Deceptions and Myths of the Bible

On the back cover of this book we read “It is time scriptural tyranny was broken so we can devote ourselves to man instead of God.”  The front cover proclaims, “The Bible is not the word of God, but a steal from pagan sources.  The Adam and Eve tale is from Babylonia, Moses is fashioned from the Syrian Mises, and the Mosaic law is from Hammurabi’s code.”  From all this, one would assume that “Deceptions and Myths of the Bible” would be a welcome addition to a freethinker’s library.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

While at first appearing to be a well-researched, definitive biblical expose’, the author merely substitutes his own version of irrationalism for biblical nonsense.  It doesn’t take long for this fact to emerge: by page three, there is a drawing of the zodiac and Graham soberly informs us that we are now in Virgo/Leo, the materialistic part of the zodiac.  He then weaves a convoluted, pretentious and utterly asinine labyrinth of astrology, cosmology, and theology which contains about as much logic as that uttered by some back-alley fundamentalist preacher.  Typical of this drivel are such declarations as “Western man is incapable of abstract thought” and “The world is a vast and complex thing…its cause can be none other than an intelligence of some kind.”

With regard to the first comment, one wonders if Graham includes himself as being “incapable of abstract thought” and thus rendering his own tome irrelevant.  As to the second, this is nothing more than the theistic rationalization for god’s existence known as the first cause argument, which has been thoroughly refuted time and again.  Rather a strange position for an alleged freethinker to take, to say the least!

But wait, there’s more, and it gets even better: “All terrestrial plants spring from a seed…Worlds come from world seeds…Cosmic seeds have within them a creative intelligence.”  Finally, near the end of the book, he speaks of “intelligent faith.”

Such examples should adequately illustrate what this book really is: a conglomeration of twisted facts, unprovable premises and assertions, false theories, quasi-science mixed in with ancient theological nonsense, and new-age philosophical rubbish.  The further I read, the more I began to question the author’s grip on reality.

To be adequately prepared to defend their position, atheists must have knowledge and experience in numerous areas.  These include a reasonable knowledge of religion in general and the Bible in particular.  This enables the competent atheist to demonstrate that scripture has little if any correspondence with legitimate history and scientific realities.  But even more importantly, atheism must be based on reason and objectively verifiable facts rather than wishful thinking and fantasy, of the type exemplified in this book.  Clearly, Graham is no freethinker.

Thus, once we see beyond the charade of what masquerades as a scholarly work, we can safely place Mr. Lloyd M. Graham with the religious mystics, astrologers, spoon benders, conjurers and phrenologists all of whom share his fundamentally anti-rational premises.