It Art In The Bible!

Imagine you are standing in an art gallery exhibiting the work of a long dead painter. The painting, whilst not entirely abstract, is not a simple landscape or still life. You stand for some time studying this painting and you take from it a meaning that you feel the artist was trying to convey.

Along comes another patron of the art gallery and stands beside you. Stroking his chin, head on one side, he also studies this painting and, after a while, asks you what meaning you took from the painting. You explain. This gentleman looks at you puzzled, he disagrees. He takes a completely different meaning and you are quite clearly wrong!

You remonstrate, explaining with gesticulations to parts of the long dried oils on ageing canvas. Still he disagrees, pointing to other sections of the canvas, how the brush-strokes fall. Neither of you can come to reconciliation.

Seeking to get to the truth, you both decide to consult your particular art critics of choice. Your art critic tells you that, yes, the meaning you took from the work was the correct one. Unfortunately, the gentleman's favoured critic supports his opinion.

Neither of you, nor your art critics, can ask the painter, so it's a stalemate. Both of you can't be right but neither of you can conclusively determine which of you has taken from those simple strokes the correct message.

Now, where is this going?

I'm an atheist [no, really, I am]. So when I die will god simply snuff me out of existence entirely, as many Christians maintain, or will god toss me into the lake of fire where there will be a great gnashing of teeth and everlasting torture, as many other Christians contend?

The problem is both those factions can only ever base their opinions upon the same book, the Bible, and so clearly that book must be ambiguous at best on the subject. Which, having read it, it is. I can also point to various Christian websites that will tell you both are correct.

I've lost count of the times I've had a Christian tell me it was their meaning that was correct and those who have told me to the contrary aren't True Christians™. It's frankly ridiculous that the 'true word of god' can be so easily misinterpreted that we now have thousands of denominations, many of whom would denounce the others as wrong, sometimes even Satanic.

Does it really make sense that a god, much less an all knowing and loving one, would pass down such a confused message, or allow it to become so confused through interpretations and translations, when it is of such grave importance. It concerns our supposedly eternal souls, should it not be as accessible as possible to as many as possible? Or is the bible just a load of confused old bullshit?

I know which way I'm voting.