It is not a question of whether certain events did or did not happen in the recorded history of the bible. I have no doubt that Jesus was a man who was crucified by the Romans. I only ask for substantive evidence of the theological claims in the bible. The bible seems to contain a mix of verifiable history with some wild supranatural claims. But showing that Palestine was a real place in history is not credible proof that Jesus is the son of God or that God created the earth.
Take, for instance, the Da Vinci Code. We know France exists and we have credible historical evidence that the Templars existed. Given the logic of demonstrated by this argument applied to this book, that means that Jesus and Mary did unquestionably have a child that was smuggled to France, despite the lack of evidence to show such a child existed.
Truth - What we all seek.
In my 47+ years, I have had to face some truths about myself that weren’t very pleasant. One of the hardest was this; Often times, the behaviors, actions & attitudes I am critical of in other people are ones I exhibit, and don’t like about myself. When confronted with the truth about a behavior we posses by another person, we often become defensive. Likewise, when we are asked to at least consider an idea that is in opposition to a long held belief, we are hesitant to do so.
Here is an idea I have, and I hope everyone will at least try to see it from my perspective;
The creator saw humans developing and saw we were capable of understanding that there was something more to our surroundings, so he endowed us with a soul to make the connection with him. As we evolved & developed, many humans tried to explain forces of nature that were all around them. Lacking scientific knowledge and means, they reached deep inside & explained away these things as acts of “gods” – beings greater than themselves. As time went by, the creator saw that these human creatures were ruled by their emotions. He decided to take on these emotions so as to have a better understanding of these people. This experience prompted the creator to use messengers that would be at once familiar, and extraordinary to people to convey his desires for how we should lead our lives. This gave rise to the writings of the Dead Sea scrolls, and all religious texts since. But, these texts were written by man, and thus open to his interpretation, and their limited understanding. Indeed, religion became the rule of the day, and the law of the land. When a new leader, king, emperor etc. came into power, they had their book of choice close at hand. While each emerging religion seemed OK with acknowledging the others, each proclaimed theirs was the “One true (and therefore correct) belief system”. This lead to many wars as each in turn tried to rein dominance over all others, and all people. If you stood opposed, or even offered differing viewpoints, you were deemed a heretic, and killed.
Today, many people find it is easier to reference their text of choice to justify their words & actions, while putting their own spin on the stories to fit their side of a debate. All text, be it the Bible, Torah, Koran, Darwin’s journal…take your pick – each is subject to interpretation, and with over six billion people, there are over six billion differing opinions on just what the truth is. So what is the truth? No one really knows. The best we can do is seek out what we feel most comfortable with and keep it as our own. I try to keep a very open mind to all the possibilities, and encourage everyone to do the same.
