New Testament Authors Get Low Marks for Common Sense and Sanity
That is, from our perspective, our knowledge of how the world works
I’m pretty sure many devout Christians have found themselves saying—not out loud, of course—when reading some Bible verses: “That’s crazy!” Not even Jesus-script is exempt. In Matthew 10:37, we find this: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…” The author of Luke’s gospel apparently didn’t think this was strong enough, thus we find in Luke 14:26, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” In Mark 13, Jesus claims that the coming of the kingdom will be brutal: “Siblings will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death…” (v.12) In John 6:53-58, Jesus says that the key to eternal life is drinking his blood and eating his flesh—which is straight out of pagan superstition.
When the devout come across these (and many other alarming Jesus sayings), they must wonder: How could a Bible with so many crude/grotesque ideas have been divinely inspired? That claim has been virtually destroyed by intense Bible study that has been going on for a very long time. Moreover, the blunt reality is that the gospel authors never name their sources—never cite exact documentation—for Jesus quotes; we now know for sure that none of the Jesus-script in the gospels can be verified. There is no way whatever to determine what Jesus actually taught. The gospel authors were theologians, and created Jesus-script to suit their agendas. If devout readers knew this, they might breathe sighs of relief, but only for a moment. Because this means that the gospels are severed from real history. Daniel Mocsny made a precise comment here a few days ago:
“One also wonders whether the Gospel writers met occasionally over drinks and had a running contest to see who could write the most ridiculous thing that grown men two thousand years later would still be devoting whole careers to ‘figuring out.’ Perhaps if the writers had had any idea of how seriously their work would be taken, they would have been more careful with it.” (17 May 2025, Debunking Christianity Blog)
It’s no surprise that many varieties of devout scholars have imagined different Jesuses, based on their guesswork as to what Jesus stories in the gospels can be trusted. But we’re up against a brick wall: from our perspective of how the world works, we know that the gospel stories overflow with superstitions, magical thinking, and miracle folklore. The real Jesus—if there was one—is hidden behind a mountain of fantasy stories.
But then there’s also our curiosity if insanity played any role at all. We hit this other brick wall when we consider the writings of the apostle Paul. I suppose it’s rare for Christians to read the gospels with great care, but diving into the letters of Paul is an even greater challenge. Which devout scholars have done for hundreds of years. There have been thousands of books, articles, doctoral dissertations written about Paul’s letters in the New Testament—because it takes considerable effort to figure them out.
In a recent article published on Substack, Was Paul Insane?, Robert Conner probes this issue. He notes that in the Book of Acts, Festus, the Roman Procurator of Judea, tells Paul: “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!” (Acts 26:24) It is widely acknowledged that Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts were written by the same author—hence the chances that this Festus quote is authentic are slim to none (no exact documentation is cited). But what was the intention of the author? Here he describes a Roman official complaining that Paul is burdened with “too much learning.” And that fits with the goal of this Christian author, i.e., to boost the reputation of Paul. Conner notes Paul’s fondness for quoting texts from the Old Testament that—upon close inspection—have nothing whatever to do with Jesus, or as Conner says, “Paul’s interpretation of Old Testament passages often reveals what appears to us as disjointed, tangential word salad.”
But was Paul actually insane? Conner cites studies done by Kenneth Dewhurst and A. W. Beard, which include these observations:
“One subject ‘felt he was literally in Heaven’ and gave ‘a somewhat incoherent account of his celestial experience.’ Another subject ‘saw a flash of light’ and ‘had a series of visions,’ remained completely convinced of ‘the validity of everything he had seen and heard’ and felt he had been ‘singled out’ as ‘God’s chosen instrument.’ Others had a range of experiences that included ‘a very vivid dream of the Crucifixion’ or a sudden conviction ‘that he was the Son of God’ with ‘special powers of healing.’”
Just how did Paul know what he claimed to know about Jesus? This is his boast in Galatians 1:11-12: “For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin, for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” His “revelations” appear to have been skimpy on the details about the Jesus that we find in the gospels. Paul fails to describe the ministry of Jesus, his miracles and extensive teachings. There is no mention of the empty tomb on Easter morning. Indeed, based on a careful reading of Romans 13, he might have been unaware that Jesus was crucified by Roman authorities.
An important resource for study of brain activity’s role in religious experience is David E. Comings’ 2008 book, Did Man Create God? Is Your Spiritual Brain at Peace with Your Thinking Brain? —especially chapter 30, The Spiritual Brain. Comings discusses TLE (Temporal Lobe Epilepsy) and the possibility, based on Paul’s letters, that the apostle suffered from this condition. Reflecting on Paul’s intense convictions and activities, Comings states:
“If it was not for these efforts and the prolific writings of Paul, it is likely that Christianity would never have progressed beyond a tiny Roman religious sect. If the role of TLE in Paul’s conversion is correct, it could be argued that without TLE Christianity would never have become the dominant religion of the western world.” (p. 364)
Religious fanatics of so many different varieties claim that their “truths” are based on revelations, but in all probability these experiences are hallucinations. We can be sure that Paul got so much wrong, based on his revelations/hallucinations. He was consumed with the idea that Jesus would be arriving soon on the clouds of heaven; in 1 Thessalonians 4, he assures his readers that their dead relatives would emerge from their graves to meet Jesus in the air—and that he would join them. In 1 Corinthians 7, he advises married people to stop having sex because Jesus will arrive soon: “I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none…” (v. 29)
Poor Paul, if he could have foreseen that two thousand years later, Jesus still has not shown up. That he was simply dead wrong. His revelations had seriously confused and misled him.
Robert Conner discusses these issues in an essay titled, Paul’s Christianity, in John Loftus’ 2019 anthology, The Case Against Miracles. And there he poses this challenge:
“Based on sheer probability, who bears the greater burden of proof, the Christian apologist who claims as a historical fact that Jesus repeatedly appeared and spoke to Paul from beyond the grave or the skeptic who points out that Paul’s self reporting tightly coheres with widely recognized symptoms of mood disorders, schizophrenia or epilepsy and that at least one pagan as well as some in his Christian audience considered Paul to be out of his mind?” (p. 531)
· Guessing About God (2023),
· Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available.
· Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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