Guest post by Exrelayman
If the Bible were God’s word:
- It would be perfectly engrossing. You would love reading it.
- It would be perfectly clear. There would not be any disagreement anywhere about the meaning of any verse or passage.
- It would be perfectly persuasive. People of any other faith would convert immediately upon reading this clear and persuasive message.
- It would perfectly distributed to all the cultures of the world simultaneously, in their own language.
- It would be perfectly indestructible. Neither years nor flood nor flame could mar or destroy it.
- It would be perfectly original and accurate in all that it says.
In brief, it would be a perfect revelation proceeding from a perfect God.
And what do we observe in the real world:
- Very hard to force yourself to slog through it. Most who profess Christianity don’t struggle through all the begats and directions for making temple garments. Very inferior to myriads of mere human novelists.
- Earnest disagreement about what it actually says has led to thousands of differing denominations. Not so clear then.
- It needs a bit of help. Pastors must spend Sundays being persuasive. Persuasive hymns and apologetics are needed. Heaven and hell must be dangled as carrot and stick to evince coercion through hope and fear and not clear evidential persuasion.
- Given at one part of the world, the gospels especially, through unknown biased writers at unknown places and times.
- As susceptible to decay and destruction as any other book.
- Sadly imitative, many other dying and resurrecting savior gods from surrounding cultures preceded the Christ story. The Old Testament stories largely derive from antecedent cultures also. Flatly in conflict with what science has discovered about the age of the Earth and the evolution of life upon it. Flatly contradictory with its own self in numerous places.
At each expectation of what the revelation of a perfect and powerful God would be like, the Bible fails. Now these expectations are admittedly subjective, so that each one of them might be arguable. But cumulatively they become, at least as I see it, irresistible. Thus the verdict that it is not a divine document, but is shown by its own nature to be the product of ignorant and superstitious men writing in ignorant and superstitious times.
well said, guest…
When you put it that way the bible is very obviously written by men unless God wanted to cause utter discord and confusion, bigotry, wars and hate which I suppose is a possibility.
Perhaps ironically, the Bible becomes far more interesting (though still not high literature) when approached as nothing more than a historical document.
Excellent points! For a collection of books allegedly written by the supreme being, the Bible is very flawed.
Ah, you are so right, Exrelayman. I never really thought of it in such a succinct manner. Yes, I’ve noted and pointed out flaws, contradictions, etc., but when you put it this way, it’s so clear!