Lessons from the Bible

I always was aware that we do not really know who wrote the bible, but I never really took much time to consider the implications of such an important piece of literature, pervading the lives and culture of much of the world not having a known source. The bible is a huge part of American culture especially; we are a nation founded by Christians, and even though there is a separation of church and state, the morals of the bible are still a part of our everyday lives and traditions. Breaking one of the 10 Commandments is almost always frowned upon, most will land you in jail, and murder of course can sometimes end your life. The fact that we have no idea who wrote the bible means any whackjob could have put some stories together that many take as gospel, literally. It is far more likely that this is not the case, but still, anything is possible when you have no certainty. Despite the fact that we have no concrete name to pin the bible on, great and important lessons can still be gleaned. Friedman’s points about how we cannot know if anyone was really there to see any of these things happen is true, but in my opinion that does not really matter, and is not the point of the bible. Obviously one needs to take the stories of the bible with a grain of salt; Moses probably didn’t actually part the Red Sea to lead Jews out of Egypt, etc. Unless he did? But I digress, I feel like the point of the bible is not necessarily to tell us exactly what happened in the days of yore, but to teach us important lessons about how to live our lives honorably and do right by humanity as a whole. While if we had a specific name we could say, “this guy told us to do these things, so we will,” but after learning the lessons offered by the bible, one can see that it really doesn’t matter who wrote it. The benefits are still there, no matter whose stories they were.