In other words, shut the #$*@ up
I can't take it anymore. I'm horribly, terribly, incredibly sorry, but I can not take it anymore.
Every day, I wake up, and walk around, and hold my tongue, as I listen to person after person after person say that the Bible is this and the Bible is that and we should listen to the Bible because God wrote the Bible or God inspired the Bible or the Bible is God's word and that the Bible should be listened to and obeyed and adhered to without question and blah blah blah blah blah.
I cannot be silent any longer.
The Bible is a book (and a rather annoying movie). Harry Potter is a book (and a rather annoying movie). "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is a book (and a rather annoying movie). Have we picked up on a pattern yet? The Bible is no different than these other two works of literature that have been mass produced and fed to a salivating public. Why should the Bible have the monopoly on controlling lives?
Wait, I hear some people saying that the Bible is non-fiction, while the other two books I mentioned are clearly fiction. To them I say, the Bible isn't non-fiction, it is speculation and rumor. It is the work of men (whom I believe the Bible says are imperfect) with biases, opinions, and beliefs. These biases, opinions, and beliefs are obviously going to affect anything that these men say, write or produce. These men wrote and produced the Bible. The Bible is affected by these men's biases, opinions, and beliefs.
But wait, some people are saying that these men were not affected by biases, because they were close to God, and He would only choose good men to pass His word down to, and He would make sure they picked good men to follow them, and so on and so forth. The problem with this argument is, of course, that it is based on an assumption, namely God. Some people would say that we know God is there because of the Bible. This is circular logic, however, because God is the very entity that gives the Bible it's authority. We know God is there because of the Bible, which we should listen to because God is there? This is like two murder suspects claiming to have an alibi because they were with each other when the crime was committed. There needs to be corroborating evidence.
Let me just clarify, at this time, that I have nothing against religion and belief. You could believe that we're all here because Tinkerbell waved her wand for all I care. My problem arises when you (the zealously religious) feel an absolute necessity to tell me that unless I blindly follow what you believe to be the doctrine of Tinkerbell, I will end up in Tinkerhell.
At this point, let me clarify the definition of knowledge for those who seem to think that they "know" that the Bible is God's word. To know something, you must have evidence in support of the thing that you supposedly know. For example, I know how to write, my evidence being that I am currently writing. Similarly, I know that Douglas Adams wrote "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," my evidence being his name printed in large letters on the front of it. However, I do not know that God wrote the Bible, nor do I know that God dictated the Bible to anyone else. Nobody knows this. Unless you either know God personally, or know the individual who wrote down the words in the Bible, you BELIEVE that the Bible is God's word. This article is my word. You know this because I am writing it. The Bible MAY BE God's word. It is not something that you can know.
If you cannot know it, it brings up an interesting point. I am always amused at the people who accuse me of "distorting" God's word to fit my heathen lifestyle, simply because I don't think homosexuality is wrong, or because I don't think that premarital sex will confine me to an afterlife of unbearable heat. I cannot distort something that is impossible for me to know. The Bible is open to interpretation simply because it is impossible for someone to sit down and talk to God and ask "So what were You saying, really?" Since this is the case, any interpretation of the Bible, including the one that believes it unconditionally, is a distortion, if that is the word you want to use.
I think that's all I have for now.
My name is Philomedy and I approve this message.