What the "Infographic of the Day: What The Bible Got Wrong" Got Wrong

On the 11th of November the fastcompany's website put up an infographic from project reason that was made in 2009. According to fastcompany's about us page they "set the agenda, charting the evolution of business through a unique focus on the most creative individuals sparking change in the marketplace. By uncovering best and "next" practices, the magazine and website help a new breed of leader work smarter and more effectively." So clearly the topic of the Bible falls into their brief...

The same day fastcompany's post went up the Resurgence highlighted it and the next day Doug Wilison responded to two random contradictions and found them wanting. Today the Resurgence have highlighted another image that looks a bit like the image of the 439 contradictions in the Bible, only this is showing the 63,779 cross-references found in the Bible. That epic image can be downloaded in full here and I am pretty sure came out before 2009... is someone copying?

Check out the contradictions in point 7 and 9

Anyway the fastcompany's article says this image (the contradiction one, not the cross reference one) manages to make the ancient text "look downright silly" and that "the guy who compiled the data, cites 439 -- 439! -- questions the Bible equivocates on, often in several places." The amusing thing about the article is that in their own zoomed in image of the list of contradictions you can clearly see that point 7 and 9 are exactly the same. I wonder if this makes the article look downright silly? But it should also be noted that points 263 is the same as 264 and point 323 is the same as 324 (both are right next to each other). So really it should be 436 contradictions found (view the full size pdf to check)... Have fastcompany uncovered the best and "next" practice for smarter fact checking.... maybe for the Christians who looked at the details of the image they wrote about....

Since Doug Wilison looked at two contradictions, I might have a look at four two. I'm thinking point 7 (and 9) and point 323 (and 324) to test my faith in the consistency of the Bible. As Matt Perman has pointed out, when he was in college he saw that already every single "contradiction" had an answer. After all, the Christian religion has been around for some time now... (Although I do wonder if the contradictions that Doug found have been written about before as they seem pretty unique and might even stretch the meaning of contradiction).