Wednesday 14 April 2010 Lonely At The Top

We've recently joined a small book-discussion group in Beckley WV. We thought of the members as very open-minded--that is, until we played for them a portion of the School's tape "Walk through the Bible", a talk by the late Reverend Ron Parshley. At that point we found some of them were not at all open-minded. In his inimitable fashion, Ron the trained Jesuit priest showed that the Bible consists mostly of plagiarized folk stories concerning a tribal war god, cobbled together into some kind of narrative. His piece on the exodus and on the ark are classics of their kind.

We had thought that most people were aware of these flaws in the purported holy book, even those people who in their inquisitorial role caused millions of individuals to be burned in the middle ages. We were wrong. If you would like to explore these topics and to understand why we think what we think, we suggest these four books.

J. Robertson Pagan Christs

C. Hitchens God Is Not Great

R. Dawkins The God Delusion

R. Friedman Who Wrote the Bible?

Why the "normals" (and even these thoughtful authors whom I list) persist in calling Jehovah "God" is really beyond us. He's the only game in town? Come on. Without even trying, we've got a list of gods as long as our arm. If someone tries to lean on you and tell you about their juju-on-a-stick, insist at least that they stipulate which god they're talking about; otherwise, you don't have time to waste.

Be true to yourself; keep your mind in gear. Blessed be. Gavin and Yvonne