A Bible for Agnostics

Even if the Divine hasn't changed, humanity's ability to understand the Divine certainly has, and our scriptures should reflect this.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

A Bible for the Year 367

What does the word “bible” mean to you? Something sacred? Something inspired by the Divine?

In reality the word “bible” simply means book, from the Greek word biblia.

One definition of bible that I saw referred to it as an “authoritative book”, and sometimes we see something referred to as the bible of this, or the bible of that (sales, cooking, home improvement.)

And of course the word authoritative becomes tricky when we think back to the Bible of Christianity, because authoritative tends to mean trusted, accurate, reliable, and true; all words that most of us would no longer use as a blanket statement for either the Old Testament or the New Testament.¹

It’s believed that the New Testament was first given its current (and final) codification in the year 367 CE,² and we know it was formally canonized at various councils in the decades that followed.

And to the spiritual detriment of the world Christian leaders have been content with this unchanging canon for the last sixteen centuries, unwilling to question or alter its contents.

But the reality is 1) we now know a lot more about the origin and intention of many of the New Testament books, including that at least a few of them are likely forgeries,³ and at least a few are wildly misinterpreted,⁴ as well as 2) the collective consciousness of humanity has risen measurably over the last 75 years to a place where many of us can now recognize that the Divine has been revealing itself for millenia to all humanity (not just Jews and Christians,) and the Divine continues to reveal itself, up to the present day.

A Bible for the Year 4000

A few years back it occured to me that the Bible we have today will be very different two thousand years from now.

Sure, in the year 4000 there will still be some low-conscious, archaic systems of belief that remain in place, still using today’s Bible. But they will be few, and they will be viewed as primitive—stuck in time.

But time progresses, and as it does the average level of consciousness will continue to grow to much higher levels, allowing a more enlightened populace to realize that the Divine has been revealing itself all around the earth for tens of thousands of years, with some of that Divine revelation having been written down.

But mixed in with that Divine revelation is quite a bit of humanity’s cultural baggage, along with the reality that humans have been on what is potentially a million-year journey out of the wild.

As we move forward, even over the next century, wise and careful spiritual leaders will begin to compile the truths of these Divine revelations into collections, and these collections will become our new “Bibles.”

(Remember the word bible simply means “authoritative book.”)

A few years back I imagined one version of this new Bible to consist of the sayings of Jesus paired with the Buddha; the Psalms alongside the Tao Te Ching; some Native American mysticism, followed by selections of Rumi, Hafiz, Carl Jung, and Robert Bly.

A Bible for the Year 2024

Given my thoughts above, imagine my excitement when I discovered that Rami Shapiro had already put together a book that not only compiles some of the highest consciousness teachings of the world’s spiritual systems, but has also organized the material in a way to help us understand where we came from, why we’re here, and where we’re likely going.

This book is called Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent.

The book opens by defining Perennial Wisdom:

(1) there is only one Reality (call it, among other names, God, Mother, Tao, Allah, Dharmakaya, Brahman, or Great Spirit) that is the source and substance of all creation;

(2) that while each of us is a manifestation of this Reality, most of us identify with something much smaller, that is, our culturally conditioned individual ego;

(3) that this identification with the smaller self gives rise to needless anxiety, unnecessary suffering, and cross-cultural competition and violence;

(4) that peace, compassion, and justice naturally replace anxiety, needless suffering, competition, and violence when we realize our true nature as a manifestation of this singular Reality.

The great sages and mystics of every civilization throughout human history have taught these truths in the language of their time and culture.

Shapiro then pulls from the great traditions to answer the five questions of:

Who are we?

Where did we come from?

Where are we going?

How shall we live?

And why?

And as with all of the Skylight Illuminations books the right-hand page lists the sacred text, from 50 different sources, such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, Chuang-tzu, the Dhammapada, various teaching of the Sufis, the Tao Te Ching, and various enlightened wisdom from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sources; while the left-hand page then provides commentary from Shapiro, placing the teaching in context.

This book is pure gold.

And as if this collection couldn’t get any better, the foreword to the book is written by none other than Richard Rohr, who for me has played by far the greatest role in creating a bridge from the dysfunctional and increasingly problematic Christianity that I grew up with, to the spiritual freedom and power that I’m able to live in today.

So give yourself a treat and get a copy of Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritual Independent today.

Your life will be richer for it.

But God hasn’t changed?

And as we wrap up I’ll leave you with this: Christians often argue for an unchanging Bible by saying “God hasn’t changed.”

Well, even if the Divine hasn’t changed, which is true, humanity has certainly changed. Humanity is growing up as a species, rising in consciousness, and as it does, our ability to understand the Divine continues to mature as well.

It’s time we set aside our childish views of the Divine.

It’s time we grow up.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

The Apostle Paul

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1. I’m not saying the Christian Bible doesn’t have useful instruction, and doesn’t have some Divine inspiration. It certainly has both. But it’s a topic that requires a great deal of nuance that’s beyond the scope of this brief post.

2. Based on a letter written by Athanasius, who was a Fourth Century Bishop of Alexandria.

3. Scholars are largely confident that the Apostle Paul did not write at least six of the New Testament letters attributed to him.

4. For example, The Revelation of John, which is largely misunderstood.