The Bible Handbook [Paperback]

G. W. Foote (Author), W. P. Ball (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1986

This 19th-century classic of free-thinking Bible criticism has been expanded to include several modern critiques of the Judaeo-Christian scriptures. Both "Testaments" are mined for contradictions, absurdities, atrocities, unfulfilled prophecies, broken promises, immoralities, indecencies, and obscenities.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The King James Version has never been so much fun to study! If you are armed with this handy handbook, no Bible-thumping missionary will ever be safe on your doorstep again.

About the Author

Author biography: G. W. Foote and W. P. Ball were famous English "Infidel" scholars of the late 19th century. Foote was imprisoned for the victimless crime of blasphemy. John Bowden is a modern Australian Atheist author of biblical criticism, and Richard M. Smith is an American Atheist author of various works critical of religion. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, author of the Foreword to the First American Edition, became "the most hated woman in America" after her successful 1963 Supreme Court decision that ruled forced prayer and Bible reading in the public schools unconstitutional. She was the founder of American Atheists Inc., a non-profit educational institution devoted to maintaining the wall of separation between state and church and to educating the public on the philosophy of Atheism. Jon Murray, her son, was the author of the Introduction to the revised edition. In 1995, Jon Murray, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and her granddaughter Robin Murray-O'Hair were brutally murdered in Texas after being abducted from the American Atheist Center in Austin.

Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: American Atheist Press; Revised edition (March 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910309264
• ISBN-13: 978-0910309264
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows that the Bible often can not tell right from wrong., October 18, 1997

By 

Peter Ungar (New Rochelle NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bible Handbook (Paperback)

Ignore the offensive Introduction by Jon Murray. The bulk of the book consists of quotations in which God or his agents do evil things, among them exterminating entire populations and punishing persons for the crimes of others. Making the crucifixion of his own exemplary son the price for redeeming sinful mankind is something one might expect from a Caligula or a Nero, not a just deity.

Many factual contradictions in the Bible are also listed. The devout reader will realize that he had been conditioned to suspend all critical thinking in the course of religious activities.

I rated the book 5 stars despite of the fact that it could be improved by deleting much of it, because there is no other book like it.

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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bible Refutes Itself, January 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bible Handbook (Paperback)

This book contains all the contradictions, absurdities and atrocities in the Christian Bible. The introduction is a lame piece of writing, and the book contains a lot of repetition, but there's no better way to prepare for a debate with a Christian. This book is a one-stop Bible buster.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Standard biblical errancy reference, April 19, 2001

By 

M. A. Plus "Advanced Atheist" (Mayer, Arizona) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bible Handbook (Paperback)

This book raises most of the right issues about the reliability of the Bible, especially regarding the problems surrounding the teaching and character of Jesus. Their comments on the fig tree story in Mark 11 are especially incisive. (I would add that Jesus could have miraculously made the fig tree produce fruit out of season, if he wanted figs that badly. And if the tree was someone's property, he committed an act of vandalism by killing it!)

The chapter that hasn't worn well, however, is the one where Foote and Ball describe all of what they considered "obscenities" in the Bible. Perhaps to their Victorian sensibilities (the book was originally published circa 1900 CE), descriptions of circumcisions, menstruation taboos, "goings in unto the harlot," and so forth were unseemly, but as a 21st Century CE Materialist I don't find them particularly offensive. The Old Testament writers are generally quite frank about the animal substrate in human nature, which New Testament writers try to ignore or "spiritualize" away as they were under the influence of Greek philosophical dualism. Not all Greek-inspired writers were that reticent to acknowledge the biological facts of human existence, however: The Roman Epicurean, Lucretius, is quite as open about bodily functions in his poem _De Rerum Natura_ as many of the Old Testament writers are.

No, I'm not offended by the Bible's acknowledgement of our animality. It just supports the Materialist position that we are products of this world, and not visitors from some "higher plane." The passages which offended Foote and Ball may be in bad taste, or present examples of conduct which wouldn't be wise to emulate, but I don't consider them specimens of biblical errancy per se.

Still, this book is a worthwhile addition to the skeptic's library, despited the compilers' outdated attitudes.