TYPES OF OBJECTIONS TO THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

 There are FOUR basic types of objections to the inspiration of the Bible:

Most of the objections I have against the Bible, perhaps all of them, can be categorized into one of the four quadrants in the above diagram. FACTS refers to factual claims and issues, such as scientific or historical claims and issues. VALUES refers to evaluative claims and issues, such as moral claims and issues, and claims and issues concerning non-moral values or non-moral norms. TRUTH refers to evaluation of a claim in terms of whether it is true or false, probable or improbable. LOGIC refers to comparison of two claims to determine whether the claims are logically compatible or logically contradictory.

Type I objections to the Bible assert that some factual claim or assumption or implication of the Bible is false or dubious. Type II objections to the Bible assert that some evaluative claim or assumption or implication of the Bible is false or dubious. Type III objections to the Bible assert that two factual claims or assumptions or implications of the Bible contradict each other. Type IV objections to the Bible assert that two evaluative claims or assumptions or implications of the Bible contradict each other.

I believe that the Bible contains a number of errors of all four types of error. If the Bible contains just one error of one of these four types, then that is a significant reason to doubt the divine inspiration of the Bible, because God, if God exists is perfectly good (and thus perfectly honest and truthful) and omniscient (and thus has no false or mistaken beliefs or values). If the Bible was inspired by God, then it should not contain ANY of the four types of errors that I have outlined above. So, if I am correct that the Bible contains several examples of each of the four types of error, then we have very good reason to reject the view that the Bible was inspired by God.

There are at least 10 different sorts of objections that can be made against the view that the Bible was inspired by God:

I. The Bible asserts factual claim X, but X is false or dubious.

A. The Bible asserts a scientific claim X, but claim X is false or dubious.

B. The Bible asserts an historical claim X, but claim X is false or dubious.

C. The Bible asserts a theological claim X, but claim X is false or dubious.

II. The Bible asserts evaluative claim Y, but Y is false or dubious.

A. The Bible asserts a moral claim Y, but Y is false or dubious.

B. The Bible asserts a non-moral value claim Y, but Y is false or dubious.

III. The Bible asserts factual claim Q and factual claim R, but Q contradicts R.

A. The Bible asserts a scientific claim Q and a scientific claim R, but Q contradicts R.

B. The Bible asserts an historical claim Q and an historical claim R, but Q contradicts R.

C. The Bible asserts a theological claim Q and a theological claim R, but Q contradicts R.

IV. The Bible asserts evaluative claim S and evaluative claim T, but S contradicts T.

A. The Bible asserts a moral claim S and a moral claim T, but S contradicts T.

B. The Bible asserts a non-moral evaluative claim S and a non-moral evaluative claim T, but S contradicts T.