It’s Time for the Bible to Be Peer Reviewed by a Group of Scientists and Then Classified as Fiction

Science has taken a beating these past two years. Conspiracy theories, influencers, and the devout have joined forces against the scientific process. They’ve created havoc and are responsible in part for thousands of unnecessary COVID deaths.

But the Bible remains untouched.

It’s a book that many tell their children offers explanations for why we’re here, why we suffer, how the universe came to be, as well as a road map to the great hereafter.

I started noticing inconsistencies, contradictions, incoherent passages, far-fetched stories, and downright lies in the Bible when I was about twelve years old. A lot of things began to click for me when I was twelve.

So much so that I started to think that maybe I was smarter than my parents.

Turns out I was. My brain, apparently, was able to avoid the pitfalls of delusional thinking based on, you guessed it, the Bible. That’s when I also began to question the religious cult I was raised in and my elders who were a contradictory mess. I guess they didn’t think that I’d notice that the message they gave me every day of my life —sometimes accentuated with a belt— often boiled down to …

Do as I say not as I do.

Later, I applied that realization to people in power in general. The rule makers are generally rule breakers. Beware!

I soon realized that few if any of the brethern practiced what they preached. They were a bumbling mess themselves but totally comfortable with judging everyone else. It took me six more years to pack my tiny bag with a handful of personal belongings and leave home, god, and the church behind. I was eighteen. From twelve to eighteen I did what I still do — observed human behavior.

My life might have been a lot easier if that old book of fairy tales and unscientific explanations wasn’t center stage to everything the cult claimed to believe.

Clearly the Bible could use an editor at the very least and a group of peer reviewers might be even better. Granted neither would catch every mistake, but I’m pretty confident, they’d easily identify a host of mixed messages and contradictions before it went to print. The Bible is so packed with carelessly written stories, commands, and big fat lies that it’s a wonder there’s a single modern human left on the planet who takes it at face value.

But there are …

Why there are still so many who would prefer to refer to the myths and contradictions of the Bible rather than the scientific process to solve problems and interpret the world around them, I have no idea.

But they do …

People tend to cut believers a lot of slack. They contend that religious beliefs serve a purpose and do no harm. I, of course, disagree. But then I was raised in a religious cult. I know firsthand how much harm a believer can do, even to their own offspring, especially to their own offspring.

The Bible is an old book that has been rewritten, added to, and revised down through the ages.

Passages have been cut and entire books removed throughout the years. None of the makeovers had anything to do with improving the continuity and reliability, however. It remained a concoction of mystical tales, violence and bloodletting, abuse, and farfetched explanations.

As our knowledge expanded, however, we discarded lots of old beliefs.

We now have a scientific explanation for where the sun goes at the end of the day. We no longer believe that epileptic seizures are due to demon possession. Yet, this old book with not one scientific explanation for anything remains the center of many, many lives.

Honk if you love Jesus.

Yeah, my sister saw a man at the side of the road holding up a sign with that command written on it. She was on her way to work, so the traffic was heavy. Honk honk, honk, honk, honk, honk …

One right after another.

Of course, this took place in Florida ya gotta remember, a sunny state for shady people. Apparently, it’s also a sunny state for unenlightened people. Probably Thomas Jefferson would’ve laughed at that sign. After all, he cut all the miracles out of the Bible, creating a drastically modifed version of the book which he kept at Monticello where he owned several hundred slaves.

I don’t mention him because he’s on my top ten list of heroes, but because he’s no doubt on Florida’s top ten list and I’m trying to prove a point. There’s no greater patriot than a Christian republican I’ve been told.

Funny thing — the very mention of not loving Jesus no doubt will guarantee that this article offends a lot of people. (that’s not my intention) And the additional mention of my lack of high regard for Jefferson will offend another group of people. (once again not my intention) Oddly enough, the Jesus lovers will most likely be offended by the Jefferson remark as well which brings me to my point …

Here we go again, another major contradiction in a long line of contradictions, but who’s counting.

The big brain we’re so proud of is really, really flawed. That’s why it’s apparent that the Bible isn’t the word of a god, unless he’s an uneducated fool, but the words of a group of men who could write, a little. Not everyone could read or write back in the day. That was a distinct advantage to those in power, I presume.

It seems we’re shooting for illiteracy once again in modern America. Our leaders love the uneducated.

So, perhaps, it’s time for the Bible to be peer reviewed by a group of scientists, rejected as massively unscientific, and then assigned to the fiction section where I betcha it couldn’t compete with Harry Potter books for readability and popular appeal.

This is a few hundred years overdue.

The Bible stories I grew up on smacked of old-fashioned fairy-tale content. Take the story of the forty-two boys who made fun of Elisha only to have two bears come out of the woods and tear them limb from limb. The torture and abuse of children is central to both fairy tales and the Bible.

The difference being that we’ve never passed the secular fairy tales off as being true stories.

The Bible, on the other hand, has been passed down from one generation to another as the word of a God while serving as the basis for religious cults, a string of social ills, and slowing down even impeding human progress. Science has dispelled the explanations provided in the Bible for why we’re here, how we came to be, what makes the world turn, and what on earth makes Mother Nature do what she does.

If ever there was a book that should be banned from children’s reading lists, the Bible fits the bill. It’s crammed full of offensive, violent even sexually explicit tales.

I’m not for banning books — period. Let the children read the Bible, but allow them to freely criticize it without the threat of eternal damnation in a mystical lake of fire full of demons that take delight in torturing little children.

Let them sharpen their critical thinking skills on a few Bible stories.

Of course, there’s always the chance that if tomorrow, we finally debunked the holy book, took away its mystical powers and assigned it to the fiction section where it belongs, that we’d just invent another batch of fairy tales to take its place? Maybe our big brains require even prefer fairy tales to facts? I often wonder. Still, I think it’s worth a try.

Just saying …

Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. Her books can be found on Amazon.