Published April 4, 2007

In his March 21 column “We need to study the Bible more” Stephen Prothero makes the following observation about many American Christians: “Because they lack biblical literacy, Americans are easily swayed by demagogues on the left or the right who claim – often incorrectly – that the Bible says this about war or that about homosexuality.”

It isn’t just “biblical illiteracy” that subjects people to such vulnerabilities.  Reliance upon blind faith in any dogma makes people susceptible to being misled.

Interestingly, the same view expressed by Mr. Prothero was expressed by Jesus himself.  In the “Apocalypse of Peter,” one of the “Gnostic Gospels,” Peter, referring to the masses assembled before them, tells Jesus “As you sit, they are praising you.”

Jesus replies “I have told you that these (people) are blind and deaf.”  He goes on to say that such people “……will cleave to the name of a dead man, thinking that they will become pure.  But they will become greatly defiled and they will fall into a name of error, and into the hand of an evil, cunning man and a manifold dogma, and they will be ruled heretically.”

In a companion column on the same day, Sam Harris remarks that “Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence.”

Jesus makes this observation about honesty in the “Gospel of Thomas,” saying “Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you.  For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.”

When we rely on faith for our understanding, our lives are limited by what our minds can conceive.  When we endeavor to live honestly, our understanding can expand to encompass virtually everything that our minds are able, and willing, to PERCEIVE.