Original Scripture? Or Hoax? (Part One)
By: Seeker
Please note: The What is Religion? Thread is not finished and will continue. This is just a byway to wander down for a little while.
Some time back, while browsing across the internet, I came across an interesting document. Before I describe it I will pass along a bit of my history.
I grew up within a family tied into a Pentecostal religion. For those who don’t know the term it refers to a group of (usually) fundamentalist churches which place a priority on the Feast of Pentecost after the Ascension of the Christ, when the Holy Spirit came down onto the crowd and filled them with the gift of tongues.
In this particular iteration, we were exhorted from the pulpit to take the bible seriously, to see it as a literal book, not one requiring interpretation nor explanation. Of course we would then get weekly (or more often) explanations of what it all meant but that apparently escaped most parishioners.
However, in the subsequent reading I did of the King James Bible, I became very curious about things I read that seemed at odds with both the scientific and historic worlds I was learning about at school AND the stories being promulgated from the lectern at the front of the church.
There are some rather interesting stories in the Bible. Particularly if one thinks about things a little and realizes that people have always been people. Just because those who lived 3,000 years back didn’t have a Chevvy doesn’t mean they didn’t have wants and needs. So when a person jumps up on a rock and starts telling of weird and wonderful things, there’s probably always been a bunch of them who snort and back away slowly, not wanting to make eye contact.
Leave a Reply