What if we burned all the Bibles?
If all the Bibles were destroyed how long would it take for Christians to rewrite it? Not long.
Maybe it wouldn’t be rewritten with 100% accuracy, but what does that even mean to a book is collection of books that has been rewritten thousands of times? Regardless of debates around “inerrancy” there have been changes over time. Just the fact that there aren’t English words for some ancient Greek and Hebrew words means that there has been change. Tiny copies errors from monks, destroyed early editions, etc.
That’s not to say it’s not incredible that there weren’t MORE changes. Had I been in charge of the book building process I might have been tempted to make the Israelites and early Christians come off a bit better. It’s pretty much a dumpster fire of human failure all the way through. There are no perfect people apart from Jesus in there. Though, you could argue a few anecdotes about him could have been left out as well. Did we need the story of him cursing a fig tree, beating up moneychangers, or “failing” to cure a blind man on the first attempt? Regardless, if the point had been to build a religion about being perfect the editors could have done better. Perhaps that’s a point overlooked by the zealous these days.
So, if all the Bibles did managed to get wiped out somehow, I would argue that someone could set up a wikipedia style website and there is enough knowledge out there to get it rewritten pretty quickly. At least 98% of it. It’s an interesting idea. Would it still be the “inspired” word of God?
But isn’t that exactly the point? If something dramatic happens to you and you write about it aren’t you “inspired”? If four people see a car wreck and all four write out their accounts one would expect to see some erring details but have the main facts remain. Why do we get so hung up on every “jot and tittle”? Why not just keep “first things”?
So, for argument sake, not only are all the Bibles (and related books) wiped out.. but all memory of them as well. Maybe a new plague sweeps through humanity wiping long term memories. Everyone wakes up one day and it’s all gone.
As the argument goes.. with religion and science are wiped out.. which one comes back and which one is gone forever? This makes two straw men arguments right in the question:
1) Science isn’t based on history and conjecture.
2) God would be truly stumped since the historical record would be lost to history.
Lets burn the first straw man first. It would probably take awhile, but a theory of gravity would probably make a comeback. However, it’s good to keep in mind that it took a long time for Newton to come along and make this happen (many thousands of generations). It also came from his belief in a God that ordered the Universe. So, there’s a bit of a chicken and egg here. Most scientists were at least Deists, and nearly all previous philosophers believed in gods.
Many enlightened individuals assume all of science is intrinsic and atheism is the only logical outcome. But that is an assumption. The very first humans were buried with possessions suggesting belief in the eternal. This pre-dates “science” by a few hundred thousand years. So, “religion” is the default of humanity. But given enough time is the discovery all things physical inevitable?
If all of humanity woke up tomorrow with no reference point different people would come to different assumptions. Almost certainly tribes would for quickly to argue about their various belief systems. Simulation, aliens, gods.. my guess is that everything would be on the table.. just like it is now.
In fact many scientists (or physicists more accurately) seem to be going in the opposite direction. When looking at the underpinnings of such basic things as matter we find what looks more spiritual than physical. Instead of describing matter as tiny bits of something solid, it appears absolutely everything is just made up of waves of energy. It wasn’t long ago that if someone said, “We are all just waves of energy that exist in relation to one another.” they would have been dismissed as a “pot smoking New Age hippy”. Now this is a commonly held belief in the scientific community. Smarter people write about this elsewhere.
As for the second straw man: That God would some how be robbed of his redemption story (and existence) if he was forgotten about is really just another way of saying I believe this is all mythology. If God is truly revelatory why couldn’t he just start over with his storytelling? Stories are forgotten all the time. Books are referenced in the Bible that are lost to us. So? Some books barely reference any theology let alone God (Ruth). Most merely suggest the possibility of future of salvation… well over half the books and most of the people never knew Jesus. Which, begs the question.. how much is even necessary to accomplish its purpose? Which begs the question.. what is God’s purpose? What’s the plan? If a human needs ALL of the Bible then pretty much everyone before the King James Bible is screwed.
A few questions remain. Did God’s love of storytelling end with the Bible? Why would it?
If you think God is real and an active participant in Creation surely you have a story or two to tell of how he’s been real in your life. Little or large miracles.. or at least stories of other people’s miracles. Why aren’t these are part of his “canon”? I don’t believe that everyone’s experiences are equally valid but if you took everyone’s experiences they should line up the the existing narratives.
There were books and stories that were rejected from the Bible because they didn’t line up. They weren’t consistent with what was accepted. This is a complicated endeavor but there are some simple rejections.. like the guy who is high as a kite and claims that God wants him to do something terrible. That’s not to say that drugs may or may not be a path to experience the “spiritual”.. and that’s not to say that God hasn’t commanded people to do things that some would consider terrible (stoning people for small crimes for example). Well, it’s not really possible to discount anything then.
Backing up a bit, or coming full circle.. what must we have to be saved? What if only the part of the Bible survived was “Ruth”? Would we know enough about God to know what he wants from us? What if it was just Genesis? Or just 1st Timothy? Or what if it was a new collection of stories?
What must I do to be saved?
What it the absolute bare minimum? I know the Christian answer to this: “Believe in Jesus”. But what can that even mean apart from the historical record of the coming of the Messiah? And what about all the pre-Jesus folk? This is the lions-share of of humanity. Hundreds of thousands of years of people.
I believe when Jesus died he died for those in the past as well.. there is a verse about that somewhere if I remember correctly. Cool. So only people after Jesus who weren’t into him are screwed?
These are unanswered questions for me. So, I come back to the thief on the cross. What did he know? What was his theology? Where did he stand on the trinity (not a thing yet)?
Maybe it is just as simple as giving someone a cup of water in Jesus’ name.. as he said..