Why Are Religions Based on Ancient Texts?
8 Even with the variety of spiritual beliefs on the planet today, one thing they all have in common is that they are based on ancient texts written by man.
2All of them claim to be inspired by God, but they are fallible because man is imperfect. 30ne also has to wonder why supposedly intelligent beings would turn to books that were written hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago for guidance, accepting that they can accurately speak about life today. 4Can true spiritual thinking even be captured by the written word?
One Text or Many?
5Though most religions have a central text at the heart of their faith (typically the three monotheistic faiths), not all abide by this model.
6Technically the Bible used by Christians today is a collection of separate works, but we have come to see it as a single book because that is how it has been presented for many hundreds of years. 7Many other writings from the same era have deliberately been excluded (these are the Apocrypha, covered in more detail below) which should lead one to wonder why the officials of the day chose certain writings over others.
8Followers of Judaism and Islam believe that their religious texts were revealed completely by God (to Moses and Muhammad, respectively), which sets them apart from the Bible, as they are truly single documents.
9Hinduism and Buddhism both use a range of texts, which are also collections from many authors over many different time periods. 1OThese religions accept that wisdom and spiritual knowledge can come from a mix of sources, in contrast to single-book faiths that tend to operate a one-size-fits-all approach.
11Even some of the monotheistic one-book faiths rely on additional texts as well. 12Though each has a central holy book, both Judaism and Islam have developed secondary texts that have become just as important. 13The Muslims use hadiths, and the Jews, the Talmud. 14Both are collected works containing judgements, decisions, opinions, interpretations and considerations about the main holy book. 1SThey are written by men and are used to help understand and interpret the main scriptures.
16Thinking logically, the need for secondary texts places the nature of the main scriptures in doubt. 17If decades of further interpretation and deliberation are required just to come close to understanding the main text, then it's unwise to place any faith in it. 18It s clearly not a wise approach to follow a book that requires a whole set of other books to know what the first says.
Apocrypha
19The nature of the Bible – consisting of separate writings to make one – logically leads to the question of why some were included over others. 2OReligions such as Hinduism that use a similar model don t necessarily fall into this category because of the distinct nature of each text, which means that followers are free to pick and choose which they wish to follow (within reason). 21But when individual texts are bundled together for use as a single book, it's usual that some end up being excluded over time. 22In the case of the Christian Bible, this is known as the Apocrypha.
23Technically, the term refers to any text of dubious accuracy but in this case it is a collection of Biblical material that is no longer considered canon. 24There is no single reason for this: some parts were left out because there was no way to clearly identify who wrote them or when, whilst others were removed because they didn t fit the prevailing attitudes of the time. 25Some texts referred to Jesus in ways that contradicted the official stance of his divinity, and there were some writings that held Mary in too high regard for the male-dominated clergy.
26Some parts were removed during the Protestant Reformation because they were not included in the original Hebrew versions of the Bible (such as the books of Maccabees, Judith and Tobias) whilst others (Gospels of Judas and Mary) were never included at all. 27For a book that is supposedly inspired by God, there has been a great deal of editing and exclusion.
Translations
28Not all holy books have suffered through multiple translations over time. 29The Guru Granth Sahib of the Sikhs, for example, is still primarily distributed in its mix of Punjabi, Arabic and Sanskrit as originally written. 30Several other Sikh texts are widely available in their original scripts and have only recently been translated into English or other languages to reach a wider audience. 31The original versions are still easily found, and can be compared to modern translations to minimise any loss or change in meaning.
32The Christian Bible, on the other hand, has undergone numerous translations throughout history that have completely altered the original message. 33The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew as well as in Aramaic, and then later translated into Greek. 34The New Testament was mostly written in Greek to begin with. 35Latin translations were also made, for both testaments. 36Some of those were made from the original Hebrew, and some were made from the Greek versions (which had been translated from Hebrew already). 37You can see where this is going.
38A big part of why the Bible is more suspect than other holy texts is that Christianity was a major political force in some parts of the world, particularly where the Catholic Church had influence.
39Changes were made during various translations , subtly amending the text to support the political atmosphere at the time. 40These changes have persisted to present day, making it difficult to discern the original intent. 41On average, the most commonly used version among followers today is the New International Version, which is the reason it has been used in this book.
42To further add to this confusion, the wide range of different denominations and divisions within the faith has led to a huge number of translations of the Bible. 43This has been more a matter of interpretation than true linguistic translation. 44Versions have been created to simplify, modernise, or otherwise tweak the supposed word of God. 45After so many changes and alterations, how can you really know what was originally intended? 46And how can the perfect word of God have so many different interpretations?
47The issue of translation persists in other faiths besides Christianity, but is nowhere near as chronic. 48As mentioned already, many other texts are still used in their original languages and there haven t been centuries of accumulated changes to deal with. 49The Quran is still usually read in Arabic, and the Torah is still available in its original Hebrew.
Books Are Static
50This is the main problem with a religion that believes in the literal translation of the words in a book. 51Life constantly changes around us; situations and circumstances are constantly evolving and present every person with a unique viewpoint of the world. 52How can a flat book of unmoving text ever really address that? 53Priests and other types of clergy claim to bring these words into a modern-day interpretation, but they are still basing their opinions, tarnished by their prejudices, on a static set of text.
541t would make more sense to speak to any deity figure directly, through prayer, meditation or other techniques rather than rely on a book for guidance.
Divinely Inspired?
55How much of a holy book is truly the word of God, and how much of it contains the word of man?
56The Quran is explicit about this, and states that the entire text of the book was given to Mohammed (over the course of many years) from an angel. 57But Mohammed is still a man. 58A similar situation applies to the Torah, which was supposedly given to Moses from God over his 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai.
59The Christian Bible is described as being inspired by God, and there is ongoing debate within the faith as to what that really means. 60How much came directly from the hand of God, and how much of it was simply the ideas of people who lived at the time? 61The bigger question might be whether it even matters.
62The Bible makes it quite clear that questioning the text is not a good idea:
“If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name – the Lord your God, the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. (Deuteronomy 28:58 – 59)
63Faiths with multiple sources (again, such as Hinduism and Buddhism) do not necessarily consider all their texts to come straight from any particular god. 64Many are simply words of wisdom from earlier believers and accepted as just that.
Common Sense Approach
650f course, the written word is our primary method of sharing knowledge and it would be foolish to say that books have no place in spiritual discovery at all. 66But you have to temper your belief in a book with common sense and your own personal experiences. 67No book is perfect and no faith that is bound by centuries-old words is going to be perfect either. 68Wisdom can (and will) come from many sources.