How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

Based on a plain reading of these Bible verses, a critic will argue that God doesn’t want us to eat shrimp or lobster. God hates shrimp! When you say it this way, it sounds foolish and silly. This is one of many verses pulled from the Bible (often Old Testament laws) and used to degrade the credibility of the Bible in general. Verses like this are used to argue that Christians don’t know their Bibles and the crazy things the Bible says (which often is true). Or they are used to illustrate how Christians pick and choose the Bible verses they like to back their political or ethical opinions while ignoring other Bible verses (like these).