One thing I have noticed since being a Christian 17 years ago is that theologians are constantly reinterpreting the scriptures to keep up with the times and go with the discoveries of science. I came from a very fundamental church where we believed that the bible was inerrant (without errors)and that everything contained within its covers was absolutely true.
As a believer who has read the bible in its entirety four times I found that the more I read it the more insane the stories seemed. As an atheist I have found that I am not the only one who has rejected his former beliefs as a result of having read the bible. It's no wonder the Roman Catholic church at its inception translated the works into Latin and did not allow anyone but clergy to read and study its contents. Not to mention that at the time the majority of the populace was illiterate and could not read Latin. The church had suppressed these works for quite some time and went to great lengths to keep these works from the lay person.
Today everyone has the privilege to own a bible and to read it but surprisingly few people do. Most believers I have encountered have never read the bible in its entirety, on the contrary I have found that many atheist have in fact read the bible.
Today's theologians now teach that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not literal nor historical tales but are rather allegorical. It begins with the creation myth and ends with the tale of the tower of Babel where believers once thought that the worlds languages originated from. But what I find most interesting is that if the bible did not mean for Adam and Eve to be actual historical figures why create a genealogy for Adam if he did not exist in the first place? Why go through the seven days of creation in chapters one and two if this never happened?
Why did Cain kill Abel and where did Cain find a wife if according to the myth his family was the first family. Even though Cain was cursed by God to wander the Earth as a vagabond (Genesis 4:11,12) he did quite well for himself by settling in the land of Nod. In Genesis 4:17 it tells us that Cain went on and had a son and built a city named after him called Enoch, not bad for a vagabond cursed by the Lord.
The psuedo-scientific aspects found in Genesis once having been proven false by real science later changed their stories several times to accommodate the latest discoveries. Many Christian groups now accept the theory of evolution with God as its author of course. Some of the liberal churches have even begun to accept gays in their midst and I heard of one church whose pastor is actually a lesbian!
Today the church has moved on from the old traditional hymns to other genres of music, I have heard Christian rock, rap, salsa, merengue, texmex, and even pop just to name a few. A lot of the churches are shedding some of the ritualistic aspects in order to remain relevant in today's society. The only way in my opinion that the church can remain relevant is by accommodating people from all walks of life. Today's church is definitely modernized and they seem to have loosened up the reigns of formality and ritual to keep their coffers full and their pews occupied by gullible and superstitious.
Today's church will pretty much promise you heaven in exchange for your devotion to their lies and the contents of your wallet. Today's preachers and evangelists are generally telling the masses what they want to hear. Their are prosperity gospels that prey on the greed of man, faith healing for a prayer and a few bucks, and the surety of heaven regardless of the life you have led if you would only acknowledge that you believe.
There is no honesty in religion, just the building of one lie on top of the other to keep the masses happy and the churches tax free "donations" flowing in like rivers of living water. If you are so inclined do some searching you will see how radical the changes in Christianity have been since the advent of scientific discoveries. It's definitely an eye opener and worth the journey to discover how bogus these myths are and how they continue to change with the tides of our modern age.
I think more people every day are taking up the challenge that chatpilot has proposed. They are finding the courage to take that investigative journey of objectively looking into the history of Christian origins.
ReplyDeleteIf you are one of those people, you have nothing to fear. The reward for finding the truth is worth the price. I suggest that you search these articles and read with an open mind. The more you read, the more you will learn and the more it will become clear: Man made "god", and not the other way around.
I think someday man will outgrow his need for a god belief. even if it takes a thousand years man will evolve past his need for an afterlife. i have been an atheist since childhood even while attending 12 years of catholic school. as the daughter of a paranoid schizophrenic mother i knew crazy when i heard it. in grade school i was taught that the bible was fact. by high school (1980-84) we were instructed that the old testament was not always a literal version of what happened but fables wrapped around actual historical events. the new testament was still to be the word of god and therefore true.
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