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What if Biblical Christianity wasn’t Literally True?

I’ve spent a fair amount of time the last several years of the deconstruction/reconstruction struggle asking myself, “But what if conservative biblical Christianity really is true?” I’ve had to wrestle with the perceived notion of taking God’s place as a moral arbiter, why there is something rather than nothing, the mysterious circumstances around Jesus’ death/resurrection, or how my understanding and epistemology must pale (to put it lightly) in comparison to a tri-omni supreme God.

However, something I’ve been thinking about lately is the converse of that question: What if conservative biblical Judeo-Christianity wasn’t literally true? What would we then expect to see from the Bible, the history of the Jewish people, and Christianity throughout the ages until today?

The answer? Generally, exactly what you would expect from an evolving religion mediated by humans that has continued its development up until the present. Below are many pertinent pieces of data from history and the world around us that seem to align very well with what would be expected if Christianity was not literally true.

What we see in the Hebrew Bible (OT) borrowed from the ancient Near East cultural milieu:

• Ancient creation and flood myths
• Firmament and waters above/below cosmology
• God depicted as a tribal war deity via commanded genocide of Canaanites, endorsed slavery, and lack of regard at times for human life (ie. Uzzah, Egyptian firstborns, David’s unborn child, Achan and his children, etc.)
• Polytheism in the form of the divine council of gods (Elohim) with each one presiding over their given territory/people group
• Elements of the Torah’s legal code may have been borrowed from Code of Hammurabi
• Ritual animal sacrifice

What we see from the Bible and the history of Christianity:

• Archaeology and adjacent historical accounts being unable to corroborate many of the Bible’s (mostly OT) claims regarding important people, places, and events
• Generic prophecies within the OT that generally refer to someone/thing within their own time, and for which Judaism has an alternative interpretation
• Theological progression from the ancient Israelite belief of the sleepy Sheol afterlife to punishment in Gehenna/Hades heavily influenced by neighboring cultures
• Diverging narrative accounts, direct contradictions, errors, perplexing metaphor and theological literary genre, etc. are all seen within the Bible
• Modern historical-critical methods of biblical scholarship often reveal layers of redaction, editing, and adaptation over time
• Judaism (the religion of Jesus and Paul) as a whole did not accept Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah or Paul’s reforms to the Jewish faith
• Philosophical influence from pagan Greek Neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism, as well as Persian Zoroastrianism
• Development of critically important doctrines such as the Trinity, Christology, salvation, and even the formation of the biblical canon, debated by leaders within the church for over 300 years after Jesus’ death
• Christian religion being co-opted with the state leading to structures of power that brought the Crusades, marginalized the poor, and contributed years of war between Catholic and protestants
• Self-professed Christians with slightly dissident views about the nature of Christ or the Godhead being put to death or excommunicated by the church

What we see in Christianity and our world today:

• Lack of unity within the faith and growing number of church schisms and denominations formed every year
• In some geographical areas of the world, there are extremely few Christians and much religious diversity heavily influenced by upbringing and cultural environment; in others, Christianity has been syncretized with many of the prior faith traditions resulting in the emergence of distinct regional expressions of Christianity
• Christian ethical teachings have evolved in response to changing social, political, and cultural realities
• Significant theological disagreements and diversity in scriptural interpretation within Christianity
• Standard expression of Christian practice includes things like prayer, fasting, group worship, chanting, confession, baptism, communion, attending a service weekly to hear a persuasive speech from an evangelizing pastor, tithing, and daily Bible reading/devotionals which all reflect a social conditioning-type behavior to enhance emotions, in-group feelings, and achieve heightened states of spiritual transcendence
• Supernatural events, many of which are non-falsifiable, are reported to have occurred often 2000+ years ago in a very small part of the world to a comparatively small group of people, and yet most people have no direct experience of the supernatural today
• Over human history, you see a constant pattern of supernatural explanations being replaced by naturalistic explanations as human understanding progresses (prime example: creation ex nihilo vs. evolution by natural selection)
• High moral failure rates among Christian leadership as more disagreeable and narcissistic personality types rise to the top
• Existence and popularity of the prosperity gospel
• Scientific studies show no discernable positive effect from intercessory prayer
• Research has shown a measurable negative correlation between intelligence quotient (IQ) and religiosity
• Areas of the US highest in religiosity also have the highest rates of poverty and teen pregnancies
• Pain, suffering, evil, natural disasters, disease, and death all seemingly occur by natural chance
• A person can seem to be non-resistantly unaware that God exists (would an all-loving, all-powerful God allow this?)
• The Christian in-group response to those who have doubts or leave the faith
• The parousia (second coming) and imminent end to the Cosmos described in the Bible has not been realized, yet for 2000 years it has provided a heightened sense of last days apocalypticism and theological urgency

Now, all of these data and observations about reality as we experience it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Bible is untrue, or Christianity is false, but it should be accounted for and incorporated into the worldview of those who claim complete confidence in the conservative Christian paradigm. I actually consider myself relatively open to events occurring outside of our materialistic understanding of the universe. But over time as I’ve pondered on the above titular question and moved further away from an apologetic mindset, I’ve had to ask myself, which explanation better explains the circumstances we see in the world of history and today? As I’ve reflected, I’ve continued to discover more and more elements of reality that would be exactly as expected sans a supernatural religion. While I do think there are certainly good arguments for theism, incorporating all the data sets in my purview seems to result in an inability to hold any definitive belief towards the Divine with a reasonable level of confidence. Instead, for now, I choose to embrace the Divine mystery.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

• Albert Einstein

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.

• Thomas Merton