As most who buy what the alleged written word contains, reasoning isn’t, if the bible is discounted and ignored. A debate without facts is not a debate and by no means does anyone’s bible contain facts; parables indeed, useful good works and good intentions indeed, but fiction based on some supposedly known facts, is still fiction. And anyone simply saying you must believe in what’s written, or else, supplies nothing but dogmatic obedience and anything but proof of any occurrences, let alone the details of said occurrences.

With Christmas quickly approaching religion and the Bible subject are relevant ones. The choosing of what to insert into the present-day bible (and then there is the question of whose Christian bible, let alone the “sacred” texts of world’s other 10-top religions should be used, but I digress) is one of the many reasons why I have little faith (no pun) in what I was force fed -- i.e., that God "penned" the Bible. I know inspired by God; is the dodge I recall being used. And yes, I recall that BS from that god-awful, mandatory Baltimore Catechism memorization (among other indoctrination techniques): that God works in “mysterious ways” and “he always was and always will be”!

More generalized, undefined platitudes aside, when one looks closely at Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, there are many disconnects. Not the LEAST disconnect is that history was verbal and no chisel or nub was put to stone or Papyrus by anyone until 40- or 50-years AD. And then nothing was documented about those occurrences, if they happened, or when they happened. Nothing was written the day after the supposed resurrection, nor a month later. It took a lifetime before verbal story telling was consigned to text! And then, there is the question of what was done to and with, what exactly was put in writing? The point being, who wrote what, when? No one knows the answer to that question. But inspired by god and faith in the unknown, purportedly provides the answer (and a virgin thrown in the volcano, will appease the lava gods and provide us with abundance)!!

With the oldest known Bible being from the middle of the 4th. century, there is no chain of custody, no proof that what was written, was written by anyone named Mark, Matthew, Luke and John and if it was, did it make it to today's Bible fully, partially intact, or not at all!! If they penned what is contained in today’s bible, were Mark, Matthew, Luke and John mentally stable, or were they the tin foil-hat wearers of the day? Or were they fab four Madison Avenue types of the day; taking it upon themselves to spin a yarn that would sell Billions? Or were they as the platitudes suggest, INSPIRED by God to provide his, her, or its word? Gee, all I need to do is say my pronouncements are inspired by God and I too can rule the world, amass a fortune and tell everyone how they should live and behave. Then, if they disregard my edicts, I’ll ramp up the Crusades and turn-on the Inquisition (both of which, make the Salem Witch trials look like a Sunday romp in the park)!

Housed in a London Museum, is the Oldest known New Testament Bible in the World. This Bible was discovered in Egypt, first coming to the attention of scholars in the 19th. century. It is the Book of Sinai (Codex Sinaiticus). It dates from the Middle of the 4th century. What happened during Jesus’s life and then FROM the day after death, to the Middle of the 4th. century? Assuming what the Book of Sinai contains is an accurate account of events (and that’s an unbelievable, unproveable assumption), how many hands and scribes touched, modified and obliterated, destroyed and rewrote, what was originally written in those first hundreds of years AD? Does the Book of Sinai contain anything written from around the time of Jesus? Who contributed what to it? Does it contain someone’s experiences and memories? Or were the contents of the Book of Sinai conceived from someone’s wishes and dreams, like other fictional books about characters (e.g., King Arthur, Grimm's Fairy Tales)? If no one knows the authenticity of the Bible’s contents, how does anyone know that what it contains, happened? And if portions of the bible are thought to have happened, how would anyone know whether it is true, partially true, or totally false? In ~350AD, there obviously were no pictures, no news at 11:00! There were NO written accounts a week, a month, a year, or decades after what happened. It is generally known that a news event today, when written about 24 hours later, will contain inconsistencies and inaccuracies. How about NOT writing about the event for decades or hundreds of years? How accurate, fanciful or downright fictionalized could that event have been made to be, if indeed it actually took place?

Equally as confounding is that The Book of Sinai contained 2-books that are not now in the New Testament. These are:

1>. Shepherd of Hermas

2>. Epistle of Barnabas

What happened to these books? Why were they removed? This does nothing but deepen doubts that the oldest known Bible has any relevance to anything that happened or didn’t happen.

Next to the Book of Sinai on display in the U.K., is another Bible written just a few decades later & also from Egypt. It is the “The Book of Alexandria”. It too has two more books NOT now in the New Testament:

1>. “The first letter of Clement”

2>. “The 2nd. letter of Clement”

Two (2) Ancient Bibles and Four Strange Books that we are aware of!! How many more books were there? Why have they mysteriously disappeared? And what of other Books or writings? Few have heard of the 50 or so other Gospels that circulated in antiquity such as:

1>. The Gospel of Thomas

2>. Gospel of Mary

More question than answers. I get it, there are so many questions without answers but one: "you must have faith my son, have faith" and believe, BELIEVE in the good book. Once belief is instilled and indoctrinated in 100% of the contents of the “good book”, ALL else is acceptable and believable! Now, let’s go out and ban books by Nicholas Copernicus and throw the Inquisition upon Galileo Galilei and his Earth revolving around the Sun heresy and any other men or witches with heretical ideas.

Suffice is to say that a discussion and pray tell a debate of Christian Biblical derivation applied to today is meaningless, unless of course the book is etched in the stone some believe it to be. Then have at it. Reason by quoting chapter and verse as if it is indeed indisputable chapter and verse, as if the characters or events existed, or they did what is said they have done. But as one without belief in any chapter and verse, my eyes glaze over and my mind wanders to what the heck is the point? How can a book’s contents be used to prove anything; when the book is just a ficticious compilation of unsubstantiated occurrences, good deeds and thoughts, not the word of some unknown, unseen, god or gods of man’s making? Use that as the basis for discussion and debate and there is no discussion.

The top 10 religions have their texts. It is a requirement! Without the dogma, the writings, the book (just the facts Jack), what is one left with, but reason, logic, science (as we know it at this moment) and the golden rule. The question is, which scroll, book, text about a god or gods is to be observed, believed, followed and obeyed? Therein lies the rub, those words “faith” and “belief”. And so it goes…you must simply have faith and believe…to believe, and if you sorta’ believe in what I believe, we can have a discussion about it; otherwise, citing passages from the Bible, Qur’an, Vedas, Tripitaka et al. provides no relevance, nor do they carry more weight than any other human philosophical statement or construct.