Two friends who are agnostic, both educated and retired, set out to explore the most famous biblical locations. The result of their sharp and humorous conversations is “Journey to the Holy Land” (Booket), which is a book about travelogue, history, and good humor. Juan Eslava Galan (Jaen), 74 years old, and Antonio Pinero, (Cadiz), 80 years old, are the signers. They are an authority on early Christianity and philosophers, as well as scholars of the scriptures. They have been transformed into Bonoso, Antonio and Pecuchet, who like Flaubert’s partner, talk a lot about both the human and divine.
They visit Israel, Turkey, Greece, and Palestine. They explore the history of Christianity and the diversity of the world. His biblical pilgrimage begins at Mount Sinai, where Moses saw Yahweh as a burning bush. It will lead them to the rich history of the disputed land in which many religions, peoples, and colorful sects grew.
“We give a historical account of the birth of Christianity, and of Christ, that obviously dispenses faith, but it’s still interesting, I think for those who have faith,” Eslava Galan explains. She has already spoken of Catholicism to sheep, and history of Spain and the rest of the world to the skepticals.
These lucid agnostics travel through key locations in the New Testament to reflect on the veracity and discuss death or resurrection, and shed light on burning issues such as the conflict between Israel & Palestine.
Eslava Galan laments that while veterans know the Bible’s stories, the younger generations are missing out on an incredible amount of history. The historian and winner of the Planeta Prize says, “Regardless of your beliefs and if they steal that kind knowledge from you, you ignore your past.” Eslava Galan says that if you belong to Western Christian civilization, you need to know Homer but also Jesus Christ. She recommends reading the Bible. “But my character believes more about ‘Don Quixote,’ than the scriptures.” It is possible to be agnostic, atheist or not. However, it is not impossible to know the Bible. He assures that the same applies to the Koran and the Torah.
They visit all the biblical sites, but Jerusalem is the most powerful. It is memorable because of the intensity of faith it displays, and the visitors it receives from the locations that are connected to the Passion of Christ. Inside Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre is “a kind of religious Disneyland,” Eslava says. Eslava believes humor is crucial and decisive in both books and life.
You have to laugh at all things, including God. She explains that you must also laugh at certain beliefs and the clothing that humans put on God.
These “middlemen” of religion are not only critical of the priests, priests, rabbis and popes who wield power on earth in the name God, but also criticize the cultivated agnostics. Eslava Galan summarizes, “They make belief a splendid business,” in just two words. He notes that it is a “sad communicator for the great monotheistic religious religions and sects.” “But beware! “But beware!
It has been, is being, and will be executed in the name God, unfortunately. The writer says that religions that don’t respect other beliefs are often monotheistic. “But, like Christianity in the Enlightenment,” the writer says, “But there is a time when religion is separated form the state and killing ceases.”
There were powerful religions 3,000 years ago. They have since given way to other religions and it is possible that everything will change again. Religion evolves but it will always be there for one simple reason: Man is the only creature that knows he must die. The death of any other creature in the universe is something that no other living being can see. Religions, which offer hope and a future, will continue to exist as long as we all know we’ll die. This well-informed agnostic says, “I am very concerned about what happens in the hereafter and nothing about the beyond.”
Eslava hasn’t succumbed the temptation to apostatize. My apostate friends ask me to do it but I decline. Ironically, I prefer to stay in the Church’s fold, which allows me to comment on it and write books such as this. She doesn’t grant him permission to enter cathedrals, and she regrets this. “I am very close to Jaen cathedral, where I lived for many decades, but now I have to pay for it every time I go.” They’ve made the cathedrals tax collection offices, and forced people to pray at certain times>>.
