I find it semi-amusing that the vast majority of people who claim the Bible "is full of contradictions, mistakes, and exaggerations" never bother to research it themselves, or study it open-mindedly.
Many people (in America) are raised Christian, and as young people often do, rebel against their parents (see: any number of social studies). One of the ways they do so is religion. They will read a book purportedly done by a famous intelligent person who rails against "the absurdities found in the Bible", look up one or two, and agree with this person because he is saying what they want to hear.
I think at least 2 people in this sub-thread just found a link to a site that supposedly compiles all the "errors" in the Scripture. I would ask you: have you even bothered to read it yourself?
I could go through the entire list and explain away every single "error" listed. Heck, anyone could that bothers to actually take some time and think about it. I'm sure I could find a link somewhere where someone has done just that. But you wouldn't bother to read that link, and could come up with any number of excuses why not.
And it wouldn't matter anyway, because even if I explained every single one of the supposed "errors" away, you would still believe that "the Bible is full of errors", because that is what you want to believe.
Contradictions: I have never found a contradiction in the Bible that would give me pause. Because one account of a battle lists one number of casualties and another account a different number, that isn't a contradiction. An "mistake" possibly, but one that is much more confined to a translation than an intrinsic flaw in Scripture.
Mistakes: In translation, I know there are some. I do not claim any English translation to be perfect. I think they're certainly good enough to read and study and live from, but for deeper theological inquires you must go back to the original translations. And even these I wouldn't claim to be perfect, except for the exact first written words. Those are perfect, exactly what God intended, letter for letter. Unfortunately those are lost. But because it is no longer letter-perfect is no reason to completely discount its validity.
Exaggerations: How many of you took literature classes? Isn't exaggeration a literary device? Isn't the Bible a literary work? I'm not claiming that it is always used as such. But yes, the Bible is a work of literature. So, no, every single word is not necessarily meant to be taken literally. But it is really not that difficult to discern the difference.
Not sure why I bothered writing all this out, it won't change anyone's mind. Believe what you want.
I don't like this QOTD, simply because religious discussions tend to irk me. Ah well.
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