50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know: Religion Read Online Free PDF

step away from being wiped off the face of the earth, the unexpected happened. Within a few days, the Assyrianarmy was packing and heading back home while Jerusalem still stood. Apparently, some kind of disease had swept the ranks of the invading army forcing them to turn back. Not buying the Jewish theory that this was a plague sent by God to save his chosen people, McNeill suggests that the Assyrians had run out of clean sources of water in the barren countryside surrounding Jerusalem, and had gotten sick when they resorted to drinking from contaminated wells. Whatever it was, it made Jews deliriously happy and dramatically strengthened their faith in monotheism, since their one God had come through for them at a time when only a miracle could save them. Even when decades down the road, the Jews were conquered by the Babylonians, their monotheistic faith was too well rooted to be given up because of exile. No matter what would happen to them, Jews would now survive as a monotheistic people.
     
    This is clearly one of the biggest “what if” in history. Had Jerusalem fallen to the Assyrians as it was more than logical to expect, it is highly likely that Judaism would have disappeared from the map. Had Judaism disappeared, its derivatives—Christianity and Islam—would have never been born, and the entire history of the world would be completely different. So, the trilogy of major Western religions exists only because the army of a guy named Sennacherib didn't have good water to drink.

10 FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN? I’D LOVE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO MY PET KING COBRA
     
    Polls are fickle. Depending on who you listen to, the percentage of Americans who believe that the Bible is literally true, word by word, cover to cover, is anywhere from 30 to 60 percent. Even if we take only the lowest estimate as correct, this still means that almost 100 million people in the United States swear on the absolute truthfulness of every line in the Bible. And this is where the fun begins …
     
    Countless passages in the Bible present problems for those who take them too literally, but for the sake of simplicity let's stick to Mark 16:15–18. In these lines, the resurrected Jesus basically charges his disciples with the task of preaching the Gospel throughout the world. So far so good, but in the next breath Jesus adds that all those who will believe in him will be able to heal the sick, cast out demons, speak in new tongues, handle deadly snakes and drink poison without suffering any harm.

     
    Ok, now, could you repeat that please? Did you say drink poison and handle deadly snakes? This sounds like quite a way to test one's devotion to Jesus. The man, after all, said that if you truly believe, you have nothing to worry, so … shall we bring out king cobras and poison shots? Truth be told, quite a few people through the ages have indeed tried to demonstrate their honest, heartfelt faith in the Bible by doing precisely those things that Jesus promised his loyal followers would be able to do. Needless to say, snakes have had a field day with many of these guys. So, here is the problem: in the real world anybody drinking the strongest poisons in the universe will die—regardless of how much faith they possess. This leaves us with a few options: either, A.) There are no true Christians in the world; B.) The Bible lied; or C.) This passage is not authentic. Option A is clearly problematic for modern Christians because it would mean that they are all a bunch of faithless posers. Option B is almost even worse since it denies the validity of the Bible. Option C seems to offer some hope, and in fact many Christians pick this one by stating that these lines may have not been originally part of the scriptures, but were added later. They may very well be right. This, however, is only marginal consolation, because if we admit that parts of the Bible as we know it are forgeries, then how do we know what's true and what isn't in the Good Book? The