Image: Reuters Since I began to study the origins and evolution of Abrahamic religions, I have encountered what are to me, two extreme views of the Bible as it has come down to us. The first of these views is that the Bible, whether the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Bible is the absolute word of the God of creation, emancipation, and salvation for the world and that it is inerrant, unchanged, and cannot be challenged in its historic and theological accuracy.  This view might be best represented by such people as Kenneth Ham, the creator of the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky.  The Ark Encounter is a tourist attraction that explains and illustrates one of the flood narratives in the Book of Genesis (there are two).  It features a life-sized ark, built of wood, and inside contains exhibits such as one showing how dinosaurs were included among the passengers of Noah's Ark.  An interesting side note here is that the dinosaurs depicted appear to be the Quetzalcoatlus species whi

"Here I stand: I can do no otherwise: God help me!" -M. Luther image: Wikipedia This post has evolved, over a number of weeks, into a morass of a critique, taking on two venerable and very different foundational literary establishments, the King James Bible and the popular religious press.  It might seem quite unwieldy to make critical judgments about these two things in the same place at the same time but read on, perhaps the focus will sharpen.  We will tiptoe around theology and scholarship, in hopes that we trample neither but that our own footsteps are rightly placed between those two towering hedges. Since my most recent post,  (https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1797607806021886628/3655238780916104218), regarding the mistranslation of a verse in Isaiah which caused a theological storm of invectives, lies, accusations, and a highly un-Christian (at least in the name) level of violence which would seem to be quite excessive until we consider that the question raised

  Everyone who attended Sunday School as a child will recall that the Messiah of the New Testament, known to them as "Jesus" was born of a virgin who was impregnated by the Holy Spirit and not by her husband (or fiancee), Joseph. This story and this assertion are central to the core of Christian belief. It is beneficial to our understanding of this belief to examine it carefully, considering its origins, its reasons, and its subsequent effects. The "virgin birth" narrative is contained in two of the canonical gospels:  Matthew and Luke. In the Book of Matthew (KJV), the narrative is as follows: 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done,