To the Editor:
On the Letters page last week there were three different submissions advising us that the Bible is the actual “Word of God” and that we need to vote against same-sex marriage because of that.
Now, there are those who tell me that I should just let people believe what they want to believe and keep my pen holstered, but that would be letting their views carry the day without debate, and I firmly believe that would be a huge and potentially dangerous mistake.
I believe that the Bible is not the word of any god; that it has the handprints of primitive, very fallible men all over it, and therefore should never be taken as the ultimate authority on moral issues.
If the Bible is the word of a god, then why does it have two different creation stories (Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Genesis 2:4-25)? In the first account, human males and females are created after the animals, while in the second the man is created first, then the animals, and finally the woman. If there are two conflicting accounts, then isn’t it obvious that fallible men were involved in the creation of the Bible? I mean, wouldn’t a god know which is the “true” story and omit the other?
Similarly, the Bible also provides two different genealogies for Jesus, both tracing him back to King David. In Luke, 44 generations are traced back to King David, while Matthew lists only 28, and both lists contain names not on the other list. Odder still, these genealogies both trace through Joseph who, according to the Bible, was not even the biological father of Jesus (the Holy Spirit was the father, according to Luke 1:26-35).
The Bible says, “God is not the author of confusion” (Corinthians 14:33), so how could he be the author of these confusingly conflicting genealogies? Clearly, the two genealogies are different because they were made up by two different authors who didn’t expect their writings to be put into the same book.
Of course, someone is bound to argue that I have taken these examples out of context, or that if I read the whole Bible, then this would all make sense to me. I look forward to their responses, but I think we have a right to insist on details which go beyond mere unsubstantiated claims or more quotes from the Bible; as I have already shown, that something is in the Bible doesn’t prove it’s true any more than a stack of comic books proves the existence of Superman.
My point here is that much – if not all – of the Bible is obviously the work of primitive, intolerant and uninspired men, and we need to use our own hearts and minds to decide important issues like same-sex marriage. If too many of us take the Bible as the official word of God, as those letter writers urged, and as the Church fathers of the Inquisition did, then how long will it be before we start hunting down and burning witches again, as the Bible commands (Exodus 22:18)?
When you start accepting the Bible as the final arbiter of moral issues, you tread on extremely dangerous ground. A few weeks ago, in Mali, two people accused of adultery were buried up to their necks and stoned to death. Is this the kind of obedience-to-the-Bible morality we want for America, and do we really want to label our homosexual friends as freaks and sinners?
I know we can be better than that, and I like to think that we are.
Galen Rose, Damariscotta/
