Published by History is written by men. And men tell lies.
Now this might seem like the least surprising announcement since the chairman of a fast food chain came out and said ‘we starting to think that cheeseburgers make you fat’, but it is nonetheless a point to remember when tackling an issue such as this.
To understand the Bible, is to understand its place in the context of history. This weighty tome was not written in a time such as ours, where millions of people have the right to education and at the very least, grasp a basic understanding of the fundamentals of science, language and the world around them. This was a savage time, where the peoples of each developing nation feared all that was around them in the absence of any true knowledge; the glowing eyes in the sky at night and the great orange sphere with its tortuous heat throughout the day. These people were looking for an explanation, and for those with intellect enough to offer one, there was an opportunity for great power.
Two thousand years ago, the learned few wielded a power the empires of Greece, Rome and later Britain knew how to exploit only too well – the power of the pen. With no one to challenge them on any level, the authors behind the scriptures, which eventually combined to become the book we know today, set about explaining the universe’s every mystery, from creation to death and back again. Finally the primitive masses could understand their existence; what to fear and what to respect. Those with parchment in hand would stand atop the hills and boom messages across the valleys, a broad smile widening still further as groups of people swelled before them, anxious to heed the word of God. But these messengers were not spreading peace and harmony. They were creating armies.
In the hundreds of years that followed, each new generation spawned a new religious ideal, and one that would be upheld at all costs. However mild and meek the original intentions were, the Bible was reinterpreted to suit the demands of the hierarchy and maintain control of the people who would die fighting to appease ‘their’ God. From the Crusades through to modern-day Israel, the conflict continues to establish one belief as the superior doctrine.
Time and again, history highlights the damage religion has caused as each new figurehead looks to abuse its authority. At a time some 150 years before the musings of Marco Polo in the twelfth century, the world witnessed the birth of one particular stand-out example. In the Middle East a man named Al Hassan had devised a cruel and lethal plot to aid in his battle against the infidel foreign invaders and we were introduced to assassins for the first time (literally translated as ‘follower of Al Hassan’). This man would pick boys of all ages that he thought would grow into useful warriors and take them to a deserted residence, whereupon they would be drugged until unconscious.
On waking up, comfortably numb in a drug-induced haze, the boy would find that he was surrounded by plentiful food, gold and beautiful women. But no sooner had he taken this all in when he was drugged again and woke to find those splendours gone as if they had never been there. It was then that Al Hassan would claim that he had taken the boy to Paradise, and that if he did his bidding in battle and died for the cause, he would be taken back there again for all eternity. This truly was a turn of extraordinary, ruthless cunning, and when one stops to consider the mentality of a suicide bomber, who would bet against the same technique still being employed today?
But even if we completely disregard the hateful conflicts of past and present, the Bible’s outdated, fantastical stories remain too abstract or absurd to the point of plain childish, to be considered relevant in any twenty-first century life. Surely no one in a modern audience, with the best will in the world and general knowledge as their companion, could be expected to comprehend the feats of Moses or Noah as genuine historical events? There are those who will tell you that these stories were never meant to be actual accounts of fact, but tales that echo with a different relevance in each generation, designed as a sort of moral code by way of analogy. But if that really was the intention, why have so many people fought and died for nothing more than a fictitious, flowery sentiment?
Ironically, one of the bigger dents in the Bible’s credibility is a great deal older than any scribe who worked on the project. It certainly must have been construed as something of a bummer in the halls of all things God-like when palaeontologists unearthed the first dinosaur bone, a species conspicuous by its absence in Genesis and beyond.
Has not the time come to finally credit the human race with enough intelligence to acknowledge the Bible for what it is: an interesting read – if somewhat lengthy for some tastes – which fully deserves its place in history as a monumental achievement, but one that should have no more right to govern one’s life than a copy of Cosmopolitan?
