Reading the Bible

Perhaps the dramatic difference between religious humanism and more tradional religion is the approach to reading scripture. Among orthodox and fundamentalist practitioners, scripture is the literal and infallible “Word of God,” transmitted to the human community through prophets or other human intermediaries either face to face or through some vague notion of “the Holy Spirit.” The technical issues notwithstanding—does God have a mouth to speak? What’s a Holy Spirit?—this approach completely discounts the human encounter and the human experience. In this view, humans are empty vessels, dolts, sitting around waiting for the divine initiative. Human creativity is eliminated.