Spot on again george. In fact the more I read & learn the more I see that The Bible is another big con job, another fairy tale.
...a most charming political fiction, dreamed up for excellent purposes in the garb of history, and adopted to the gross conceptions of a rude, sensual, unlearned and credulous people - Dr. Geddes (on the early books of the Bible)
Investigations into the beginnings of religion have accumulated steadily throughout the past half-century. It is only by great efforts of censorship, by sectarian education of an elaborately protected sort...that ignorance about them is maintained - H. G. Wells (The Fate of Homo Sapiens)
There is nothing holy about the Bible, nor is it “the word of God.” It was not written by God-inspired saints, but by power-seeking priests. Who but priests consider sin the paramount issue? Who but priests write volumes of religious rites and rituals? No one, but for these priestly scribes were sin and rituals imperatives. Their purpose was to found an awe-inspiring religion. By this intellectual tyranny they sought to gain control, and they achieved it. By 400 BC, they were the masters of ancient Israel. For such a great project they needed a theme, a framework, and this they found in the Creation lore of more knowledgeable races. This they commandeered and perverted – the natural to the supernatural, and the truth to error. The Bible is, we assert, but priest-perverted cosmology - Lloyd Graham (Myths and Deceptions of the Bible)
The writings in the New Testament were not written by eyewitnesses of an overpowering divine appearance in the midst of human history...the Christian Bible turns out to be a masterpiece of invention...To be quite frank about it, the Bible is the product of very energetic and successful mythmaking on the part of those early Christians - Burton L. Mack (Who Wrote the New Testament)
There is not preserved nor is there existent in the world a single original book or manuscript of Hebrew or Christian scriptures containing the inspired word of Yahweh. The most ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew texts date only from the eighth century of the era of Christ: while the Christian books, said to have been written by the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost within the first century of the era, all, all are lost and the oldest copies bear the masks of the fourth century - Rev. Robert Taylor (The Devil's Pulpit)
