The Bible and Matters of Divine Inspiration

I was brought up in a Christian family and was taught to believe the bible was the word of God - divinely inspired. For years, I took it on faith, never once doubting that this best-seller which has been translated into more than 2,000 languages might not be the word of God. I mean, if we read it every day, surely it must be special. On my more disciplined days I would wake early, read my bible, study it and pray. Sometimes I would manage to do it every day for a few weeks. Or sometimes I would go without for a few weeks. Everyone else at church read it, we sang songs based on it, we prayed using it, and to at least some of our ability, made the foolish attempt to live our lives by it.

Foolish? Yes! Not just because it was a standard to which no one can achieve, nor that it is misused, misrepresented and used for some of the greatest evils in this world, but because I don't believe it's inspired. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing book. But why should it be divinely inspired? What gives anyone any right to say that the bible is inspired?

Let's look at it's basic history of around 6,000 years.

The Old Testament was written by Moses and a bunch of prophets and then believed by the Jews to be their holy book. Then when Jesus rocked up, along came the New Testament with it's new group of human authors such as the disciples.

So the bible started as a book written by men. Then over the next 2,000 years it was preserved by men, translated by men, published by men, bought by men and read by men. I'm no scholar but somewhere during it's history a council of men came together to decide which books would be in the final canon or bible.

It doesn't take an idiot to recognise the large part man has played in the bible's history. At what point did God step in? Did he inspire it from the beginning? Or did he jump in as they were translating it? And if the original authors (Moses, David, Daniel, etc) can be deemed 'inspired by God', why shouldn't any author today have the same thing said about them?

I have read plenty of books about the bible, or about God, or about Christianity, and they were all written by men and women who have read the bible and formed an opinion. But when I read it, I'm just another person forming another opinion. So what I understand from the bible is just as invalid as any Christian book I've read, or any Christian I've ever met. I mean, where does it ever end?

Have you ever had someone tell you not to rely on Christian books, just to rely on the bible? I know I have. Plenty of times. But I haven't even been to bible college. I haven't even studied religion formally anywhere. So why would my opinion of what I read in the bible be any help whatsoever?

Those Christian books that I have read, they're not 'inspired by God' some say. Read the bible instead. But it's all the same thing. It all arrives at the same basic point - not one person, dead of alive, has the authority to deem something 'inspired by God'.

This is why I don't believe in God. I could call myself an atheist, but I think they've got their own problems, so for now, with all my problems, I'll call myself an agnostic.

But isn't Christianity a personal experience? Isn't each person to read the bible and find out what God is saying to them? Shouldn't I be humble and read the bible, listening for the 'still, small voice of God'?

No! Christianity is personal, but to tell someone to go to the bible and find out what God is saying to them is the beginnings of heresy. There has to be some sort of standard to judge if what one person says he has learned about the bible is true. So you compare it to the bible to the whole, not for once remembering that the bible has been used to justify great evil throughout the history of mankind.

But oh, this case is different. You're doing it how it's meant to be done. You can show how the other guys, the 'bad guys' were wrong.

But I think they can show you were wrong. And anyone can show anyone is wrong.

Enter my agnosticism. Now you know why I don't believe in God.