The Bible’s Ungodly Origins

This post by Robert L. Johnson originally appeared at World Union of Deists.

(Photo: Amanda / Flickr)




Emperor Constantine, who was Roman Emperor from 306 CE until his death in 337 CE, used what motivates many to action – MONEY! He offered the various Church leaders money to agree upon a single canon that would be used by all Christians as the word of God. The Church leaders gathered together at the Council of Nicaea and voted the “word of God” into existence. (I wish to thank Brian Show for pointing out in his rebuttal to this article that the final version of the Christian Bible was not voted on at the Council of Nicaea, per se. The Church leaders didn’t finish editing the “holy” scriptures until the Council of Trent when the Catholic Church pronounced the Canon closed. However, it seems the real approving editor of the Bible was not God but Constantine! This fact is revealed in the second counter-rebuttal to Brian Show’s first rebuttal to this article. This counter-rebuttal makes the following important statement and backs it up with FACTS – “Therefore, one can easily argue that the first Christian Bible was commissioned, paid for, inspected and approved by a pagan emperor for church use.” Of course, I’d like to express my deep appreciation to fellow Deist Peter Murphy for the great research work he did in order to write such a great counter-rebuttal!)



Constantine ordered and financed 50 parchment copies of the new “holy scriptures.” It seems with the financial element added to the picture, the Church fathers were able to overcome their differences and finally agree which “holy” books would stay and which would go.

Compare the man-made origins of Christianity and its various dogmas to the simplicity of Deism. Deism is belief in God based only on reason and the creation itself. It makes no claim to false “revelations” as all of the “revealed” religions do. To Deists, proof of the Designer is in the design.

To quote Thomas Paine,






On May 12, 1797 while living in Paris, France Tom Paine wrote the following letter to a Christian friend who was trying to convert Paine to Christianity. Paine’s response fits perfectly with this page regarding the origins of the Bible.


















The Jesus Myth Theory with Richard Carrier and Raphael Lataster

The True Core Of The Jesus Myth

The ‘Jesus of history’ – Memory or Myth?

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  1. You’re a nasty human specimen that goes to great length to disprove hope to millions. You have your own god-complex and want people to follow your beliefs.
    May GOD have mercy on your nasty carcass.

    • Seriously, you are upset with Thomas Paines rebuttal letter to his friend? ? Did you actually read it? Or are you assuming as many do that it is the writer, who Clearly stated this was a letter written by Thomas Paine. …. a rebuttal letter to his friend.

    • Oh dear, why is it that christians can only attack those with differing views instead of coming with facts that will convince them otherwise. A nasty human specimen can be found on each and every page of the bible, all done on ‘god’s’ orders. How dare anyone claim that these are the works of God. It is the works of sick-minded men seeking approval for their barbaric hearts and minds. No one better to give the orders than “god”. Not the “devil made me do it”, no god!This article is brilliant.

    • Why is it that bible believers immediately resort to a personal attack on someone with a different point of view? Come with facts to support your case but I guess you would but there are none. A nasty human specimen can be found on every page of the bible; slaughtering children, cutting babies out of the womb, selling your daughter to her rapist…these are the nasty specimens. And they all claim it is ‘god’ that told them to do so. Using god to allow atrocities and the mindless simply say – yep, that’s my god. The entire basis: moses, the ark, abraham are all stolen mythology from Egypt and Sumeria (now Iraq); the exodus NEVER happened. Deuteronomy was “found” in a temple 500 years or so after Abs ‘died’. The bullshit goes on and on. I have no need for you to follow me and I am sure that Paines was not thinking about you either. Nasty carcass. Did god tell you to say that? Or is it just you? In any case you have not done your belief system any good. Your response is vindictive and childish.

    • Why is it that bible believers immediately resort to a personal attack on someone with a different point of view? AND wish them ill. Come with facts to support your case and I guess you would but there are none. A nasty human specimen can be found on every page of the bible; slaughtering children, cutting babies out of the womb, selling your daughter to her rapist…these are the nasty specimens. And they all claim it is ‘god’ that told them to do so. Using god to allow atrocities and the mindless simply say – yep, that’s my god. The entire basis: moses, the ark, abraham are all stolen mythology from Egypt and Sumeria (now Iraq); the exodus NEVER happened. The book of Deuteronomy was “found” in a temple 500 years or so after Abs ‘died’. The bullshit goes on and on. I doubt if any need for you to follow was intended and I am sure that Paines was not thinking about you either. Nasty carcass. Did god tell you to say that? Or is it just you? In any case you have not done your belief system any good. Your response sounds vindictive and childish.

      • Because they have been deeply indoctrinated that their very soul is at stake. Either Heaven or Hell, you have to choose and no compromising either. Once you're gone, that's it. They have to be sure that they are right in order to be safe. Some people respond to fear with anger. They feel threatened and need to protect their beliefs in order to feel safe. That is why the masses find it hard to give up the fable.

    • Yep typical christian…to get upsetand insult another when they hear anything that contradicts their own human beliefs. I DONT UNDERSTAND IT SO ITS AN ABOMINATION!!!! To speak of someone as a nasty carcass after callimg them a nasty human specimen is not Christian… its Hate for someone elses logical opinion that contradicts yours.GO PRAY ABOUT ITT.

    • Your Christian faith is based 100% on what is now called the "bible"

      You really want to go with what the bible teaches, mandates, and requires of humans?

      Let's review:
      Rape costs 50 pieces of silver
      Deut 22, : 28-29

      Pretending to be a virgin on your wedding day is worthy of being stoned to death.
      Deut 22:21

      Women captured in battle are to be murdered, but you can save the virgins for yourself to RAPE , and hand them out as concubines.
      Num. 31:17–18

      Working on the Sabbath means you should die.
      Exodus 35:

      Wives must submit to husbands as though they are God
      Ephesians 5:22-23
      Women are not much more than chattel who should shut up, bear kids, not work, and stay home in the miserably patriarchal and misogynistic view of Paul who wrote 1/2 of the new Testament.
      Religions (nearly all of them) have caused wars, brutality, slavery, intolerance, murder, rape, oppression of women, and untold human suffering for millenia.
      Today in Idaho is is LEGAL to murder your child by withholding medical care because the Christian bible was used to write state law.

      Gays deserve death
      Romans 1 :32

      Slavery is SUPPORTED AND CONDONED, read it for yourself in Ephesians 6:5!!!

      If your bible is supposed to be perfect, flawless, and pertain to ALL humans in all times, we can only conclude its mandates are immoral, unethical, and outright illegal in most countries today!

        • I hope and sincerely believe you are a troll. Otherwise such hate and stupidity cannot be explained. How can you say with such ease that fellow human being that might be good, educated, smart, kind people deserve death because they have sex in a different way than you. If anyone should deserve a bad fate for the sake of the well being of society is hateful idiots that would gladly perform crimes just because they think they are entitled to choose who is worthy and who isn’t.

        • "Against nature" would mean that other animals (They are natural! Believe it or not!) do not have sex with others of the same gender. (Look up "gender" in a dictionary please.) Other primates (Look up primates in the dictionary also please.) also do it! So do 1500 other animal species. So you "against nature" point is just showing people that you use words you don't understand. And before you further show your ignorance ask yourself: "If I am not a primate, why do I have a tail bone?"

    • Which goes to show how incredibly selfish and self centred the Christian religion is – much less interested in making the world better for others —- but interested in how "I" can achieve 'eternal life" . It's all about "me" , isn't it? And for that you would believe in anything.

    • It's terribly sad to read such venomous words from a believer. Having been a believer for over 45 years and now a skeptic I can sympathize with the words in this article. These words are not intended to dash anyones hopes but to shed light and logic and reason into the minds of people who have believed all these years without giving their faith any rational thought. After all these years, I can now say that I am finally at peace. For years I have determined to trust God, trust the words of the Bible. Even when they didn't make sense, my faith carried me. But finally when I decided to actually read the entirety of the Bible so that I could know God even more deeply I found it to be utterly impossible, full of errors and historical inaccuracies. It's not true. All these years I thought that if I stopped believing that I would burn in hell, I would lose the fellowship of my church community and add undue burden to my believing husband. But guess what, though I've lost the fellowship of many of my, thought to be, friends, my husband loves more deeply now for my honesty and the greatest thing is that I am now fully free to love people unconditionally, I can be charitable from my own heart and reasoning mind not because the Bible said so and I now know that there is no hell to go to. I am finally free. So, long story short; This article brings more hope and freedom than Christianity ever did. I'm sorry that you are not able to find the peace, tolerance and love that your religion professes. As evidenced by your rant. I wish you well.

    • You are a nasty ass too in fact you are worse than a nasty ass for visiting this page to start with and remember the bible said by just looking at a woman lustfully u have committed sin so go ask for forgiveness from your Jesus for reading this article,shameless hypocritical bigot.

    • As much as I appreciate Thomas Paine and his belief structure, there is no more proof that any god exists than that the Biblical god exists. I read books 3 & 4 of Paine's Age of Reason when I was coming out of religion. They were part of my "baby steps" when I first realized the book was a sham. However, as I continued my study I came to realize that his belief in a deity was also unfounded.

    • Educated people who think for rhemselves are not impressed with the bible as a holy book. It is a book and nothing more.

  2. I appreciated the historical background of the origin of what is commonly called the Bible. I studied all this when I was coming out of religion, but it’s good to read about it again. And I enjoyed your references to Paine. I also read him when I was coming out of religion.

    I do take exception however to your apparent certainty that there is a god without offering any proof. You appear to take the same position that Paine rails against that “just because you believe it to be true does not make it true.”

    What proof do you have to offer that there is a “god” or creator? Without the Bible we have NO idea what any so called god would be like. We certainly have NO indication that god has any interest in mankind, certainly not from a “personal relationship” with us.

    That’s all. You are entitled to your opinion and I to mine.

    • Alex,

      Surely the burden of proof falls upon those who claim that there is a god, or gods. Accepting the world as it is, without needing to resort to supernatural explanations, is the default empirical position, and really doesn't require proof.

      To vaguely paraphrase Bertrand Russell, if someone claims that a monstrous crab rules our lives by rolling dice, I feel no need to disprove it. I similarly feel no need to disprove such nonsense as the existence of a designer, or someone who, somehow, died for our sins.

  3. Found this a very thought provoking article. Used to be a born again Christian here in Northern Ireland also felt that Church has been keeping secrets from us. Well written well researched engaging to reason. Must say great article by Bob Johnson.

  4. As ye see fit then believe for no man can ascend to a greater belief than he is capable. And so we are presented with the conundrum of the ages. But a breadcrumbs trail has been laid and it s said he that will seek will find and the truth shall set you free. This wisdom has the capacity to undo all BS. Peace

  5. I have an invisible pink unicorn in my garden, It pees rainbows. I have seen rainbows thus it must exist. It also poops chocolate, I have eaten chocolate, thus this must be true as well.

  6. Comment:even nature its self teaches much of God ,than what some of the words in the bible teach eg remembered and regret .with this two words,one is from a story told of a woman who was infertile for a long time and persistent in prays till God remembered her,giving her a child OK,taking to the right meaning of the word remember,you find that there is to forget, which even nature of God support not,since by the natural things we see prove God mighty not to have human mind that there is anything to the other word regret , tells of God regretting of creating mankind,meaning God never know of the resaut of what he does ,he do learn. in your article ,there is sence

  7. Ever since enoch and the giants of those days the annunaki the fallen angels have tried to disprove to bible, and this innacurate rendering of the dark ages is a product of that.
    Yes histor has been tried to be erased and changed many times, thats all that happened in dark ages.
    Diesnt change anything to christians cause they know the truth by gods blessings himself. Something you wouldnt understand athiests.
    You go to any steps trying to disprove its funny. Cause somrone who has belief in got cant be changed by this old tactic of evil. Christians dont care if your going to eternity in torture but you cant accept that fact so you have to put your beliefs on them wich is useless and pathetic. But go right ahead it dont matter to us.
    Of course Christians defend their god against your twisting of the bible for your agenda. Satan did that too even trying to trick jesus. Didnt work btw. Its sacrilege against god so they defend their god. Same as defending your family. But in the end your loosing so its no big deal.

    Im sorry you have your issues but this won’t change anything. That’s all these quotes are is the same old tactic of trying feebly to twist the word of god.
    In the end you athiests just want others to join your misery and go to torment with you cause your afraid. Well you can go to hell we don’t care. You can even put our God down. It dont matter

    • OMFG you have no clue about what you are talking about.
      Quote: "Ever since enoch … fallen angels have tried to disprove to bible …".
      Have you got any idea when the book of enoch is written?
      Have you got any idea since when the bible is constructed?

      Man created god, not the other way around.
      If there was a god everyone would know it, if there was a god you would.nt have to believe in it. It's that simple.

  8. Just to point out there are many versions of bibles, the St James version was subject to an act of Parliament, as an atheist it is amusing to watch ‘believers’ cutting each other to pieces over who has the ‘correct’ interpretation of the bits of their version of their holy book is true. When you come to a unified conclusion then get back to me.

  9. Great article.

    People WANT to believe in a GOD because they have a NEED to believe in something BIG. They keep believing because most are too lazy to do their own research. People use the idea of a GOD to explain away what THEY cannot fully understand or yet comprehend. Believers easily and conveniently forget that there are other people that already understand the things they themselves (believers) do not yet fully understand. And now everybody must wait for the believers to catch up to reality. Belief does not make anything real. Belief only hampers progress.

    It is easier to believe a comfortable lie than an inconvenient truth. It is easier to believe in a concocted ancient book that consists of truths, half-truths, myths and utter lies. This article clearly shows the agendas by which the Bible came to be.

    And what easier way to protect the lie with words like: "The Bible is inspired by the Holy Ghost".

    Religions have thousands of year's experience in subtle manipulation, and clerics make full use of it to live a comfortable life with.

  10. I am not a “christian”. Use to be. Till I found the truth. As a “non-christion” I have 3 words for you – “Jy praat kak”. Go look that up. Very insightful.

  11. The evidence of reason logic and science point to there being a Creator. As for the bible, there is no evidence that Abraham Moses or any figure from Genesis-Samuel ever existed. The deist position is the only position for believing in God….all others fall short of evidence reason and logic

  12. Deism is the most rational position for believing in God….after studying Christianity and Judaism…and other religions academically I embraced deism…thanks for the article

  13. None are more blind to see than those who refuse to see. Loved the article insightful. Loved response of guest as well.
    Just a question that who is to say your truth and my truth are the whole truth. Different levels of understanding exists at different stages in our lives with different perspectives.
    The letter states that he finds God in nature yet so does the bible. It also states there is a time for everything war and peace. The bible is a diamond with many facets depending at the angle (perspective) you look at it.
    Getting to the deeper more spiritual side of life the bible is a map. Getting you to the creator God.
    God is truth and spirit, he seeks those out who can serve Him in truth and spirit.
    Brings me back to your truth and my truth that may not be the whole truth.
    So if heaven or hell exists who knows but for me I found God through the bible it let me to deeper thoughts and perspectives a map.
    I sit here wondering how many of the above people has actually truly read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
    If you walk in faith trusting God let Him (not religion) give you peace of mind.
    PS. There actually is a lot of prove that the Bible is factual so if there is smoke there is a fire.
    God Bless

    • … and yet you still have no evidence to prove your gods… just One Single Solitary book (that proves that a book exists – only…)

    • Exactly what proof that the bible is historically accurate do you have? I honestly want to know so that I can understand.

      I mean, from what I’ve read of the bible, it seems to be a book of metaphors & life lessons rather than historical documentation. The first instance of wth lies in Genesis with Adam & Eve begat Cane & Able. Cane killed Able and left the Garden of Eden to find a wife. So….Adam & Eve were not the first! Having two sons and no daughters, how else would they be able to procreate, with their mother? We call that incest in the modern age.

      Have you ever wondered why the King James bible has TWO books of Genesis? Maybe you skipped that part while you were reading and commenting on the above article. Do yourself (and me) a favor, find yourself an old version of the bible that you believe in so much and compare the two books word for word. Then you can tell me how it is historically accurate.

      Personally, I found that the entire book contradicts itself quite a bit. Then again, I read between the lines.

    • The Bible is a good place to find a title for the novel you have been working on since your sophomore year. It also has been used extensively for plot derivatives. And when all else fails, lawyers quote it. So, the Bible is not entirely useless.

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