Bible Literacy - Wrap Up

Just a few final thoughts on the Bible Literacy quiz.

1) The Freedom From Religion Foundation is correct that a lot of Christians don't know the Bible as well as they should. For one thing, it's shocking how many believers have trouble differentiating between what is actually in the Bible and what their church and/or preacher says about the Bible.

2) However it is also true that many Athiest critics are equally sloppy, take passages out of context, and fail to distinguish between doctrines and actual scriptures.

3) The FFRF is correct that there are quite a few passages in the Bible that are shocking. There is violence, intolerance, sexism, and hate speech.

4) But, like a number of athiest critics, they tend to cherry pick the worst scriptures and turn a blind eye to the overrisding themes themes of mercy, compassion, and justice. (There are more than 2000 passages about showing compassion and justice to the poor making it the second most dominant theme, only surpassed by the theme of faith in God.)

5) The FFRF correctly points out that the Bible is not an accurate source for scientific or medical information.

6) But they tend to distort the passages about ethical and spiritual teachings to try to discredit them. They pull passages out of context and offer unreasonable interpretations.

Bottom line: There are some areas where there is real need for investigation and criticism of the Bible and especially of a narrow and literal reading of the Bible. It's an important conversation and I think that believers and nonj-believers alike could benefit form an open dialogue.

This would need to be an honest conversation to accomplish anything. Neither side could come in assuming that only they had all then answers. The dialogue would have to inlcude respect, humility and an openness to learning something new.

I'd love to see that happen someday.