The God of the Bible: An Investigation

Investigation by Eddy Pengelly. Copyright 2007

Monotheism refers to the belief in one supreme divine Being and has the perception that he is a perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing, self-existing being. Monotheist religions believe their adherents have an exclusive relationship with God, which culminates at the end of a linear progression of history.
Religions with this pattern of belief encompass the Hebrews, Christians (ie. all the various denominations and sects plus the Catholics and Mormons), and the Muslims.

So what brings a person to believe in the God of his or her own choice ?

Many contemporary scholars tend to consider belief in God as a natural human response to the glaring uncertainties of life. But when belief systems based upon a chosen God combine belief and behaviour into an integrated whole, religion is the result.

Dictionary meanings for Religion
a) belief in a superhuman power to be worshipped.
b) expression of this belief in conduct and ritual.
A Religion is a group of like-minded people who share the same belief…and thus share this expression via their customs, conduct and rituals - and often cite some form of authoritative ancient text.

It is these texts that are the source of the religious stories about their chosen God. But there are different Religions claiming this ‘one God’ as their own, so reading the individual religious texts does not help to identify GOD, as each group has a different opinion and/or has interpreted the texts in a different way.

So we need to go to the source of the first story about God.
As the Hebrew, Christian, Catholic, Mormon, and the Muslim religions acknowledge ‘the God of Abraham’ as being the one true God, then this is the GOD whom we need to study - the God of the Old Testament.

So starting at the beginning we find the religious Creation Myth…
Old Testament - Genesis Chapter One, Verse One.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”

In Strong’s Concordance, the primary definition of Hebrew word 430 “God” (in the Lexicon section) is a plural word that means 'deities' - therefore where in the Bible the word GOD has been perceived and interpreted as a single GOD, it actually referred to plural deities.
Later the Christian Church rationalized this anomaly by introducing the idea of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost - 3 persons in one.

Conclusion:
The single religious “one true GOD” perception is no longer valid - as the original meaning was ‘deities’ (plural).

Therefore to which ‘deities’ does the Creation account in Genesis 1:1 refer ?

Earlier Egyptian or Babylonian Deities (ie. gods), or something else ?

NEXT TASK
Find the original source of the creation story concerning 'Deities' (ie. GOD) and this will answer (from an atheist's view) the question: "Is there actually a GOD (as religiously perceived) ?"

To do this we need to employ a scientific method of research. Observation will be the first step.