Hey there. My girlfriend got me a Bible for Christmas as a present and I have started reading the old testament.

I have a few questions to ask (and will have more to come). I want serious answers only please (most probably from theists).

And just to make it clear: I'm an atheist reading the Bible out of pure curiosity.

Here we go:

1- Genesis 6:3 I understand that we could argue that anyone dying before 120 has died prematurely for whatever reason but how could we explain that some have lived longer than 120 years old ? Maybe I'm not getting it right but it sounds like we should live at maximum 120 years if taken literaly.

2- Genesis 11:7 to 9 Why would God decide to separate the people from Babel ? It seems to me that the tower of Babel would have been good (or at least not bad at all).

Many thanks in advance.

From the time God stated that to the time of the flood was 120 years...this was not a reference to the age of a person, but to time until the flood.

God had commanded man to go out and spread out. Cover the earth. But man decided it would be best to clump together and build a huge tower. Even though they say it was to honor God, if they wanted to honor God then they would have done what God wanted them to do.

Good questions and thank you for them.

God constantly wants us to do something, he created us for purpose of slavery?

where do you get this from?

Yeah I was thinking the same thing, show your ****ing work man.

Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

This can't be saying: "No one will ever live more than 120 years, without exception, period," because Noah went way longer than that. It could just mean this was the typical maximum lifespan in those days. Or maybe it means the flood which wiped out most of mankind would occur 120 years later, as Brother Jerry mentioned. Both interpretations fit the text.

Yeah, you still haven't explained this. How exactly does this show that the flood would occur 120 years later? Are you reading the same genesis that says god created everything in 7 days?

It's called context. And it is very important when looking at the Bible.

Genesis 6:1-7
1 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,
2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

now the first couple of verses we are speaking of man as the race of mankind. And even after verse 3 we are speaking of mankind and not an individual man. There would not be a shift in the context of which is being spoken of. Also at the time of the flood, Noah was 600 years old, so man is obviously not restricted to that 120 years of age.

Some other conclusions being that we see Noah had his 3 sons at age 500. 100 years before the flood. Genesis 6:8 states that Noah found favor, then later in verse 10 states that Noah became father of 3 sons, which would fit in that if the 120 years is the time frame, that would put Noah at 480 when God decreed that man would only have another 120 years, and Noah found favor in God's eyes. Then 20 years later, Noah had 3 sons.

It obviously would take some time to build an ark as well. But we know that from the time Noah had his 3 sons to the time he was instructed to build the ark, there were at least about 16-20 years of time to go by. Because Noah is said to have had 3 sons there in verse 10, but then in verse 18 we see the 3 son's with their 3 wives. But no grandchildren yet.

The only logical conclusion to make through study for verse 3 is to conclude that the 120 years was from the time God made the statement to the time of the flood.

Interesting, he "intelligently designs" us, knows in advance what will happen( since he is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent and has his plan), and then gets in a rage cause people don't behave well (obviously failed design-how could he also not predict this, and if he did then why would he create us while knowing that this will happen) and kills 99.9999% of all humans and animals( not sure what the animals have done to him...)

worst story ever written...

he's a monster.. That god is a monster, m-m-m-monster.... lalalalala lol

I have one question? Who gives someone a free bible for for Xmas? What a jew.

In before racist ban.

I actually suggested it to her as a gift idea because I had wanted to get myself one for a bit of time.

I think we need to talk more about this:

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Sons of God? I thought he only had one?

Angels impregnating humans? Does that mean those were virgin births as well?

bunny can explain it

Wrong.

Free Will FTW

/easy game

ehhhh.. free will my ass... I create something which I know is prone to mistakes and then get in rage and destroy it and blame it for my rage? what does it have to do with the concept of free will? This term free will has been used too often as an excuse for everything by the religious side...

would love to hear his explanation, although i doubt I would accept it, his concepts are a bit contradictory to me.. just my take.. maybe I just don't understand him...

The 120 years in Genesis 6:3 could be refering to a jubilee year, which is 50 years.

120x50= 6000 years

The current year on the hebrew calendar is 5771. Some believe this is actually flawed and that the current year should be 5998 (http://www.worldslastchance.com/ is one site that thinks this).

Pretty sure there was supposed to be actual human angel sex going on.

Why God allowed for it to happen for a time... and then stopped it so late he need a flood to kill off all the offspring, who knows. If i was an all powerful God i would of just broke their free will and blinked em all into nothingness instead of breaking their free will with a flood into nothingness. But im a wuss and dont like suffering.

These sons of God (fallen angels) walked the earth so it wasnt virgin births. Not only the bible, but many other religions and cultures have documented history of "gods" walking the earth. The Romans, Greeks, ancient egypt, and the hindu religion are a few (lol yes I watch the show ancient aliens).

The reason for the flood was because God needed to wipe out these Nephilim because it was satan trying to corrupt the seed of man.

Fossils of the Nephilim have been found starting in the 18th century. heres a link http://theunexplainedmysteries.com/giant-bones.html

For an all powerful being there must have been another way to just get things right without harming humans.. This is what I don't understand, GOD is almighty yet his ways of dealing with things seem so bad.

You supposedly have Satan trying to corrupt the man and instead of getting rid of SATAN he wipes out 99.99% of life and leaves Satan unharmed.. this lacks any logic...

Adam was given the authority of this dimension (Earth). When he bought into the lie of satan...satan then took the authority. Because God's Word never changes He can only do so much until the 6000 years is over.

In Daniel 10, Daniel is fasting for 21 days because he is waiting for an answer from God. On the twenty first an angel appeared to him and said....

Daniel 10:13- But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.

This is also an explanation of why some prayers may not be answered immed. The "prince of the air" (another name for satan in the bible) is blocking them from being answered.

huh? why would a 3 O's being have limitations on what can he do and what he can't , that's just makes no sense...

Just wrong. Think through this again.

God's holy word: clear as mud. It takes a committee, with a concensus yet to be reached, to try and figure out what he meant by "120 years".

I don't see anything wrong with my line..

If I create something while knowing in advance that this design will fail and when this design actually fails there is no need for me to get angry at the failed design, I`m the only one to be blamed since I knew in advance this is all going to be one big failure...