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- Written by EJ Sweeney
Recently, the editors of GQ magazine posted an article entitled: “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read”. They ranked the Bible 12th on this list of “racist”, “sexist”, but most of all “really, really boring” books, describing it as, “repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned. “ In a comment laced with sarcasm, they conclude that the Bible is “…certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced.” (The Editors of GQ, “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read”, GQ, April 19, 2018, https://www.GQ.com/story/21-books-you-dont-have-to-read, accessed 5/15/18)
Given its reputation, when I first read the Bible I thought it would blow me away. That it would transform my life with wisdom and insight. That I wouldn’t be able to put it down. Instead, I found it baffling, bizarre, and, just as the editors of GQ describe, painfully tedious. It made me, too, wonder what was so great about it.
The editors of GQ are right. The Bible isn’t a great piece of literature. Far from it.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
Even with all the cutting-edge forensics we have at our disposal to solve crimes, evidence is often disputed or later overturned. Investigators make mistakes. Eyewitnesses get things wrong. People interpret facts differently. Mystery often remains as to what actually happened. (This is what fuels the intense interest in all the “real crime” shows that keep popping up all over TV.)
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
When former pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura became Governor of Minnesota (a miracle in itself), he famously said that religion is a crutch. Belief in God is for weak-minded people who need to toughen up.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
When I was a child, my parents told me that thunder was caused by God bowling in heaven. But when I was old enough to understand, I learned the real explanation in science class.
Like a child growing up and learning what thunder really is, advances in science are rapidly eliminating the need for God. We don’t need this “God-of-the-gaps” any longer to explain the mysteries that surround us. Science will eventually be able to explain them all.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
I usually leave Easter service on a high. There’s nothing like it. It’s a rousing celebration of resurrection hope. But one Easter a few years ago, my wife showed me something after church that totally rained on my parade. Someone had posted a video on social media that claimed Christianity had “plagiarized” the resurrection from pagan mythology. It proposed that the idea of Jesus’ resurrection was stolen from the many pagan myths of dying and rising gods. The video presented itself as a scandalous new discovery revealing that the Christian faith was based on a hoax.
