The Bible and Religion | Teen Ink

The Bible and Religion

March 17, 2009
By greg hogan BRONZE, Arlington, Virginia
greg hogan BRONZE, Arlington, Virginia
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The bible, it has been called many things, holy book, a sacred relic, the base of a religion, the most read book in the world, I call it something else, a fiction novel. Many ultra religious and maybe just some religious people might call this blasphemy and they may and are absolutely welcome to put this down and never read it, but for those who do read it, last I checked if you don't believe in the thing in the first place how can it be blasphemy? I choose to call the bible a fiction novel because that is exactly what it is, just like The Lord of the Rings is a popular novel the bible is a slightly older more popular novel. The classic characteristics of being a novel are, involved characters, a good story line, and of course, everything works out for the good guys in the end. All of these things are true of the bible, yes there are some bumps along the way but the bible does not end with Satan taking over the world so I would say the good guys won. According to the bible god and Jesus both love us, us being the people of the world, unconditionally, this 'fact' proves that the bible cannot be true. If this is true then how can they allow all the horrible things to go on in the world? Now I know what you're thinking, I am sure you are all saying to yourself smugly that it's called free will; yea well I got another analogy for you smug-free will believers out there. Say you are a parent, you have a child and at say, the age of 16 you tell them they can make all their own choices and you won't interfere with their free will, it all sounds great in your head but does it work? So say that your kid starts going out, having sex, drinking, and smoking all the time, can you honestly say as a parent who unconditionally loves their child that you will not interfere at all in their choices and continue to let them destroy their lives? I believe that any parent would step in and stop their child even if it meant that the child had to give up their free will. So if God loves us all like children why then does he not step in and stop us from slowly destroying our lives. That question, I believe, cannot be answered by what religion tells us. The only way that question can be answered logically is if we accept that the bible is a fiction novel meant to entertain and even scare you into believing. The next issue I wish to take on is all the people who say, 'Well many things have been found all over the world that seem to be strait out of the bible', and I say to them you defeat yourself with the word 'seem'. As I am sure everyone knows the words seem means to appear like, that right their ruins their argument. Say someone goes to England he digs up a sword and says this looks strikingly like a sword from Lord of the Rings, then continues on and says therefore The Lord of the Rings must be a true story. Well I think it is safe to say that we would all laugh at him and say, it's called historical research, the author used reality to shape his fictional world. So what's to say that the writer(s) of the bible did not do the exact same thing. If they had the ability to write and publish a book of this scale then they would have known what was going on in their world therefore they easily could have based it on actual events but made most of it up. My last and possibly best argument is this, if god is omniscient, then why does the bible only focus on a very small section of the world, if god loves all the people of the world why not put, all the people of the world in his book? I will leave you with those comments and allow you to now argue fiercely for your side of the argument, please no violence, although it wouldn't matter that much cause if god does care he will just save the person who you are using violence on so violence away prove me wrong.
I Dare You.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 6 comments.


a.t.m. said...
on Jul. 5 2011 at 9:03 pm
I get the feeling you've never actually read the Bible. And you clearly don't understand what a novel is. And the reason that the Bible focuses on one part of the world is because that's where he allegedly had his dealings with men, beginning with Adam, then Noah, then Abraham, and Isaac and Joseph, etc. Maybe you should read it sometime.

on Aug. 24 2009 at 12:24 am
a_bunch_of_nuns, Unknown, Wisconsin
0 articles 6 photos 78 comments
I agree with PK4evr: This is a fun subject to comment on. *rubs hands together excidedly* Now,(in a different light of PK4evr) what I want to see in a million years(although I MAY not be there to see it) is, when people are gone from this land, assuming that they are, when other people come, they discover a bunch of books. Let's say that every house or ruins that these people find have a copy of The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter--some sort of classic book. We can assume that these people will think that we believed in the Ring or ol' Voldy, and then presume to think that TLTR/HP was our Holy Book. Just like when we found ancient scrolls in ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt, we found stories about Hermes, Zeus, or Ur. And what do people think of those stories? Yepyep. THAT'S what I want to see in a million years. Just sayin'. ANYWAY, I think that this piece shows a good opinion (as the comments from it) and I think it's good that you backed yourself up and gave examples in your writing. Overall, it was nicely written. :)

PK4evr ELITE said...
on Aug. 17 2009 at 7:30 pm
PK4evr ELITE, Allen, Texas
105 articles 5 photos 107 comments

Favorite Quote:
When life gives you lemons, make grape juice, then watch everyone wonder how you did it!

So what if God made the Big Bang? Kuz it coulda happened...

And where in the Bible does a bear come out of the woods and eat children? B/C I've read it and I haven't seen it...

And duhhhhh, other people don't rise from the dead because they're not the son of God- Jesus is? If we were children of God then maybe we'd be that way. Hah yah rite we're only human...

And um God's timing is his timing it's not ours. 0_o.

on Aug. 17 2009 at 2:48 am
Electricity PLATINUM, Bradenton, Florida
30 articles 0 photos 271 comments
I agree 100%. I'm not religious, and I think the Bible is fake. Besides, who cares if someone from a higher power created us? Why do we have to slave our whole life to please the creator??

PPSWW said...
on Aug. 14 2009 at 7:14 pm
PPSWW, Wat, Wisconsin
0 articles 0 photos 8 comments
I agree that the bible is only fiction. Just think: whoever wrote these fiction stories would laugh at us if they saw us now-- for believing it. We could always use logic: How many talking animals have you seen lately? How many good people wish for a bear to come out of the woods and eat children? How many role modles tell us to hate our parents? How many people have you seen rise from the grave? If these things don't and can't happen now, why should they have happened years and years ago?

I would like God to show me he exists. I can't look at "God's creation" when I know about nebulas and carbon and the big bang.

PK4evr ELITE said...
on Aug. 14 2009 at 1:06 am
PK4evr ELITE, Allen, Texas
105 articles 5 photos 107 comments

Favorite Quote:
When life gives you lemons, make grape juice, then watch everyone wonder how you did it!

Oh boy I love writing comments on these articles and at the same time I absolutely hate it.

Okay it was a little hard to read so I skimmed through it. Therefore: If God controlled us we wouldn't have free will and we wouldn't really love him. The thing that separates us from God is our sin, but God wants us to go to heaven so that's what Jesus was for right? Second of all, the Bible is the most sold book in the world. Now tell me, do you think that there is a reason for that? A book doesn't just sell well, you know- it's because people are willing to DIE because they believe in the Bible. Would YOU die to prove that a book is true if it really wasn't?

Also, there is a LOT of historical backing to prove the truth of the Bible- the dead sea scrolls, for one, and many others. Thirdly, parents are human- God is not, which is why he can love us unconditionally in what we call "agape" in Greek- the greatest love that there is. There is Eros, Phileo, and there's one more- I believe that it is friend to friend love and family love as well. But Agape- which no human actually has- is the love that God has for us- which is why HE can love us unconditionally.

Fourthly, the Bible is long enough as it is- imagine if God decided to write even one book for every kind of people in the world. That's a) ridiculous and b) kind of useless, because God loves all of us no matter what race we are, what we have done, and et cetera!

Fifthly: Okay, so you don't believe in God. Would you be happy if he made you believe in him? Well, he could if he wanted to, if he wanted to show you his face, but he hasn't, obviously, and you just need to look outside at God's creation to see his work in the world. Humans make things square and circular. Well, what about God?

Sixthly, God has worked so many miracles in my family- I could not even begin to write them all out here. If you want to know about that, I'll have to save that for another time when I comment on this article. But there have been miracles worked in my life and my family's life that absolutely prove the truth of God- and if I told you (which I can't here because I've used enough space already) you would too realize that there has to be a God out there watching over us- because he has taken care of my family and blessed us so mightily under his hand.

Oh wow I have a lot more to say on this topic than I have written- trust me, I do. And if that didn't convince you, well, then I'll just have to pray that God does- because I am only human, after all- and God is God, not me. I hope that I said this gently and yet firmly, because I back everything I just said here 110%. But that's enough for now. Believe what you want, but this is where I stand.

Thanks for reading, PK4evr