Week 2 - The Bible

Questions to be considered: Does the Bible's status as a religious text mean that criticism should be withheld? What lessons, as a non-believer, can be drawn from the text in a non-literal sense? How do these lessons stand up to modern life and humanist ideals? 

Who's up for a game of hypotheticals?  Let's say we have a book -- not just any book, but a best-selling book. Any will do - just picture it in your head, full of engaging story lines and relatable characters who are just so easy to cheer for. Now, lets say that this book has scores of devoted fans - more numerous than Randian objectivists and more personally enamored than any Tolkien fan. Would you, as a individual with an interest in thinking critically about the literature before you, consider the (undoubtedly strong) feelings of that particular group of fanatics? No! No you would not, shrieking hordes of incorrigible lunatics be damned. It could be said that those who view the work as so thoroughly faultless are probably not interested in good-natured discussion, and instead just pointless adulation. It is here where I draw my stance on the Bible as literature: the idea that the Bible can escape real pointed criticism simply because of it's exalted position as holy scripture is, to me, the very antithesis of literary critique.  I recognize that the people who would consider the Bible as a piece of literature would in all likelihood agree, and those who don't probably view it as unimpeachable direction from big-g God himself. I suppose this  rather brash treatment of the text comes easy to me, a self-described secular humanist with no real concept of divinity outside of "someone said God did it". Without meaningful critique, how can unique and personal meaning (and as such, salvation) be found? Or is that not the point of the soi-disant "personal savior" which Christianity (and other Abrahamic religions) prides itself on? 

Seeing as asking questions into the great faceless aether of the internet seldom results in concrete answers, I shall move on to what can be drawn from the scriptures, even as an atheist. The most evident thing to me was, that at its very heart, the Bible is all about knowledge -- both the proliferation, and control thereof. The first chapters of Genesis address the most common conundrum in man's history: creation. The desire to know  just who we are and where we came from is very base, yet still admirable from the standpoint of those living in antiquity. It demonstrates that, just as so many other religions before it, Judaism (and later Christianity) is primarily based in the pursuit of explaining the world around us, by whatever means are apparent. This is heartening to someone like me, who can so easily fall into a wholly cynical view of religion and its trappings and more easily illustrates that religion is about attempting to more wholly understand each other, and not simply a means of mass control, a popular notion amongst jaded atheists. Another big time lesson put forth is the importance of reverence towards figures of authority as a facet of piousness-- be it parents, a slave's master, or God himself, those who follow are infinitely more likely to prosper, and those who deviate are swiftly punished. These examples are probably where non-believers draw their cynicism from -- rightfully so, if you are not keen on annihilating cities, or pillars of salt. 

Taking a stance as a humanist, this is where I take the greatest umbrage with what is contained within the scripture. It is central to my worldview that humanity, and not a divine force, is wholly responsible for the good and evil present in the world today. So, every time that a figure is reprimanded for being, well, HUMAN, I am reminded why I, nor anyone in my family can be described as "devout". Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden for stumbling upon knowledge of good and evil -- a moral dichotomy that every human is aware of today. In a world like today, where information is so essential to being part of society, this initial lesson taught by God seems not only tyrannical, but outright cruel. Why offer the temptation of knowledge if you were just going to use it as an excuse for expulsion? Unless, of course, the plan was to have humanity leave the garden in the first place, at which point you begin to question whether this God fellow really is all that kind. Questioning and curiosity are two of the most important parts of the human condition, and the suppression of such pursuits is indicative to me that somewhere along the line, someone became very insecure about the ability of religion to actually keep its adherents.