The Rejection Notice
By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~
To: Professor Marjie Mead
From: Referee Committee, “Journal of Earth Anthropology”
Subject: Your article submission titled, “The Earth Bible as Foundation of an Influential Religion”
We have studied your article concerning your recent excavations on Earth with great interest, but we regret to inform you that we have found your evidence unconvincing, and cannot publish your manuscript at this time
Surely you understand that to claim that the Bible was once a foundational document for one or more serious and influential Earth religions requires a very sizable body of compelling evidence. Since the first Bibles were dug up some 200 years ago, it has been widely understood that the contents were created as fiction, intended for instructional and entertainment purposes only.
Yes, as you have noted, it appears to be one of the most numerous books yet found on the Earth, and, yes, it has been found in sizable quantities near the ruins of what some have claimed were “houses of worship.” However, we, the committee, are of the unanimous opinion that Dr. W. Diggins has more than adequately explained these findings in “The Bible as Children’s Entertainment,” Journal of Earth Anthropology, Vol. 314, No. 9 (Sept. 3269).
As Dr. Diggins noted, modern children easily and immediately recognize the stories of the Bible as too far fetched to be anything but entertaining fiction. Surely the adults of the period your excavations are studying - the 21st century - were not more gullible than today’s children. After all, we are speaking of an age that had already discovered and explained the basics of atomic theory, relativity, electromagnetism, the evolution of species, and the accelerating expansion of the universe. Surely we can expect that common citizens of that age, as now, received sufficient science education to tease apart fact from gross fiction.
Also, as has been noted by several researchers, the crucial Biblical theory of the “fall of man” and the subsequent perceived need for a divine redeemer is based entirely on a story about a talking snake and a magical tree! We do not find compelling your sparse evidence that any significant number of adults of the age in question, an age of considerable scientific sophistication, could have believed such a story was actually true.
Lastly, you have failed to show us how any significant fraction of adults of the age in question could have missed the obvious. In Earth excavations of the past 200 years, fragments of numerous so called “holy” books have been discovered, as well as accounts of many other gods. Surely the religions associated with these books and gods could not have been taken seriously by reasonable, sane adults, since nothing of substance could ever have been proved concerning the foundational dogma of any of them. And surely the man in the street understood that. The very fact that hundreds of contradictory religions had been described in the literature of the time, all dependent on preposterous, “super-natural” claims provides overwhelming evidence that religions were never taken seriously as based on historical facts, and were never meant for more than entertainment purposes.
I am sorry that we cannot accept your paper for publication at this time. We will be pleased to entertain a future re-submission, if you can successfully address the weaknesses of your present manuscript that we have outlined above. Thank you.
From: Referee Committee, “Journal of Earth Anthropology”
Subject: Your article submission titled, “The Earth Bible as Foundation of an Influential Religion”
We have studied your article concerning your recent excavations on Earth with great interest, but we regret to inform you that we have found your evidence unconvincing, and cannot publish your manuscript at this time
Surely you understand that to claim that the Bible was once a foundational document for one or more serious and influential Earth religions requires a very sizable body of compelling evidence. Since the first Bibles were dug up some 200 years ago, it has been widely understood that the contents were created as fiction, intended for instructional and entertainment purposes only.
Yes, as you have noted, it appears to be one of the most numerous books yet found on the Earth, and, yes, it has been found in sizable quantities near the ruins of what some have claimed were “houses of worship.” However, we, the committee, are of the unanimous opinion that Dr. W. Diggins has more than adequately explained these findings in “The Bible as Children’s Entertainment,” Journal of Earth Anthropology, Vol. 314, No. 9 (Sept. 3269).
As Dr. Diggins noted, modern children easily and immediately recognize the stories of the Bible as too far fetched to be anything but entertaining fiction. Surely the adults of the period your excavations are studying - the 21st century - were not more gullible than today’s children. After all, we are speaking of an age that had already discovered and explained the basics of atomic theory, relativity, electromagnetism, the evolution of species, and the accelerating expansion of the universe. Surely we can expect that common citizens of that age, as now, received sufficient science education to tease apart fact from gross fiction.
Also, as has been noted by several researchers, the crucial Biblical theory of the “fall of man” and the subsequent perceived need for a divine redeemer is based entirely on a story about a talking snake and a magical tree! We do not find compelling your sparse evidence that any significant number of adults of the age in question, an age of considerable scientific sophistication, could have believed such a story was actually true.
Lastly, you have failed to show us how any significant fraction of adults of the age in question could have missed the obvious. In Earth excavations of the past 200 years, fragments of numerous so called “holy” books have been discovered, as well as accounts of many other gods. Surely the religions associated with these books and gods could not have been taken seriously by reasonable, sane adults, since nothing of substance could ever have been proved concerning the foundational dogma of any of them. And surely the man in the street understood that. The very fact that hundreds of contradictory religions had been described in the literature of the time, all dependent on preposterous, “super-natural” claims provides overwhelming evidence that religions were never taken seriously as based on historical facts, and were never meant for more than entertainment purposes.
I am sorry that we cannot accept your paper for publication at this time. We will be pleased to entertain a future re-submission, if you can successfully address the weaknesses of your present manuscript that we have outlined above. Thank you.