{"id":18,"date":"2007-07-27T16:54:55","date_gmt":"2007-07-27T16:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/media\/book\/chapter-01-introduction-or-is-it\/"},"modified":"2009-01-19T07:16:46","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T07:16:46","slug":"chapter-01-introduction-or-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/media\/book\/chapter-01-introduction-or-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 01 – Introduction, or Is It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he Him.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 \u2018Aqualung\u2019<\/em>, Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This sentence may be the most important sentence in this book. Not because of the great idea that it expresses, and certainly not because of any secret information that it reveals. Just like a person influenced by the first impression of meeting another person, you have probably just read this opening statement, trying to figure out what the hell this book is all about.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019m not going to tell you everything. Frankly speaking, at this early stage of writing, I don\u2019t know all the details myself. I do have, however, some general idea of what it\u2019s going to be like. If you\u2019re brave enough to read on, you\u2019ll most probably find some disturbing evidence about the wealth of nonsense produced by religious preachers, the many contradictions found in certain religious beliefs, and perhaps some funny stories about religion.<\/p>\n

Now that I got rid of the difficult task of how to start, let\u2019s get to some apologies. Every book has to contain some apologies in its first section, and I have to pay my dues here as well. Though I pretend to mention the many religions of the world, I will focus naturally on the one (some may refer to it as several) that I know best \u2013 and that is Judaism. Let me state clearly: I\u2019m not saying Judaism is better or worse than its competitors. In fact, I will make a serious attempt not to neglect Christianity or Islam, or even some less successful cultural start-ups.<\/p>\n

Why in the world do I need you to deal with a subject so charged, a thing that may be so important to you, and perhaps even inadvertently offend some of you? The answer is not simple. You may discover parts of it by reading the next chapters, especially the chapter \u2018FAQing Special\u2019<\/em> further on.<\/p>\n

I must admit I don\u2019t feel easy writing about some of these issues. I\u2019m not very keen on spending the rest of my life hiding from some kind of fanatic revenge. I don\u2019t feel brave like Salman Rushdie or Galileo Galilei (you know, \u201cAnd yet it does move\u201d<\/em>). I should probably add Charles Darwin and Benedict Baruch Spinoza to this list, as well as another hero named Robert Green Ingersoll (details later, maybe).<\/p>\n

When approaching the task of writing this book, I had to think of some suitable name for it \u2013 you know, something that sells well, and yet is meaningful enough. I actually consulted some of my friends about it. Why I chose \u2018The Truth Is Wrong\u2019 and why the subtitle \u201creligious people should not read this book\u201d I intend to explain later. Just to let you know what you missed, there were also some other titles on my list. Among them:<\/p>\n