The Myth of the INFALLIBLE BOOK
The worship of idols is idolatry; the worship of books is biblotry.
Much of the present confusion and misunderstanding among people who call
themselves "christians" is due to a mistaken belief that the Bible is
infallible. This explains why certain sects of "christians" squabble
over the precise meaning of different passages, while members of other
sects shoot each other.
Anyone with the patience to look for oneself and think about what
one sees must be convinced that the Bible is not "infallible."
"Infallible" means "without error." It is always good to define
terms. Words may sound beautiful, and in the hands of priests and
politicians may be used to stir unthinking people to very un-Christlike
behavior, yet may still be meaningless. And meaningless words are of
far less value to honest people than earrings are to the North Pole.
One quite obvious error, if not an example of outright fabrication,
is the geneology of Jesus found in the first chapter of Matthew and the
third chapter of Luke. Of almost no consequence is the fact that the
account in Matthew only goes as far back as Abraham, while Luke takes it
clear back to Adam. However, Matthew goes on to say that the number of
generations between Abraham and David, and those between David and the
Captivity, and then from the Captivity to Jesus, are each fourteen. Sure
enough, if you count Matthew's generations the intervals do indeed total
fourteen. However, count Luke's generations, and you'll find that he
disagrees. Not only does Luke dispute the number of generations, but he
also argues about who was in the generations between David and Jesus.
Members of the Infallible Book Cult often try to insist that one account
is the geneology of Joseph while the other is that of Mary. This may be
correct, but unfortunately for the Cultists, this explanation is only
possible if their book is in error. Luke 3:23 clearly states, "Jesus
himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed)
the son of Joseph which was the son of Heli," while Matthew l:l6 claims,
"Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus." While
Luke's account implies that Joseph was not Jesus' father, but, from what is written both accounts trace the lineage of
Joseph, and neither that of Mary.
Since "christians" love to argue about words, let us turn to
figures which, it is said, do not lie.
The 2nd chapter of Ezra and the 7th chapter of Nehemiah both
contain a list of the number of the Children of Israel who were allowed
by Nebuchadnezzar to return to the Promised Land to rebuild Jerusalem.
While the names in the lists are nearly identical, by some quirk of
fallibility the numbers are nearly as different as Yin and Yang. Not
only that, but both lists end by saying that the total number of
children was 42,360. Take the time to add up the numbers of Ezra and
Nehemiah and discover that the sums are quite different, and neither is
anywhere near 42,360.
"Clearly a scribal error," say the "christian" Cultists.
Maybe so, but a scribal error is an error nonetheless, and one
error in an "Infallible" Book is one too many. If one scribal error, why
not a hundred, or a thousand? How, pray tell, can one infallibly detect
scribal errors? It is easy enough to see a difference in numbers, but
how does one tell if a scribe accidentally wrote "always" when he was
supposed to write "sometimes" or "never"? And how about translation
errors?
Wisdom is very difficult to teach, even through experience, and
nearly impossible to learn vicariously; however, the Bible makes a
miraculous attempt at doing just that. One mustn't blame the book if
the fool takes the figurative for the literal.