Sorry, I’m not talking about knights and chivalry here. Gloves off, I’m a Bible believing, born again Christian. I’ve been there, done it, got the fish sticker, but I’ve repented and managed to reverse the frontal labotomy. I never wanted to be normal but prefer not to be wierd.

I think the Bible is an absolutely amazing book but unfortunately some Christians take their meat pre-chewed so when they talk its not the real deal. Its second hand theology that they have accepted as new. And they sometimes retell accounts that they have not witnessed or tested in the light of what we call the Scriptures. Or they replay scenarios that have little to do with the real world. As someone has said ‘tell a lie often enough and it will become the truth’. Similarly, a myth told often enough will become history.

If you believe that the earth is flat then you will also believe that if you sail into the sunset you will drop off the edge. You can demonstrate this by pushing an object along a round table until it reaches the edge and falls on the floor. This actually proves nothing but if you can focus your audience’s attention onto the table then the rest is plain sailing (pun intended).

Jesus taught using parables but Christians are often prone to talking in fables and when they mix them with their flat table theology things can get very distorted. The thing is, once you have established that you will fall off the edge of the table if you wander too far, you can then build a system of values based on staying away from the edge of the earth which is an extension of the table. You can then introduce a story of a sailor that sailed over the edge and was never seen again which proves your hypothesis. Its not called circular reasoning for nothing.

History is littered with shipwrecked theologies based on stuff like demons and end times. They are either self affirming or so far fetched that reason cannot penetrate the twisted and convoluted logic. But there are many more Christian fables that dress up as truth, so bound in Christian tradition and claiming Biblical justification that its very difficult to untangle them. If you are interested in exploring this further or just curious as to what I will say next, watch this space…