Why Joe the Plumber Chose the Bible Over His Science Book

Why is this idiot still getting attention?  Why did he ever get attention?

This idiot may be the impetus for others NOT to be that idiot… Idiots have their function. 

Sad. Just, sad.

 Palin and the Tea Party.

Obviously this is a very stupid argument.  Lack of change is no evidence of veridicality.  The Wizard of Oz hasn’t changed either but that doesn’t make it true. 

It’s also completely wrong as to the Bible.  First, the English translations of the Bible, which I will safely assume Wurzelbacher is reading, change all the time, and there are dozens of them.  The NIV was last updated in 2011.  Second, the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts that the translations are based on aren’t certain either.  They are based on thousands of manuscripts with tens of thousands of textual variants.  Even if Wurzelbacher believes, on the basis of no evidence, that the autograph manuscripts were divinely-inspired, he’s still in a bind because we don’t have those autograph manuscripts.  We have hand-made error-filled copies from centuries later.  No one has ANY IDEA what might have happened in those intervening centuries.

one of my fantasies has always been that someday the RCC goes too far, finally gets shut down (for something like running a child prostitution ring, if i were to bet) and has to sell off all its assets. i’ve long believed they are hanging on to some really essential manuscripts, keeping them out of circulation b/c they are damaging to RCC history and belief. there is a reason there are so many gaps in the history of christianity, and i think the RCC is part of that. 

This argument is so asinine. I never understood it.

Because it would totally be better if science just never admitted to its mistakes or made any progress? I don’t know how people like this manage to breathe let alone make use of the modern comforts that science has afforded them by… gasp!… CHANGING.

While I agree that Joe the Plumber’s argument for “choosing the Bible over science” (which I think is a false dichotomy) is quite foolish, I only have one issue with the original post. The Bible doesn’t have many translations because it has been revised so many times. I daresay our current Bible(s) are all taken from the same sources and manuscripts. There are many translations because language is fluid, and we’re (at least) 2000 years removed from the most recent biblical writings.

This is t-shirt/bumper sticker worthy 🙂

And hell, given the “This idiot” opening of the text, it could be a series of t-shirts with different photos of various peeps…….Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Rick Santorum…..the possibilites are endless!

I’d look into it Julie, you could be sitting on a goldmine 🙂

 @Cris,
“I daresay our current Bible(s) are all taken from the same sources and manuscripts.”

Please see the comment by ortcutt above.   It is quite clear from the study of NT texts that nearly all NT manuscripts from antiquity up to the invention of the printing press  incorporate varying degrees of transcription errors, edits, revisions, redactions, text losses, glosses, additions, and other corruptions to the original works (ex: the ending to the book of Mark).  Also, literary analysis of the books of the bible make it fairly clear that numerous books as we know them today (the books of the Pentateuch, Isiah, etc) are likely composites of different works by different authors in different time periods.

Our current English translations are not even all from the same sources and manuscripts.  There are two main traditions of Greek texts used to compile current Greek New Testaments (the is no single, authoritative copy/source from antiquity, though codex Sinaiticus is as close as you can likely get) , the Alexandrian texts represented by The UBS Greek New Testament & the Nestle-Aland edition (which underlie most current translations) and the Byzantine tradition represented by the Textus Receptus/Received Text (underlying the KJV and New KJV translations).

CBN.  Why Hemant?  Who knows.  Its fun to beat up on willfully ignorant people?

So he’s never heard of the Revised Standard Bible then?

So the bible makes more sense because it remains constant? I guess Joe the plumber must be a terrible plumber as city codes and the tools of the trade change often.

The stupidity….it burns.  

There’s not much point explaining anything to Plummer Joe. He’s shown himself from the start that he’s an ignorant dumbfuck and completely unable to tell fact from fiction. 

So where are the religious defenders on this forum?  I guess they must realize that “Joe the Plumber” is such a moron even *they* aren’t willing to defend him.

Squeezing the last drops out of that fifteen minutes of fame….

 He’s not a plumber. He’s never been a plumber. He’s also not named Joe.

Does anyone else notice how much Joe the Plumber looks like Larry the Cable guy?

So, if Joe the Plumber is unwell he prefers being bled by a leech, rather than have a doctor look at him, since medicine also changes all the time?

He probably will be elected though, so not sure if being a moron will harm him.