The Holy Bible is by far the most influential book in the history of the Western World and its texts held to be the Gospel truth by over a billion believers around the globe. Even non-believers cannot help but be affected by its doctrine and adherents.
But what are the real origins of this vastly influential religious text? Like all people, the compilers of the Bible were strongly influenced by humanity's basic struggle for survival, striving for fertility and search for meaning. Of the many influences that contributed to the theological development of the Bible -- and religion in general in the ancient world -- the most profound were without a doubt, Sex, Drugs, and Violence.
As humanity comprehended, sex ensured their continued propagation, the sex act became sacred, and was thought to magically affect all sorts of areas of life, even the actions of the gods themselves. The Old Testament is rife with references to such religio-erotic practices taking place, not only amongst foreign cults like the Canaanites, but even amongst the Israelites themselves. Erotic activities that later, according to the New Testament and other sources, filtered into early Christianity.
Second only to sex, do drugs - as in psychoactive substances - play a pivotal role in the development of religious thought and experience, and the Judaeo-Christian traditions are no exception. What will be surprising to most modern readers is the frequent use of intoxicants, like wine, strong-drink, and mandrake in the Bible. Perhaps even harder to accept will be the copious use of cannabis (Hebrew, Kaneh-bosm), by both the Hebrew Priests and Kings for shamanistic purposes... a tradition that was continued both by Jesus and his followers.
Moreoever, the history of the Bible and the history people who have preached its words are histories of violence. This fact should not at all be surprising when one considers the endless atrocities that fill the pages of the so-called "Good Book." Indeed, if members of today's moral majority ever took the time to analytically read the book which they continually point to as the pillar of morality, they would be horrified to find a book filled with Sex, Drugs, and Violence!
