As I grew up in a secular environment, where people might have a belief in the risen Jesus but in which most of the people of my age hold to a deistic prime mover I found myself dumbstruck, when I found out about the people on Twitter, who I now debate and who I interact with. I couldn’t imagine, that there are still people out there who believe Noah’s flood was an actual event in history and all other kind of stuff, that I quite frankly consider to be ridiculous nonsense.
The truth is, that I can’t possibly grasp believing in some of the things, that other people I’ve encountered believe in. That is because I am outside the religious Bubble, looking in. I’m from a different walk of life, I grew up different, I interacted with different people, I had different experiences all of which led me to where I am at today.
Now I understand, that every believer has a different perspective as some people might reject hell, or might reject the Flood etc. but here is what I am seeing when I look at the claims, that are made in the Bible (This goes for the Qu’ran and the book of Mor(m)on as well but since I am most familiar with the Bible, I’ll take that as an example):
To be frank, what I am seeing are fairytales. I mean a global Flood, in which animals of every kind lived on a wooden boat for about a year? People who wanted to build a tower to heaven and who got confused in their language by God? God and Satan making a bet of whether or not Job will stay faithful? Jonah living inside a giant fish for 3 days? A talking donkey and a burning bush?
To me taking these fables at face value, as if any of this has a basis in history to me is absurd. I don’t mean to be insulting I’m really not but as a child my parents read a lot of stories to me. Every night they would read Snow White, or Hansel and Gretel to me. I basically heard of every single fairytale of the Grimm brothers. As mentioned in my last post Supernatural Causation: Why every argument for God fails. I’m also a massive Harry Potter fan. When I look at the Bible stories, I can’t help but compare them to what I heard and read and I find similarities.
Many parts of the Bible and of other holy books read just like fiction. When I as an Atheist say “the Bible/Qu’ran is a book of fairytales” I don’t say it to piss Christians or Muslims or whoever off (at least not primarily) I say it, because I truly think it is. If it sounds like a fairytale, then to me it is a fairytale.
I get why you, as a Christian might be offended by me saying these words, I understand that you have been taught, that these verses are at least to a certain degree history but if you step outside your Bubble for just a brief moment of time and take an honest look at your beliefs, then I hope you can understand where I’m coming from, when I tell you that I think, that all of it is false and that I consider it nothing more than fiction with some historical background, as I freely admit but all in all, a completely man made fabrication.
Goodbye from yours truly,
Rene von Boenninghausen @Renevelation
Tarsier Renevelations 