The Godless Bible Scholars

Some of the new scholarship of the Bible, particularly some of the stuff presented on TV channels like History or Discovery, has the feeling of propaganda disguised as education. While the information is interesting, it is almost always framed to discourage faith and encourage questioning.

I think that honest examination and research into the Bible and early Christianity is a legitimate study, but it is curious that so much presented on television leads to a more secular point of view, and away from the sacred and religious one.

You might almost, if you watched it long enough, conclude there was a plan unfolding...a concerted effort to diminish faith by promoting the idea that science and scholarship have actually disproved Christianity and the Bible.

Of course they haven't. One cannot disprove the existence of God.

And, many of the "theologians" or "professors of Religion" interviewed are not busy teaching "religion", but rather busy teaching that religion is just the history of mythology.

What the creators and producers of such television shows seem to miss, of course, is that most Christians are not believers in the "literal truth" of the Bible. Not many Christians I've ever met believe the world was created six thousand years ago, in a seven day period, with the literal creation of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, who were tempted by a real snake to eat a real apple, and get thrown out of paradise by an real angel with a flaming sword.

As a product of long years of Catholic education, I can state without fear of contradiction that Roman Catholics (the largest single sect of Christianity on the planet), do not take the Old Testament as Historical Fact...and do not believe that most of the stories presented in it are historical facts. Catholics understand the stories to be lessons, metaphors, fables that teach us wisdom and truth, a little like the Aesop's Fables. Donkeys don't speak...nor do serpents...but the lessons are good ones, nevertheless. Catholics believe that the Bible writers were inspired by God. But they do not suppose God was busy writing the facts of history. That'd be awfully mundane. God is not necessary for that, man is quite up to that challenge.

Indeed, if the Bible is God's version of history, He's been proven to be in error by the research and scholarship of mere man. And that's a preposterous idea, isn't it? In the end, it seems to me that anybody who insists the Bible is literal historical fact is making God out to be an idiot, or a liar. A pretty untenable position for a believer I should think.

That, of course, does not excuse the makers of such programs "researching" The Bible, for the often obvious intent of discouraging faith by attempting to prove the historical inaccuracy of the Bible. They only do so because they apparently believe that the foundation of Christianity is the literal belief in Bible stories...so to undermine them is to undermine Christianity, which, on can argue reasonably, often seems to be their purpose and intent.

But assuming that all Christians believe in the literal historical truth of the Bible is to mistake all of Christianity for fundamentalism. But, fundamentalism is not representative of the modern Christian faith, rather it is a throwback to the Dark Ages.

The Catholic Church has moved on from those days of ignorance. Indeed it was, itself, a significant influence in the advancement of science and discovery...and, in spite of the commonly held prejudice, never persecuted or outlawed scientific truth because it seemed to conflict with religion. Not even Galileo, that favorite example of Christianity-haters, was ever persecuted or excommunicated for any of his scientific discoveries.

Fundamentalist dogma has been mistaken by ill-educated atheists and secularists as a common belief of all Christians. And they clearly believe that to show the non-historicity of the Bible is to undermine Christian faith itself. Nasty little buggers, even if their efforts are futile.

A perfect example of this ignorance is their claim that anyone who is open to the idea of Intelligent Design is really trying to advance Biblical Creationism. They seem unable to understand that someone who thinks the wonders of the universe require an intelligent designer does not necessarily think the biblical version of creation is literally true. Yet you hear the argument over and over that ID is really Creationism in disguise.

Silly really.

That said, I really do enjoy some of the shows. One particularly interesting one is called "Mysteries of the Garden of Eden" on History International. If you get a chance, watch it. It has an interesting take on the possible significance of the eden-like early hunter-gatherer life of early man in the Tigris Euphrates valley, where the weather was good, the hunting and gathering easy...until Climate Change (too many polluting automobiles, I suppose) forced a rapid change in their environment, and forced them into a more difficult, less idyllic, less abundant world.

Don't let the likelihood that their primary goal is to undermine Christianity stop you from watching. Since they misunderstand Christianity so badly, their changes of success are slim to none. Meanwhile, they do discover some fascinating bits, and weave some interesting theories.

And in spite of themselves, by showing how often the Bible poetically reflects much that may very well be historically true, they have made it even an more amazing document.

The Gunslinger