my own, personal research leads me to believe (not ‘know,’ but believe), that, in regard to ‘the bible’:
- there isn’t one ‘bible’. there are many versions, in many languages, with many editions and many translations.
- ‘the bible’ (in this essay, from here on out) refers to the many, many, many bibles that, while similar in many ways, are different from each other. there is no such thing as ‘the bible.’ there are various bibles that stem from pieces of interpretations of ancient artifacts (all of which were created/written-down by men).
- the bible(s) is a
compilation of stories:
- stories that were
passed down, from generation to generation -- by word of mouth, via song,
and through poetry. i’ve tried to
translate poetry (from another language).
have you? it’s an exercise
in extreme futility. as one might
imagine, poetry doesn’t translate well at all. once translated… you’ll then need
someone to interpret the translation!
- word-of-mouth (as you
surely know) is also a poor, ineffective method of transferring any kind
of information.
- men (not women) were
in charge of the story-telling, writing, editing, translating and
publishing processes of the bibles.
- no one knows who wrote what, and no one
bothered to write down who edited
what, and no one seems to care who translated
what.
- men wrote it, men
edited it, men translated it,
and men edited it (again and
again).
- even today, it is men (mostly) who are in charge of how to interpret it.
- the type of men who would have had the wherewithal to oversee the writing and ‘publishing’ of the bibles were, and are, men of power (men of control, men of war).
- the biblical god is not ‘loving.’ pick any page of the old testament, read on, and it will not take you long to find verses that show the biblical god to be angry, jealous, vindictive, punitive, vengeful, sexist, prejudiced and judgmental. ‘he’ is a murderer (in fact, ‘the flood’ was the largest premeditated, mass murder/genocide of all [earthly] time)!
- there are many, many, many more than 10 commandments. the biblical god does not follow his own commandments, and you know that this is true. example: “Thou shalt not kill.”
- the biblical god is preoccupied with blood: blood sacrifices to himself, especially.
- the biblical god is an egomaniac… a raging lunatic… and, oh, occasionally: loving. he’s a lot like an angry, mean (but sometimes okay) alcoholic dad… probably like the ones who wrote and edited the bibles!
- no one knows if Jesus really existed. no one knows if Jesus is god. many of the stories of Jesus are stories of love, and many other stories show Jesus to be an egotist, as well as a trouble-maker.
- Jesus gave ill-advised directives that only an idiot would follow: “leave your home, your wife, your job, your friends, your family… and follow me.” that, my friends, is not good advice. who else but a few down-on-their luck fishermen would ever drop everything (yes, everything) to follow a long-haired homeless man -- around and about an obscure countryside?
- Jesus (if he existed) was a charismatic hippie who was more likely to get his followers killed than to ‘save’ them from anything. don’t get me wrong: i Love the Love theme and the hippie theme. i also like the idea of turning water into wine (especially on friday evenings).
- back to ‘god.’ wait… uh… Jesus is god. whatever.
- when an all-knowing, all-loving, all-caring god determines that the best way to ‘forgive sins’ is (a) to impregnate a young palestinian virgin, (b) to have one [and-only-one] ‘son’ (c) to set the causes in motion that lead to his ‘son’ being nailed to a cross and murdered in public, and (d)… after all of that, to make a change in the rule that “The only sins that are (really) forgiven are those of followers who believe in me” … i can easily deduce that no ‘God’ made up that bullshit. Men made it up. i tend not to worship a dad who would blood-sacrifice his only child.
- “flood a planet, and
drown ‘em all!”: when an all-loving father decides that his best plan
for dealing with some unruly children is to kill every,
living thing on the planet (including innocent babies, innocent women,
innocent kittens, innocent puppies, innocent fig trees, etc.)… then he’s
just proven that he is not all wise. he is not all-loving. he is not even nice (for god’s sake)!
…and (let’s not forget) he didn’t just kill them, honorably. he drowned them!
the equivalent of that would be your creepy next-door-neighbor (a) creating a garden, (b) noticing some weeds, and then deducing that his best course of action was to take his kids, your kids, and all the neighborhood kids into his bathroom and hold their heads in the toilet until they drowned. oh, and then he’d do the same to your parakeet and tomato plants. this is the kind of biblical god that people actually worship???
- when one of the bible(s)’ greatest heroes ‘orders’ the killing of women and children, but then relents, allowing the virgin girls to be kept alive – only to be given to soldiers (as the spoils of war)… we’ve got a divinely-inspired problem. by the way, when only the virgin women are kept alive, and when they are ‘given’ to soldiers to “do as you wish,” and when soldiers “do as they wish,” those 10-13 year-old girls aren’t virgins anymore! what happens to them then? nice attempt at divine inspiration, moses!
- when one of the bible’s heroes can ‘buy’ a wife (as property) with 200 foreskins… we’ve got divinely-inspired insanity. adultery, murder, slavery, and the systematic slicing-up of men’s penises. david must have been divinely-inspired… or he had some divinely-inspired penis envy.
- when a fig tree doesn’t bear fruit for the main character (Jesus), and, pays the price of death… we’ve got a divinely-inspired-angry (or hangry) writer.
- when a man lives in the belly of a whale for 3 days, we might have divine bullshit, but the writer (and the believers) show little-to-no knowledge of human (or whale) anatomy.
- when a ‘devil’ has
power, and when god ‘bargains’ with the devil, we’ve got something other
than an all-powerful, all-wise, biblical god.
- when gods (and angels) come to people in dreams, and when dreamers tell us that their dreams are real, and when we believe them, the problem isn’t god. the problem is us.
- when gods ‘choose sides’ in race, in war, and/or in super bowl victories, we’ve got to wonder if it’s god, or if it’s men, playing god. did god deflate tom brady’s balls?
- my deduction: men of power, playing god. men wanting to control. men in charge. men, writing the his-story. old men, creating gods in their own, white-bearded image. men, hood-winking a never-ending flock of sheep who are too lazy to research (or critically read) their own holy books, or too tired and overwhelmed to realize bullshit when they read it. men and women, telling outright lies to young, impressionable minds… and then wondering why their own children lie when they are all grown up.
- believers are not
believers: while it is true that ‘believers’ might believe men
who tell them how to interpret insane information from an insane
compilation of stories, they do not believe a lot of things:
- they don’t
believe everything they hear.
- they don’t
believe everything they read…and they don’t/can’t read
others’ holy books.
- they don’t
believe everything they see.
- they don’t
believe everything that somebody tells them.
- they don’t
believe politicians and/or used-car salesmen.
- they are not ‘believers.’ they simply choose to believe stories that they’ve been told by men, based upon little-to-no evidence, without ever, ever questioning their own religious beliefs.
- i could go on
(literally) for volumes (after all, the bibles do), but i’ll close with
this:
- is your god ‘male’?
- how do you define
‘male’? does your god have a
penis?
- if he has a penis,
what does he use it for?
urination? sperm?
(ewww…)
- if he doesn’t have a penis, wouldn’t
that make him transgender (or non-gender)?
- does your god have a
mouth? why?
- does your god look
like an old white, bearded, european male? why is that? have you ever contemplated
that? who do you think wrote,
edited, translated and published the kjv?
- would you describe
‘love’ as a ‘masculine’ characteristic, or more of a feminine
characteristic? is ‘murder’
(inspired by angry, vengeful, parental rage) a loving act?
- has your god shown up lately? no, not as a piece of toast, or ‘in a
landslide,’ or ‘as a cloud,’ or ‘in a dream,’ or… (fill in the blank ____________
illusion), but…
- has your god ever
shown up, except for in the eyes and dreams of very questionable
people?
- would you let your grandkids hang out with that preachy, loud guy-in-the-street who swears-by-god that he sees, hears, and communicates with the one-and-only god?
…why on god’s given earth would you ever, ever, ever worship (and pray to) the god of the bibles?
[1] martino, j. (4-28-1.15). my own research on the bible. book 75: lost & found. © 2015 by joal martino.








