Bible contradictions: A fundamentalist preacher reacts

Many years ago when I was a Christian, a friend of mine showed me an apparent contradiction in the Bible that a non-Christian friend of his had pointed out. I looked at the passages and it certainly appeared to be an obvious contradiction. 

The two passages are from Acts 9:7 and Acts 22:9. These passages deal with the story of the sudden conversion of Saul of Tarsus to Christianity on the road to Damascus, who would later be called the apostle Paul. Saul had been persecuting Christians, and was headed to Damascus to do the same. Here's the passage from Acts chapter 9 (King James Version):

Robert M. Price: Debunking Christian apologetics and the "historical" Jesus

I recently saw a video of my favorite Bible scholar, Dr. Robert M. Price, in which he joked that he was working on a new book on devotionalism which he planned to title "Have You Accepted Jesus as Your Imaginary Playmate?".

Price started out as a Baptist fundamentalist and intended to become an apologist in the 1970s. However, during the course of obtaining a masters degree and two Ph.D.s from Drew University in theology and New Testament studies, plus having read many hundreds of scholarly books in the field, his views changed dramatically. He now says there's virtually nothing in the Bible that can be taken as "historical". He is well-known for embracing the Christ Myth theory as the most likely explanation for the supposed "historical Jesus".

The man is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge, and also a fascinating and humorous speaker - unlike many other scholars! There are numerous videos of him on youtube, and his website is filled with interesting books, podcasts, articles, reviews and video clips. The two podcasts are great. "The Bible Geek" discusses more complex issues, and "The Human Bible" is simplified and easier to follow. He takes listeners' emailed questions on both. I highly recommend his website.

He says Christian apologists are just "spindoctors for a dogmatic position" and the field of apologetics is just a "bogus sales job masquerading as historical study".