Bible Worship

Here in the deep south, I reside in an area commonly referred to as "the Bible Belt." What this means is that there are a bunch of Southern Baptists and Anglo-Protestant movements that all seem to derive their message from one source: the Holy Bible.

While it has been a Christian source of inspiration for centuries, it's growing reputation for being the "inerrant word of God" has actually created a purely brainwashed culture. Where normally sane, rational, intelligent people would collaborate and decide whether general information is acurate or trustworthy, there seems to be a lack of such common sense when the Bible, or what is perceived to be Biblical teachings, is brought into the mix.

While drawing inspiration from historical and religious related texts is quite honorable, the exagerrated form in question is quite reasonably a step backwards.

For example: the issue has been brought to many school boards across the country whether the Theory of Evolution should be taught as school curriculum. They (those who oppose evolution) argue that the Theory of Evolution has not been proven, and that they have an equally valid theory which includes God into the mix, and therefore, if evolution is taught, so must their Intelligent Design theory - in the interest of "fairness." Of course, the holes in their train of thought are (1) Evolution has been proven (the "theory"is not whether evolution exists, but about the mechanics of evolution, i.e. how it works), (2) there is no religious bias in the scientific methods to determine evolution, and (3) their Intelligent Design theory has no provable scientific thought and cannot be taken as anything other than faith. To teach a particular brand of "faith" in school and limiting the reliablity of proven testable theories is against moral ethics and common reason.

The basis of the argument for Intelligent Design is that they do not except the Theory of Evolution because it goes against their religious beliefs. Regardless of how it is presented, this is the obvious fact of the argument. And those that bring this debate to the table are generally going by the Biblical account of Genesis.

Why is it we can't have both? Why is it that if you believe in Evolution, you have to discount Divine involvement?

Many more books have been made to appease the two, and reconcile the two ideas as both being valid. This is a farce and should be treated as patronization.

The truth of it should be that the Bible, while inspirational and well written, is NOT from God. It is NOT the be-all end-all of the religious kingdom. Neither is the Qu'ran, nor the Torah (even though it is included in the Bible). When people start waking up to the conclusion that all these texts - including the discoveries of Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea - are man's account of things in the natural and spiritual world and they are NOT God's rules on the subjects, an age of reason might take place, and from there a step into people's own spirituality can be explored.

To come to the conclusion that any of these texts contains the only answers we'll ever need is to eliminate any possibility of error, and in effect creates a circle of perfection around a material object. This leads to a form of idolatrous Bible worship, as one finds whatever means possible to defend its perfection.

The answers are not written down to find. They are not in an instruction book, or on the pages of some long lost text. The answers are within, as they have always been. All we have to do is look.