In order to get a degree in Computer Science I found myself attending Seattle Pacific University, a Free Methodist Institution. In order to graduate, they required all us students to take courses in religious concepts. For me, these requirements came down to one class in the Philosophy of Religion and one Bible class studying the Old Testament.
Now it would be an understatement to say that I am not a religious person so I was not looking forward to these classes. As a matter of fact I dreaded the idea of sitting through what I thought was going to be two10 week sermons. But when I actually got to the courses I was pleasantly surprised to find that rationality had prevailed and the courses were taught with an eye toward history and what could be reasonably discussed and even proven.
It turns out that SPU is an old missionary school and it has traditionally had to prepare its students to face the rigors of faith that confront the evangelist in the bush. Like when the old tribal shaman sits down and asks, "So this Noah. He was really 500 years old when he had his first child?"
One of the discoveries I made during my forced investigations of the scriptures is that the story of the writing of the Bible is written into the Bible itself. It's not totally obvious and I may offend some people by talking about it, but it certainly is a better tale than the one that is usually gleaned from that tome. But don't follow the link if this sort of thing upsets you. It's not my mission to ridicule the beliefs of others, only to tell a good story.
This page was last updated on 21-April-1999