A blog that I visit regularly is Finding Truth. Most of the discussions contain substantial material (rather than simply one-liners) and they can get pretty intense. Recently, in reference to a discussion on the bible (found on the About page), there was a posting that contained many of my own views. I have reposted it here (with permission from “William”).  

It’s interesting. The more I think about the bible, it’s teachings, it’s story, it’s history, the less it makes sense as a moral or divine guide. I used to pray tirelessly that I would learn the truth and that i would see what’s really from god and what isn’t.

More and more I began to see the problems with the bible – the errors, the inconsistencies, the flaws and the moral atrocities. As I’ve said here before, the biggest thing that did it for me, after seeing the a fore mentioned, was the realization that I had always and only taken “man’s” word on it. God never told me anything – never showed me anything. Where or what was my faith in? I realized it wasn’t in god and couldn’t have been.

And if it really does all boil down to simply choosing what to believe, then how does Christianity become better than any other religion? You can look at it this way, or look at it that way, but I think if we were to really open our eyes, we’d see that approach is wishful thinking and that approach is “us” making it work by either dismissing or ignoring the problems.

It becomes like sitting around a fire. When the wind changes and the smoke starts getting in our eyes, we move around the fire out of the smoke. When the wind changes again, we have to move again. When many people see problems in their religion, instead of saying it’s a problem, they shift their view so that the problem is no longer in view, but eventually another problem will become visible, and they’ll simply shift their view again, and the cycle will go on forever… No matter how you look at the bible, problems will arise, and no matter how you try to solve the problem, it usually only creates more problems that will either have to be solved or ignored.

It’s funny in a way because on one hand many christians speak about what makes sense, or “we know this is what it means because…” but then they’ll turn right around and criticize reason when it points to a religious flaw, or they’ll say the old, “we cant understand god because his ways are higher than our ways.” Well which is it? can we understand “his will” or cant we? The real question however, is why should we even think the bible is “His”?

I lost faith in the bible long ago. While I believe there are many passages that can inspire and encourage believers as well as non-believers, the essence of the book itself is so full of inconsistencies (and, as William noted, moral atrocities) that I can no longer see it as “Holy Scripture.”