Intro to My Series on Religion
I’m about to start a series of blog entries that some of you may not be interested in, others of you may be offended, and still more of you may be shocked that I would write such a thing.
It’s one of those taboo subjects that is virtually guaranteed to generate controversy, because of the variety of opinions, and the deeply held nature of those opinions.
It’s religion. Not only Christianity, not only the Methodist denomination (of which I happen to be a member), but also a variety of religions that are common throughout the world today.
I know exactly how often I will post these entries. I will post each one the moment it is done. Unlike the majority of posts I make as I think them, directly in ecto, I will be composing these offline, complete with footnotes, references and generally a lot of thought as to what I am writing.
The genesis (no pun intended) of these entries was my realization post 9/11 of how little I knew of Islam. I used to have a close friend that I worked with who was Buddhist, and I learned a lot from him about the view of life from the perspective of a Buddhist. I thought that this newfound knowledge was enriching, and helped me think about what it was that I believed. I even incorporated certain concepts from Buddhism into my own philosophy. When Islam was thrust into the forefront of the American consciousness, I decided to take upon myself (as I do not know any practicing Muslims) to learn what I could about the message of Islam. While undertaking this self education, it dawned on me that my favorite author is a Mormon, and I knew even less about the Latter Day Saints than I did Islam. So I started to read their literature as well.
I learned something. I learned that there is not nearly as much difference in the world’s major religions (certainly the â??big threeâ? that all trace their roots to Abraham) as many would have you believe. I learned that many of the stories that children are taught in Sunday School (or your chosen religion’s equivalent) are the same, whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Mormon (and yes, please, I understand that Mormons are Christian, no offense intended to the Mormons, but I think that they have enough beliefs unique from the others in the list that they warrant their own entry). Children in a variety of faiths learn about Noah and the Ark, they learn about Joseph and his coat of many colors, and they learn about Moses and the Exodus from Egypt.
What we have in common tremendously outweighs our differences, despite hateful rhetoric, and despite the hundreds of websites pertaining to subjects such as “Why the Bible is wrong”, “Why the Koran is wrong” and “Is the LDS Church a cult?”
I don’t expect to definitively answer any of those questions, and I don’t really expect to change anyone’s mind about anything. If I manage to make one person think a little bit about what they believe, and maybe become better informed about whatever it is that they believe then this will have been worthwhile. It’s already been worthwhile for me, and honestly, this website does not exist for anyone other than me. I love that people read it, I love that people tell me that they enjoy it (although I wish some of that silent majority would comment once in a while 
)
I’ll stick them all in their own new category (Religion) so if anyone really is not interested in what I have to say, it will be easily avoided. No offense taken. I hope you continue to read my other entries. I don’t intend this to become the overriding topic of this blog, and I don’t believe that it will be an exhaustive treatment of the subject as well. The topics I have chosen so far are: creation, Abraham (Isaac and Ishmael), Noah (and the Flood), Moses (and the Exodus), and Jesus. I may add, delete, or change the order of subjects as I see fit.
With that exceptionally long-winded introduction out of the way, I mind as well get to explaining why some of the entries that I make may offend, so you can make up your mind as to whether or not you ever want to read anything I have to write again. So here it is…
The Christian Bible (certainly the one we read) is not the literal word of God. All conservative Christians, Protestant and Catholic, can just stop reading now and direct the hate mail to matt@dumpinggrounds.com. I can assure you that all flames will be promptly routed to my trash can.
There are a number of reasons that I feel this way, and I don’t personally feel that this point is debateable, nor particularly controversial.
- The Bible was written over a number of centuries, and had hundreds of authors, and even more editors. Many scholars believe that Genesis alone had three authors. Of the hundreds of priests, rabbis, translators, scribes and scholars that had a part in the production of the modern Bible… not even one spoke English. Not even one.
- If one were to assume that the Christian Bible was the literal word of God, how would you choose which Bible was the official one? The most common answer, the King James translation (and I am using the word translation in the very loosest sense of the word), is quite possibly one of the worst translations ever. There are very few things that I know for sure about God, but the fact that he did not dictate the Bible in such a way that someday it would translate perfectly into English iambic pentameter is one thing I am pretty sure of.
- Having been written over hundreds of years, by hundreds of people, and almost certainly based originally on an oral tradition, the Bible does contain contradictions. I have no problem with the belief that these contradictions are the result of human nature, and not mistakes made by God.
This, in my mind, in no way invalidates the message, or lessens the impact of the Bible as a piece of scripture. The Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, the messages of the Psalms or the teachings of Jesus have no less meaning becasue of my assumption. For this reason I will discuss difference in the accounts between different books, but I am not going to fall into a discussion of minor semantical inconsistencies within a single book. To me, it just does not matter.
It is fair to point out that both the Koran and Mormon scripture can make a far better claim to being the literal word of God. Both of those books were written by a single person. Muhammad, the prophet of the Koran, is said to have been completely illiterate, and drew the letters as he was inspired directly by God. The text of the Koran, which officially cannot be translated becasue the words of God were in Arabic, has traditionally never been changed from the original text written by Muhammad (in reality, small changes were made, and later removed.) Needless to say, I am dealing with unoffical translations of the Koran, as I do not read Arabic. Mistakes in interpretation due to bad translation are my own.
The Book of Mormon was recorded to metal plates by Mormon, and then presented (and translated) by Mormon’s son Moroni (once a human, but by then a resurrected, “glorified being”1) directly to Joseph Smith who wrote the messages in English. There are not alternate versions of the Book of Mormon, although small editorial changes have been made over the years. The Book of Mormon is another Testament, any Mormon references in my discussions of Old Testament topics come from The Pearl of Great Price, another piece of Mormon scripture which (in part) contains books written by Moses and Abraham (which, like The Book of Mormon, were revealed to Jospeh Smith).
Any piece of scripture of any length (and for those who have not read them, I assure you, these three are long, although the Bible is by far the longest) is going to have passages that can be taken out of context to present just about any message that a biased editor might want to make them say. I will say that over all, all three books contain a message of love, and spell out the way to eternal salvation. In particular, I found the Koran to be a tolerant, mature, and very coherent volume. I only single out the Koran becasue of the amazing amount of bad press that it received due to the actions of a fanatical, insane minority. I will try very hard not to present passages out of context, in a way that changes the intended meaning of the author.
I am going to spend a good amount of time researching these entires, and trying to find actual references for opinions that I form while reading. These entries will take time, and I would not expect to have a new one every week or so. I can pretty much guarantee you, that isn’t going to happen. I’ll write as the mood moves me, and I’ll post when they are done.
Well, this is undoubtedly the longest introduction to anything I have ever written, so I guess it’s time to sign off. As always, I would appreciate any comments, positive or negative, that you may have.
References: * www.mormon.org and www.lds.org * Text of the Koran * I didn’t use an online Bible. I will list the exact translation when I quote from the Bible.
1 No disrespect intended by the quotes. Moroni is commonly called an Angel, but the Latter Day Saints website (you can’t get any more official than that, can you?) uses the term “glorified being.”