dockeen

In a humorous aside, one summer I had to take a bunch of "outside my
academic division" courses, and I took one English lit course, and one
American lit course.

I loved the English lit course, even though the texts were very hard to read.
I hated the American lit course, which was much easier material, some of
which I had already read and liked very much.

The difference - the English lit teacher was outstanding in the way I described
earlier, she gave you tidbits of history, gave you hints, but didn't tell you
how to read it. The American lit professor just - well - she wasn't very
good.

credoconsolans

It would be interesting if the bible was treated as just another required reading book in college. Something to be bought for a class, then easily sold off to the next semester's students and used as a reference book and not as a 'sacred' text.

0

I think it should be a requirement to read the Bible if you are a Christian. Many of the staunch ones actually don't. They just get "cliff notes" from pastors at church.

Actually reading it, specifically the Book of Job, is what got me on track with deconversion in the first place. Then I took it a step further and decided to meet others my religion decried as heretics and hellbound. Not surprisingly, I found I had more in common with the heathens.

Von Bek

I remember taking a Literature course at the University of Texas where we read and discussed the opening chapters of Genesis and all of the Book of Job. In our discussion group, we began discussing the texts in the same critical manner we read all of the other texts in. There were a few Christians in the discussion group who were offended that we were even discussing it. They were uncomfortable with God's portrayal in Job, there was no mistaking their discomfort at approaching in it a non-religious manner. It is very difficult to defend God in Job, they would try to quote verses from other books, then the TA leading the discussion group would remind them that those texts were written by different authors and were irrelevant in understanding what the author of Job was saying. (It would be like saying that in order to understand Hamlet you have to take into account what Oscar Wilde wrote.)

dockeen

They are taught though that the bible is some kind of holistic book, with the
real author being god, and the fact that individual humans "put paper to pencil"
to create it is irrelevant.

As I have mumbled here before, I have had xtians who have "studied" Job
react with surprise when I mention that one of the lessons of the book is
that loved ones are completely replacable. This would not be so bad if
in fact this theme didn't come up in some of jesus' teachings, in which
he minimized the importance of families with respect to the mission.

dockeen

This might be a question for another thread, but if one proposes to put the bible on
some sort of required readining list, what other similar relgious books should also be
on the list. (Why can I hear some xtians howling that there are NO similar books to
the bible, that it is one of a kind, beyond all others - which were all written by the
devil anyway)

lpetrich

I've done lots of things with little or no Biblical influence, like mathematics and science.
Seeing the Bible in everything can be an amusing game, but after a while, one recognizes the truth of that old joke about Freudianism that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Most of which is unbiblical. Where in the Bible is there anything about trial by jury, elected leaders, etc.?

Think of where the words "democracy" and "republic" came from. Neither was in the Bible. Some centuries back, supporters of democracy/republics would look back to the inventors of those terms much more than they looked to the Bible.

As to equality before the law, that goes back as far as Solon and the composers of the Twelve Tables of Rome. The latter gentlemen put together Rome's first written law code because there was a lot of controversy about aristocrats twisting the law to the benefit of themselves and fellow aristocrats.

One can make the same argument about Shakespeare's works, but nobody insists that we worship those writings.

Doug Shaver

It depends on . . . "similar" in what respect?

If we're talking about schools in the United States, I would say that other religious books that have had a similar influence on American culture should also be on the list.

Keith&Co.

well,that one's easy.

Find the posts where one of the Faithful says that The Books is unlike any other religious document anywhere. Then look at the responses.
When they say it's the oldest, add the older books to the reading list.
When they say it's the only one that ____, add the sources of similar stories, tales, offers, history.

dockeen

No, I was suggesting religious books that have a similar role in other
religions. There is more to life than simply looking at one's own culture.