Hi, E!
Here is a look at the origins of Christianity that does a good job of pulling together the myths, and the ancient traditions, as well as the political intrigues and processes. Good overview! The commentary goes back about 7000 years, and traces how all the writings were eventually voted on to become (Holy Scripture!).
Here the conclusions:
Conclusions
To base one's religion on a scripture as deeply suspect as the Bible, and declare it to be absolutely inerrant and reliable, is to build one's religion on what is clearly a foundation of sand.
If the lessons of recent Biblical scholarship mean anything, it is that the history of Christianity and the Bible it spawned is a very messy one that seriously calls into question the validity of the message. To deny that fact is to simply deny reality.
Yet many people continue to do just that, even in the face of evidence that they and the religion they support are clearly wrong in holding that the origins of Christianity are divine and unsullied by human politics, greed and arrogance.
It can only be said that doing so is to display a form of ignorance. What then of the fundamentalist groups that do so, loudly and insistently? Clearly, they believe what they believe, not because it is true, but for other, less sound reasons, the primary reason being that the truth requires the painful admission that they are wrong.
In a related essay, I have written of the the many basic errors of fundamentalism. Clearly, believing because they want to believe, not because it is true, is one of those fundamental errors. It is a sure prescription for ignorance, not wisdom.
What I have written in this essay is a summary of authenticated fact. It is fact gathered not by those seeking evidence to support a theory, as religionists too often do, but rather as scientists do, by gathering the evidence together and seeing what theories that evidence suggests.
It is the latter process that enables human progress. This is because humility is the basis of all intellectual advancement, spiritual or scientific. The ability to admit that you are wrong is the absolute prerequisite to gaining understanding. The presumption that the answer is revealed, and must then be supported by seeking evidence, is a sure way to lead civilization down the blind alley of arrogant egotism and the institutionalized error that prevented the Catholic church from admitting for three centuries that Galilleo was right about the sun being the center of the solar system, even though the church was obviously wrong and everyone knew it.
I therefore call upon fundamentalists who read this essay to adopt that basic, fundamental prerequisite attitude for true learning and scholarship -- the humility to be able to admit that you are wrong. The Bible is not necessarily inerrant. It is not the exclusive, divine word of God, but rather is the product of more than five score writers, editors and translators, many quite unqualified for the work they were undertaking, many with conflicting objectives, each with a serious religious and/or political axe to grind. The church of which you are a part came into being largely by the fiats of a Roman emperor who knew little about the religion his edicts were shaping. And the god Jehovah (or in the original form, Yahweh) you worship is directly descendant from Philistine and Babylonian pagan deities your own scripture now defames. To pretend otherwise is to make the same mistake the Catholic Church made with regards to Galilleo. And you risk ending up looking just as foolish.
The full article:
pe.net |
