SW of Bible
Our next example is a storied-world of Christianity represented by Bible (divided into two major divisions Old Testament
and New Testament) and also all
historical, teleological or philosophical texts related to Christianity and originated over the lst 2000 years.
Bible is central to this storied-world for many
different reasons including its value as a historical document. Many Christians believe also the
Bible is a word of God written by people inspired by God (through the Holy Spirit) and, hence, it is a word of an
absolute and eternal truth.
By no means my I am going to give in this manuscript a comprehensive account of all interpretations of the Bible. For a
number of reasons I would not be able to achieve this goal even if I wish so. First, I do not believe that such all
inclusive account of this subject is possible at all. Second, even if it were possible, I do not possess sufficient
knowledge in this area. This manuscript presents my personal, very subjective account of the subject matter influenced
by my upbringing, education and preferences. I’m likely to misinterpret some issues and may have missed some critical
parts which people having a more comprehensive understanding of this teaching can easily identify.
The goal is to present only an outline of the storied-world that would suffice to illustrate key features of this world
and also highlight the lack of coherence in this collection of stories. Unless otherwise stated quoted text in this
section comes from (Crotty et al., 2003).
Ontology. What is out there?
The key figure of the storied-world of Christianity is an omnipotent and omniscient God. God is loving, forgiving and
compassionate being. God is one but could be present in the form of the God Father, the God Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The God Father is the creator of the whole world including Heaven, Earth, and Hell. “Heaven is a place of bliss where
God is experienced face-to-face. Those who do not believe in God are sent to a place of eternal punishment called Hell.
Many Christians today do not believe in Hell as a reality. In the Roman Catholic tradition there also developed a belief
in Purgatory. This is an intermediate state of punishment for those sinners who are not evil enough to be damned
eternally. After a stay in Purgatory their souls are purified and they can enter Heaven. Some Catholic Christians also
believe that there is another realm, called Limbo, where those who have not received baptism (NM: i.e. the rite of
passage whereby people become members of the Christian church) and have not had a chance to make a rational choice for
or against Christ go – for example, unbaptised babies. They are happy there, but they do not have a direct experience of
God.”
God has also created people and angels. People are meant to live a proper life abiding certain ethical norms. Angels
(the messengers) live either in Heavens or in Hell. Angels from Heavens are servants sent by God to perform special
duties, such as delivering messages. Angels from Hell are rebels cast out of the divine presence of the God. Everything
that God does is good; everything that fallen angels do is bad; people have choice to be either on the one or another
side.
Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world, is a human incarnation of the God, called also the God Son. For three years he
travelled throughout Palestine preaching, teaching and performing miracles. In about 30 AD he was killed through the
crucifixion, a form of the execution the Romans used for criminals. After the three days since the execution, Jesus
rises from the dead, ascends to Heaven, and sends the Holy Spirit to guide his followers spreading his message to the
world. According to this message, salvation from the death and suffering comes through the faith into the Jesus Christ,
the son of the God. The Holy Spirit is one of the three forms of the God, which imparts that faith and the impulse to
live a life of the true Christian believer.
Cosmology. How does the universe work?
The creation of the world is presented in the first two chapters of the first book of the Bible called “The Book of
Genesis”. The first line of the book reads "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". This is followed by
a detailed account of the creation acts. The world was originally a formless mass of water, enveloped in darkness and
inhabited by the Spirit of God. (1) In day one God creates light and separates it from darkness. (2) In day two he
creates heavens (the sky). (3) On day three he creates Earth. (4) In day four he populates heavens with celestial
objects (5) In day five God populates waters with sea creatures and the sky with birds. (6) On day six he commands land
to produce “livestock, creatures that move along the ground and wild animals” and then he creates a human being: “Let us
make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (7) “By the seventh day God had
finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day
and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Genesis 1:1-2:3
The acts and the results of the creation are not just existential entities void of any other attributes except the fact
of their existence, but they are filled with the evaluative, moral content. Everything that God does, not just simply
exist but it is good. Acts of creation are followed by the statement “And God saw that it was good.” After six days
having completed his work “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”
In the Old Testament God is one and he is the only creator of the world. God creates each part of the world by a direct
command, or word, according to the following pattern: “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light”. In the
New Testament (Gospel of John) the “Word” becomes one of the forms of the God which is vested with creative powers. The
key passage reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things came into
being through him …”. (John 1:1-3). Later in the same Gospel Jesus Christ, son of the God, is also referred to as the
Word: “and the Word become flesh and lived among us …” (John 1:14).
The story of the creation of a human being is filled with more details in the second chapter of the “Book of the
Genesis”. This extended description in general is consistent with that in chapter one except that a human being now is
created first (before any animal) and only after that God creates all other living creatures and lets the man to name
them.
The future of the world is prophesied in the final part of the Bible (Revelations) which tells that the present world
will come to an end and a new world without suffering, evil, or death will appear. “Jesus, son of God, will return to
usher in this new world, sometimes called the “Kingdom of God”. The words “Kingdom of God” have a number of different
interpretations. One of those is the belief of early Christians in the first century AD that within their age Jesus will
return to the Earth to rule in his Kingdom. Since this did not happen, later the Kingdom of God has been moved up into
the heavens. Under such interpretation the Kingdom of God and heavens refer to the same place. Another interpretation is
that the Kingdom of God is any domain where the God rules and that domain may not necessarily refer to a particular
place. For instance, the Kingdom of God could be established within an individual man if he truly believes in God”. In
this interpretation the Kingdom of God is contrasted to heavens in a sense that the later is considered as a particular
place either in earthy or spiritual domains. Third interpretation is that the Kingdom of God will come to the Earth in
the future after the resurrection of dead, when their souls will be reunited with bodies and they will face God’s
judgement. No one knows when this day comes.
Metaphysics. Why this universe rather than some other?
Unlike to the universe of science in the universe of Bible this question has a simple answer: “The universe works this
way, because God has created it this way". Any further enquires are blocked by the acknowledgment of our
very limited capacity to comprehend his design.
Identity. What is a human being? A human nature
Human beings were made out of the dust or soil of the Earth and filled with the breath from God that gave them life.
“The breath of God includes an eternal aspect called the soul, or spirit. The soul lives on after the death and will be
reunited with its body at the resurrection of all the dead when the world comes to an end”. Soul is a presence of the
divine and infinite in a finite man.
People are made in the image and likeness of God. They have special functions to represent God on Earth and act as
caretakers of the world. They have also choice to either follow God or to fall for the angel of darkness called the
Devil. Those with God after the death ascend to heavens to live in the presence of God, those seduced by the Devil incur
eternal suffering in Hell. In either case the subject of the eternal bliss or suffering is a soul rather than corporeal
parts of the human being. The body is not eternal since it is made out of the dust and after the death returns to dust.
The soul and the body are two separate entities. The relationship between the soul and the consciousness is not clear.
Practice. What people do?
The purpose of life is a salvation from the death, achieved through the belief in God. The true believer ascends to
heavens post-mortem and lives there in the presence of God forever. The road to heavens, however, is not a luxury ride -
devil makes man to lose his track and sell his soul. The main function of the Bible is to instruct
people how they must live their lives, what to think, and how to behave in order to resist the devil and achieve
salvation. Ten Commandments of the Old Testament for instance provide specific instructions to God’s people (Israel)
telling them what they should or should not do. Bible is meant to be a travel guide to heavens.
God’s instructions to people are reinforced through the covenants (testaments) that he makes with his followers. The New
Testament describes the latest covenant between the God and people where the God promises redemption to all those who
believe in JC and his resurrection. This covenant is sealed with the blood of JC. Unlike the previous covenant based on
the Old Testament where nine out of Ten Commandments specify rules for people to follow, the new agreement does not
provide a strict code of behaviour. Rather, it promotes and emphasises the role of faith and other mental and
psychological states (e.g. love, grace, attitude, intentions) on the road to the redemption. “I gave you a new
commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). “You have heard that it was
said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already
committed adultery with her in his heart”. (Matthew 5:27-28) “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your
neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you
may be children of you Farther in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45).
Values. Why they do it?
Christians believe that the redemption comes through the sacrifice of the God’s son JC. Those who believe in JC and
resurrection are free from the death and belong to the God’s Kingdom. There are a number of reasons that justify their
belief in God and redemption including that of direct and mediated experiences of God. “In the Christian Scriptures
there are many stories that describe people who experience God immediately (e.g. Moses, Saul). They met God as ‘the Holy
One’, pure, overwhelming and powerful …”. Other saints “experienced the feeling that the soul left the body and merged
with God. … Today, one of the ways in which God is thought to be experienced immediately occurs when the Holy Spirit
enters individuals during worship; a person is liable to experience this through intense prayer, singing, rhythm and
music.” Quakers, for instance, believe in continuous revelations of Christ which can be directly accessed through the
immediate experience of the Jesus or Holy Spirit. There is no need for a mediator (clergy) to facilitate the
communication between the earth and the heavens. Another denomination, Pentecostalism (a renewal movement within
Christianity) places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
This ritual enables a Christian to live a life filled and empowered by Holy Spirit. The empowerment includes the use of
spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and divine healing.
For many Christians, however, the experience of God is not immediate, but mediated through a ritual, and object or a
person. The key function of many religious services is then to establish a connection between an individual and the
divine and facilitate their communication.
Meta-narrative
Bible sometimes is considered a collection of loosely connected stories. A meta-narrative integrating this collection
typically comprises Genesis, the Fall, and the Redemption sections.
Contradictions
Before we proceed further it is worthwhile mentioning that there are at least four major denominations of the Christian
religion known as a Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestant and Indigenous denominations. There are also many
non-religious Christians who do not belong to any particular church but think of themselves as believing in Jesus.
Contradictions can reside within a storied-world of an individual person or that of the whole denomination. There are
inconsistencies between different denominations (the reason for the denomination to be established in
the first place), and, finally, there are contradictions between the storied-world of Christianity as a whole and
storied-worlds of other belief systems (e.g. science).
Miracles as contradictions
Belief in miracles is an integral part of many religious teachings including Christianity. Miracles are contradictions
by definition because they contradict to the established body of knowledge. To perform a miracle is to introduce an
anomaly into the otherwise natural way of things. The miracle is always referring to the anomaly that does not fit into
the established order of the universe. Many miracles performed by God are documented in the Bible. Creating the world
out of the nothing, walking on (or through) the water, healing with superpowers, resurrection from the dead to mention
just a few of them. Miracles are one of the signs of the omnipotent nature of the God. They prove his exceptional powers
and provide further evidence of his existence.
For our purposes it will be helpful to group miracles into two broad classes, one dealing with physics and chemistry of
an exterior environment (e.g. miracles defying the law of gravity, the miracle of turning water in wine, or that of
healing physical injures). And another, special kind of miracles is associated with the psychological effects of
religious practices on the believer. The key function of such practices (e.g. Baptism, Divine Liturgy, Confession, etc)
is to establish a link between the finite human being and an infinite divine God. They signify and make present to the
believer the graces of the God that may not be accessible otherwise. The communication between the man and the God
enabled through these practices is always a miracle.
The Divine Liturgy (i.e. worship, service), for example, one of the most important services in the Orthodox and Catholic
traditions, celebrates the sacred symbol (sacrament) of the Last Supper of the Lord (Eucharistia). It signifies the
symbolic meaning of the Last Supper as a communion of the believers, saints and the God in the Kingdom of God. By
sharing bread and wine, one shares the body and the blood of the Christ. Another name for this worship is the Holy
Communion. Christians believe that this service not only signifies the symbolic meaning of the Last Supper, but actually
delivers the communion symbolised by this sacrament. In other words, the believer participating in this service gets
access to the Kingdom of God and gains experience of literally being there. Through this service a symbolic meaning of
the Last Supper becomes a literal fulfilment of the promise of the communion in heavens. Note the analogy with the
Buddhist tradition of Pure Land, where the practitioner gets access to Pure Land (another planet in a parallel universe
with a bodhisattva sitting there on the lotus and teaching his knowledge) through the certain meditation practices.
Another example of the Christian practice dwelling on the magic of communication between an individual and heavens is
that of the Baptism, the rite of initiation. The purpose and the significance of this rite comes not from the formal
acceptance of the newcomer as a new member of the church, but from the spiritual (and magic) transformation of his
nature which now becomes susceptible to the God’s grace and revelations. One more practice, the service of Confession,
according to Orthodox tradition at least, is meant to deliver cleansing from sins and healing of the spiritual health of
the believer through the communication with God (the link being mediated by priest).
Apart from miracles of physical and psychological transformations there are many other examples of contradictions in the
Bible. For example, the notion of the God as a trinity, the union of the God Father, the God Son and the Holy Spirit,
contradicts to our everyday experience of how things are. Note the analogy of the God Son to the notion of the avatar
(i.e. a human incarnation of God) in the Hinduism tradition. An image of the God as a loving, forgiving and
compassionate being, does not quite match the course of his actions as presented in the Bible and involving a massacre
of human beings through the flood, eradication of the whole population of two cities (Sodom and Gomorra) with no regard
given to the fact that there might be innocent citizens, plans for the destruction of the whole world and eternal
punishment of those who do not share a particular belief system.
Unlike contradictions in science where they are to be eradicated, contradictions in Christianity
(and in many other religious teachings) are integral and
irreducible parts of the doctrine. Take away contradictions (e.g. miracles), lock the whole world into the cause and
effect chains and there will be no place left for the divine intervention since every effect has its
cause and the history as well as
the future are predefined by this causation. Get rid of contradictions and instead of the omnipotent
and omniscient God you have just another man.
Contradictions across denominations
Large number of Christian denominations established over the course of more that 2000 years of the history
of Christianity provide fertile grounds for contradictions. Without getting deep into this
subject I shall just outline a couple of such contradictions. According to the Orthodox Church, God’s revelations (as
written in the Bible) have been given once and for all times. According to some other denominations (e.g. Quakers), the
God reveals himself all the time and access to his revelations could be granted through the private experience of the
God. There is no such thing as Purgatory or Limbo in Orthodox tradition. In some denominations it is acceptable to
baptise babies since the magic of transformation happens regardless conscious participation of the person. In other
traditions people can only join the church when they are aware of fact of Baptising and they are willing to participate.
In general, the whole Protestant motion (launched from the grounds of the Roman Catholicism and evolved into various
denominations of the Christian religion) has established because of the different interpretations of Biblical texts by
different communities. Every denomination claims exclusive rights to having access to the only true
interpretation of the Bible.
Contradiction to science
The Biblical account of the origin and the structure of the universe, taken literally, contradicts to science. Equally
valid, of course, is a statement that science contradicts to the Biblical account of the
origins and the structure of the Universe.
There are at least three major contradictions. First, according to science the universe is not Earth centred and it is much
larger then it was believed earlier. Second, the age of the Earth according to radiometric dating (~4.5 billion years)
is much longer than estimates of that based on Biblical stories (~6000 years). And, three, Bible’s account of the origin
of species contradicts the Darwin’s theory of evolutionary. Further, all miracles as mentioned in
previous section contradict to science.
According to Bible, God talks or reveals himself in various images to the chosen people, prophets. From the science
perspective such experiences are likely to be interpreted as visionary or audio hallucinations. There are opinions that
some people might be more prone to such experiences just because some anatomical peculiarities of their brains.
Other contradictions
There are many other contradictions in Bible which could be explained as either typos, or
inconsistencies in stories told by different authors about the same sequence of events, or just a metaphorical
account of the events. Since I am not interested in this kind of inconsistencies, i'm leaving them outside the scope of
this document. The interested reader can google “contradictions in Bible” and find at least a few web-sites
presenting a long list of such contradictions.
Debugging
Can we reconcile contradictions present in the story of Christianity with the scientific vision of the world in a such
way that we keep miracles in the teaching but explain them from the science perspective?
For instance, we may say that miracles are based on physics which is not known today but can be discovered in the
future. We may downgrade the significance of miracles in the teaching of Christianity saying that miracles happen on a
regular basis in science and no one makes a big fuss about it. New facts and phenomena are discovered almost every day.
Some of these phenomena are explained and integrated into existing body of the scientific knowledge almost straight
away. Others are stashed away and kept under the carpet until due date comes when new observations
explain these phenomena. Analogously, the miracle of walking on water, or turning water into the wine, or
healing sick people will be explained with some new physics and chemistry sometime in the future. The technology people
possess today would be considered a magic a few hundred years ago (e.g flying carpets).
The Biblical magic just takes longer to convert into regular science.
From this perspective, people often overestimate the role and significance of miracles in proving a teaching since
miracles are temporary phenomena. Soon or later they are explained and lose their power of the conviction.
Another line of reasoning when dealing with miracles is to say that most of our knowledge, at least in physics, is based
on induction (generalisation) of the empirical evidence. Induction implies a hypothesis of a homogeneous space and time.
The mass conservation law, for example, is based on a generalisation of large volumes of observation but other than that
it does not follow from some more fundamental principle. There is no guarantee that this law of nature will hold forever
or in every place of the Universe.
One more common strategy to deal with contradictions in Bible is to say that we cannot see the full picture.
Why honest people suffer? Why there is sickness and evil? Why children die?
All that injustice and misfortune seem to be
inconsistent with the idea of a purposeful creation by a caring being. However, if we knew the grand design and the
purpose, then we would be able to see reasons behind all these happenings. Something that looks to us as an injustice
(or a contradiction) in fact is not and we may not be able to understand why it is so. The God works in mysterious ways
and it is not in our capacity to comprehend his design. Full stop.
You can nail down some contradictions (e.g. the 7 day world-creation) as a metaphorical
description of the affair.
Finally, if you ran out of options and still desperate to make sense out of it,
just pick up bits that fits your current belief system you and leave the rest of the
teaching out.
With these strategies in place (and if you want it really badly), you might be able to
explain and legitamise in the court of reason (at least to some extent) many contradictions
present in Bible. Having sharp corners cut out, the teaching may look more comprehensible and, hence, believable.
Mind it, however, your are unlikely to make it fully self-consistent, let alone consistent with science.
Contradictions are irreducible part of Christianity. Without supernatural powers
offering salvation in transcendental domains (and proving their capacities through miracles)
the teaching is unlikely to function properly anymore.