Biblical Literalism

It's obvious to anyone who bothered to read the quotes at the top of the page that I chose to sum up my philosophy of life that I am not a woman of religious conviction, unless you count the fact that I am convinced religion is bullshit. I am sure some people read that and moved on. No atheist ever said anything that they wanted to hear.

That is indeed too bad, because I have been ginning up to re-read my Bertrand Russell while I am off for the summer, and I have therefore been ruminating in a most thorough and multi-faceted manner. In this vein, I have attempted to apply my fairmindedness to the subject of biblical literalism, the topic itself, not the people who believe. Yesterday I vented my spleen. Today, I shall atone.

What has me thinking the heretical, blasphemous thoughts I've been thinking is the current Kansas State School Board fundamentalist coup that is set to eviscerate the state science standards by deemphasizing evolution. State board member Connie Morris sent a letter to her constituents at taxpayer expense in which she proclaimed evolution to be a "fairy tale" that was "ungodly" and besides that, utterly impossible, dismissing 150 years of scientific theory and solid research with the stroke of a pen, or rather, the click of a mouse. I chuckle at a slight irony here. The computer she uses to help facilitate the spread of her fundie agenda was made possible by secular engineers and scientists. I thank them, not a god, for this computer, and for the internet.

To those who would try to convince me that the bible is the literal word of God, such as Connie Morris and the other five conservatives on the Kansas State School Board, and all others for that fact, I have but one thing to say, I'll keep it brief, and that is this:

If you want to couch the debate in this framework, may I suggest that you return to a college that specializes in a classical education, and study your Ancient Greek and your Ancient Hebrew really hard for a few years, and pore over the original texts. Go to the middle east and live in the Holy Land for a while. Interact with the cultures and study their history. Do these things, and then we'll talk.

Everyone who has read any Henry James, or Somerset Maugham, or Jane Austen, or F. Scott Fitzgerald - knows that language is a living entity that changes and evolves(!) over time. In addition, anyone who has taken even a semester of a foreign language knows that no translation is ever quite 100% accurate. It is a short step for me, an admitted non-christian (there go my hopes of being elected to Congress and thus having a retirement plan) to determine that the bible in English, especially in modern translations such as The Living Bible, and bibles edited for content can not possibly be the literal word of God. For example; The Catholic bible has books of scripture that have been omitted entirely from the King James, or Protestant, version of the bible.

Even if I could accept that every single author of the original texts were writing under the enchantment of the "Holy Spirit," what about the translators? Divinely guided, or just ordinary fellas with no charismatic phenomena going on in their midst? (If you take the challenge I offered earlier, you can let the world know definitively if you fell under a spell while you were translating.)

I appreciate, hell, I envy the ability that some people seem to have to walk on faith. It makes life a lot easier if the hard questions can just be dismissed as "unknowable." But I don't have that. My mind does not rest once a question is posed, until empirical data confirms or denies an answer.

I know there is no geologic evidence for a "great flood." I know that the fossil record dates to billions, not thousands of years. I know that the bible lists a whole lot of prohibitions that the literalists choose to ignore. They wear blended fabrics, eat bottom-feeding fish, eat pork and shellfish, play football even on Sunday - and this involves touching a pig which is another prohibition. They don't sell their daughters into slavery. They willingly and fervently pledge their allegiance to the flag, but the very first commandment of the "big ten" forbids this very act that they hold most dear. These convenient oversights bother me. If the bible is indeed the literal word of god, are they not - literally - damned for these transgressions?