A United Kingdom-based developer has created a website that purportedly demonstrates how the Bible can be used to support two contradictory views on moral issues. 

Created by developer Jon James, the "Bible Both Ways" website, which launched mid-October, gives users the chance to submit a moral or ethical question and then, according to the site's premise, generates two contradictory responses found in the pages of Scripture.

It works like any standard online search engine: type in your prompt, click the "Get Both Sides" button, and find out how, according to the site, "Scripture can be interpreted to support different perspectives on moral questions."

"The site uses AI to take the user's claim and find the strongest passages that seem to argue both for and against that claim," James told The Christian Post on Wednesday. "I tried to program this to be as open/willing/accepting to any claim, and aside from users entering gibberish, it does seem to do a decent job of responding even to topics that are beyond the pale."

For example, upon entering the prompt "Being LGBT is acceptable," Bible Both Ways cites 1 John 4:8 — "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" — in favor of the claim, with the commentary, "This verse emphasizes the fundamental nature of God as love, suggesting that acceptance and love for all individuals is central to the Christian faith."

On the other hand, for its "against the claim" argument, Bible Both Ways cites the well-known passage in 1 Corinthians 6, which states those who practice homosexuality "shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

"This passage is often cited to argue against the acceptance of [LGBT] identities, as it lists behaviors considered sinful," the site adds.

While Bible Both Ways claims to show "how Scripture can be interpreted to support different perspectives on moral questions," it often cites non-related texts to fulfill its "both ways" promise, such as with the claim "Satan is destined for hell."

By stating the claim is "supported by biblical texts that describe the eventual judgment and punishment of Satan" such as Revelation 20:10, the website plays semantics with its "against" claim, citing 1 Peter 5:8 to support its argument that such a position "can be supported by the understanding that Satan is currently active in the world and has not yet been judged."

Perhaps the most telling feature of the Bible Both Ways search engine is that it appears to acknowledge that, regardless of the subject matter, almost any query can be turned into an alleged "Bible contradiction."

One of the site's sample claims, for example, refers to Kosovo-Serbian relations, a 20th-century political topic which the Bible never explicitly or even tangentially mentions.

However, according to the Bible Both Ways site, Numbers 34:2 — an Old Testament verse which describes a commandment for the Israelites who were about to enter the land of Canaan — supports the claim that "Kosovo is part of Serbia" because of the "principle of national sovereignty as seen in biblical texts about land and inheritance."

James, who identified himself as an "agnostic atheist," said he is "absolutely" convinced the Bible contains contradictory moral claims, which he believes is the reason that the clergy exists in the first place. 

"It's those contradictions that create the need for priests, pastors and religious leaders to interpret the Bible and guide followers in that interpretation," he said. "And that interpretation will no doubt continue to evolve and change as society's morals do."

While Evangelicals largely hold the position of biblical inerrancy — that the Old and New Testaments are without error or fault in their original writings — when it comes to apparent contradictions, Christian apologetic works like Norman Geisler's When Critics Ask, Walt Kaiser's Hard Sayings of the Bible and Gleason Archer's The Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties have all offered solutions to such challenges. 

Despite his website seemingly targeting the Christian faith, James insisted that his goal wasn't to "take aim specifically at the Bible," nor is he opposed to religion itself. 

"Despite being agnostic myself, I'm not against religion. I know it brings great comfort to the lives of many people," he said, adding that despite his efforts to debunk Scripture, he's not discounting the possibility of its Author's existence.

"I am definitely open to believe — as everyone should be — but for me, the proof of existence of any God would require major evidence," James added. "I understand that isn't the point of faith, but I just couldn't let myself believe in something without the comfort of good enough evidence."

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/search-engine-uses-ai-to-find-alleged-scripture-contradictions.html