Is there anyone out there ? (part 1)

Now some of you might be tempted to skip this section. Uh oh! It's the religious bit!

Now this might seem a bit glib but this chapter is not about religion, which is a man-made thing, it's about God, who is a whole different kettle of fish (what a strange expression?).

So how did Jews anyway get involved with God? Do you remember the story of Passover and the Egyptian Pharoah who refused to let go of the Israelite slaves? Of course you do, how can you forget our obstinate Pharoah? At that time the Children of Israel, the Jews, had just finished their schlep at the Egyptian labour camp and we find them wandering through the wilderness. Now these were God's people, whether they knew it or not, or even cared. God calls them his people and makes it clear that he has rescued them from Egypt for his own purposes.

But I can hear some of you say, "hold on, who said I believe all this Bible stuff? Isn't it at worst just a load of fairy tales?" This is an understandable view and a common one. Of course, although you now know a little about me, I know nothing about you. I don't know your background and experiences. You are probably Jewish, but you may even be Gentile (nobody's perfect). You may possibly already be a 'believer', or you may be anywhere on a sliding scale between atheism (there's only one thing I know about this God of yours - he doesn't exist!) and agnosticism (Hey, I've got an open mind about these things, but you ain't yet convinced me about this God person).

Now the purpose of this section is just to pose a few possibilities to you. Come on, we're all intelligent people, we're surely not scared at hearing what makes other people tick. So this is what makes me tick as far as God and the Bible are concerned.

1. I believe in God

2. I believe that the Bible is completely inspired by God in order for us, as individuals and mankind as a whole, to gain some knowledge as to the purpose of it all (i.e. life, the universe and everything).

Right, now let us chip away at these assumptions, to get to the nitty-gritty ...