Lies

There are two extremes which exist in the Universe: truth (goodness) and falsity (evil). They are God and nonexistence, respectively. A spectrum exists between these two extremes in which everything is only partially true, and, therefore, is partially untrue. Furthermore, all partial truths are lies. So anything that is not God, but yet exists, is a lie but contains some element, some reflection, of truth (I refer you again to Plato's allegory of the cave).

We cannot know God in his entirety. We are not perfect: we are not absolutely good. Therefore we are partially bad. If something is partially bad, then it cannot be good. For example, if I have a bad orange, it is no longer a good orange, though one side of it may seem perfectly delicious. Only if the orange is completely without flaw may it rightfully be called a good orange. One little speck spoils the whole thing.

People are bad oranges- this is rarely disputed. But this can be extended to say that human minds are also bad oranges. There may be elements of truth reflected in our minds- we may not be rotting oranges- but none of the truth we reflect is complete, and all incomplete truths are partial lies. If there is anything at all which is incomplete about our worldview (this would include the use of categories), then the whole of us and our understanding is incomplete. I repeat that all half-truths are un-truths: therefore, everything we know about God is a lie (regardless of how true that lie may be).

For the following few points, you may use the this diagram if you'd like.

1. Human language is not perfect- otherwise it would be God. So language conveys everything imperfectly. It takes an absolute master of words use language in such a way that it is accepted even by human standards. There is a lapse between the writer's imperfect mind (1) and the imperfect language (2). After that, another imperfect mind (4) interprets the imperfect writing imperfectly (3). So there is an abundance of opportunity for flaw.

2. The authors of the Bible had an understanding of what they were writing. They wrote what they wrote for a purpose. They were not under some trance. They or their scribes moved their pens on the page just the way they intended them to, in order to convey the meaning they intended to convey, however godly the message may be. People don't generally write things they absolutely do not understand. Because they understood what they were writing, it could not possibly have been perfect.

3. Once upon a time, imperfect people (1) wrote (partially-)good things which must be imperfect if only by virtue of the fact that they are contained in human language (2). This is then interpreted imperfectly by some audience (3), and that incorrect interpretation is further distorted by being understood incorrectly by the individual (4). To further complicate the matter, the original "(partially-)good things" have been translated, so there's a whole other barrier of imperfect understanding that's had to be crossed. The product of these four or five steps is the Bible: used by the people within and not as God's true purpose.

The conclusion that all this comes to is this: though I do believe the Bible to be a very special book, it is not perfect simply because it is associated with people. It's written by people in the people's language and people understand a human interpretation of it. All that having been said, I don't believe it a stretch to say that it may be the MOST perfect thing written. I'll leave that open to speculation. The Bible contains invaluable information about Christ, his teachings, and what those teachings mean. The information and teaching alike are accurate enough for our purposes: it's not as if we'll ever experience perfection within human minds.

There are countless proofs for the historical accuracy of the Bible, none of which I will go into now. This post is written in reaction to those that make a point of gasping in reverent fear every time anything from the Bible is read, reading extremely simple passages over and over and over and over again only because they believe there MUST be something they haven't caught yet because the extreme complexity of the God of the Universe has been squished into it. There is reason to read the Bible over and over and over and over again, but it's not because it has some strange spiritually medicinal quality.

Aside from prophesy, the way the Bible must be read is in an attempt to understand as accurately as possible what each author meant to say, not to draw semantical differences out of the deepest exegesis of each word. There are many reasons we would want to understand it accurately- some of which may be

1. the authors had such close proximity to the time, teaching, and life of Christ

2. they were uninfluenced by the decades, centuries, millennia of human flaw created and/or transported via the Church

3. if the original form of Christianity is not considered, it would be all too easy to get so lost within your own flawed mind that you would float completely away from what Christ was in the first place, or

4. the Bible has been proven accurate by millions over the centuries AND the ways in which it has been proven can be personally verified.

As far as I am concerned, we must read very strictly for the spirit of the law, but not for the letter. The letter was not written and placed there any more directly by God than this laptop was placed beneath my fingers, so there is really no reason to.

There are two extremes which exist in the Universe: truth (goodness) and falsity (evil). All partial truths are lies. Everything I have just said is partial truth, partial understanding. So no worries if you disagree- just like you, I speak only lies.