Chinese Characters and the Bible - Part 2

Yet another Christian friend has found the original World Bible School "Chinese Characters and the Bible" video and has again forwarded it to me. The following is a follow up reply to this second friend, in which I explain why I do not find the Bible to be that "great" a book:

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Any big book, such as the Bible, can be made to advocate anything that you desire. For example:

- Want a harsh, strict, wrathful and vengeful god, killing everything and everyone through genocide and infanticide, or endorsing the practice of slavery? Read Exodus and Leviticus in the Old Testament.

- Want a quiet, subtle, kind, gentle, loving and forgiving god? Read Paul's epistles in the New Testament (eg. Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Philippians etc)

As I love to read history and philosophy, studying the world's many religions (their origins and their doctrines) holds a constant fascination for me. And when I read about the history of the Bible, it is very clear that most of the Bible's stories must be read metaphorically and symbolically, and not literally.

Many fundamentalist Christians believe the Bible is a divine book of God. As God's book, they believe it is inerrant - and that everything written in it is literally true! But if the Bible is a divine work of god, why are there so many errors and contradictions in it?

http://skeptically.org/newtestament/id19.html

If the Bible contain errors, then it is not perfect. If it is not perfect, is it still a divine piece of work from a perfect God?

The rationalist in me says that the Bible is simply a piece of work by humans, and is not divine. As the list of the errors and contradictions show, it is far from perfect.

And the Old Testament certainly does not describe a "nice" God that fits with contemporary societies. Many of my Christian friends only know of the "good" bits of the Bible, but never actually read its "bad" parts. They find reading the actual Bible to be very tedious because of its old language and style, so they merely read the "nice" parts selected by their priests or pastors. These "nice" stories are very tame and would not be out of place even in a collection of stories for children.

However, a more complete reading of books such as Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and you will see a much different picture of the "nice and loving" god.

In an effort to encourage people to read the WHOLE bible and not just the "nice" bits, the site "The Brick Testament" at:

http://www.thebricktestament.com

has illustrated many portions of the Bible as comics styled narratives using Lego bricks. Most people find reading the comic style illustrations much easier than reading the actual Bible itself. When people can see the writings in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua presented graphically, they see a whole new dimension in the "Good Book".

I recommend the following links for a picture of the more "vindictive" and "cruel" aspect of the religion:

The Law : http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/index.html

Joshua : http://www.thebricktestament.com/joshua/index.html

Judges : http://www.thebricktestament.com/judges/index.html

As one commentator has said,

The Old Testament God is a "psychotic monster". Not only is the character of God diabolical in those books, but there are explicit prescriptions for how to live that are not metaphors; they are not open to theological judo. God just comes right out and says "stone people" for a list of offenses so preposterous and all-encompassing that the killing never stops. You have to kill people for working on the Sabbath. You kill people for fornication.

- Sam Harris

As you read the Old Testament and compare it against the New Testament, it would seem like they are describing 2 completely different entities! But then, that would contradict the mantra that there is only "One God".

This brings me back to what I stated at the beginning: that the Bible is such a big book that it can be used to advocate anything you desire. Need "Proof" of vindictive God? See Old Testament. Need "Proof" of loving God? See New Testament.

Using the Bible as "proof" that God is real is hardly persuasive.

Regards,

NJ

P.S. By the way, I just finished reading the book "Misquoting Jesus" by Bart Ehrman:

http://www.amazon.com/Misquoting-Jesus-Story-Behind-Changed/dp/0060859512

which describes how errors crept into the New Testament.

Bart D Ehrman, its author, is a famous Biblical scholar and author ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_D._Ehrman ).

He actually presented a lecture on his book at Stanford University, which is available from this link. It was after listening to this lecture that I went on to read his book:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=397006836098752165&hl=en

If you are keen to learn about some of the errors that have crept into the New Testament that you are reading today, you need to listen to Professor Ehrman's lecture.

Letter declining a church invite

This was a reply I wrote to a Christian friend declining his invitation to attend church:

Regarding attending church, I think you should know my answer by now :-) What is the point of my attending church when I am not a believer?

Yes, scientists do not know how the universe is created. But just because we don't know, why should we accept the explanation that the universe is created by a deity? And specifically the biblical god Yahweh at that. Just because we don't know how the world was created doesn't mean that we should accept any explanation that is offered. What if the explanation is wrong?

When I am given an explanation, I will always examine it to see if it answers my questions satisfyingly before I accept or reject it. As I have mentioned before, the explanations offered by Christianity do not answer my questions satisfyingly. That is why I don't accept Christianity.

Many of my Christian friends always tell me that the bible is a great book of morality because it contains god's instructions on how man should live his life by. And they always cite The Ten Commandments as the ultimate moral guide. But I've read parts of the bible, and the Ten Commandments, and I am not impressed. What does the bible say about Slavery? If the bible is so full of morals, why does it not condemn the enslaving of people?

Why does the bible treat women not as equally as men? Is not women also created by god? If women are equals of men, why did god put in statements in His Divine Book that say that women are inferior to men (e.g. "the head of the woman is the man", "wives must always submit to their husbands" etc)? Shouldn't a divine religion for all time preach equality of the sexes right from the beginning?

Why are celibate men "pure"? What is it about women that is so evil that when men is "defiled by women", men are no longer pure?

The logic of Christian punishment/salvation is also extremely unsatisfying.

- Hitler massacred 6 million Jews plus countless others during World War 2. But since Hitler is Catholic, he will be "saved" because he accepted Christ.

- Abraham Lincoln brought the United States to a civil war so as to free millions of blacks from slavery. But since Lincoln is not a Christian, he will not be "saved".

Does this make sense? Is salvation to be dished out to all and sundry who believe in Christ, and denied to all those who are not of the faith despite their meritorious deeds?

What is the explanation Christianity offers to explain the presence of suffering? Was god responsible for the 200,000 people who were killed by the 26 Dec 2004 Tsunami? Did god do this to punish certains groups of sinners? Why didn't he just kill those sinners instead of killing so many innocents (children especially) to accomplish his aim?

Perhaps god didn't create the Tsunami. Perhaps the Tsunami was made by the devil to destroy god's creations. If so, why didn't god stop the devil from accomplishing his task? Is god not omnipotent?

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

- Epicurus (341 BC to 271 BC)

Of course, it is fine with me if others believe in god, as religion has been an age-old tradition and teaching carried forward from the ancients. However, just as we no longer believe that the world is flat (the Earth is spherical), or that plagues and illnesses are due to demons (they are caused by germs), or that slavery is an acceptable way of treating people (definitely not), I also feel that in this day and age, we should transcend from a religion created by ignorant bronze-age people to a modern philosophy grounded in knowledge, science, mathematics and ethics.

Regards,

NJ

Chinese Characters and the Bible

Yesterday, a friend of mine forwarded me a video file that purports to show that the Chinese language shows proof of the authenticity of the stories of Genesis:

http://students.washington.edu/cbsf/cool/Chinese.swf

The video is produced by an organisation called the "World Bible School", but when I clicked on the link in the World Bible School's website, they have removed the video:

http://www.wbschool.org/chinesecharacters.htm

If you don't like the flash video version, the same contents can be viewed as a static web page here:

http://www.jdaniellowe.com/china.html

However "entertaining" this article is, and may seem utterly convincing and believable to some people, the sceptic in me immediately tells me that this is not PROOF!

There are at least 20,000 characters in the Chinese language, although only about 10,000 are used contemporarily (see note #1). With 20,000 characters to choose from, it is possible to find all kinds of coincidences and meanings to fit whatever you want. (Note: another Wikipedia entry states that at least 53000 unique Chinese characters were compiled in 1039 CE during the Song Dynasty. See note #2)

There are only 214 radicals in the Chinese language, which are used to form the Chinese characters. It is obvious that for any combination of radicals, you would get at least several characters that are formed from such radicals. Now, all you need is to choose characters that have any superficial connection to the bible stories, and put them into this multimedia presentation, and ta-da, you have a very convincing presentation that seems to say that the Chinese language validates the authenticity of the bible!!!

This is weak thinking. In actual fact, this video proves nothing except that you can choose to interpret anything you want to make the flimsiest of connections to the bible.

Fundamentalist Christians have a weakness for developing this kinds of "proofs", in which you first form the conclusion ("Chinese characters are related to the bible"), and then look for evidence that supports the pre-conceived conclusion and publishing them, while ignoring and discarding evidence that do not support it. This is totally against the scientific method, in which you accept and publish the evidence that are both pro AND con to your hypothesis. In the scientific world, if contradictory evidence is found, the initial hypothesis MUST BE REJECTED, and the researcher must refine it, or re-propose a new hypothesis. Unfortunately, fundamentalist Christians do not like to acknowledge contradictory evidence, always choosing to sweep aside facts and ignoring them when such contradictions are pointed out. This is the sole reason why fundamentalist Christians believe that the bible is LITERALLY true, and that the universe is only 6000 years old because of this unshatterable belief in the inerrancy of the bible.

I found that another blogger has written about this video, and has use the same kind of weird logic employed by the World Bible School to make a mocking association that is so provocative that you just have to read it yourself:

http://www.hanzismatter.com/2006/03/chinese-language-of-god.html

Notes

#1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language#Vocabulary

#2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Chinese#Literacy