The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

Okay, it’s actually not God’s problem; it’s ours. But first, a little background. Since the beginning of their history, as far as I know, Jews have been cautioned not to speak the name of God. Why? Maimonides, the great Jewish codifier, says “Our caution is founded on an understanding of the third of the Ten Commandments, ‘You shall not take His name in vain.’ Although this verse is classically interpreted as referring to a senseless oath using God’s name, the avoidance of saying God’s name extends to all expressions, except prayer and Torah study.

I’m light years away from being a Jewish scholar, but I say “twaddle” to that explanation. Not that he isn’t being sincere; he just doesn’t understand the interdiction. Here’s the real deal. At or before the beginning of their history, some really, really smart person (maybe God) made the rule because he/she/it knew what the result would be. And he/she/it was right.

If you read my Genesis, part one, you may be able to guess where I’m going with this. As I said back then, by “eating” the fruit of the forbidden tree, Adam and Eve brought mortality into their souls. Not just the fact of death, but a completely new perspective – that reality was only what you could touch and feel: the “reality” that keeps us from believing in God and that we are God’s creations, and therefore godlike ourselves.

The only “sin” they committed (except for the obvious disobedience and lack of gratitude) was that they were henceforth barred from full exercise of their spiritual powers. The stuff about sweat of their brow, labor, dust to dust, etc., wasn’t punishment; it was simple fact. God obviously knew that by diminution or complete absence of their godly powers, Adam and Eve and all their descendants were going to have a tough time in the world.

In other words, god made Adam and Eve in His image, and then Adam and Eve returned the favor, re-creating God in their own image, humanizing him. Thereby losing their immortality and other God-like qualities. By removing them from God, they removed them from themselves.

If you’re following along, you can make the next jump. Giving God a name is the first step in humanizing Him. From there it’s not a big jump to give God a gender. Or to start thinking of God as an old white-haired Caucasian, and putting him/her/it in the same category as the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Which gives militant atheists like Bill Maher and others a perfect way to ridicule anyone who believes.

The thing is, we have no idea what God is. I know, I should stop calling him/her/it God, because that word has so many problematic associations. As I’ve said before, we’ve humanized God since the beginning. “God walked in the garden.” Really? “Among all the trees in the Garden of Eden, God identified two special trees: of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil.” Please.

Here’s what happened: Somehow the universe was created, and earth was formed, and life happened, and eventually man appeared. Those are the facts. How did that happen? No one knows. Scientists talk about the big bang, and string theory, and all kinds of other explanations. Theists talk about God creating everything. As far as I’m concerned, everyone can have their theories, even evolution, because none of them rules out the possibility of “god.”

The bible, to me, is a big book filled with anecdotes and parables that try to show us how to live. Is it all the word of God? No. Is it divinely inspired? Much of it, I believe, is. But how do we define that divinity?

Who or what that inspiring deity is I have no clue. What I do believe is, whether it was inspired or not, it was filtered through human boundaries and concepts. Did angels come down, move among us, and talk to people? Did God appear to Moses as a talking, burning bush? Don’t know, but it certainly makes a good story.

How could the stories in the bible have been told, and had meaning, if “God” was a vapor of some kind? A life force, like “The Force” in Star Wars? Wouldn’t have worked. Never really has worked. Not for any “religions” I know of. From the cave men who might have worshiped the moon, or a polar bear, to the Egyptians, Romans, and up to present day. All had some sort of physical representation of their god or gods, mostly human. With all the human characteristics, good and bad. Like the God in the bible.

The point is, if there is a point in this rambling discussion, that you can believe in God without calling him by name, and without anthropomorphizing him/her/it. God, to me, is more and more the stuff the universe is made of, and that made the universe. A constructive intelligence of some kind that is accessible to us, and that cares about us in both an individual and cosmic way.

Without getting into whether he was the son of God, etc., etc., (we’ll get into that later) I believe that’s what Jesus was trying to tell us. I do believe he existed, and that he did some wonderful things. Are the miracles accurate, or are they exaggerations used by the storytellers to impress on us his godliness? Don’t know. His message, however, is clear. We can all be in touch with God/The Force/cosmic intelligence/etc. But first we must believe that’s a possibility. Must surrender our worldliness and, as Jesus said, be born again with the faith of a child.

I’m not talking religion in the usual sense. But I still pray in the usual way, except for the new version of the Lord’s prayer I wrote a while ago. I’ll share that with you when I think you’re ready for it.