27,000 die when a wall falls!
The Bible states that 27,000 people were killed in one day when a wall collapsed
on them. Read 1 Kings 20:30. The wall was at the city of Aphek.
This figure of 27,000 is impossible as the population could not have been that
dense.
Fundie John Wenham thinks that the word for armed soldier was so close to the
word for thousands that copyists made a mistake. So Christians claim that it was
27 armed soldiers that were killed.
At least he looks for a natural explanation for the absurdity. Some
fundamentalists think that God miraculously made the wall so tall temporarily
that 27,000 perished when it collapsed. Any absurdity can be covered up by using
miracles to excuse it.
Christians claim that there is no evidence of doctrinal error in the Bible. But
the text as it stands speaks of a wall killing 27,000 which would mean a
miracle. A God doing stupid miracles like that would be a doctrinal error. Also,
it would ruin the credibility of the faith. If a Christian can use miracles to
excuse stupidity so can non-Christians. It would leave one ludicrous faith as
credible as another.