Blog 3456 – 04.20.2025
The Greatest Story Ever Told
First let me say that I love a good story and that I believe some of the best stories ever told are “made up”, fictional, and may be true in a more real sense than a literal one. In one of my favorite songs to sing, No Matter What (my sing-along version attached below) are the words “What we believe is true.” Belief is the basis of all religions and most everyone believes their religion is the one and only true one and that all the others are false.
Today millions of people celebrate a particular story that most likely never really took place. Their religion has been referred to as The Greatest Story Ever Told and yet those who believe that story to be literally true cannot even see how implausible it is from beginning to end with a miraculous virgin birth at the beginning and a miraculous resurrection from the dead at the end and host miracles performed by the hero during his miraculous three year earthly ministry.
I once believed this story to be literally true. And I do not for one moment think myself smarter than you because I no longer do. I still find great comfort in a belief in a loving and infinite source, a higher self. Can I prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt? No I cannot. It would require no faith to believe it if I could.
This I know – there is no credible evidence, not a shred, to back up The Greatest Story Ever Told. In fact the earliest copy of even fragments of the earliest Gospel, Mark, are dated at over a hundred years from when the events are supposed to have taken place, way more than enough time to get the story straight and it is still full of glaring inconsistencies. That does not speak well for it being a historical fact. And as they say, “consider the source” – the Roman Catholic Church does not have a reputation for truth telling – their cover-up of priests sexually molesting young people being the latest greatest Church cover-up to be disclosed.
Though I no longer believe the Easter morning story to be literally true, I still think that “I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known” is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. Indeed the story of a God who so loved the world that he gave is only begotten son for it is a beautiful love story.
Is it a literally true story? Decide for yourself.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David James White
No Matter What
theencouragingword 