The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

I started this project a few years ago to read – really read – the bible, to ask questions that occurred to me, and try to answer them in my own way. Unfortunately, the more I read, the less I began to think of the bible and the god of the old testament. Fortunately, I haven’t reached the new testament yet, though I have shared some passing thoughts about Jesus.

So rather than a reverential reading of a fascinating book, it has become a search for my own faith. I haven’t believed in a white-haired god in flowing white robes since I was a child; I have, however believed in God, because I have seen Him (or Her, or It) work small miracles in my life, but I have no knowledge of  who, what, and where that God is. Are the miracles simply coincidences I’ve attributed to a higher (or at least external) power?

I don’t believe so. But then again, I don’t know exactly what I do believe. So this project has now become a method, a pathway toward discovering what my beliefs actually are. I’m not foolish enough to think that I’ll wind up with some kind of concrete knowledge about god, or the watchmaker, or the creator, or aliens, or who/whatever I wind up believing in.

I know Jesus is that belief to many billions of people, largely because they see him as the personification of god, which gives them that concrete something to pin their faith on. Whoever invented Jesus, whether it was God Himself or just some really, really good storytellers, it was incredibly brilliant, because it gave all of us a specific someone to picture, and pray to, and from who to ask blessings. I am, however, a long way from the New Testament, and will now continue my stroll through “The Greatest Book Ever Written.”