"Theologians are adepts when it comes to disguising the problems, redactions, plagiarism, and downright fraud in their holy scriptures. But beneath the veneer of scholarly euphemisms, one thing becomes very clear -- lies and liars."
For probably thousands of years, wandering migrants and traders swapped stories. Each time these tales were woven, changes were made. Tales from many cultures intermingled into what was eventually written, edited, translated, censored, and made to be politically correct. I.e. It is all BS and there can be no such a thing as an original edition (text)
I have wondered for a while if there were “original texts” at all. If the books were written just to appear to be copies of (non-existent) older manuscripts. Then the users of the texts could assert that the dogma was older than it really is. It is likely that most of the Old Testament wa forged by scribes of king Josiah to justify his conquest of the northern kingdom. The New Testament was composed by the Roman rulers to help subjugate the lower classes in one easily controlled brain washing system. Somewhat effective as they keep the sheep killing each other rather than the patricians.
Excellent presentation. I would caution, however, that deciding whether someone is being fraudelent or out as opposed to inadvertently or ignorantly passing along incorrect informaton is largely a matter of intent. In the biblical writings, I would suggest that much of the contents were intentionally designed to win followers and convince others to behave in certain ways, but much of it, even though false, was written with genuine conviction of its truthfulness. By the way, I love the picture of the really ripped Jesus in the intro to some of the presentations in this series. Not exactly the way he is generally represented. Gave me a good laugh.
It took me the bigger part of my lifetime to find out that all of it is written by holy liars from the beginning. I'm glad for the knowledge I gained but as a one time bible literalist my past had a lot of pain.
@VictoriaNotes It's hard to hate others for it because they had the same lies passed on to them in childhood. The hard thing is all that wasted time on nonsense and knowing that it still goes on today.
The book "The Closing of the Western Mind" by Charles Freeman demonstrates how early Christians fought over seemingly minor items like the question of whether Jesus was human or a god. Those aspects went back and forth and when one version gained favor the adherers of the other group were fought and even killed. This went on and on so we basically have a clear history of one written by the victors.
One thing that most forget is that the letters were said to be (in the Catholic bible anyway) "according to" not "by". Very very few in this period were literate, including Jesus so history was passed down orally and later written down and censored. Then it was translated in many languages and copied by people, usually monks, who had their own ideas and sometimes changed what was written. The King James version was commissioned by King James I with a set of goals in mind, "James gave the translators instructions intended to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology of, and reflect the episcopal structure of, the Church of England" one of which was to raise the status of the king.
Yes, like most religions it is pure BS and I have to laugh when I hear the term, "Biblical scholars."
I had a good friend who was brought up in a Catholic seminary (https://www.stonyhurst.ac.uk/). He noticed that those who agreed to study for their orders were the simple minded and seldom questioned things. He had questions and left.
@VictoriaNotes Victoria, Thaaank you for this (the music was fine. I am not the musical snob some might take me for). Some time ago I got really pissed off with an article in the National Geographic about archeological discoveries in the "holy land." I know the magazine did not want to alienate their religious readers and actually included ideas of miracles and other myths. It was a complete white washing of the findings. I wrote them and gave them a piece of my mind. Recently, the Smithsonian also had an article about research in this area. In the end it was basically said there is no consensus that previous myths were true. It could have gone further but I understand their position.
As an Atheist ( and still am an Atheist) studying Theology and Comparative modern Religions I often posed many similar questions and simply got the same answers as; " It is NOT for you to question, it IS simply for you to believe and thus make those who follow your teachings to believe as well."
That, basically, is the Credo of Seminaries of Xtianity.
I heard or read somewhere that seminary is where people go to lose their faith. Even the indoctrinated, once they dig deep into it, realize it just falls apart.
@greyeyed123 Well in my experience it's where they go to learn how to get the things they want by swindling them out of the feeble, weak-minded Believers.