Believing in the reality of Biblical stories is, IMHO akin to accepting the reality of the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and the Adventures of Superman. Or, perhaps it’s more akin to accepting the reality of that other Holy Trinity – Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy! Next time your local clergy starts shooting off at the mouth about the reality of all things Biblical, the Glory and the Greatness of God, here are a few awkward questions to pose (or perhaps just forward this on to your local place of worship along with a “please explain”).
I’ve said it before but it probably bears repeating that the moment you question the bona-fides of any part of the Bible you have got to question the lot. So here are a few questions of mine which if truth be known could easily be expanded to monograph lengths.
MONOTHEISM vs. POLYTHEISM: The Bible is supposed to be the foundation on which monotheism rests, yet there are hundreds of references to the reality of ‘other gods’ in Biblical texts.
Quiz question: Why do the Bible and God (who is actually quoted) give credibility to the existence of ‘other gods’ and therefore the reality of polytheism?
CONTRADICTIONS: The Bible says both ‘love your enemies’ and ‘smite your enemies’. So which is it to be? In the first chapter of Genesis, God created beasts before man; in the second chapter of Genesis, man was created before the beasts. Sigh.
Quiz question: Why is the Bible contradictory on these and other issues if it had ultimately just one holy author (albeit a lot of scribes)?
WHEN WAS “IN THE BEGINNING”? There seems to be a discrepancy between the Rock of Ages, and the ages of rocks. It was once common knowledge, calculated by those apparently qualified to do so, that according to the Bible, “In the beginning” was fixed at 4004 BCE, and if memory serves, it was also fixed down to the exact month, date and time. Now the Earth’s “In the beginning” is dated back to roughly 4.5 billion years BCE; the Universe’s (Heaven’s) “In the beginning” goes back farther than that to roughly 13.7 billion years BCE. There is a rather large anomaly here.
Quiz question: Why is that?
CAUSALITY “IN THE BEGINNING”: Genesis states quite clearly that God created (caused) the universe – heaven and earth. Therefore God must have existed prior to anything and everything else having existence. Yet if causality has any meaning, any cause, like God, is the effect of a previous cause.
Quiz question: If God created the Universe, what, or who, created (caused) God? If God has always existed, then God’s infinitely old. In that case, an infinite amount of time had to pass before His creation of our Universe – which is an absurdity. How is it that you exist for an infinite amount of time and the get then all of a sudden get this bright idea or urge to create a Universe? What was God doing the ‘day’ before He created our Universe?
DAY OF REST: In the beginning, over a six day period, God created this, that and the next thing, or in a more modern turn of phrase, ‘life, the universe and everything’. On the seventh day God took the day off and rested (what He did on the eighth, ninth, tenth, etc. day isn’t recorded).
Quiz question: If God is all powerful, why did God need to rest on the seventh day?
ALL-POWERFUL: While on the theme of God being all-powerful, surely there are logical limitations to that power.
Quiz question: Can God travel back in time; undo or change the past; travel faster than the speed of light; contravene the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics; or accomplish something that is self-contradictory, like creating a spherical cube or a cubical sphere! Can God draw more than one straight line between two points on a flat piece of paper?
HEAVEN: It seems clear that since various physical beings such as angels, as described in the Bible, descend from and ascend to Heaven, including mortals like Enoch and Elijah, that Heaven must be a physical 3-D place with geographical, or rather celestial, coordinates.
Quiz question: We know where Mars is; where’s Heaven and why has it eluded our astronomers and/or space probes since it has to be fairly close by as celestial objects go?
INTELLIGENT DESIGN: One of God’s creations was Adam and Eve and therefore the human species. God, being an all-knowing and all-powerful being, would obviously create a human body that was perfect, in keeping with His own perfection. Why create something to a standard less than your best?
Quiz question: I’ll put it this way, if God created/designed humans, if ‘man’ is created in God’s image, well, next time your back goes out of whack (or any other part of your anatomy for that matter), have a few choice utterances about how great a designer God really is! Translated, did God fail Anatomy 101?
MONUMENTS: Given the apparently vast importance of all things Biblical and all things Godly, it is quite surprising that not one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World has any connection to God or the Bible.
Quiz question: Why weren’t the ancients impressed enough with the Almighty to honour Him with a monument or two or ten?
AN IN-YOUR-FACE DEITY: Now according to the Old Testament, God conversed with several mere mortals, from Adam and Eve, to Noah and Moses and Jonah and a host of others.
Quiz question: Why doesn’t God speak His face today? I mean, He wasn’t all that shy about conversing with us mortals way back in Old Testament days, so what is God so afraid of today? Surely He hasn’t run out of profound things to tell us, or at least a few of those religious bigwigs like the pope, or world leaders? Where are all those reports about modern ‘burning bushes’?
PRAYER: The Bible is full of references to praying and the power of prayer. But does prayer actually get you anywhere? It’s understandable the God might not grant you your prayer to win the lottery, but when, over time, millions and millions and millions more people, from popes down through the commoners, have prayed for world peace, an end to suffering, no more famine, a chicken in every pot, a roof over every head, good health to all, etc. basically a global utopia, what has been the result? Read your daily newspaper; watch the nightly news. There seems to be a large gap between Biblical rhetoric and reality when it comes to the power of prayer. Truth be known, God doesn’t give a flying fig about you and your prayers. He’s got bigger fish to fry like how to keep Heaven warm as the Universe ever expands and cools off. Those energy bills are straining even His budget.
Quiz question: Why is prayer a worthless activity if the Bible tells you to pray? Never have so many, prayed for so long, for so little results. The natural odds of you winning the lottery are far higher than getting God to notice prayers, your or anyone else’s.
To be continued…
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