What Good is the Bible?

So here I am about to spell out the vague and heretical views I have about the bible. I suppose it's come to this.

I don't really care for it; not much. Not anymore. 

However, it has been instrumental in my life, and I wouldn't change that for anything. 

Again, I'm mostly penning this for my own clarity, but I welcome any discussion it brings.

There is a great deal of hubbub around the interwebs today about the results of a recent Pew Forum study that concluded most agnostics and atheists know more about religion than most religious adherents. If you want to take the quiz, you can find it here...but beware their servers have been overloaded and it might take you awhile to get in. It is 15 questions about all major world religions. 

I asked on Facebook "If I scored 100% does that make me an atheist?" According to the study, it might. 

However, I am simply a religiously well-educated Christian. Comparative religion is a hobby of mine. Or, put another way, I have investigated several major religions in my process of deprogramming from Christianity. One day, when in the throes of the labor that would deliver me from evangelicalism, I asked myself, "Well, I obviously am no longer a Christian, but I know I'm spiritual, so what am I?" That was back when I still believed Christianity was a box one either fit into, or didn't. And I didn't. 

As an aside, there is no box. I'm an atheist of the Christian box. 

Or, kind of like this. 

I'm no longer convinced that we know who wrote many of the texts that now exist as the canon of the bible. More importantly, I'm no longer convinced we know when they were written. The when is of utmost importance to the New Testament; for were the books written by eye witnesses? If so, were they written decades after the fact? If not, it would explain why some scholars say the first books of the NT were written around 100 AD -- surely not by any eyewitness. The average life expectancy at that time was around 40 years. 

A great quote to that effect:

"Several thousand years ago, a small tribe of ignorant near-savages wrote various collections of myths, wild tales, lies, and gibberish. Over the centuries, these stories were embroidered, garbled, mutilated, and torn into small pieces that were then repeatedly shuffled. Finally, this material was badly translated into several languages successively. The resultant text, creationists feel, is the best guide to this complex and technical subject." – Tom Weller, Science Made Stupid, 1985

We don't really know how true any part of the bible is. Of course the more fundamental parts, for a Christian,  have to do with the life of Jesus. Did he really perform miracles? Was he really virgin born? Was he really resurrected? 

The fundamental reason why Christians are usually expected to believe the bible as 100% literally true has to do with the question that once we begin unraveling it, where do we stop? In the end we are left with, "Did Jesus ever really exist? If he did, why does he even matter at all unless, he really was the son of God, miracle-worker, savior the bible says he is?" If we cease to believe in the literalism of the bible, why should we even care who Jesus was? 

I read a book recently that had me thinking. It was by Bishop John Shelby Spong, called 'Jesus for the Non-Religious'. It was a fascinating read, and I was enthralled. However, Bishop Spong attempts to remove all miraculous occurrences from the life of Jesus. He works to give plausible, scientific explanations for every miracle. And it would work for me, too, if I wasn't left with one big question at the end.

"If there were no miracles surrounding the life of Jesus, then why the heck should I care who he was or if he even ever lived?" Sure, maybe he was an insightful prophet, but why should I care?

The reason for me, the reason I don't throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, the reason I still follow the baby, albeit a different baby, is this:

The words and actions attributed to him speak to my soul. He is recorded as having been a huge religious revolutionary in his time; a revolution that should still impact the way we operate today. The years I spent learning who this man is proclaimed to have been (even if he actually wasn't), have impacted the way I relate to myself, others, and the world at large. When I realized that Jesus' primary message was (or is recorded to have been) that any religious observance, philosophy, theology or doctrine that doesn't stir us toward more love for one another, it is worthless...well, count me in. 

Basically, unlike any other religion that I have learned about, the primary religious figure of Christianity brought a message that was revolutionary against not only the religion of the day, but against the religion that he is actually attributed to have founded. In other words, if the message that Christianity holds so dear, "love one another", was actually followed the way Jesus intended, they would put themselves out of business. Their main prophet would be against what Christianity has become. 

That's cool. Because they so actively, so vehemently, guard the same prophet that would dismantle them if he was given a chance. That's revolutionary. Crazy, just the way I like it.

However, is that of value to everyone? Of course not, and I completely understand why not. Our simple human sensibilities, when wielded properly, should automatically lead us to kindness, generosity, grace, and love, without all the religious nonsense mixed in. However, personally, I love the revolutionary -- what he stood for, what he represents, all the table-turning, anti-authority, defiant parts of him. He came here and told the religious establishment of the day that they were "doing it wrong". And if he came here today he'd say the same damned thing. 

And really, I'm not sure that Jesus, if he did exist, would have a problem with many atheists -- I think they get the point more than any of us. Religion has no value; only kindness has value. Oh yes, you can have kindness without religion, but you cannot have religion without kindness. In other words, we're doing it wrong.

My biggest problem with much of Christendom's insistence that we must believe the bible is true and/or infallible, and/or inspired, and/or literal is simple...their argument is that if we DON'T believe those things (or whatever combination of those things we are being instructed to believe) that we will most certainly fall down a slippery slope into utter atheism. Because, well, if we don't believe God's words from the bible, then we are lost. 

I'm living proof that they lie. I believe we can deconstruct everything that is sacred, and still be left with something sacred to cling to. I believe we can actually follow Jesus without being a Christian. I believe I can follow Jesus and even be an atheist, if I wanted to. (Why I still believe "God" exists is another post.)

So I don't really care about the bible. I don't really read it, I don't really care if it's true, or literal, or perfect. 

But I can't deny that it has outlined for me the person who is the best example of humanity I have ever heard of. Even if he never lived, which I believe he did, but even if he didn't...maybe he was invented as a hopeful ideal of how good a person could actually be if they truly made love their first priority. 

I want to be like him, as much as my selfish little ego is able.