.2:17
VS
And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and then he died. Gen.5:5
other translations often something more like "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (NIV) so apparently, the translation you are reading does not necessarily mean literally that same 24 hour day, but as "day" in english can often mean a very long time. such as "in the day", "back in the day", does not pinpoint an exact 24 hour point in time.
Another one:
And God made the beasts 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. And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Gen.1:25-26 [Man was made after the beasts]
VS
And the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone..." 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. Gen.2:18-19 [Man was made before the beasts]
In the first verses, Gen 1:25-26, he literally *invents* the creatures, but it does not assume where they exist. I find that in Gen 2:18-19, God wanted adam to have helpers in the garden, so formed them right there and also wanted adam to discover and name them. I don't exactly see the contradiction, actually, in that God can create anything He wants at anytime.
Another ONE:
Thou shalt not kill. Exod.20:13
VS
Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, "Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor." Exod.32:27
It was God's command. Abraham loved God so much that he was going to sacrifice his own son that he and his wife had labored so hard to have, but it was God's command to do so since a sacrifice of blood had to be made. The people were not just going around killing people because they wanted to which was against the commandment laid out earlier, but they did it because they wanted to follow God and be obedient. I don't believe that God was justifying death and saying "it's ok to murder now". He had a reason, and perhaps if I studied it more I could give discover such a reason. now, i cannot tell you WHY God chose to do this. He is loving yet vengeful, and has every right to be. What I do know is that the people were being very displeasing to God at this time, worshipping false idols and doing other things regardless of the commandments previously given to them. They seemed to have no respect and continued on not caring. I think God wanted people who were willing to follow Him even at the loss of their families. There are a lot of things I don't know, but that doesn't mean it's wrong, it just means I don't know everything and never will.
There are many many contradictions in the Bible... which one could argue would be natural if they were contradicitions from say a different book of the bible, but these come from within the same book, exodus, Genesis, and so on..
basically every contradiction i have heard about is either taken out of context or taken too literally or in the wrong sense. often times people don't think about what they read too. also, when multiple translations occur, it is easy for such contradictions to exist that were not contradicting in the original language.
