The Bible: Old and New? – Varghese Pamplanil

Letter to the Editor 

My dear friend Dr. James Kotttoor has put in the public domain, the strictly private correspondence exchanged between us, on some incident narrated by someone called Luke in the so called gospel. This Luke character was not any one who ever lived in Israel; he was totally ignorant of even the geography of that place, let alone about the life and doings of Jesus.

I don’t have the audacity to carry coal to New Castle in the sense that James studied theology. From my perspective it is a sheer  waste of time  to brood over years together on an  imaginative, “Three in One; One in Three” Christian god  especially in  Rome, the headquarters of Mafia and all sorts of cabals. Michel Walsh says that Rome is the one place studiously avoided by  the Trinity even for a short visit  for the last 2000 years because of the skullduggery, poisonings of rivals, cold blooded murders, corruption and other nefarious activities happening there.

It is also pertinent to mention that the Christian god’s tenure is a mere dot in the Universal Clock of billions of years. The claim of an ever lasting church  by the clergy seems hollow; they better study the story of human civilisation. 

Many illustrious and learned persons of prestigious well funded universities abroad,  have  spent years and years of research and  critical studies on Jesus,  bible and  history of the church. They seem to have concluded that the efforts are similar to pealing onions; the result:  stinging  tears in both the eyes. If anyone is bent upon chasing Jesus and sees the bible as the ONLY BOOK to follow, it is his/her business! I have nothing to with it. 

After graduation in 1961 till the end of 2,000,  I was engaged in “survivology” to  the exclusion of many things of interest to me. I would recall a joke — one person was being ferried over a deep turbulent river, he wanted to know whether the ferryman had studied theology, ontology, micro-biology and other “ologies”. The canoe man  enquired of  the passenger whether he knew “ neentho- logy” –  the answer- “no”. The boat capsized, the boatman could swim and survive; the theologian drowned. 

The Old Testament is narration of depraved incidents unfit for reading especially by children;  it is worse than Micky Splines’ smut literature.

It is not for me to comment on the words attributed to the Galilean. The  Jesus Seminar of 1985 observes that the bible has been padded, contrived, mutilated, even prostituted by the conniving, scheming Church for achieving its ends. It is not a reliable book to quote and prove any thing. Jesus was found to be illiterate. He uttered only a few sayings. He was no  “world shaker” during his life time. He was lionised and made larger than life and an object of worship by the Church. 

If anyone  likes to chase mirages,  it is his or her business. For me, right now,  removing weeds in my compound is the priority; not nitpicking the bible. What worries me is how to survive  Covid-19.

Anyone and everyone is free to pursue his/her  pet subject. I am not interested in religion  any more. Religion does not impinge my life. I think I can live without the crutches of any religion. Please leave me alone; it is a request.

Sam Harris has rightly observed that  if humanity perishes due to violent fightings among people, it would not be because it is written in the stars but because it is written ain two books centuries ago. 

Thanks for nothing. 

Varghese Pamplanil.