does or does not exist is posed immediately and stated as such: “The Bible is either the word of God, or it isn’t. Either Jesus offers humanity the one, true path to salvation (John 14:6), or he does not.”(Harris 3) This is the fundamental idea of atheism in its purest form.
With this fundamental idea comes many arguments against Christianity. The most important of which is the contradictions that the Bible holds. The Bible is the divine text that discusses the life of Jesus and outlines the beliefs of all modern Christians. Atheists do not acknowledge the Bible to be a divine work at all; rather, they just see it as the basis for all the misguided believers of the Christian faith. They argue that the word of God contradicts itself many times throughout the Bible. Jesus preaches to be kind to one’s neighbor, but only if one’s neighbor is a Christian. Now that is not right out of the Bible, but this is: “If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:6)” (Harris 13) Translate that into however many different languages you would like to, but in the end you will find that it is not a message of peace at all. This is just one example of the contradictions that make up the Bible.
Another contradiction can be seen very clearly in the midst of that one, and that is the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments play a major role in setting the moral ground for Christian believers. Christians live their entire lives based on these values, but at the root of these ‘rules’ in which they live by is a major contradiction. In the Bible it is stated multiple times that those who do not follow the word of God shall be exiled, or stoned to death. At the