Freethought Fluff Herewith an expanded version of Mark 9:24, a troublesome verse that appears to have a contradiction imbedded in it: Lord, I believe - I'll believe anything. I believe everything I read and hear. I'm a credulous nincompoop. I need to be more skeptical. I need to be able to doubt. I need to be more like the man from Missouri. I need to use the mind you gave me, the natural ability to test claims of truth - help thou mine unbelief! Needless to say, this is the opposite of the original sense. The original sense indeed has a contradiction, but we'll grant to the Christians the fact that the contradiction expresses the psychological truth of internal conflict.   Titus 1:2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began - I Kings. 22:23 So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has decreed disaster for you." Some freethinkers use these two verses to show a contradiction in the Bible. While the Bible has many contradictions, this is not one of them. It just shows that God, like any competent executive, doesn't do his own dirty work. He delegates it.