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29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 5. Bible

[authority of the main Christian texts]

4 ideas
The Bible has nothing in common with reasoning and philosophy [Spinoza]
     Full Idea: The Bible leaves reason absolutely free and has nothing in common with philosophy.
     From: Baruch de Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670])
     A reaction: Hm. The Bible may not contain reasoning, but it contains the fruits of reasoning, and it is obviously possible for reasoning to contradict its message.
The story in Genesis is the story of God's fear of science [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Has the famous story which stands at the beginning of the Bible really been understood - the story of God's mortal terror of science?
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Anti-Christ [1889], 48)
The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity [Weil]
     Full Idea: I have always been kept away from Christianity by its ranking the Old Testament stories, so full of pitiless cruelty, as sacred texts.
     From: Simone Weil (Letters [1940], 1941-01)
     A reaction: After 1938 she was a devout and intense Christian, but of a highly individual and platonist kind. Her religion is dominated by love and beauty.
The Bible is a story about God in which humans are incidental characters [MacIntyre]
     Full Idea: The Bible is a story about God in which human beings appear as incidental characters.
     From: Alasdair MacIntyre (A Short History of Ethics [1967], Ch. 9)
     A reaction: Very illuminating. He creates man, is betrayed by man, drowns him and starts again, sends a redeemer who gets murdered, and finally enlightens a small band who continue the uphill struggle to promote God's way. What next?