Born Again Baloney

I am "skeptical Christian". Within my immediate family I seem to be the only skeptic. My parents were protestants, yet when they reached the end they received no comfort from their beliefs. That bothered me more than a little. My siblings each went in a different religious direction.As a boy I was taught many bible stories. The Christians were always the good guys. As I grew older I discovered that Christians also did some very bad things, yet it wasn't intil I reached college age that I started to doubt some of the teachings of the Church. I found it difficult to simply 'accept' some of the Christian theology, and I started asking questions. My sister Diane became a devout Lutheran, and my sister Charlotte became an equally devout Catholic. My brother Bud, to my knowledge, never expressed a serious religious thought. He went with his wife Sandy to her Church of the Latter Day Saints often but as far as I know, he never joined. .

I have no doubt that God exists. My skepicism begins with specific passages in the Holy Bible that are incredibly difficult to understand. Certainly the Bible must contain both accidental and intentional errors. It is often the only explanation for illogical passages. This puts me at odds with those who insist every single word is the WORD OF GOD. Try as I might I could not, and still can not, accept that.

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Errors have found their way into the collected books of the Bible as the result of;

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1. someone inserting words or statements to fit a description, or

2. from the difficulty of translating documents from one language to another, or 3. simply because of the the ambiguous nature of the meaning of words. (Changing semantics) . There were a lot of words passing through thousands of hands to reach the point that they were written, collected and bound as the Holy Bible. It defies logic not to suspect even one mistake in the final assembly.

Another issue the decision to include the mystic and superstitious content in the Holy Bible. Many if not all of these passages were written by people of ancient time. They were forwarded, most by word of mouth, and eventually transcribed and included. The people that wrote the mystic passages may have worshiped idols, animals, the sun, or the popular multiple dieties of their time. They may not have believed in a monotheistic God at all. This is also a logical reason for doubt.

. Which brings us to how we understand the Holy Bible today..

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• Evangelical Christians teach modern theological interpretations of the Bible. They hold several beliefs that are controversial.

• Holy Roman Catholicism is teaching their version of theology based upon the Holy Bible, and it is quite different compared to the many Protestant beliefs.

• Judaism isn't so certain of the "Trinity" theological interpretation, or that Jesus was the son of God. Their Holy Book is the Torah.

• Muslims generally believe in the Qu'ran, but

• Radical Islamists practice a wildly different interpretation of the same book.

to be continued