"When I was a Christian, I never read the Bible..." Interesting, but let me say this...if you were a Christian at one point, you would still be a Christian. I find it fascinating when I run into "ex-Christians" who KNOW that they were Christians; KNOW that they believed in God; KNOW that they believed the Bible, etc., etc., but NOW they KNOW that God does not exist; they KNOW that the Bible is wrong; they KNOW that what they once had, they no longer have. There is one problem with that mindset. It's as if they are saying "I USED to be married and I LOVED the person I was married to. I KNOW I was married at one point, but not only am I NOT married any longer, but that person that I was married to NEVER existed." Look, the Dead Sea Scrolls have proven beyond doubt that the manuscripts that existed prior to finding them had absolutely NO difference in theological meaning. The other day, I was on a Muslim-related website and they boasted "101 Contradictions in the Bible" and the plain fact of the matter is ALL of their 101 contradictions were NOT contradictions. Not ONE of them, as they were easily explained. In one example, they cited one gospel that told where Judas kissed Jesus and then they cited another gospel where THEY said that Judas didn't kiss Jesus because he could not get close enough. The truth of the matter is that in John's gospel, he simply says "Judas was standing there." and he makes no mention of whether Judas did or did not kiss Judas in betrayal. Another example they pointed out was when Christ cursed the fig tree and it "withered immediately" in one gospel and in another, the narrative explains that the next day, they saw the withered fig tree, leading the Muslims on that website to say "See? It took 24 hours for the fig tree to wither - a contradiction!" No, there is NO contradiction because all the second text says is essentially that they saw the fig tree the next day and it was withered. The text does NOT say that it TOOK 24 hours to wither, in contrast with the other passage that said it withered right away. There is no contradiction. Most seeming contradictions occur because people are so unfamiliar with Jewish culture, it's pitiful. Or, they are completely unaware of how Jerusalem looked during the time of Christ. In one place in the gospel, it talks about a man going through a specific gate in the city. In a corresponding gospel, it talks about the same man but says he went through a different gate in the city. Which one is right? They are BOTH right, because one narrative talks about the man as he entered the city and the other narrative talks about the same man as he exited through a different gate into another part of the city. There is NO contradiction. The Bible was written by over 40 human authors, over a period of over 1600 years. Any actual discrepancies can easily be chalked up to a Scribal error, but there are no contradictions within Scripture that cannot be explained. Certainly there are no contradictions when it comes to doctrine. You seem to be completely misunderstanding the purpose for the Bible. I'd love to talk to you about it sometime, if you're interested, but I really wonder if you are at the point where you only want to hear what you want to hear? Everything you've stated in your article has an explanation. Those "footnotes which explain away difficulties" are put there for the purpose of providing additional explanation so that the reader will understand the CONTEXT in which the narrative was written. Tell me please...do you understand Judaism? Do you understand the culture, times and language that was used to write the Bible? Do you understand all of the Jewish idioms and figures of speech used in the biblical record? It appears as though you do not, but if you did, you would have a far greater understanding of Scripture. You said you never read the Bible when you were a Christian. It now seems as though you have at least read parts of it, but it also sounds like you are reading it in a vacuum. Do you do that with any other work of antiquity? Probably not. If you've ever read Shakespeare, you probably try to find out what certain words meant when Shakespeare used them (not what they mean today). You probably have tried to find out more about the time in which Shakespeare lived, because it gives you a greater understanding of his written work. Yet, with the Bible, we think we can just pop open its pages and VOILA! It's not that easy. It requires a good deal of study - word study, commentaries, reference material - all of it in order to more fully comprehend what is happening. Well, I wish you the best and I hope you have not given up completely, but if it is true that you were a Christian - believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you were also sealed unto the day of redemption. If you only PLAYED church, and thought you were a Christian, that's another story altogether. Regards,