Truth can be difficult to ascertain. Many people who are Christian, whether "born again", Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormon, Roman Catholic etc all seem to claim in some way an exclusive right to interpret the Bible. All of these try to make sense of what the Bible means. On the fundamentalist side, these Christians take the Bible as literal truth; The Word of God verbatim, others like Roman Catholics let the clergy interpret the lessons from the Bible and not place it with as much importance on literal meaning as opposed to allegorical meaning. All these faiths have one thing in common, the Bible. Is the Bible really true? One thing I am sure of is that I have been given the gift to rationalize. My brain along with my arms, legs, eyes and ears along with everything else has been given to me. The question, "Is the Bible true?" has to be first approached from a rational point of view before we can assume that it is from God.
If we are to assume that God wrote or "inspired" the writing of the Bible, we must first come to understand what God is like. It is agreed that at the very least God is infallible. Since God inspired the Bible, the Bible must be accurate and correct. Any assumption the Bible makes about the reality we see around us can be verified and re-verified. In this case science will be of some help as well as mathematics, history etc Consider the Bible verses (I Kings 7:23) "And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did encompass it round about." (II Chronicles 4:2) "Also, he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about." These verses are talking about a circle (it was round all about) whose diameter is ten (from brim to brim) and had a circumference of thirty (and a line of thirty did compass it). Both of these verses contain each bit of information. If we decide to use simple geometry we would find that this circle is not a valid circle. It is physically impossible. Pi is a ratio of circumference over the diameter is equal to a specific number. This ratio holds true for any size circle. The equation for a circle is as follows c= ?d. Where c = circumference d = diameter. Since pi is an irrational number (a number that goes on forever), one can only use estimates. For example 3.14159 is a simple estimate. The ancient Babylonians had a value of 3 1/8 = 3.125.
So for a circle of diameter = 10 we have the approximate value which has been underestimated to 31.4159. Where is the 1.4159 cubits left to complete the circle likewise taking a circumference of 30 we have an approximate diameter of 9.54931, which has been overestimated? Apparently the numbers in the Bible are wrong. It would have been one thing for God to allow an estimate and then claim that no man would ever see that complete number. That would clearly show that there was some divine inspiration. Until the late 1800's and early 1900's pi was shown to be irrational and also a transcendental number (transcendental means that a number could not be a solution or root to an algebraic equation). (Beckman, 73-77)
The Bible also has many problems with authorship. Many books of the Bible have unknown authors. Some books are also political tools for their time for example in Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World "There is no difficulty in understanding the motivation of the hoaxers.
A more or less typical example is the book of Deuteronomy - discovered hidden in the temple in Jerusalem by King Josiah, who, miraculously, in the midst of a major reformation struggle, found in Deuteronomy confirmation of all his views." This is a major piece of evidence that suggests man manipulating the Bible. What is more likely? That God placed a scroll that contains all of Josiah's ideas or some midnight forgery? (Sagan 91) The Bible contains some fantastic stories that are very hard to swallow. For example (Joshua 10:12-13)"Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day." These verses are unbelievable. Two things are implied by these verses. First, is their understanding of the earth and sun. They believed that the sun stood still as opposed to the earth stopping its spin. Second, is that this is obviously a myth or legend of a battle that had gone well for the Israelites. As a scientist I must concede that if there is a God, that God has shown himself, herself, itself to be very very consistent. There has yet to be a break away from the laws of nature, as we know them. I think that we would all know if a day lasted "a whole day" longer. Another fantastic story is the story of Creation. God creating the universe in six, 24-hour days are ridiculous. Once again science has shown the Creator to be self-consistent. If God did create the world in six days then science would end up confirming that truth, but as we know this is not the case. The famous parting of the Red sea by Moses and the Flood account (the fact that it never rained before the flood as well) are either localized events or some romanticized past (like the Exodus- there isn't much proof that there were Jews in Egypt at all except for the occasional traveler. There is no mention of plagues or anything in the Egyptian accounts.). Seas don't part spontaneously and perhaps in deserts it doesn't rain much.
The Bible's lack of consistency with the character of God is another major reason one should not view the Bible as "the Word of God", but a book written by men. If we claim that God is good (Psalm147: 1;) then why so many atrocities in the Bible. How many groups of people were slaughtered because God had commanded it to be so? This following paragraph will paraphrase George H. Smith's Atheism: the case against God. In (Judges 11:29-40; 2 Samuel 21:1-9; Leviticus 27:28-29) human sacrifice is seen as a legitimate means of appeasing God. He killed every first-born child of every Egyptian family (Exodus 12:29). God sanctioned slavery (Exodus 21: 2-6; Leviticus 25:44-46) and the selling of one's daughter as a slave (Exodus 21:7). He demanded the killing of witches (Exodus 22:18), death for heresy (Exodus 22:20), death for violating the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14-15), death for cursing one's parents (Leviticus 20:9), death for adultery (Leviticus 20:10), death for blasphemy (Leviticus 24:16), and death by stoning for unchastity at the time for marriage, a penalty given only to women (Deuteronomy 22:20-21). The atrocities don't stop there. The phrase "utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep and asses, with the edge of the sword" (Joshua 6:21) seems to be quite popular and recurrent theme with God. The desolation of people starts with the Flood story in Genesis. In (I Samuel 7:8-10) God helps the Israelites to kill the Philistines. In chapter 31 of Numbers there is a horrific verse "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves" (Numbers 30:17-18). God himself was also fond of killing for very odd reasons, for example in (2 Samuel 24:1-25) Census taking seems to infuriate Him. In another strange case, God sends two bears to rip apart forty-two children for mocking the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2:23-24). These Bible atrocities inspired Thomas Paine to write:
The Bible has too many instances of murder, rage, hatred, and intolerance to be from a God that is at the very least good and at best omni benevolent. If God is "God of the living", then why is God so determined to kill his own creation? (Smith 76-78) Another topic of God's character that is unreasonable is the attribute of all-powerful or the omnipotence of God. To use Smith's words "Does All-powerful mean that God can do literally anything? Can he create a square circle? A married bachelor? To admit these possibilities leads to insuperable difficulties. Since these things are logically impossible, they cannot exist- and any being with the supposed capacity to create the logically impossible. To say that God can do anything, even the logically impossible, is to push one's God into the realm of that which can not possibly exist." One main ethical question arises when one considers omnipotence. If God wants something or doesn't want something there is nothing to oppose His power. We have to conclude that the way things are is exactly the way God wants it to be. If we claim that the devil is deceiving humanity, then God surely could stop it if He so chose to. But God does not. If God sees evil, He can choose to stop it. If he decides not to, then God is not all good. (Smith, 69-72) Another attribute that is quite problematic to defend is the notion of Omniscience or rather God being all-knowing. If God knows all then there is no free will. Plain and simple. In God's eyes history has terminated. Humanity is then simply acting out a scene in God's play. This means that God creates man to arbitrarily fill a slot in his drama. He will damn or save whom He wishes. This also violates the idea that God is just. How can someone knowing that humanity was going to err and let them make a mistake and them hold them accountable is absurd. I am no more responsible for being human then a rock is for being a rock. Then to preach the word is futile and also very absurd. Also I have yet to find a person who chose to exist. When Adam and Eve sinned God knew it would happen. Also he chose to punish all of Humanity in the process. Is this in any way humane or just? (Smith, 73-76)
The Bible clearly has issues that are not easy to resolve. The logical inconsistencies as well as factual distortions do not allow for one to claim that the Bible is inerrant. God through science has shown God to be consistent (very consistent at that). In concluding my claim that the Bible cannot be verbatim from God, it is important to understand what one believes. Do you as a believer believe or continue to believe out of fear? Fear is such an important motivating factor that it is incredibly underestimated. It is much easier to follow than to lead, to believe than to think. The way the Bible stands in my eyes now from the knowledge I know now is as follows. Could God have inspired some passages? Of course it is possible. The Bible is not completely false either. There is some archaeological evidence that is of value to historians today. The Bible now becomes a subject that is very difficult to interpret, but can yield important conclusions about humanity. For example, most of the major religions of the world claim that man must take the sufferings of others to heart and help them in any way possible. The idea of compassion is a recurrent theme. Jesus, Confucius, Buddha etc... all stress the idea of compassion for our fellow man as well as a moral code. Could this be the message in the Bible? Between all the wars and biblical atrocities mentioned, God's voice can be heard through the cacophony of human cruelty and ignorance. Ignorance is perhaps the most terrifying thing of all. From ignorance, cruelty, greed and a myriad of other unwise attributes follow. Is there a God? I believe there is. I believe we should have compassion for our selves and each other. I think that getting caught up in details of the Bible only leads to frustration and inconsistency in one's own life. I can't believe that God would condemn anyone who was of a particular religion because they were not specifically Christian. Truth is truth, wherever you go. The sun rises and sets on everyone equally. Some religions grow better in certain places than others. This does not make it any less false. Once you decide to look at the world for what it is then fear will lose its grip. Your heart will be opened to your fellow man. And perhaps real peace on earth can be a reality.
the development of love and compassion for others. (H.H. Dalai Lama, 66)
Bibliography
Beckamn, Petr. A History of PI, USA: Barnes and Noble books 1971
H.H. the Dalai Lama. The wisdom teachings of the Dalai Lama, New York:Penguin Putnam Inc. 1997
Sagan, Carl. The Demon Haunted World New York: Random House 1995
Smith, George H. Atheism: The Case Against God New York: Promethius Book 1989