Introduction
In the 21st century 33% of worlds population are Christians („Christianity,“ 2011, para. 5). This means that there is a large group of people who, to some extent base their lives on the Christian doctrine, which itself is based on the Bible. As no one lives in vacuum, these 33% affect others in one way or another (Fox News, 2010). This leads to conclusion that Bible is very influential book even nowadays. Religious people affect not just their own family (jam05902, 2007), their acquaintances, but also the larger population by voting for laws which affect all, or by building museums on basis of Bible story (Fox News, 2007) (and stating them as factually correct examples (BBC, 2007)), where other true believers can come and bring their children for what could be said to be brainwashing séance (TheShwaNerd, 2010). The influence goes so far as even court cases (Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 2011) in USA for “equal rights” to teach intelligent design which is formerly known as creationism. From all this we can see that Bible cannot be merely tolerated as just a book of religious myths. It has to be put under the same level of scientific scrutiny as if it would be scientific, since it is obvious that it is treated as true by far too many.
The focus in this essay will be to prove that the Bible is not the word of God, but rather the word of human beings, who have a limited knowledge and changing morality. First of all, it will be dealt with Bible’s concept of god as all knowing and all good. Secondly, there will be explored exact cases of immorality and rough injustice. Thirdly, the Genesis will be compared with today’s scientific knowledge.
God is all knowing, all good
First of all, and mainly it has to be dealt with the main concept – god. In the Bible god have many names, but the main ones are Yahweh, Lord, God. Before looking at the question there is, or there is no god, it should be defined what is god. Since the claim is that the Bible is not a word of god, the definition will be taken from the Bible itself. According to the Bible, God is almighty (Genesis 17:1, New Living Translation), everlasting, the creator of all the earth, never growing weak or weary, with unmeasurable depths of understanding (Isaiah 40:28), eternal king, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God (1 Timothy 1:17), his deeds are perfect, just and fair, he is faithful, just, upright, does no wrong (Deuteronomy 32:4), does not tolerate perverted justice, partiality, or the taking of bribes.” (2 Chronicles 19:7), can tell the future before it even happens, everything he plans will come to pass, he does whatever he wishes (Isaiah 46: 10). He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. (Colossians 1:17). He is almighty (Revelation 19:6), truly good (Mark 10:18). So, in the nutshell God is omnipotent, eternal, immutable, invisible, righteous, omniscient.
The Bible is immoral by today’s standards
God is evil. For example, God makes people to be born or to become dumb, blind and deaf (Exodus 4:11). There are various causes of blindness, dumbness and deafness, but who ever would cause any of these defects on purpose, is regarded as evil.
The Bible’s laws promotes religious intolerance. In the case that anyone serves other gods or worships the Sun, the Moon, or any of the stars – the forces of heaven – they must be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 17:2-7). The false prophets or visionaries who try to lead people astray must be put to death (Deuteronomy 13:5). Whole towns must be destroyed, all people and livestock slaughtered in the case that some people in that town want to follow a different religion. It is noteworthy that in today’s secularist western society religious freedom is promoted by Universal Humans Rights Declaration article 18. Clearly, historical past cannot be judged by today’s standards. Nevertheless, such a comparative “judgement” has to be done to show the apparent evil/immorality promoted from today’s perspective.
The punishments prescribed by the Old Testament are unjust and inhumane. For example, the stubborn and rebellious son, who is also a glutton and a drunkard must be put to death by stoning (Deuteronomy 21:20). If a man marries a woman and if it appears that she was not a virgin, then townsmen must put that woman to death by stoning her near the door of her father’s house (Deuteronomy 22:13-19). If a man is found lying with a married woman, then they both should be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:22). If the women is raped in the town, then the rapist and rape victim must be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). If it is discovered that man and women who are not married had sex, then the man has to pay the woman’s father 50 pieces of silver and marry the woman (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). However, it is a question whether Jews and Christians today would agree that Old Testament’s laws are inhumane. Still, such laws are not legally practised. The question whether these laws are just and humane is usually not even raised at all, by the excuse of a different historical time which can not be judged by today’s standards. This stance is reasonable, only if we argue without using the concept of God. As an all knowing, all wise, all good being, God would have had to know that such laws are unjust and inhumane. The conclusion is that the Bible has nothing to do with an all knowing and all good deity.
The Bible is factually wrong by today’s science
The Genesis story is false. On the first day God created the heavens, the earth and the light. After that, on the second day he created the sky. On the third day, he made the earth to grow plants. On the fourth day, God made the Sun and the Moon and the stars. On the fifth day, he created water animal and birds. On the sixth day, God created land animals and a bit later humans (males and females) (Genesis 1:1-31). God created the world in the wrong order. Science, which is based on observable facts, states that the order of cosmic and earthly evolution is tremendously different. First of all, the Sun came before the Earth. The Sun’s age is 4.57 billion years („Sun,“ 2011, „Life cycle,“ para. 1). The Earth’s age is 4.54 billion years („Age of the Earth,“ 2007). The Moon’s age is ~ 4.5 billion years („Moon,“ 2011, „Formation,“ para. 1). The order of formation is Sun, Earth, Moon. There is not even a little doubt that Earth could be before the Sun. The same goes with plants growing before the Sun was “created”. It is simply factually impossible. Furthermore, the evolution of life on Earth also happened in quite different order. First of all, fishes evolved then land plants, reptiles, mammals, birds, flowers, dinosaurs and humans. („Timeline of evolution,“ 2011, „Basic timeline,“). However in the Bible’s account, plants were before fishes and birds. From these blunders in the Bible it can be safely concluded that it was not written from all knowing perspective, but from the limited human knowledge of those times.
Conclusion
The Bible is not the word of God, but rather the word of human beings, who have a limited knowledge and changing morality. In the 21st century humanity has almost totally different scientific theories about the formation of the Solar system as well as the evolution of living beings on Earth. Moreover, most of Bible laws as well as propagated values are considered unjust as well as inhumane. This means that morality changes through the time. As a result of these contradictions explored in this paper, it can be asserted that an all knowing, all good god, on the Bible’s terms, could not have existed.
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