It is NOT my intention to belittle or attack on a personal level anyone, or ridicule ideas or beliefs. I WILL attack wrong thinking, ideas, or false or misleading statements. But I won’t attack on a personal level. It is my intention to continue to respect, and to develop even greater respect for other people.
I am doing this for many reasons. The most important reason I can think of offhand is the misinformation and lack of education of otherwise normal thinking people, especially evangelical creationists with whom I disagree. I find it appalling that they are pushing absurd ideas and conclusions which in my view is very dangerous and destructive if left unchallenged. I believe this misinformation is destructive to us and especially to our vulnerable children. It is destructive in many ways – personally, financially, and also to our civilization and society. It is destructive to a person’s emotional and physical well-being. And it is a waste of valuable resources. It is a form of abuse, and in the case of children, child abuse. These are strong accusations and I do not make them lightly. I accuse because I was a victim of such abuse, not solely from my ignorant parents, but from the religious sectors of our society. We are all victims, even those who still believe and are happy with that. (I use the word “ignorant” as meaning “not knowledgeable in” rather than in the modern more derogatory sense. I mean no disrespect by it).
Much good has come from religious faith, but much harm as well. I cannot say what is true with respect to spiritual things such as the afterlife and our eternal destiny. I am just an amateur scientist who has a B.Sc. in Geology with a minor in Physics. I am also a former Christian and believer in the Bible as the genuine and intact word of God. Note the word “former”. It took me over 35 years to free myself from the terror of religion. That’s one of the harmful ways we indoctrinate our children into living their lives as obedient but fearful slaves.
I want to reason with anyone who will listen that the Bible is NOT the word of God. I want to show my readers why the Bible can’t possibly be the “perfect ” and unaltered word of God. I can’t do that unless you are actually open-minded enough to read the posts. I admit to the possibility that the Bible does contain some unaltered words of God, but that finding and isolating those words are beyond anyone’s ken. I am absolutely NOT saying that Jesus isn’t the son of God as traditionally believed. I don’t know that. I just know that the Bible, if it is the word of God, or if it was intended to be the word of God, has been corrupted beyond the possibility of actually determining the true words of God. My current view is that the Bible is almost completely an anthology of mythology. In other words, it has nothing to do with God if there even is a God.
I think that there well may be a God, maybe not. When I first ran into difficulties with the Bible, I took it on faith that reasonable explanations and answers to the scientific and philosophical contradictions would somehow miraculously resolve themselves with further study and time. They did not. It was quite devastating to me to finally admit that my faith was groundless, yet I realized that I did not need God to maintain an average sense of the morality of our civilization. My fears that I would lose any morality by “rejecting the faith” were groundless. These fears were not entirely self-generated, they were reinforced by fanatical evangelicals. As it is, my morality not only did not disappear, it actually improved. Christians would disagree with that. And if I am wrong because my morality does come from God anyway, that’s OK too. I don’t really care where the morality comes from as long as I am indeed, a moral person. If God wants to come down and take credit for my morality, he is welcome to do so. I have no issue with there being a God. It’s just that I have no evidence either.
I will be attacking some of the actions attributed to God in the Bible. I will be doing so not to attack God, but to attack those writers who in my opinion have themselves slandered and attacked God. They altered and/or created the scriptures in order that they might maintain control, money, and power over the people. I hope to show that this is obvious if you actually think about the events they perpetrated, laying the justification directly (and undeservedly) on God in order to justify their crimes and maintain their hold on power.
Christians would do well to remember that for thousands of years they had no access to the Bible. The Bible is an artificial construct of men. It is enough to have faith in Jesus if they so wish. You don’t have to give up your belief in God or even in Jesus as the son of God. You can continue to find strength in such faith. But to construct one’s morality and world view from a set of politically motivated mythological writings is tantamount to surrendering your soul to anyone who wants it. YOU do the research. YOU make the decision. If you don’t, of what value is your faith? Your faith is worthless if it is based on ignorance. Having said that, no one can know it all, and one is limited by one’s resources. Just do your best, but be sure it really is your best.
