I am aware that it appears that I may be on a bit of a roll, here; however, honestly, I have been pondering this particular blog for quite a while now. As a matter of fact, this was going to be my “Intro” to the Religious Discussions Blogs.  (At this point though, I am glad it didn’t turn out that way!!)

Bible
The Bible is a collection of books, an anthology, if you will. I would guess that it is not just a collection of “books” per se, but a collection of things that the editors chose to include. (“Hey Pete, this section is super boring….take these back and hand me the pages that talked about Lot bangin’ his daughters….now that is some juicy stuff.”) Not every “Bible” is the same: Some do not include the same “chapters” (the Jerusalem Bible {http://www.catholic.org/bible/} has twelve additional “holy books”); Some are not arranged the same (the Tanakh {http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Bible/jpstoc.html} is arranged differently; Some have interesting vernacular (the King James Version {http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kjv/} has thee’s and thou’s that were not spoken back in the day). So who’s is right?

Translation
The book that is so revered, this Bible, which we have already seen has been added to, removed from and twisted, is also subjected to translation upon translation.
Several years ago, I put together my End of the Year Newsletter in American and then, in order to include my German family, I had it translated. When my family read it, they were….hhhmmm…I’m not even sure what the right word is…but, I will say that they just assumed that since I was in the University that I had used terms that were of “an educated mind.” LOL!! Although that is what was relayed to me tactfully, I would have to guess that they thought I was a nutcase. Here’s why: At the beginning, I said something to the effect of, here is life in our neck of the woods. Stop. Re-read that sentence. Now, imagine not knowing what that term means and just translating each word as it is. (How does my neck and the woods have anything to do with my life???) Then, later I described the shenanigans of my kids. You know I meant children – - but, “kids” translates into “goats.” Hhhmmm.
Just using my simple newsletter as an example, how is it possible to translate words and meaning that many times and still end up with the ABSOLUTE word of god? How can we look at this book for mere allegorical ideals, let alone practical every day guidance?
You might be thinking: Why is she trippin’ about a word here, and a comma there? Actually, I am most concerned about the Christian “Messiah” – -whose Hebrew name is Yahushua – - and whose name has been mistranslated/misinterpreted over and over (Joshua, Iesous, Iesus, Jesus).  What if the name is not the only thing wrong? 

Questions about Puttin’ it All Together
Prior to the decisions to put books together in order to form an anthological work that would later be revered as “Holy,” people would tell stories by ceremonial fire dances, pictures on walls, word of mouth, etc. As anyone who has played the kid game, where you tell the first person a ’secret’ and pass it down the line, can tell you, the end result is never the same as the original. How can the information be accurate if it started as “stories told by Papaw” and then written on various things in various languages to be translated over and over. Whose to say that this whole Christian thing didn’t come from some smart-ass punk who bet that he could get a good story goin’? (“Hey Pete, I bet you my foreskin that I can tell a doozie of a story tonight at the “Tell a Killer Story ‘Round the Campfire-A-Thon.”)
As many of us can attest, especially during this election, some very ignorant people have no problem passin’ on a lie or two. At least now we have Snopes (www.snopes.com) for those pesky liar-liar-pants-on-fire ignoramus’.
How did these folks, back in the day, fact-check their information?