Many Christians are Biblical Inerrantists, and many of those who are not still derive many of their beliefs from the Bible. The problem is that there are many reasons to doubt ‘the Bible’; too many to even name all of them in this essay. First we must consider, ‘What is the Bible?’ It is not one book, but a collection of many books, written over many centuries, by many different authors and contributors – who were often from competing sects. Even individual books clearly have been cobbled together from various sources. The next question should be, ‘Which Bible?’ Powerful Christians of old (whose doctrines likely differ greatly from future Christians who rely on their efforts) compiled – often with violence – the books that they happened to like into ‘the canon’. There are many such canons even today, raising questions as to which books don’t belong and which omitted books are truly worthy.

We need then consider why these books should be considered worthy, with believers usually thinking that God wrote or inspired them. But how is this objectively known? Often this trust comes from the belief in God, which has never been proven, and often stems from the Bible itself. Believing that God exists because the Bible says so, and that the Bible is trustworthy because God wrote it, is obviously circular. Many more problems stem from the historical transmission of the Bible. The original texts are lost, with much of what is now considered ‘authentic’ actually coming to us from the Middle Ages. They are copies of copies of copies, and have been altered, purposely or accidentally. We know this due to the many variant manuscripts that exist, which again leads us to ask, ‘Which Bible?’ Some variants are benign, though they already cause damage to the idea of Biblical Inerrancy, while others affect key doctrines.

There are also numerous issues to do with authorship. It is known that many of the books are forged; written by people other than their namesakes. The most important books of the Old Testament, the Torah, supposedly written by Moses, speaks of his death and burial. The authors of the most important books of the New Testament don’t even bother to tell us who they are, so we rely on the traditions of the Catholic Church – traditionally not the most trustworthy of institutions as even many Christians will acknowledge. We have only scratched the surface. The Biblical books contain many contradictions with history, with science, with each other, and even within themselves. The Bible contains many horrifying teachings and commands involving rape, genocide, slavery, and pedophilia, making us wonder if a loving and just God wrote it, or if it was written by a barbaric and primitive people seeking to gain power and prominence.

Yet more problems arise with much of the text being altered through translation, and also through interpretation by religious leaders and authorities. And there is always that old chestnut of not knowing for sure which parts are to be taken literally, and which parts are figurative. The very fact of the great diversity of Jewish and Christian religions should make this – painfully – obvious. The reasons to doubt the Bible outnumber even the children of Abraham. —Raphael Lataster