Entry 732, on 2008-04-03 at 19:23:15 (Rating 4, Religion)
Today I listened to a Point of Inquiry podcast which interviewed Bob Price, who is the professor of theology and scriptural studies at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary in Miami Gardens, Florida. He is a former Baptist Minister, now a religious skeptic, and runs the Bible Geek web site. My approach to disproving religion usually relies on science and logic but Bob's more often relies on criticism of the Bible itself through pointing out inconsistencies, demonstrating where Bible stories have been copied from earlier myths, and showing where the authorship of various passages is doubtful.
I find his knowledge of the subject quite mind boggling and I really don't know enough about the Bible or the history of the era it was written in to really evaluate how credible his claims are, but when debating his critics he seems to be able to defend his position very well. I admit that I tend to lend him more credibility because he supports my own beliefs, especially the idea that the existence of an historical Jesus is doubtful.
Anyway, he spent some of the time in the discussion talking about a rather embarrassing part of the New Testament. In this case I am talking about Matthew 16:28, which says this: "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (King James version). Did you ever notice that the less likely the statment is to be true the more "verily" its claimed to be!
Now it seems absolutely clear from this that Jesus expects to return heralding some sort of end time event within the lifetime of the people he was talking to. But where is he?
Actually I saw someone who looked a bit like Jesus: wearing sort of robes, long hair, bare feet wandering around the University today, but that was close to the bar where someone said they saw Elvis a couple of years ago so I'm not too sure I should take that sighting seriously!
The whole idea of eschatology in religious belief amuses me. Its so obviously a scare tactic that religion uses to control its followers that I can't believe people can't see through it. So Jesus is running a bit late, 2000 years late in fact. What justification can there be for this error? Well there can't be one of course. According to Price the passage is possibly a forgery added in later but this doesn't really matter either way.
The reality is the Bible isn't a great guide for living, or a brilliant work of literature, or a source of truth about how the world works. Its a silly old book full of amusing myths. But even the myths aren't really as good as the ones the Greeks made up. I find it really embarrassing that the human race has made the Bible the most widely circulated book of all time. We really should be able to do better than that.
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