Yahweh predicted the future many times in the bible. Many times, Yahweh was wrong.
Assuming the barbaric biblical bully Yahweh is real and that the bible is an accurate rendering of his deeds and words, then this psychopathic god of Jews, Christians and Muslims is probably the vilest creature to have ever roamed the universe. His alleged omnipotence may make up for a lot but does not erase his apparent stupidity and knack for lying, or at best, failure to accurately predict the future.
Failed prophecy 1
If you accept that bible chronology is a real world historical chronology, then the first lie ever told was by the gods of the bible. In Genesis 2, verse 17, Elohim (‘the gods’) warn Adam that he would die on the day he ate of the fruit of “the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” As most people know, Adam ate from the fruit and was severely punished for his disobedience to “the gods”. Contrary to the gods’ prediction, Adam survived his fall from favor and lived to be 930 years old. Either Elohim were ignorant of the future events involving Adam, or they lied.
Failed prophecy 2
Genesis 4: 10-12 “And ΄ο θεος (the god) said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
When ΄ο θεος (the god (1)) predicted that Cain would remain a nomad for the rest of his life, he clearly forgot that humans seem to completely ignore him. In fact, Cain didn’t roam the earth for long, because only a few verses later he built the “the first city in human history”.
Genesis 4: 16-17 “Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch.”
Even if you argue that Cain returned to a nomadic life after he built Enoch, building a city necessarily implies that he stayed put for many years. It is also fair to assume he stayed around to provide and care for his son (and possible other offspring). Elohim failed to see Cain’s future, were partly wrong or again, deliberately lied.
Failed prophecy 3
Genesis 6: 17 “And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.”
Depending on the countless versions of the bible, one might debate the meaning of ‘the earth’ in the second part of god’s imminent mass murder (2). It could be read as ‘everything that is on the planet Earth’ or everything that is on land (as opposed to in water). The more specific and common meaning ‘the land of Israel’ cannot apply, as Israel did not exist (even according to bible chronology).
However, drowning the planet in water would certainly not have destroyed ‘all flesh in which is the breath of life’. Whales, dolphins, fish, squids, plankton, to name but a few creatures, would have had a ‘field day’ in the sudden vast expansion of their biotope. Even some of the mentally challenged Answers-in-Genesis-contributors admit as much. The divine fool of the bible insists in erring however. In Genesis 8: 21 we read: “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done."
Moreover, the development of the flood story itself contradicts the idea of a global flood. Genesis 9: 20 “And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.” If you follow the chronology of Genesis 8 and Gen 9:20, you realize that whatever dry land Noah would have been able to settle, it would have been way too salty to grow grapevines on it. The bible contains hundreds of contradictions and the flood story is no better. A global sea level increase of more than 8,876.60 meters (Mount Everest height + 15 cubits) would require more water than there ever was on Earth (3). Just saying…
The “words of god” give us another contradiction. After the Hebrews fled Egypt and started to steal the lands of their neighbors (which they were not supposed to covet in the first place), they encounter the descendants of the Nephilim in Numbers 13 (vs. 33). Oh, wait a minute… Didn’t the gods of Genesis set out to use the flood to wipe out the hybrid offspring of their sons and their rape victims? And who ends up getting murdered: billions of animals, millions of humans (save Noah and co) … but not the Nephilim. They happily continued producing more of their kind, right up until the Iron Age. What did the plants do wrong by the way?
Bottom line: even if you accept the biblical flood to have really happened, then this still would not have destroyed all life on Earth. Conclusion: the gods of Genesis lied, failed to predict the future and/or were unable to carry out their plans. God’s own word tells us so.
Failed prophecy 4
Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed…”
How accurate is god’s prediction? We won’t list all humans who defy this prophecy, there are way too many. But even if only ONE human would be exempt of god’s absolute decree, it would prove god wrong, therefore fallible and all subsequent implications. Just a few examples:
Moses started his career as God’s prophet by killing an Egyptian man. He died a natural death at the age of 120 and was buried in the valley opposite of Beth Peor. This is probably in the vicinity of Tell Hisban, now in the city of Madaba, Jordan. The bible specifies that no one knows precisely where Moses’ tomb was located. Let's not even get into the absurdity that it is Moses writing about the unknown location of his own burial. This ignorance didn’t stop some people of building a shrine on top of Moses’ alleged burial place in order to generate some cash flow. The site, Nabi Musa, is a popular pilgrimage destination to this day. We cannot but conclude that the millions of people having spent their money on this pilgrimage should have instead spent it on learning how to read. The bible says clearly that Moses was buried in a valley, not on the hilltop where the modern mausoleum is built. Do check out the relevant verse in Deuteronomy 34. That aside, Moses is just one of the millions of people who escaped god’s plan for them, and we don’t even have to get that much into god’s own book of failed prophecies to find some other examples.
Karl Münter, born in 1923 and former member of Hitler’s Schutzstaffel, partook in the massacre of 83 civilians in the village of Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France on April 1, 1944. He died on September 20th, 2019 at the blessed age of 96.
Pope Sergius III, “pontifex maximus” of Rome, murdered at least one of his predecessors to become pope in 904 CE, possibly two. We will never know who else he murdered to become the sole divine authority on earth; very little is known about ecclesiastical history. Even then, what little we do know is never absolutely certain. The majority of writing that was done in early mediaeval times was done by the church. Pope Sergius died without much fuss and was granted a burial in the church of St.-Peter. Sometimes crime does pay.
In spite of his name, pope Innocent III was directly responsible for the murder of at least 200,000 men, women and children (estimates go up to 1 million) in what is now the south of France. The man must have had an enormous religious appetite for blood. While the happy slaughtering of babies in the Langue d’Oc was in full swing, this Christ-on-earth was simultaneously preparing another holy war: the Fourth Crusade. We presume that this crusade lead to some deaths as well and more particularly deaths of fellow Christians. The fourth crusade led to the sacking of i.e. Zadar (Christian city in nowadays Croatia) and of course Constantinople. As the ultimate responsible, directly and indirectly of more than a million people, pope “Innocent” III died of natural causes on June 16th, 1216.
In December 1989, George H.W. Bush ordered the invasion of Panama. The aim was to depose and arrest general Noriega, who was on the payroll of the CIA since 1967 and was one of their top drug smugglers. Bush, who himself was head of CIA in 1976-1977 was all too happy accepting Noriega’s services. Twelve years later however Bush wanted to be president and could not risk his own crimes getting out. Noriega was a loose end and had to be handled. Noriega’s arrest was direct cause of the death of more than 500 civilians. But what’s a few hundred Latinos’ lives worth in the eyes of a US president who is used to killing thousands? George H.W. Bush died peacefully at the blessed age of 94 years in 2018.
As said: if we can only show ONE person to be an exception to god’s ruling, then we’ve proven god’s decree invalid… and god’s prediction to be false. What we have said to show, we have shown to be fact.
Failed prophecy 5
We cannot conclude this short list of failed prophecies of god without at least one failed prophecy of Jesus, proclaimed prophet of god by 1.8 billion people and proclaimed to be Yahweh by another 2.5 billion Christians. Again, we only need to show ONE prophecy of Jesus to not have come true, in order to demonstrate that this guy was not a prophet, let alone an omni-murdering god.
Matthew 24:1-2: Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
More than hundred stones in this picture alone, still standing on top of one another since before Jesus’ days.
Jesus’ prophecy turned out to be false. He is a false prophet. He is definitely not god. Neither is his alleged semi-biological father.
The case is as clear cut as some of the stones in the remains of the Second Temple’s west wall. Of course, nothing changes the fact that some people will keep stubbornly believing in some god they have never seen or ever will, rather than accept the evidence that is staring them right in the eye.
Richard Dalet PHD, Feb 07, 2021
References:
(1) As read in Koinè Greek from the Septuagint
(2) See for instance: John Tracy Thames, “A New Discussion of the Meaning of the Phrase ʿam hāʾāreṣ in the Hebrew Bible”, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 130, No. 1 (SPRING 2011), pp. 109-125 (17 pages), published by: The Society of Biblical Literature, referred through JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41304190?seq=1
(3) Example: Andrew L. Seidel, Mar 2, 2017, “How much water would be needed for Noah’s Flood?” https://medium.com/@AndrewLSeidel/how-much-water-would-be-needed-for-noahs-flood-ef3145ae1945
(4) There are many articles about Karl Münter. A summary can be found in Wikipedia’s article: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_M%C3%BCnter