Why I Don't Trust the Bible 

Alex I'm warning you, if you keep posting and posting these excerpts of the debate against Dinesh I'll just continue watching them and you can't stop me mate. You've been warned.

*Larry Burkett's book on "Giving and Tithing" drew me closer to God and helped my spirituality. 2020 was a year I literally lived it. I cashed in my life savings and gave it all away. My total giving amounted to 40,000 dollars. Everyone thought I was delusional. Today, 1 receive 85,000 dollars every two months. I have a property in Calabasas, CA, and travel a lot. God has promoted me more than once and opened doors for me to live beyond my dreams. God kept to his promises to and for me*

You made this man retire lol

Dinesh created the concept of fallacy

If the tribal war god doesn’t condone slavery why was Alex permitted to own this poor fellow

Keep seeing clips from the debate. As a Christian I find it super cringe and hard to watch. Dinesh is awful and hits all the terrible talking points. Alex asked fantastic questions.

“They get to go fr- No sorry, hold on.. You may take these as plunder for yourselves, yes that’s right.” AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA ALEX THE GOAT 🐐🔥

The problem with this debate: One side is searching for truth and knowledge. The other is a criminally convicted grifter who cares for nothing orher than his own notoriety.

Watching this back and seeing Dinesh taking notes during this opening argument, only to say Alex being British is suspicious and not respond to ONE thing Alex has said, is too funny 😂

You wrecked him from every perspective of "truth"

As a Christian, I'd rather have Alex defending the faith than a lot of others

You destroyed him with your superhuman British accent.

Didn't know that youtube allowed you to post murder clips but Alex has somehow been able to post dozens from this debate with Dinesh.

Im a Christain but stuff like this really makes me think

Classic 'best way to become an atheist is to learn about religion'

Man, I rewatched your debate a couple of times. Mostly to study closely how you debate, for it is fascinating, lots to learn from.

I came here for the video, I stayed for the comments.

You anticipated all avenues of attack and shut them down before they could be used. Poor Dinesh.

3:50 LOL! I can see why everyone is calling you the new Hitchens. Cheeky fellow.

Dinesh sat there thinking "Damn, why did I agree to this?"

This is why debates tend to fall short, each writing notes to prepare to respond rather than listening to the argument. Like many failed marital relationships.

It's crazy you opened the debate by allowing Dinesh to define the type of biblical truth he wanted to argue for and then his reply was to say it's suspicious you're British.

Facts dont care about feelings. And faith doesn't care about facts.

In the end Dinesh is just a less articulate Jordan Peterson. They make the same arguments but Peterson is way better at evading and obfuscating. Coincidentially both work for the Daily Wire

That was GLORIOUS, @CosmicSkeptic!!!

That Matthew & Luke part at 7:26 is why metaphors are not good enough

Alex, you are restoring my faith in humanity.

'What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.' ~ Hitchens

I love how you express yourself. Its so elegant especially in the opening statement. Id like to see some content discussing rethoric or how you got to this point.

I came here for the comments, I stayed here for the comments.

"Why I don't trust the bible" The bible has in it incredibly powerful intuitions that only the god of the universe would know. It has the partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical systems and the coupled partial differential equation that show how fluctuations in electromagnetic fields propagate at a constant speed in vacuum. Oh wait. It has none of that. Instead it has nothing even close that would hint that the writers had some divine insight into the mind of god.

Alex am very happy that l found your videos when l was much younger. your dabets are now days so interesting!

Any book written by anyone claiming to be the word for a supreme being will always be automatically questionable.

Been and Atheist since 12th April 1981, when I saw Columbia take off, from Florida, on TV here in the UK. I'm now 55. Nothing has changed my views on religion, stories and myths ever since. The total nonsense people are told about, a Deity above

The Bible: the word of god, written by everyone except god 😂

Great points raised, would love to hear a rebuttal

Would so love to see conversations between you and more substantial representatives of Biblical scholarship like Dr. Tim Mackie of The Bible Project or Dr. N.T. Wright! As a follower of Jesus, I always appreciate your evident thoughtfulness and genuine care for the subject, as well as your consistently sharp insight!

I think back to when I told friends that I was agnostic and why; now I watch Alex and realize the way I explained myself probably sounded like a 7 year old. Alex is amazing with his sharp mind and eloquence. I love that we have RU-vid so that I can be exposed to all his debates.

Based upon the performance, preparedness, and patience of Alex O’Connor in his debates, he appears to be a formidable opponent. Dinesh D’Souza did the best a man could possibly do. The things he mentioned in the debate are things most teenagers born in a Roman Catholic family would say. This is because they simply accept what their church fathers say. The church fathers get away with saying anything because nobody in the church will ever question or counter the church father. Dinesh D’Souza also typically speaks to his own coterie of audience. In other words, just like the church fathers, Dinesh D’Souza has traditionally been preaching to the choir. Could anyone else have done better in place of Dinesh D’Souza? I highly doubt it. It is very difficult to defend a position that the god of NT is the same as the god of OT. Most people don’t question this because they seek safety in numbers, do not want to be isolated, and would not take a contrarian position to what is generally perceived as the _kata holicos,_ or opinion of everybody, except that ‘everybody’ is typically a small group. Here is a hypothetical situation. - Make a team of three people, with the following members: (1) Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, (2) Pope of the Vatican, (3) the top individual from the biggest of the Protestant churches. - Now pit this team against Alex O’Connor. Chances are, Alex O’Connor would still win. If the debate drags on for a long time over several days, then chances are, the three members in the team, instead of fighting Alex O’Connor, would start fighting each other, and might even end up anathemizing each other.

Those are very interesting questions that I asked myself many times when dealing with my own doubts when I was still a christian, but in the end they only touch the surface of the problem of trust in the Bible. In my opinion the most important questions one needs to ask about texts that state themselves to be divine is their origin, composition and what makes them actually different from any other text that claims to be divine, or other texts period. Simply those 3 points demonstrate that to trust in the bible, just as in any other "sacred" text you have to accept that humans just like you and me were creating something which clearly is full of their own mistakes and problems without any input from themselves (creativity, lies, exaggeration, bias, preconcepts, racism, etc). There is simply no text on earth that doesn't share those same characteristics and as such there is no text on earth that should be taken as truth (or trusthworthiness) without first being modest about itself (like a scientific paper) and demonstrating it has standards and not claiming to be divine in the first place. I would say that first and foremost any text that claims to be divine to prove it's own worthiness already failed to be a divine text.

This is the biggest cliffhanger I’ve ever seen 😅

Props to Dinesh for taking on this debate as it’s way harder to defend the Bible than some vague notion of god. Too bad he didn’t come as prepared as Alex.

Before Reading the Bible I was an Agonistic person but after reading the Bible I became an Atheist.

Great opening statement especially considering Mr. Bad faith actor insisted on you going first to, idk, defend your withholding of belief?

Ive brought all of this up with my father in law who is a Lutheran pastor and he simply doesn't seem to care, he just says he knows Jesus loves him and he has faith and wouldn't want to live in a world without Jesus's love. He also said to me and i quote "you need things to make sense before you believe them"

Dinesh had to resort to making fun of your accent. His opening position was an ad hominem lol

Anyone know the name of the news website Alex has mentioned as being a sponsor of some of his content? I'm trawling through videos unable to find any mention of it now! Thanks in advance.

Was this debate before or after the release of Dinesh’s magnum opus 2000 Mules?

Glad we have this debate for days when we feel low , like religion is destroying the world , we can spend a couple hours watching comedy relief

1) The problem with the "Adam and Eve don't die right away" argument is that it presupposes that Adam and Eve were created intrinsically immortal rather than dependent on the Tree of Life for their immortality. In the book of Revelation, we're told that the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem will eat from the Tree of Life perpetually, implying that this is necessary for their continued existence. But in the metaphorical sense, the Tree of Life is *connection with God* -- as Jesus says, "This is eternal life -- to know you, the true God." What God is saying to Adam and Eve, then, is that when they corrupt themselves by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil -- which is an ordinary tree, by the way; it is only God's command to Adam and Eve that they not eat of it that makes it special, and their fall is brought about entirely by the self-corruption required of them to reject God's morality and establish their own (thus acquiring "their own" knowledge of good and evil, which the Bible is constantly admonishing man to reject in favor of God's knowledge) -- they will be denied access to that intimate connection with God because they have disobeyed and offended him. And because you cannot have eternal life without that connection with God, they will have in effect caused themselves to die in that day, though the effect would not take hold for a long time (the same way if you drink a poison that has no antidote, you have killed yourself that very day, even if the poison takes a number of days to kill you). 2) In a book that says God flooded the whole world to destroy all of humanity except for one family because the rest of the world was corrupt beyond belief, it's hardly rational to take issue with God's commanding the Israelites to annihilate a particular population of humanity because they were corrupt beyond belief, especially when the point of God's choosing the Israelites was to make them demonstrate both his love of righteousness and his hatred of sin toward the world. The Bible doesn't put human life on a pedestal as if it is always right to leave alive those who will do nothing but bring further degradation to the world. That's why the Old Testament has not only the death penalty on an individual level but also on a corporate level. You can have a group of people who, by way of culture and beliefs, are so corrupt that it is entirely possible that what's best for the world is their eradication. Only God, however, has the power to make that judgment -- and in the cases mentioned here, God does make that explicit judgment, and orders the Israelites to carry it out as the carriers of his will to the world. 3) Slavery isn't advocated in the Old Testament so much as regulated. Slavery was simply a fact of human life in both Old and New Testament times. (It's a fact of human life today, actually -- the difference is that today more people object to it than not.) In olden times, the captives of war often had two options: slavery or death -- take slavery off the table, and what, in those times, did you have left to offer? Freedom to reorganize and come back and fight again? Moreover, slavery was often used as a way to pay off debts or avoid starving. In a world that had yet to invent the concept of bankruptcy law or establish widespread social welfare systems, slavery was how some people avoided imprisonment or death. Horrible as it is to be without freedom, it is a Western conceit to think that slavery is the worst thing that can be imposed on a person. (From a New Testament perspective, it must also be remembered that God never intended the Old Testament theocratic system of government to be a permanent system, just one best suited to the time in which it existed.) 4) There are those who argue that the Gospel contradictions are actually positive evidence for the authenticity of the Gospels -- e.g., "If there were no contradictions, what you'd have is a single eyewitness account told four different ways, but instead what you have is four eyewitness accounts, which is even better evidence." And even as far back as Origen in the third century A.D. we have arguments from esteemed Christian luminaries that John's Gospel cannot possibly be a rote historical account of, but is rather an allegorical spin on, Jesus' earthly ministry. So very early on in Christianity the "truth" of the Gospels was thought by some Christians to mean the essential truths God intended to be communicated, not "truth" at the standard of 100% historicity or literal correctness.

The lighting is out of this world 😍

I see and understand the title but it would have been reasonable and nice to hear the response to the questions from the man you are debating.

Lv 1 Christian crook vs lv 100 Atheist boss 💀💀💀 (edit: I am a theist, but Dinesh is grasping at straws throughout this, and is losing theologically to an atheist.... Really just a very weak attempt from somebody who's unqualified to even be a representative... He's almost there to make it look bad..)

Dinesh has the face of every person who hasn't read the bible being read the bible...bewilderment.

No clips from this debate on Dineshs RU-vid. Can't imagine why.

Is the full debate anywhere?

Loved Alex's last sentence or two, inviting D'Souza to joust. He was like a sentient shark, twitching his tail at the anticipation of blood in the water.

Pageau just released a video responding to the immediate death part

only because you win a debate doesn't say necessarly that you are right imagine you convince someone/all of a wrong solution of a mathematical equation

Brilliantly said Alex. A perfectly short collection of issues that are often neglected by believers.

You made a great statement I’m looking into these statements You’re very good at expressing yourself and I admire your vocabulary and pauses I’m a cristian your words don’t shake my faith Keep up the good work 🎉

Alex, Have you read 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline? After reading this you’ll probably want to interview Mr. Cline.

You may not see this comment among the thousands, but I wanted to say, I've been watching your content since your university desk held only a dozen or two books. 7 years I've been watching. I have always enjoyed your content and am impressed and proud of where you've taken your channel and life. Well done.

Could the word no been in abbreviation for a specific type of staff?

christians have built up their god, messiah, and themselves as morally righteous people yet when push comes to shove, they act as most ordinary pagans would act

Alex, it’s quite incredible, you’re literally asking some of the questions I asked my church leaders, verbatim. Especially some of the more specific messianic prophecies in early Matthew concerning Jesus’ birth place. Getting in touch if you want to know some real corkers in terms of discrepancies between Gospel Accounts.

Noticed you didn’t post the response, why is that?

Ya, the fact that Dinesh was getting cooked on these low tier arguments really says a lot. You should debate Jay Dyer instead.

The Gospels are great fan fiction about a Jewish Apocalyptic that really wanted God to punish Rome…and then Rome co-opted the movement and made it into a church. Starts to sing isn’t ironic…don’t ya think.

Dinesh promoting Christianity is so funny to me considering the whole history of Christianity in India.

By the end of that, i'm guessing Dinesh was feeling just a tad bit worried.

Alex is SOOOO right! The Bible can be so illogical.

Don’t ya know Alex, God gave you an intrinsic moral compass, but you’re supposed to ignore that compass if it disagrees with God claims? Makes perfect sense

“Take your pick”… Alex, you really are developing your own personal style ❤

Alex, I really appreciate your sincerity in searching for truth. One analogy came to me regarding your view of the Christian faith. It relates to sport. Choose a sport such as football. There are two types of people who see the exact same thing - men running around kicking a ball. One person can’t see what the fuss is all about. The other joins tens of thousand in the stadium cheering and loves every minute of it.

It's a book of fiction. If you try making it real, it falls apart. Stop making it so difficult.

If you watch closely you can actually watch the case of adult diapers Dinesh went through in this clip alone. Quite amazing really….

Listing all the pros and cons of the potential rabbit-holes and saying "...take your pick" is one hell of a daunting opener

This video makes me feel like I did as a young atheist in 2010 watching Christopher Hitchens debates on RU-vid.

Alex is Hitchens reborn.

Why would an omnipotent, all-wise God choose to pass on essential inforrmation using something as nebulous and problematic as LITERATURE. Consider all the problems we have with copying (not always accurate), translation (often a matter of opinion), distribution (incredibly time-consuming before electronic communication), literacy (before the 20th century, most people were illiterate), and, of course, interpretation (very much dependent on politics). God could have avoided all these issues by simply downloading all this information directly into our brains in a form we would each understand perfectly. He is, after all, omnipotent.

Absolutely dismantled.

I don't know if you read the comments but if you do, you definitely should have a talk with Douglas Murray. Both of you seem to possess an excellent ability at rhetoric. Which in my mind would make for a thoroughly entertaining video. Just a suggestion my friend.

I also find it fascinating that as smart as Ben Shapiro is he allows himself to be twisted in pretzels trying to defend this stuff. I find that most conservatives have basic common sense and are very intelligent, but for some reason many of them still believe in the Supernatural

3 views but 12 likes.... it's as magic as the magic book... But i live Alex. The Years live watch him grow... it really feels like a community. I DO wish he hasn't quite so diplomatic though. Hopefully in the future, he'll be less reticent to just call someone a liar or snake oil salesman

Defending the concept of a creator is where religions usually do well in deabtes cos you got some good philiosiphical arguments. Defending the texts is usually a horror show. Theres so much to attack.

8:49 - Great point.

If god has a plan for us, doesn't that mean that our futures are set and we have no free will? God has plan for you and he knows what is going to happen in your life because he planned it that way. Who would want to worship a god that condemns you for what he made you do? No one ever said religious people were smart.

If I may speak on behalf of humanity, thank you Alex for spending your precious time intelligently rationalising and reasoning people out of religion. Old myths and superstition is interesting history but is redundant as a world view, mainly because it most likely isn't true. The world would be a much better place without religious delusions and magical thinking.

as a Hindu (agnostic), I'm immensely thankful for these clips. I was harassed by evangelicals quite a bit who kept trying to convince me about accepting their religion. Earlier I was friends with them as they seemed nice, but they subtly tried to brainwash me and almost succeeded. In the end some just revealed their true faces as they called my culture as "demonic". It took me a while to realize that this is a form of gaslighting and now if some old sweet christian lady comes to talk to me I just avoid or make it clear that I'm not accepting your religion. I was being pushed into a cult and I got out before the damage was done. On the side note, the guy you are debating has Indian roots so a high possibility at one time his ancestors might have been Hindu too.

Hey Alex, can you make a case for the free will of God? Or for any agent at all?

I trust the bible... I trust that it will hold the door open when I use it as a door wedge.

While Alex was making his opening statement, Dinesh, jealous of Alex’s British accent, like the jealous god Yahweh, was concocting his _ad hominem_ against Alex’s accent. 😂

You should read the Buddhist holy text, the Majhima Nikaya, and tell us what you think of it, that would be really cool.

Well articulated as always! But for a moment I thought Alex was going in a different direction when he began with the Adam and Eve story. I personally think that a book that in its very first chapters warns its readers against thinking by themselves by punishing the main characters for not staying ignorant is a huge red flag and should not inspire trust.

Oki doki

I'm no scholar but a simple Christian believer. I don't understand it all but I do trust the truthfulness of Jesus' words. Study is good but unfortunately we are not infallible. I believe Jesus' teachings point to the ultimate meaning of life. I think that Jesus' teachings are good explanations for the purpose of life. I try to be always open-minded and listen carefully. So I appreciate and respect the views of others. Peace to all of you.

You should ask Jack Hibbs the same questions. I'd love to hear his answers.

It is incredible to see you debate this man after watching Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens debate this man for years. Thank you for doing this.

An atheist is unqualified to interpret scripture. Belief is based on faith and reason, which make Alex unqualified on both accounts. That is why Alex comes to such faulty, erroneous conclusions.