u/Helliar1337

Hi everyone! As a huge fan of Alex, and someone who's recently started a Substack on rational/secular/academic approach to the Bible, I've written an article and put together a side-by-side of Matthew and Luke's genealogies. Different fathers for Joseph, different generation counts, barely any overlapping names, and Matthew even does a trivial math error.

Alex has covered plenty of biblical contradictions, but this one rarely comes up, and it's harder to explain away than most. The usual apologetics (one's Mary's line, one's Joseph's) don't work, as usual.

Anyone else think this deserves more attention than it gets?

Hi everyone, long-time lurker here. Wanted to share something I've been digging into: the contradictory genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke. Different fathers for Joseph, different generation counts, different names almost the whole way down, and Matthew even does a trivial math error.

Put them side by side (pic attached) and wrote a longer breakdown here: https://thelightward.substack.com/p/jesuss-genealogies-are-contradictory

The usual counterargument that one genealogy is Mary's is false, because both authors plainly write Joseph. The other argument that one genealogy is based on "legal" line of Joseph also doesn't hold water, since there is no evidence for that.

Curious what others think about this.

I've compiled several contradictory statements made by apparently the same God (as believers would want people to believe) from the OT and Jesus:

• “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” - Yahweh (Numbers 15:35)
• “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” - Jesus (John 8:7)
• “Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people.” - Yahweh (Deuteronomy 13:8-9)
• “Love your neighbor as yourself.” - Jesus (Matthew 22:39)
• [Uzzah reached out and took hold of the Ark of the Covenant, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord killed Uzzah because of his impudent act.] - 2 Samuel 6:7
• “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” - Jesus (Matthew 5:39)

As an atheist, it has always bothered me how people treat it as one coherent book with one God who is apparently all-loving throughout. But this is not the case: the Bible is not one book, but a collection of around 70 books, written by different authors in different historical periods with different ideas in mind.

I've written an article on the fact that the Bible is not one book with consistency, in case you are interested. https://thelightward.substack.com/p/the-greatest-misconception-about

Hi everyone! I've been researching ancient flood myths for an article and put together this comparison table. You can see here how the flood story from ancient Sumer evolved through centuries before becoming the well-known narrative of Noah in the Bible. The similarities are pretty obvious.

Full analysis here if anyone's interested: https://thelightward.substack.com/p/is-noahs-ark-a-recycled-mesopotamian