One evening I invite you to have dinner with our family. During the meal we enjoy a lively conversation about the reliability of the Bible. You, as a Christian, argue that the Holy Bible is the Word of God, and therefore is inerrant, believing it is infallible, true in every respect.
When I point out to you a handful of conflicts and contradictions in the Old and New Testaments, you agree that I make good points, but that such errors are small and should not be a problem. You offer that some day these discrepancies will be made clear to all believers, but in the meantime we must trust these books as absolute “Truth”.
After dinner we adjourn to the family room to continue our conversation. Some time later, my wife offers a dessert of warm brownies topped with whipped cream. With a big grin, you gladly accept.
Just as you begin to take your first bite, my wife interjects, “Oh, by the way,” says she, “When I was mixing the batter I stepped away, and when I returned a mouse jumped out of the bowl. I’m not sure, but he may have pooped in the batter. But don’t worry–mouse poop is very small and is the same color as these brownies so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
What would be your reaction? You probably would not waste time trying to comb through the brownie to pick out any mouse turds. No. The rational response would be to immediately spit out the mouthful of brownie in disgust and relegate the entire batch to the garbage!
You apply common sense to every other aspect of your life, yet you are willing to consume a book full of historical errors, discrepancies and contradictions–biblical mouse poop–not allowing them to spoil your belief in the “Truth” of the Bible. Irrational.
Such scatalogical conflicts and contradictions should spoil the truth of any document, whether an historical record, news item or legal testimony, especially one purported to be the infallible Word of God.
Consuming scriptures knowing they are tainted with errors is like happily consuming brownies knowing they tainted with poop. Any reasonable person would throw out the entire book.
(See also my essay Are the Gospels Historical?)