Is the Bible Fantasy?

If you believe you will take offence to the content in this article, I suggest you stop reading now. If you are willing to have an open mind, then read on.

In a word, yes.

Not only the King James version. The entire book was written anywhere from one to three centuries after the purported incidents, and was based on oral traditions. Oral traditions are notoriously unreliable, as they get twisted, embellished and misunderstood.

If you've ever played the child's game "telephone," in which everyone sits in a large circle and whispers to the next person a simple sentence that was whispered to the first person by the group leader, you'll understand. The final person in the circle stands up and announces the phrase he heard--or thought he heard. 99.99999999% of the time, it is so far away from the original statement as to be unrecognizable.

Furthermore, there was the Council of Nicea which met in around 300 C.E. Their purpose was to decide which books they deemed fit for the general population to even know about. At that time, there were more books deleted than now exist in any version.

Next, there is the issue of proving the source. If the bible were to be subjected to the tests of evidence as applied in a court of law, it would be dismissed as hearsay!

The reason for this being that no one now alive was witness to the supposed events, and neither do they personally know any of the people who were then alive, since we do not have thousand-year-plus lifespans.

Claiming to "know" someone based upon the stories told within the pages does not count as 'knowing' by current acquaintance with a flesh and blood person alive today, in the eyes of the law. Ergo, all content of this book proclaimed to be "holy" is hearsay, pure and simple.

There is even suspicion that the person known as Jesus never existed at all!

You want me to cite my sources, I'm sure. Well, I began to question things that just did not make sense to me many years ago, and began to do research. The reason I began this quest was my own failed attempt at becoming a nun. I used to be a believer, until I got the inside story from that phase of my life. There were so many things that just did not gel, so many contradictions and other things that I could not accept, that I left the convent and went my own way, convinced by my experiences and research that atheism made more sense to me. (And no, atheists are not "satan worshippers," for we do not believe in such an entity any more than we believe in any deity.)

Many years later, when I met my current (late) husband, I found we had that in common. He had gone through seminary school to become a licensed minister. (Yes, he had all the certificates of each section passed through study, as well as his license, and he found the same, and much more besides!) He did not practice, as a direct result of what he learned, because it was not in him to be a hypocrite and preach things he did not believe.

It is from him I learned about all the deleted books, and all the variations, written and re-written over time to satisfy the priest class, and to rule and control people by fear. It was also written over many centuries, and not all at once. Far from being the "inspired word" of any god, it is purely the controlling, patriarchal words of men.

It is a book designed to denigrate women, and to keep people coming to church and giving up significant parts of their income or fruits of their labor in the fields, in order to keep the churches in business. In effect, all religions are cults.

There was even a Catholic bishop who came forward and admitted that the concept of hell is a construct of the church, to control people.

Furthermore, none of the story is very original. It is a mere re-hashing of far older traditions dating back to 2500 B.C.E., with the ancient Egyptians and their pantheon of gods. You can read more details of thatand other evidence at the links above.

In the early days of the church movement, it was actually forbidden for anyone but the priest class to learn to read, so no "commoner" could actually know what was written in the so-called "holy" book(s). They were forced to rely upon the pronouncements and interpretations of the priests.

Little, if anything has changed. If the priests cannot keep people in fear of some eternal damnation in the afterlife, and thereby keep their coffers full, they will be out of business. And make no mistake; churches are a business.

Look no further than the many TV preachers, pulling in the gullible and fleecing them of their money, while they live extravagant lifestyles. Talk about hypocrites! Talk about big business! If there were such a being as a god, what would said being need with money? "God" doesn't need church buildings or money. I don't capitalize "god," because I view it as a job description, not a name.

Ask yourself why the Vatican, for example, needs the extreme riches and treasures they hoard? This is supposedly a religion that preaches a simple life of poverty, and yet they rank among the wealthiest of all countries! They certainly do not sell those treasures to further helping the truly needy, nor do they donate them to museums for the enrichment of all.

No, they hide them away in locked vaults to keep their secrets.

No, not this time. I have deliberately omitted a comments box, for I have merely presented the answer to a question that was asked some time back in the forums. I have stuck to the facts I have learned.

I have no intention of getting involved in a flame war of arguments for and against religion. You may agree or disagree with my inside evidence, as you see fit. I do not care; you are free to believe or disbelieve as you choose.

My personal take on religion of any stripe is that the world would be better off without it! Think of all the wars, loss of life, destruction of property that has occurred throughout the centuries, all in the name of some god or other! From the ancient human sacrifices of the Maya and others of their ilk, to the Spanish Inquisition, to the Crusades, to the Catholic/Protestant warring in Ireland, to the Sharia law atrocities in the middle east...more lives have been lost in the name of religion than from any other cause.

I know what I know, and I live my own life free from guilt and as a good person. I don't need some self-righteous pulpit-crier to tell me right from wrong.