Monday, July 09, 2007

Which came first the bible or the religion?


I haven't written much about the bible itself in this blog. Suffice it to say that there are numerous problems with it. In general, if it was written via divine inspiration (and how does that work?) as the official word of God then why are there so many inconsistencies? One simple example: In Genesis (rife with inconsistencies) we find that God separated the day from the night and then a couple of days later created the sun. Hmmm...You see the problem.

Of course the bible has been written and re-written many times over the years and scholars agree that there are numerous 'authors' work in the bible. So, why doesn't God fix this? No big secret that copies of copies and re-telling of stories ends up with huge distortions. So, come on. Divinely inspire someone and let's have a re-write.

Come to think of it, if you are God and want to bring God's word to people, why use multiple authors at all. Couldn't God see that that was going to lead to problems?

Also, why is the bible so wrong about so many things that we now know to be true. There is no question any longer about the age of the universe and that it all started with the Big Bang about 13 billion years ago. If God was the cause of the big bang why isn't it mentioned in Genesis? What we have instead is a reflection of the thinking in the day of the nature of the universe including a lot of flat earth references and no freaking idea as to how big the earth or space is in general. Could it be that these authors weren't so inspired after all? Could it be that the bible is a collection of tales that were formally passed on by word of mouth and then at one point put down on paper? Could it be that LATER people got the idea that this book was holy and must have come from God?

What seems more reasonable?

Finally, to people who say that the bible is just metaphor and not meant to be factual I say you have the cart before the donkey. Religions started getting organized and split into various groups AFTER the bible. The bible is the reason that there are religions. So you can't hang your hat on your favorite church on Sunday and they pooh pooh the bible. If it's not the divine word of God then where does that put your church and religion? As usual, the thoughtless theist wants it both ways and avoids this sort of thinking.

2 comments:

Rich P said...

I agree. One thing, however. One can only say that the bible comes BEFORE religions if one means the religions that have their ground in this particular bible--that would be Christianity and Judaism, and then every sect of those that split off from them (I suppose maybe also Islam, since it also is one of the 3 biggies that are religions based on the God of Abraham. But then, they have their Koran--another book filled with ramblings and inconsistencies).

There are tons of ancient (I'd say "primitive", but all relgions are primitive, are they not?) religions that pre-date Christianity and Judaism. In fact, Christianity and Judaism have borrowed a lot of their tenets from relgions that pre-date them. For example, there were other religions with favorite sons who were virgin born and who were sacrificed. Christianity wasn't the first).

Anonymous said...

I believe you have an absurd idea about things. First of all, any educated person would tell you that no scientist knows how old the Earth or the Universe is and especially don't know how it started. That's why it's called a "THEORY" because it's unproven! And the Bible is right about multiple things throughout. And it not full of contradictions at all, clearly you've never read it all the way through or studied the other scriptures of that time outside the Bible. And I also think you need to check your examples....in Genesis God create the light, and then he separates light from dark. Might want to read and study the book before you start making foolish accusations about it. And about the Bible being wrong?! Really, what about Eve coming from Adam, and only man having the ability to create woman and man?! Hasn't it been proven that only the man carries the XY gene?...Hmm that seems pretty consistent with today. And where do you get your "alot" of flat earth references?! Have you even read the book?! You are making utterly ridiculous statements with no educational backing. Trust me, I'm a geologist, we don't know exactly how old the Earth is! In fact there's a ton of things we don't understand at all about the Earth and its formations. And it's been written and rewritten because that's how things get passed down. Have not the books you read in school done the same thing. What about the declaration of independence?! Bill of rights?! All history is passed down this way!! Have you not been told about the revolutionary war or civil war? Do you not take those stories for true on good faith? Then how is believing the stories of the Bible different?!


I suggest you read the Bible a little more and not just make accusations without backing. And I'd probably suggest reading a little of C.S. Lewis to open your mind up.