What is the bible?

I have often heard the charge that a Christian is - narrow minded. This has never made any sense to me ... and very little logic is required to refute it. But I suspect this has nothing to do with ... logic. But, let’s address this logically anyway. And as this is a personal narrative, I will make it ... personal.

A Recounting

For starters, I was not born a Christian. No one is. I attended public schools from 1958-1971 in Wichita, Kansas. At that time, public schools were more academically oriented than today. In sixth grade, I was entered into a state-wide competition in both math and science. This required additional after school hours. I received honorable mention in both (somewhere between 4th and 10th place). I believe I was already into Algebra II. In High School, I did well on the ACT, and also passed aeronautics ground school testing (but, after getting airsick ... I did not pursue licensing). I always had a great interest in science (particularly life science) and loved studying evolution. I was also particularly interested in genetics. My Senior year I was named Outstanding Young Citizen by a civic group, and also received a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship to any college in the country with an ROTC program. It paid for everything and even granted spending money. That’s government for you.

In college, I was originally quite heavy in the sciences - Physical Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry ... but later, after two summers of door-to-door sales (and a taste of money) changed to Business Administration - Economics, Accounting, etc. I had taken up the guitar at 19 and soon found I could write songs. This became my own domain to express my questions and frustrations. Part of my search during those years was a longing for some kind of substantive coordinating system for all the information to which I had been exposed. There were too many unaddressed gaps in what I now know were secular world-view systems. When I was 23 years and 5 months old, I began - in private - reading the Bible. Even though I had sold Bibles door-to door for two summers, and though I had opinions about it, the truth was ... I had never read it. That’s not to say I had never had contact with “Christians” before. For example, ...

Once in Junior High, my best buddy, Jeff, and I - spent the week at a Tent Revival Meeting - complete with healings and slayings in the Spirit. Actually, we were outside the tent - peeking in from a split in the canvass - and had been having a grand old time ... mocking them. One afternoon, as we were reenacting “the show” - and getting ready for that night’s “showing” - I remember my Mom mildly warning about our antics. Well, that night, in the midst of our festivities, a couple of rather big brutes collared us from behind, and said that since we were having such a good time watching, they had front row seats ready for us. Well, next thing you know, two young “sinners” were thrust into the midst of the hoopla. People were falling out all around us - in what seemed to us to be seizures - and then one woman fell into Jeff’s arms. What were already big eyes, just about popped out of his head. He too was jumping all around, but I can guarantee you - it had nothing to do with the Spirit. Needless to say, after our escape that night ... we left them alone. That incident didn’t win me to “Christianity.”

But there were other contacts with Christians too. A year or so out of High School, a kid I had grown up with “found Jesus.” He then graced all us hooligans with his presence as “Mr. Spiritual” and “Mr. Deep.” I had known him since I was four, and I knew that within six months he would be back with us ... chasing the girls, among other things. Well, I was wrong. He was back in about three.

And, of course there was the radio and television. You always knew when you hit the Christian program. They were always asking for money. I never could quite figure out ... why God needed money. It seemed like He could just make some if He needed some. But heck, what did I know? I was just a lackey outside the loop. And in order to keep moving here, I won’t even bring up my Bible selling days. My point? Well, I had a lot of opinions about Christianity ... but as far as the actual Bible, as previously stated, I had never read it myself - by myself. But, ... then I did. After six months of doing that, something dramatic happened to me. I ... became a Christian. That was April 17, 1977. It just so happens that as I am typing this, it is now April 17, 2009. I did not plan this. I did not even realize this until just before I typed it. Thirty-two years and two divinity degrees later - and I can tell you - I am just getting a good start in the depths of the material in that Book. But let’s go back to 1977 and talk logic.

Logic

On that day in 1977, what happened to all the knowledge in my head from all my educational years? Did it ... vanish? Did all the evolutionary materials about adaptations, mutations, geological dating, carbon 14 dating ... just disappear? (If so, how did I just write that last sentence ... 32 years later?) And what about all the Humanistic metaphysics of a lifetime? Did all those values and opinions ... simply evaporate? And what about the claim in the previous paragraph - that, “I ... became a Christian”? Was that declaration the result of an epiphany of some sort, or an instant infusion of mental material from the outside - that at the same time wiped out all the Darwinian materials, and its spinoffs, as well as all the Secular Humanistic philosophies and values? When, “I ...