The Awakening Cloud of Witnesses

This book is not an attack on Judaism, Christianity or Islam, it merely opens a new perspective on the Bible. It is based on 40 years of critical thinking and broad based research into the Bible itself, evolutionary biology, Dunbar's number, palaeo-anthropology, history and current affairs, epigenetics, cognitive neuroscience and cognitive processes, Humanistic psychology, the original meanings of words, metaphors, the evolution of language and various systems of ancestral worship among others. It is not a specialized scientific treatise or any other kind of academic work, but rather an attempt at a common sense understanding of the topics mentioned above, based on a search for connections between apparently unconnected phenomena and disciplines. Nothing in the universe is unconnected from anything else; why then should disparate bodies of knowledge not be connected? Regardless of whether one is a believer or an atheist, one cannot argue that the Bible is probably the most important and influential of all books ever published. Much good has been accomplished through that influence. Conversely, a great deal more harm has been inflicted on the world and ordinary people through unjustifiable claims of supposed Biblical precedent, inspiration and even instruction. The Bible is written exclusively in the form of metaphors - parables, allegories, proverbs and the idioms of a by-gone age. The reader will be shown how to interpret Biblical metaphors in a way which will show both believer and unbeliever alike the real meaning and importance of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. Readers will find rational explanations for the following statements. 1. The God of the Bible exists, but not in the form of a supernatural anthropomorphic deity. 2. The concepts of God, soul and spirit as used in the Bible can be rationally explained, because they are metaphors in themselves. 3. Humanity is not a biological species, but a philosophy and way of life for all of mankind's benefit. 4. The Bible is an ancient handbook of humanistic psychology, sociology and a very comprehensive exposition of ancestral worship 5. Judaism and Christianity as taught and practiced are based on literal interpretations of abstract metaphors, but taken as fact. As such they and, by association, Islam cannot claim to be based on a true understanding of the Bible. They are based on the same level as a child's understanding who knows and can tell a fairy tale, but not yet understand or teach the moral lessons it contains. 6. Appropriate language skills, including a sound understanding of the construction and interpretation of metaphors, as well as the knowledge of how the meanings of words change very rapidly. Without these skills true literacy is not possible. Many key words used in the Bible have changed since the original texts were written, some even reversing in their meaning, as has idiomatic speech. 7. God is a metaphorical anthropomorphism for the ancient system of mankind's well-being and survival wisdom, pre-dating both civilization and the written word. It is comprised of the four concepts of God the Father, God the Mother, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, all of which are metaphorical concepts, not entities or beings. Genesis tells the story of the SIMULTANEOUS AND EQUAL creation of the unique male and female individual consciousness, not the cosmos, solar system or the biological tree of life or Homo sapiens.8. The creation of the male, prior to the female is a falsehood created by misreading and deliberate false teaching of what the Bible actually conveys to us, and that falsehood has been used to justify the subjugation and even enslavement of women and girls to men and boys for thousands of years.