Why the Bible Brings Down Christianity



All of us learn over the course of our lives that some things we were taught earlier turn out not to be true. Sometimes it was "history" that was incorrect but passed down with good intentions. Sometimes it was myth. And sometimes the myths were passed down with bad intentions, such as the desire to control or take advantage of others including ourselves. 

The passage of time has put the Bible on the defensive. While a few today treat it in its entirety as "true", the more common approach in Christianity is to select certain parts, treat those as true and powerful, and disregard other parts as myth. When trying to convince others of the Bible's importance the marketer has to convince the customer that not only is the favorite part "true" but the speaker, writer or preacher is the one that knows and can separate the chaff from the wheat. 

Gambling can teach us about the probability of "truth." If you flip a coin and guess "heads" you have a fifty percent chance of being right. If you guess "heads" for two flips in a row, your odds of guessing correctly are no longer 50%. They go down to 25%. This is the problem with believing first the clergy telling you something is "true" multiplied by the probability the Bible is "true."

Periodically Christian sites carry blogs from skeptics. A great one showed up today reviewing the many people looking for "Noah's Ark." All of my life people have claimed to discover it. The link reviews the various flood stories from other religions, there are several. 

A new survey by a Bible-promoting group found that only about half the public believes in the miracles of the virgin birth and resurrection. While most of those still active in the faith believe these myths, sales to the general public are falling. Using the Bible to sell Christianity was a mistake from day one and remains a dead-end marketing strategy. 

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