The Holy Bible is the sacred text upon which all Christianity is founded (I won't bother with Jews/Old Testament or Muslims/Koran for now). Despite the bible not actually being a book until centuries after the fact, this collection of stories is what serves as a guide and inspiration to billions of people, so I supposed it was as good a place as any to begin my quest for the truth.
There is a common saying in unbeliever circles that anyone who reads the bible front to back would most certainly be an atheist upon completion. I can vouch for this statement, though I continued my research long after reading it. And I find it beyond ironic that judicial courts use this book as a way of encouraging someone to tell the truth. Put your hand on the book of myths and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you Flying Spaghetti Monster.
So where to begin? How about at the beginning? The book of Genesis, after centuries of hardcore fanatics insisting everything in there actually happened, we now learn it is quite often looked at as mere poetry. Why? Because even blind-faith followers can see the writing on the wall. But herein lies one of the major problems with followers and their sacred text: Either the book is true or it's not, you can't cherry-pick and bend your will to make these stories conform to your beliefs. What does it say about your religion when the one pillar you rest it on is built on shifting sand?
Did you know there are more than 50 versions of the bible in English alone? How can anyone justify this fact? It's easy to see why there are something like 30,000-plus denominations of Christianity, and this gets back to cherry-picking. Did you read something in the bible you don't like? That's OK, remove it and create another version and denomination! How is this the word of the lord? Thanks be to editing. Speaking of cherry-picking, did you know the gospels were chosen to be canonized from a host of stories? And that they were written between 30-150 years after Jesus died? And these gospels were told, retold, written, edited, copied and copied and copied and embellished? Of course they were, and we have no original copies, not even the first copies of the originals.
Plus, there are so many other gospels, including ones from Mary Magdalene, Thomas and Judas. Why aren't these in the bible? Because they didn't fit the message of course, because they likely told a version the leaders didn't want told. And people wonder how the government has the gall to hide truths from us.
I'll return to the gospels a little later, but I need to get back on point with Genesis. I titled this post "The Big Book of Multiple Choice" because it's here we find our first contradiction, and we didn't have to wait long to find it. In Ch. 1 we learn god created Adam and Eve at the same time, but just one chapter later we learn Adam was lonely while performing his duties for god, so god said I'll create Eve. First, this contradicts each other, no matter how you look at it, so wouldn't the lord want his book to be edited properly and consistent? Second, I was raised Catholic, meaning I was told god was omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omnipresent. Wouldn't god already know he was going to need to create a counterpart to Adam so they can procreate and spread the seed and word of god? Why would he need to witness Adam being lonely to kick start his brain? This "omni" argument will surface a lot during my research.
But if many theologians and religious leaders are starting to shy away from Genesis as truth, then how can we justify Original Sin and its consequences since obviously Adam and Eve never happened? And for that matter, how can we justify Jesus (if a person ever so existed) dying for these sins? As an aside, Original Sin is nowhere in the bible. Sure, Christians will bend the words to make them fit their claims, but nowhere is Original Sin mentioned nor is the idea of this "ancestral" sin being attached to every person at birth even explored. It is a man-made load of hokum meant to intimidate people into bringing their newborn children immediately into their church. It's just another tactic of fear, something that populates Christianity like a virus.
I will return with Part II, a look deeper into the other books, including the gospels, a study done regarding flash-bulb moment recollections, and Yahweh of the Old Teatament.
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