13 page printout. Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. **** **** WISDOM REVEALED The value of this 360K DOS disk is $7.00. This disk, its printout, or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 **** **** This essay was written to be delivered as a lecture and is worded accordingly. It was part of a two day debate with a Fundamentalist minister. For each evening there are two parts, one of thirty minuets and a conclusion of ten minuets. THIS ESSAY TAKES THE NEGATIVE OF IS THE BIBLE THE WORD OF GOD? DAY 2 -- PART 1 1983 by Emmett F. Fields In the Bible, the book of Numbers, chapter 31, verse 15 reads: "And Moses said unto them, "have you saved all the women alive?" And verses 17 and 18 reads: "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. (18) But all the women children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." I know the Bible is not the word of God because it tells us God is a murderer; that God killed, or caused to be killed, millions of innocent people. That God ordered, or approved of, the murder of civilians, of little children, of helpless old people, defenseless women, prisoners of war, and even livestock. It tells us that God approved the instructions to soldiers to keep the virgins for yourselves. I detest and deny such a book, and I reject and call blasphemous any book that says such is the nature of God. The Bible slanders God, and therefore the Bible cannot be the word of God. If there is a God, the Bible is a blasphemy. If there is no God, the Bible is a myth. Either way, the Bible is not the word of God. In Exodus 29:45-46, God is said to have said (45): "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. (46) and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God." Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 1 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 The Bible says most clearly that the God of the Old Testament (Jehovah) is "THE LORD GOD OF THE HEBREWS," the God of "the children of Israel," the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. The Old Testament is the story of a private tribal god, whose first and only concern is for his "chosen people." It is a god created by the priests of that tribe, to justify the atrocities that tribe committed. It is the story of a simple tribal god, and like all the other tribal gods in the world at that time, the god always reflected the people who created him. If the tribe was a warlike tribe, their god was a warlike god. The Bible tells us the Hebrew tribes were an aggressive, hostile people, and so their God reflected their heartless ferocity. That God, and the books of the Old Testament, literally drip with innocent blood, with conquered people murdered, with raped virgins -- mere children, with inhuman cruelties and unspeakable crimes -- All approved by the Old Testament God! We do not need such a God in our modern world. WE ARE INDEED LUCKY THAT THE BIBLE IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD! The Bible tells us that God is small, that the Bible God is not the God of the endless Cosmos. He is not even the God of the entire Earth -- small as that is; but is the God of some remote and primitive tribe, of some obscure area of our little Earth, during a limited period of time, long after the evolution of man. Such a concept of God is an insult, and is absolutely false! I might believe in a God that is incomprehensibly great, but I could never believe in a God that is disgustingly small. It is certain that the true God of the endless Universe could not be small. The Bible describes a God too insignificant for intelligent belief. When I was a Christian the very thought that there could be a lie in the Bible was repulsive to me, just as it would be to any believing Christian. I had been taught that the Bible was the word of God. I had been taught to believe -- to believe blindly and to worship without question. Being the word of God, I knew there could not be one single lie in the Bible, I knew deep within me that God did not lie. I still believe that! If there is a God that God would not lie. It never occurred to me that the Bible was not the word of God, that it might be a forgery, the product of human deception. There came a time when I determined to read the Bible again, this time just as I would read the books of some strange and foreign religion, to see it with the eyes of a thinking infidel. Would the infidel see our Bible as reasonable, as moral, and as a force for human good? It was then that I found the lie, and looking further I found another lie, then other lies and still more. To me it was a revelation; it was as if a bandage had been taken from my eyes and I was seeing the truth for the first time. We all know that a book containing lies cannot be the word of God. We all know that, regardless of what concept we have of God. Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 2 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 The Bible is not the word of God because the Bible contains lies. The Bible says in Exodus 10, verse 27, "But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go." Then in verse 29; we read "And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle." That is a lie! The God of the endless Universe would not murder innocent children. It is a lie that God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" so God would have an excuse to murder little babies. That is a lie and a blasphemy! In the Bible (Deut. 28, verse 16) God is made to say: "But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth." That is a lie! The God of the endless cosmos never told savages to slaughter defenseless, defeated people, "to save alive nothing that breatheth." It is the lie of savages to justify their robbing and murdering their neighbors. The Bible is not the word of God. In the Bible (Josh. 10, verse 12-13) "Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and said in the sight of Israel, sun, stand thou still upon Gideon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon. (13) and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies." That is a lie! The God of our endless universe never stopped the sun (That is to say, stopped the turning of the Earth) so one bunch of savages could slaughter another bunch of savages. It is a lie! In the Bible (1 Samuel 6, verse 19) "And He smote the men of Bethsemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with great slaughter." That is a lie! The God of the endless universe would not slaughter the men of one savage tribe because they peeped at the superstitious paraphernalia of another savage tribe. Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 3 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 We could go on and on quoting these primitive lies from the Bible, all of which prove but one thing: The Bible is not the word of God. All I ask is that you read the Bible. Read it with an open mind, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, believed the Bible was the word of God. Even some believers have seen the bad that is in the Old Testament. I know they have sworn not to think about the Bible, not to judge -- but only to believe. Yet they have moved, some of them, a little, ever so little, away from the Old Testament. They won't admit it but some Christian believers wish the Old Testament had not been written. They are ashamed of it; they are ashamed of the old God -- and the slaughter. There they were, on their knees, eyes closed tight, hands clasped, head bowed, brain off. But, with innocent blood rushing by, the screams of women being murdered, of little children being raped, something slipped. They thought, just a little, but they thought. Evolution and natural morality had built an over-ride switch into their brain and, in spite of themselves, in spite of their religion, they thought. Somehow they knew there was something wrong about the Old Testament! They didn't know just what, but there seemed to be something that was not just right. And so they moved. In spite of themselves, they moved -- they created a new God: Jesus! A-Men, there is yet hope for mankind! We now come to the New Testament, and although the New Testament has Jesus say, in Matthew 5, verse 17-18; "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. (18) For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." In spite of such claims, the New Testament is the religious philosopher's attempt to create a new God idea, and to escape the evil bloody God Tyrant of the Old Testament. What kind of God is this new God? We know the oldest gospel in the New Testament was written after 78 A.D., and the other gospels are even more recent. So we know that the quotes of the new God, Jesus, were only legends for at least one generation, and in most cases for several generations. Let us see 'what it is said' this new God said according to the New Testament. Jesus is said to have said: (Luke 14:26) "If any man come to me and hate not his father, his mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." That cannot be the words of God! Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 4 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 Jesus is said to have said: (Matthew 10:34-37) "Think not that I am come to send peace to earth: I come not to send peace, but a sword. (35) For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in- law against her mother-in-law. (36) And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. (37) He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." That cannot be the words of God! How can we ever find peace with gods like that running around in people's minds? Jesus is said to have said: (Matthew 19:29 and Mark 10:29) "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters; or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." These are not the words of God! Jesus is said to have said: (Mark 9:43-48) "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: (44) Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (45) And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: (46) Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (47) And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: (48) Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Those are not the words of God: Those are words of insanity! Jesus is said to have said: (Luke 12:5) "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; I say unto you, fear him." Christianity is founded upon fear -- and is perpetuated by fear. That would not be the way of the true God, the great God of this endless universe. In the New Testament, as in the Old Testament, we could go on and on quoting cruel, foolish, un-Godlike sayings from the new God. Sayings that we know are the words of men -- of cruel, mean, heartless, small minded men. Words of hate and vengeance! words to frighten and oppress! They are words to give power to the priest, the church and the religion. They are words to destroy reason and to make the human mind a slave. We now know that the Jesus myth of the New Testament was taken from the story of the founder of the Essene cult. The founder of the Essenes was named Jesus, he was crucified in 88 B.C.E. and everything good that Jesus of Nazareth is said to have said was written almost a hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth is said to have lived. Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 5 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 From the Essenian cult of the old Jewish religion, has evolved a new God, a new myth, a new religion and a New Testament. But the good work of the religious philosophers who created the New Testament God has been corrupted by organized religion. The Jesus myth of the New Testament no longer resembles the kind and just leader of the Essenes who lived, suffered and died just a little over two thousand years ago. In the New Testament we find a God that evolved during the first few hundred years of the Christian era. Christianity developed through religious hate. The weak were called heretics and their teachings were brutally suppressed, and so the Christianity that survived is the orthodoxy of the strong and the ruthless. Orthodoxy destroyed the meek and filled Christianity with hate, fire and fury. The Christian layman and the unscholarly T.V. preachers, who have so much influence and emotional appeal today, are unaware of the deterioration that occurred in Christianity during its formation. The good in the original story was pushed aside and the bad took hold. The idea of eternal torment, as well as the idea of easy forgiveness of sins became established and soon fossilized into dogma and doctrine. In the New Testament there evolved a God much worse than the Old Testament God. As much worse in fact, as endless torture is worse than endless sleep, as much worse as eternal burning is worse than simple annihilation. Unlike the God of the Old Testament, the God of the New Testament was not happy when his victims lay dead and broken before him. The Son of God has not only carried on the family tradition, but has exceeded the wildest expectations of the father. If we are heartless enough to believe the Bible, we must believe the God of the New Testament pursues the dead into death. This God, we are told, has found a way to torture even those who have paid "the final penalty." The New Testament God has set up his torture chamber where there can be no escape, where death cannot be a welcome release. Everlasting torture, eternal burning; this terrible belief, this evil everlasting injustice, has become the heart and foundation of the Christian religion. People believe, NOT through reason, NOT through any desire to goodness or piety, NOT through any hope of making the world better, or mankind better, or themselves better, but through FEAR -- simple, devastating, mind-numbing FEAR. They believe because they are afraid to think, afraid to question. They keep their minds as little children -- afraid to be adult men and women. They believe simply because they are afraid not to believe! Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 6 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 Those who believe in hell can never know truth, for they are blinded by fear. The idea of hell was invented to establish a religious dictatorship and those who believe live under a tyranny far greater than any human tyrant could ever establish. They believe they are always under the eye of the tyrant! They believe their every word is recorded, their every action noted, even their innermost thoughts are known and judged by their cruel master of endless, unmerciful punishment. To such believers every act and thought is the result of fear. They are to be pitied. That terrible dogma of hell has destroyed the very foundations of morality. The basic force of morality is "the power of sympathy"; feeling the hurt of others -- and caring. The dogma of hell has destroyed that foundation. The mother, it is believed, could sit joyfully in heaven for all eternity and watch her wayward son or daughter burning and suffering in hell. I detest a belief that can make people so heartless. I could never be a Christian! I could never be happy in a heaven knowing there are people suffering in a hell. I have great sympathy for people, their pain, their suffering, their feelings, their losses, and their hopes. I deny that hell exists! I deny that a vengeful God exists! And I deny that any book that tells the lie that such a gross, everlasting injustice as hell exists could be the word of God! About the turn of this century there were over a hundred studies made, and published, which questioned the historicalness of Jesus. Was Jesus a real historic person or was he a myth? One of the most famous books on the subject was Albert Schweitzer's "The Quest of the Historical Jesus." The book was first published in 1906. Schweitzer concluded that, "The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God, who founded the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth, and died to give His work its final consecration, never had any existence." (p. 398). History and scholarship tell us that Jesus was not a god but a myth; a Jesus of Nazareth did not live at the time that Jesus is said to have lived, and no one at that time did the things that Jesus is said to have done. We now know where the myth of Jesus came from and how it originated. The discovery of the truth about the New Testament is one of the greatest miracles of the modern world. It is as if there were a God and that God had said: "Enough of this myth that has caused so much hate and trouble, so much war and persecution, so much torture and suffering in the world! I will put a stop to it before it destroys the entire earth." What were the "miracles" that revealed the truth about the origin of the myth of Jesus, of Christianity and of the New Testament? Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 7 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 In December, 1945, there was discovered in upper Egypt a group of 52 Gnostic scrolls that dated from about 148 A.D. These first scrolls tell about the conflicting doctrines and the uncertainty in early Christianity. In 1947 there was another unbelievable discovery. In Qumran, on the shore of the Dead Sea about 15 miles from Jerusalem, another great number of ancient scrolls were discovered. These scrolls are known as "the Dead Sea Scrolls." The impression given the public was that there were only a few scrolls found, just those found in the first cave. But there have been discovered hundreds of scrolls, these scrolls are about a thousand years older than any previously known copy of the Bible, and they contain all of the books of the Old Testament except Esther. There are also other scrolls that date almost a hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth is said to have lived. They contain almost every myth in the New Testament; they contain "The sermon on the Mount", and other bits of goodness and wisdom attributed to Jesus. They do not contain the evil sayings of Jesus. Those have been added later. These old scrolls simply destroy the credibility of the historical foundations of Christianity by proving the New Testament evolved from the uninspired, historical, writings of man. These scrolls have not been honestly presented to the public. It is strange that what God seeks so forcefully to reveal, the men of God are so determined to conceal! Religion is big business, and those who hold positions of profit and prestige in that business will not allow mere truth to become a threat to religion. What kind of a God do you think there would be if there were a God? A God would be just, kind, good, helpful, intelligent and wise. In short, God would be all the things the Bible God is not. A true God would be better than the best of us, not worse than the worst of us. If there were a God there would not be war, there would not be evil, there would not be starvation, overpopulation, pollution, misery, religion, plague and disease; there would not be dogmas and doctrines and creeds. There would be no need to believe foolishness and there would be no fear of thinking. Why even science, philosophy and reason would be respectable -- if there were a God. Honestly now! Who could worship a God like the God of the Bible? Not a thinking person! Certainly not a kind and gentle person, not a just person nor a loving person. It would have to be a frightened person. A person so afraid that he doesn't think, he just falls down and grovels before a tyrant. Only a coward could blindly worship the murderous, bloody, vengeful tyrant that the Bible describes as "God." I will NOT worship such a God! Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 8 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 I cannot and will not believe in such a God. It is a lie. It is a blasphemy and a slander against the very idea of God. The Bible is not the word of God! With a God like the God in the Bible we don't need a Devil. When we look at the Bible we must seriously question if we have not been misled into worshiping the evil elements of nature instead of the good. We must seriously question if belief is not the wrong end, and doubt the right end, of religion. After all, it has always been the kindest, the gentlest, the most moral and the most respectable people who have eaten deeply of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -- the very tree the Bible demands that we avoid. Or, has the world advanced so far that what seemed good to those who wrote the Bible is seen as evil now? Let's think about that! If the Bible is not the word of God, and of course it is not, then let us consider who did write the Bible and why. The Bible was written by primitive priests, but those primitive priests were the learned men of that day. They were the thinkers and the law-givers. They derived their authority by claiming to speak for God. Primitive people are easily fooled, and often the old priests fooled themselves -- just as honest ministers fool themselves today. The priests who wrote the Bible stood upon their tippy-toes and reaching just as high as they could reach, they drove their spike. That spike is the Bible. It represents their best knowledge, their best morals, their most advanced understanding and world view. It was as high as they could think! And they thought it was as high as anyone would ever be able to think. So they drove the spike of their knowledge just as high as they could reach and they called it "The word of God." That spike, that was as high as those old priests could reach, is less than knee high to modern man. Humanity has advanced during the thousands of years since the Bible was written and our modern knowledge and higher moral understanding, tells us that the spike, the Bible, is not "the word of God." Today we desperately need a new God -- a God that is NOT an insult to our intelligence -- a God that is as great as the endless cosmos. We need a just God that does not have chosen galaxies and a preferred life form -- a life form that is told to slaughter other life forms. We desperately need a God that commands that we think, instead of believe and worship. We need a God to civilize us, not one that makes us savages. But we must not be as foolish as the old Bible priests. We must not drive another spike, create another Bible, and say "believe." How soon would future generations find our highest morality brutish, our best intellect childish, and our world view primitive? How soon would our children's children again be divided, with future orthodox preachers insisting that our book is "the word of God," and some future heretic saying; "it is the ravings of ignorance." Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 9 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 We must not hold back future generations at our level. Let us stand upon our tippy-toes and make our mark, but beside that mark write "Question and Grow." Our best knowledge today is NOT the word of God, and the best wisdom of people who lived and thought thousands of years ago is not "the word of God." There is one fact which wise men and heretics have always known, which philosophers and scholars have known for generations, a fact that even theologians know today, a fact that frees the mind and drives away the awful fear. The time has come for the victims to know that fact also: The Bible is not the word of God! **** **** CONCLUSION #2 DAY 2 -- PART 2 For two thousand years Christianity and the Bible has failed to bring peace and harmony to our world. The Bible has, in fact, been responsible for some of the most diabolical massacres and persecutions known to man. Today those historic facts are kept out of our history books. Humanity now stands between the past and the future as it has never done before. We all know there is a great possibility that humanity will not have a future; that we will destroy ourselves. If we are to survive this atomic age we must find a new way of thinking, we can no longer believe blindly, and hate those who believe differently. Instead we must find ways to unite mankind, ways to remove unnecessary boundaries and barriers. We must find ways to remove the causes of hate. Much of our hate and trouble in the world is founded upon the delusion that the Bible is "the word of God." There has never been a greater source of hate than the assumption that we are doing God's work, that we have the "word of God" to guide us and that our task is to destroy some "center of evil" in the world. Throughout history that delusion has been responsible for the most terrible wars and atrocities. That delusion may destroy our world! There is not a conflict in the world today that does not have at its roots a different of religious opinion. The Jews, Christians and Moslems are murdering each other in Lebanon, Catholics and Protestants murder each other in Ireland. And how much of our hatred for Russia, and Communism, springs from the fact that they have chosen to establish Atheism. When we read that Moslem terrorists will drive a truck load of explosives into a building and die to kill others in their "holy war," we recognize that as a form of insanity. Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 10 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 When we hear a Christian fundamentalist preaching "no coexistence with Godless Communism" we should know that is equally insane in our atomic age. When we read that a powerful Christian leader has reaffirmed the medieval dogma that birth control and contraceptives are immoral and against Bible teachings; we should realize that too is insanity in our overpopulated world. Such teachings are of the past, a past full of hate, war and persecution; a past full of blind faith and religious delusions. Today we are playing for keeps. Today we must find a new way of thinking. We can no longer stick our heads into the sands of superstition and hope "God" will protect us; that hope has failed too often. Those who study the facts of history know that. Those who knew the Bible was not "the word of God" brought about the Renaissance and saved humanity from the Dark Ages; Those who knew the Bible was not "the word of God" had the wisdom to establish America as a free nation; Those who knew the Bible is not "the word of God" have given us every great advance in science and reason; And those who know the Bible is not "the word of God" are the only ones who can lead mankind to peace and human survival. The Bible and all the other so-called "holy books" are of the past. If humanity cannot outgrow these barbaric relics that divide us and cause so much hate, we cannot hope to have a future. We cannot hope to survive another generation! If mankind survives, future generations will know this age as "the age of propaganda," the age of hate for opinion's sake. Future generations will marvel that our age, with its modern technology and great wealth of solid scientific learning, could remain rooted in the primitive fables of past ages; they will marvel that we could not see the evil and danger of worshipping an historic failure. If mankind survives this religious age, future generations will look upon our instruments of war and doubt our sanity, just as we look upon the torture instruments of a past religious age and doubt their sanity. Already the delusion that the Bible is "the word of God" has dangerously corrupted America's rightful purpose in the world. The overabundance of religious propaganda in America today would lead us to believe that the primary purpose of this nation is the preservation and expansion of the Christian religion. But that is not true. Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 11 Is the Bible the Word of God? part 2 Our nation is not, and must not become, the battleship of the Christian religion. Our struggle in the world is in defense of LIBERTY. To preserve our own, and, if possible, to help others gain and keep theirs. This nation is not fighting "Godless Atheism" nor "Atheistic Communism," nor any other group or nation that has had Christian hate terms applied to them. We, as a nation, are opposed to Communism because Communism, like Christianity, is an ideological force that is destructive to human rights and freedom. It is, in fact, none of our business whether another nation, or another individual, believes in a God or not. Our only concern is that every individual must have the liberty to decide just what he, or she, can and will believe. And that they have the freedom to express, publish and pursue those beliefs in perfect safety. In short, our only concern in the world is exactly those ideals that this great nation of ours was originally founded upon. Such a statement is in no way a concession to Communism. It is a statement of our determination to be, and to remain, a free people. Those who have tasted real freedom can never return to the mental slavery of an oppressive belief. It is entirely correct to say: "I would rather be dead than Christian or red." When George Washington was president in 1796 he wrote "a treaty of peace and friendship" with Tripoli. That treaty reads "As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; it has, in itself, no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of the Musselmen (Muslims) ... no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." That treaty, signed into law by President John Adams, proves the Founding Fathers recognized religion to be the source of hate and war. It also proves the United States was not, is not, and must not become, a Christian nation. Why can we not write a treaty today that has the great wisdom that was put into the treaty with Tripoli? Why can we not say to Russia: "As the Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; it has, in itself, no character of enmity against the Laws, Religion, or Tranquillity of the Communists (Atheists) ... no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." Such a treaty today would remove the main source of hate and we could get on with the business of understanding each other and establishing a hope for peace and human survival. The greatest obstacle to our peace and survival is the foolish, irrational, delusion that the Bible is "the word of God." If we are to save our children and our world we must accept the fact that the Bible is not the word of God. 13