The Good Book

[loramin]

I had to read it twice: first for a high school English AP course (it was assigned as reading over the summer too, which made it worse, but I only had to read the Old Testament), and then again for a college literature course (both testaments).

Both times were pretty awful: it's not a good book. However, most Western literature written makes some allusions to the bible, so it is a relevant read if you're studying literary analysis.

[loramin]

P.S. I also read the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Bodivagita, The Analects of Confucius and (big chunks of) the Koran. None of them were "good books" either, so I'm not just crapping on the bible.

[unsunghero]

Nice goals man

[DeathsSilkyMist]

It is kind of silly to say any book/story that has survived 2000+ years is bad.

If you don't like them personally, that is perfectly fine.

Objectively speaking any book/story that has survived 2000+ years is a good book/story, even if it is difficult to understand why that is. Otherwise you wouldn't know the story of Jesus, Gligamesh, etc. People would have stopped caring and forgotten about them hundreds of years ago.

[Reiwa]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The Bodivagita.

Is that the sequel to the Bhagavad Gita?

[Jibartik]

Originally Posted by bomaroast [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Religious study can be insanely interesting, but not if you are taking it as literal truth or divine.

https://youtu.be/cJTf4kXb5dM?t=1127

What’s even funnier though is if you can really enjoy it and you bring it up and then you watch people who have never read it or never studied it just completely freak out.

I do feel a little bad when it’s obvious that someone’s freaking out because their parents shoved that book up their ass their whole life and that’s why they have the baggage, like I sympathize for that.

But I think it’s important that we know that the reason we hate religion is because of that not because of religion, like we think it is.

Religion IS mankind. It’s best to understand it. And to learn from it. You can’t say it doesn’t make life better for people. You can say it hurt when it was shoved up your ass but that was then.

[Jibartik]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

P.S. I also read the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Bodivagita, The Analects of Confucius and (big chunks of) the Koran. None of them were "good books" either, so I'm not just crapping on the bible.

There’s a difference between like good prose and a good stories, like… you should be blown away at those 6000-year-old stories that are actually pretty much the same story that you paid to go see in a Marvel movie.

But for kids today it’s really hard to compete with marvel movies.

I would say what you went through was an example of it being shoved up your ass [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Gustoo]

Originally Posted by MrSparkle001 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It does a pretty good job of it but it's been revised over the years.

I prefer as close to original as possible but there's no way I can read a latin or ancient Greek Bible, and I can barely get through the older Renaissance translations like Douay-Rheims. The language is just so thick. But translating into modern vernacular is flawed too.

You’re gunna want NASB 1995 (“updated edition”)

Or the ESV (English standard version) which is quite similar.

CSV is probably the best readability version if you like that

And honestly the NIV is fine despite some minor flaws

And even new King James Version is fine.

But I basically prefer them in the above order.

Id suggest to anyone reading the New Testament front to back before reading about how a Jewish person was supposed to tie their shoes in Leviticus and stuff.

And as always dont read a real book like an idiot 3rd grader or redditor looking for “gotchas” until you have some basic knowledge and context so you won’t sound like a child with your criticisms.

Like saying “eq pvp classes aren’t balanced, so it’s bad!”

When anyone who has played the game knows that class balance has nothing to do with making the game bad.

Id actually get this exact bible. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Boo...%26sortby%3D20 The integrated notes will help you very rapidly see what accepted actual Christian scholars think or how they deal
With challenging verses so if you read something and think “wtf” there is basically the mainline Christian communities opinion on it right there at your fingertips it makes bashing through it really convenient.

Not that the notes are all 100 percent perfect but it’s a great speedy reference, should be taken with a grain of salt.

These kinda bibles also have references integrated and for certain words show you in the center column literal translations of the word which will
help with complex or loaded words as much as the notes will.

[unsunghero]

I do feel that human’s brains were built to worship something. This is just my personal hunch and not based on any psychology

I’ve noticed that people who claim to be hardcore atheists still sometimes find their own version of something to replace theology

[MrSparkle001]

Originally Posted by unsunghero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I do feel that human’s brains were built to worship something. This is just my personal hunch and not based on any psychology

I’ve noticed that people who claim to be hardcore atheists still sometimes find their own version of something to replace theology

Yes, they believe nothing created everything out of nothing.

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