There is a common misconception that being an 'atheist' means that I am against organized religion, or religous beliefs, or that I think that believing in God(s) of any kind is stupid.
Actually, I have just decided that I personally do not see any evidence of a higher power, and I do not believe in such. I think that just as I am free to come to my own decision about such things, everyone else is likewise welcome to believe as they please.
A recent article by Berf asked 'Do we really need the bible?' These questions were posed, and I answered them. I'm republishing them here in case anyone is curious what I think about such matters. Bear in mind , that this is what I believe - I am not asserting that this is the only way to believe, or that I am absolutely correct about everything.
1. Is the Bible absolutely 100 percent without errors or mistakes?
Of course not. It was written by men over a period of many centuries, and translated several times. There's going to be errors just from that standpoint in continuity and word usage and so on.
2. Is the Bible infallible in all that it says?
No - the bible is a collection of once separate books that are meant to illustrate a faith - not be taken as a single cohesive literal word-for-word book of laws.
3. Is the Bible literally the words of God Himself?
If I believed in God, I would believe that he had much better things to do than dictate to humans what to write down. I would, however, believe that perhaps they were 'inspired by' a higher power - in much the same way the Greeks had their muses and so on.
4. Is the Bible historically accurate?
In some places - where it is meant to be an actual history and not a parable, it is somewhat accurate. As accurate as any work written after an event can be - after all, every history is colored by the perspective and perceptions of the person writing it.
5. Did every single event in the Bible actually happen as it is described?
Again, no. Many stories of the bible are representative myths, or parables. And see number 4 for how history is written.
6. Is the Bible unfairly biased?
Of course it's biased, but unfairly? Not when you take it for what it is- a collection of works about the Christian faith. It's how people use it that becomes unfair.
7. Was the Bible merely written by superstitious or ignorant people?
No - they were writing about what they believed in. That doesn't make them superstitious or ignorant, they had a right to believe in it and share that belief with others.
8. Did the writers of the Bible have some hidden agenda?
It's not a hidden agenda - their purpose was to illustrate and spread their faith.
9. Is the Bible a reliable book today?
Again, it all depends on what you use it for. If you are a Christian, and you use it to learn about your faith and to show others the history and traditions of your faith when asked about it- that's great. If you use it to persecute people of differing beliefs, or to say that certain things are sins because the bible tells you so - then no.
10. Could Christianity survive without the Bible?
Sure - they'd just have to rewrite something that talks about the history of the faith, and what the faith is like today and so on.
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Comments: 41
I am afraid of the idea of living in a theocracy - coming from one Lutheran family was enough. We need to keep religion and politics FAR apart in this country.
There is an old joke about the scribes copying the Bible - a young know it all priest looks at the original and then looks at what is being copied. All of a sudden he shouts out - "no, no, it says celebrate, not celibate!"
And that is how it goes!
A good question to ask yourself if you are agnostic or an atheist is how if you had children you would rear them from the perspective of religion. Would you compare belief in God and the bible to belief in Santa Clause and let your children make up their own minds when they get old enough to figure out that Santa Clause is not real. If you subscribe to these kinds of beliefs, then the bible would still be useful to you for some period of time. If not, then ..its just another interesting book.
Shannon..I'm sorry to hear that you have had those experiences with non believers. Typically it is because of "rationale and logic" and the belief in such that these people are non-believers so it annoys me to no end when the same basis for their non belief is thrown aside to irrationally insult people who disagree with them. I have had the same experience as you with believers insulting me since the majority of our culture today is of a religious faith of some type and those of us who don't are a minority and get treated as such.
Personally, I believe Christianity could survive without the bible. Given the tendency of some camps to take the bible literally and others to take different interpretive stances, it is obvious to me that how the bible is understood or used comes down to a personal motivation or influence. It could be your upbringing or just your experiences in life to that point like people suddenly turning to the bible in times of trouble and the resulting cause and effect logic that when things get better it is because they turned to religion. Given that, it makes perfect sense to me that if the bible were thrown away, then Christians would look for something to replace it and do the same thing all over again. Everyone wants to believe that there is something more than the here and now or what is the point? And because of this hope, people are willing to adopt these beliefs to support the ideal that this is not all there is.
Me, I am perfectly content in the here and now influencing the lives of people around me for the better rather than the worst, postively rather than negatively. Getting back from life what I put into life and learning from my mistakes as I go so I don't repeat mistakes I make. I don't think I will falter towards the end of my days whenever that is to be or that I will be looking forward. I will be looking back at a fulfilling life where I lived my life according to my theories of what makes a good life. And this life doesn't include the bile and organized religion although I respect those who feel otherwise as long as they don't infringe on the ability for me to continue to live my life my way.
Thanks Laura for giving me the opportunity to expound :o)
As I said in Berf's article: I believe what it says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. To me, the Bible is God's love letter to us. It is His instruction manual for our lives. If we read it faithfully and follow those instructions, life is so much better and easier.
What I find rather interesting is that some atheist (like my favorite cousin) probably have read the Bible more than those who claim to be Christians. Interesting...and rather sad.
Thanks again.
It makes me want to pull my hair out when I hear members of the Religious Right say that "separation of Church and State" takes away their "freedom" to practice their religion. Quite the contrary. It protects their right to practice their religion. It does, however, keep them from imposing their religion on the rest of us by force, which is what really ticks them off.
Lutherans sometimes take the bible seriously, but we are not stupid. For example the bible says the temple in Jerusalem had silver bowls exactly three times as far around as across. That means Pi = 3. It doesn't of course, Pi +3.infinity. Is that an error, well, in a math class yes, in religion no.
It's people who try to use the bible as something it isn't that annoy me. Oh, that and people who try to tell me that if I believe in God I must also believe in ---- insert an endless list here.
Me, I fall back on the old watchmaker theory. The existence of a watch implies the existence of a watchmaker. The existence of the universe implies --well, you get the idea.
Or that's one theory anyway.
Personally, I don't need a Bible to tell me what to believe in.
Flying spaghetti monster would be cool though. Would we get free food then?
I don't believe the divinity stuff with Yeshua bar joseph. i do believe that he had some things to say that are of interest, although some of those things were probably invented after his demise.
He would probably be a bit surprised that the religion that blossomed after his death was not considered Judaism.
I don't think Christianity is valid if the Bible is false and Christ's life was a myth.
I have a friend who insists the world was created July 25, 1987 by a cosmic entity known only as Fred. Everything before that comes as created memories. How could anyone disprove that?
(For those of you who like to discuss tolerance issues, I invite you to check out - and join - "GATHER Discusses Tolerance", at nohate.gather.com.)
To be honest, perhaps our only difference, in terms of the Bible, is that I read it as part of my faith, and my relationship with Jesus, and you read it as a book (if you read it... I guess I'm just making an inference that you have at least browsed it, in order to write this article?)
There are ways for Christians to know what they believe in, and tell others, and there are ways for Christians to be pushy jerks. I would hope that more of us fall into the former category than the latter one.
Otherwise, nice article.