Beyond Mere Words

Yes, Christian fundamentalism is dying, and with good cause. But before you attack this statement, let’s define just exactly what it is that we are talking about. If you believe that the Bible is the literal “Word of God,” you are a part of the fundamental movement. Unfortunately for you, this view of the Bible cannot be maintained for much longer as more and more of the Bible’s history is discovered and the sciences reveal more about the world around us. Add to that the fact that more biblical scholars admit this today more than ever before, and you have the beginnings of an inevitable collapse of the Christian Fundamental movement.

Quick Lesson on the Pentateuch

A quick poll of any number of Christians regarding the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) will tell you that a majority of them believe that they were all written by a single man named Moses. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

There are at least 4 different styles of writing within those 5 books, a couple of the books contain 2 to 3 styles within themselves. Most scholars refer to these styles as the Yahwist (J or Y, symbolically), the Elohist (E), the Deuteronomic (D) and the Priestly (P). They all come to us from different time periods and with different agendas in mind. It is due to multiple authorship that there are 2 accounts of Creation within Genesis that contradict themselves multiple times. Why do I bring this up? Simply because most Christians (let me qualify that with “at least the Christians that I have met”) have never studied the history of what they profess their belief in.

Take, for example, the story of the flood. Many people recall that it rained for “forty days and forty nights.” They forget that is was the “fountains underneath the dry land” accompanied by the rain that brought about the flood. Let us put this into perspective. The literal account in the Bible states that the “…waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep” (Gen. 7:19, 20). Now, a cubit was from a man’s elbow to the tips of his fingers, or 18-21 inches, depending. Mount Everest is 28,028 feet tall. For the flood story to be true, water more than five miles deep would have to cover the Earth! Since the Earth is round, not flat, the water could not simply fall off the edge to allow dry land to appear. This is also more water than the Earth could ever absorb.

There are too many errors, contradictions and revisions in the Old Testament to tackle in one post. I have already written a bit on creation here, here, here and here. Unfortunately, for you fundamentalists, the problems do not disappear in the New Testament. But, more on that next time.