My mother asked me why I don’t believe the Bible yesterday.

Then she followed with this passage from Job:

Job 38:1-41:34: "Why are you using your ignorance to deny my providence? Now get ready to fight, for I am going to demand some answers from you, and you must reply. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone, as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who decreed the boundaries of the seas when they gushed from the depths? Who clothed them with clouds and thick darkness, and barred them by limiting their shores, and said, 'Thus far and no farther shall you come, and here shall your proud waves stop!'? Have you ever once commanded the morning to appears, and caused the dawn to rise in the east? Have you ever told the daylight to spread to the ends of the earth, to end the night's wickedness? Have you ever robed the dawn in red, and disturbed the haunts of wicked men and stopped the arm raised to strike? Have you explored the springs from which the seas come, or walked in the sources of their depths? Has the location of the gates of Death been revealed to you? Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know! Where does the light comes from, and how do you get there? Or tell me about the darkness. Where does it come from? Can you find its boundaries, or go to its source? But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced! Have you visited the treasuries of the snow, or seen where hail is made and stored? For I have reserved it for the time when I will need it in war. Where is the path to the distribution point of light? Where is the home of the east wind? Who dug the valleys for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning, causing the rain to fall upon the barren deserts, so that the parched and barren ground is satisfied with water, and tender grass springs up? Has the rain a father? Where does dew come from? Who is the mother of the ice and frost? For the water changes and turns to ice, as hard as rock. Can you hold back the stars? Can you restrain Orion or Pleiades? Can you ensure the proper sequence of the seasons, or guide the constellation of the Bear with her satellites across the heavens?

Do you know the laws of the universe and how the heavens influence the earth? Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct it? Who gives intuition and instinct? Who is wise enough to number all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven, when everything is dust and clods? Can you stalk prey like a lioness, to satisfy the young lions' appetites as they lie in their dens, or lie in wait in the jungle? Who provides for the ravens when their young cry out to God as they try to struggle up from their nest in hunger? Do you know how mountain goats give birth? Have you ever seen them giving birth to their young? Do you know how many months of pregnancy they have before they bow themselves to give birth to their young, and carry their burden no longer? Their young grow up in the open field, then leave their parents and return to them no more. Who makes the wild donkeys wild? I have placed them in the wilderness and given them salt plains to live in. For they hate the noise of the city and want no drivers shouting at them!

The mountain ranges are their pastureland; there they search for every blade of grass. Will the wild ox be your happy servant? Will he stay beside your feeding crib? Can you use a wild ox to plow with? Will he pull the harrow for you? Because he is so strong, will you trust him? Will you let him decide where to work? Can you send him out to bring in the grain from the threshing floor? The ostrich flaps her wings grandly, but has no true motherly love. She lays her eggs on top of the earth, to warm them in the dust. She forgets that someone may steps on them and crush them, or the wild animals destroy them. She ignores her young as though they weren't her own, and is unconcerned though they die, for God has deprived her of wisdom. But whenever she jumps up to run, she passes the swiftest horse with its rider. Have you given the horse strength, or clothed his neck with a quivering mane? Have you made him able to leap forward like a locust?

His majestic snorting is something to hear! He paws the earth and rejoices in his strength, and when he goes to war, he is unafraid and does not run away though the arrows rattle against him, or the flashing spear and javelin. Fiercely he paws the ground and rushes forward into battle when the trumpet blows. At the sound of the bugle he shouts, 'Aha!' He smells the battle when far away. He rejoices at the shouts of battle and the roar of the captain's commands. Do you know how a hawk soars and spreads her wings to the south? Is it at your command that the eagle rises high upon the cliffs to make her nest? She lives upon the cliffs, making her home in her mountain fortress. From there she spies her prey, from a very great distance. Her nestlings gulp down blood, for she goes wherever the slain are.

Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? Or will you yield? Do you - God's critic - have the answers? Stand up like a man and brace yourself for battle. Let me ask you a question, and give me the answer. Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me, so that you can say you are right? Are you as strong as God, and can you shout as loudly as He? All right then, put on your robes of state, your majesty and splendor. Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. Humiliate the haughty with a glance; tread down the wicked where they stand. Knock them into the dust, stone-faced in death. If you can do that, then I'll agree with you that your own strength can save you. Take a look at the behemoth! I made him, too, just as I made you! He eats grass like an ox. See his powerful loins and the muscles of his belly. His tail is as straight as a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit together. His vertebrae lie straight as a tube of brass. His ribs are like iron bars. How ferocious he is among all of God's creation, so let whoever hopes to master him bring a sharp sword! The mountain offer their best food to him - the other wild animals on which he preys. He lies down under the lotus plants, hidden by the reeds, covered by their shade among the willows there beside the stream. He is not disturbed by raging rivers, not even when the swelling Jordan rushes down upon him. No one can catch him off guard or put a ring in his nose and lead him away.

Can you catch leviathan with a hook and line? Or put a noose around his tongue? Can you tie him with a rope through the nose, or pierce his jaw with a spike? Will he beg you to desist or try to flatter you from your intentions? Will he agree to let you make him your slave for life? Can you make a pet of him like a bird, or give him to your little girls to play with? Do fishing partners sell him to the fish-mongers? Will his hide be hurt by darts, or his head with a harpoon? If you lay your hands upon him, you will long remember the battle that ensures, and you will never try it again! No, it's useless to try to capture him. It is frightening even to think about it! No one dares to stir him up, let along try to conquer him. And if no one can stand before him, who can stand before Me? I owe no one anything. Everything under the heaven is mine. I should mention, too, the tremendous strength in his limbs, and throughout his enormous frame. Who can penetrate his hide, or who dares come within reach of his jaws? For his teeth are terrible. His overlapping scales are his pride, making a tight seal, so no air can get between them and nothing can penetrate. When he sneezes, the sunlight sparkles like lightning across the vapor droplets. His eyes glow like sparks. Fire leaps from his mouth. Smoke flows from his nostrils, like steam from a boiling pot that is fired by dry rushes. Yes, his breath would kindle coals - flames leap from his mouth. The tremendous strength in his neck strikes terror wherever he goes. His flesh is hard and firm, not soft and fat. His heart is hard as rock, just like a millstone. When he stands up, the strongest are afraid. Terror grips them. No sword can stop him, nor spear nor dart nor pointed shaft. Iron is nothing but straw to him, and brass is rotten wood. Arrows cannot make him flee. Sling stones are as ineffective as straw. Clubs do no good, and he laughs at the javelins hurled at him. His belly is covered with scales as sharp as shards; he drags across the ground like a steamroller! He makes the water boil with his commotion. He churns the depths. He leaves a shining wake of froth behind him. One would think the sea was made of frost! There is nothing else so fearless anywhere on earth. Of all the bests, he is the proudest - monarch of all that he sees."

I answered her this morning with this:

I think much of this passage reflects the age old questions people have asked about the origins of life and the natural instincts of animals that we do not understand and cannot tame.

To believe that this was God asking Job to defend his position requires the belief that this was God speaking to Job.

You either believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and thus everything in it must be true, or you don't.

My intention isn't to shake your faith by suggesting that you consider what Bible scholars have concluded about the many inconsistencies in the text, because believing it gives you comfort and I want you to be happy.

I believe that if the Bible was truly the inspired Word of God there wouldn't be any inaccuracies in it, but there are a lot, from places that were incorrectly located, to authors clearly not being the same person across different letters, to people describing past events from an era from their own time's perspective that was incorrect. If even one line of the Bible is not true, then I can't believe it was inspired.

It certainly does no harm to believe it, other than keeping you from considering that God is more than the way He is defined there. I gave the first 55 years to trying to believe it, but I just can't.

It had become the worst hour of my week, as I'd have to sit there quietly and listen to people try and tell me that the God I love is a jealous, petty, angry, war mongering, ego maniac, when I experience Him as pure love. Having to do that in a room full of screaming babies, or noisy children just made it worse. I've decided to spend that hour in prayer and meditation each week instead and find I am finally at peace.

It’ made me cry to send it because I know she’s so brainwashed by her belief that she fears I will spend eternity in Hell for my beliefs. I know that causes her pain, and maybe if I were a better daughter, I’d fake it until she dies. I continued going to church until my Dad died because I feared she would blame him if I didn’t go. I always thought he was a lot smarter about all of this and that he just went to keep the peace.

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion. Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk