Dave Hawkins

I hear a lot of erroneous criticism of the Bible ... "it's a Bronze Age myth ... it's full of errors ... it's totally implausible ..." ... etc. etc.

But I am curious about something ... how many of you have actually READ the Bible?

The whole thing? If not the whole thing, please specify what parts you have read.

I am particularly interested in hearing from my "fans" who have followed me for the past year or so, but anyone is welcome to chime in.

Joe Bloe

Yes, I've read it. The whole thing. And that's precisely why I know it is a Bronze Age myth, full of errors, implausible, etc.

I can't fathom how anyone could possibly read the Bible, and I mean really read it, the whole thing, and not just the good parts the preachers like to emphasize, or sort of hold it at a distance and worship it rather than really read it and mentally engage it (not just emotionally or "spiritually" "feel" it), and come up with any other conclusion.

Roger Pearse

Most people in this forum went to Sunday school, you know. (Not me, heh heh).

Joe Bloe

I even taught Sunday school. The adult class.

Eventually, I learned too much.

Lucretius

Yes I have thanks
Have you ?
As someone who considered himself religious (I now see how annoying I must have been ) I went further than my Catholic upbringing required and actually did read it all the way through certain parts many, many times (not in one sitting though I hasten to add ).
Shameful secret though I did tend to skip a lot in the massive lists of "begats" but then I think almost everyone does that

Dean Anderson

During my decade as a Christian, I read (and studied) the whole thing repeatedly.

It was these studies that first led me away from Christianity.

Since seeing the light, and ditching my Christianity I have continued to study it and learn more about it.

And the more I learn about how and why it was written and put together, the more ridiculous my earlier Christian beliefs seem.

Ironically, in recent years my respect for the Bible has vastly increased. As an "Inerrant word of God" it was sorely lacking, but as a collection of ancient myths, propaganda and literature it has great merit.

In any case, I would never dismiss it as "Bronze Age myth"....

Much of it is from the Iron age!

Selsaral

Yes I have read it, several times, as a child and as an adult. It is so painfully obviously a bronze-age (or iron age heh) myth that only childhood indoctrination (and other cultural factors) explains why Christians can't tell that it is.

Vicki

I stuck it through the "begats" the first time I read it all the way through, but skipped them the next few times.

I started with the KJV because that was the only one available to me at the time. Not an easy read for a fourteen-year-old!

gurugeorge

I read the whole Bible in an illustrated childrens' form several times through when I was little - does that count? :angel:

More seriously, I've carefully read substantial parts of the real thing in KJV and RSV translations over the years (maybe about a third in total).

I was once stuck in a hotel room for a few days when I read all of Paul's letters in a row (Gideon, natch). The cognitive dissonance of reading about what was evidently a rather weird and different form of Christianity from any I was used to was one of the things that made me suspect that maybe the whole thing was bunk and eventually led me on the Mythical Jesus position.

I highly recommend that people should read the Bible. Parts of it are great and improving literature, indeed (especially in the gorgeous language of the KJV); but on the whole I think putting the Bible into vernacular was one of the biggest mistakes Christianity ever made. So long as it was still in Latin or Greek, only highly educated intelligent people could tell it was bunk (while still useful for keeping the lower orders in their place). But as soon as anybody could read it in their native tongue, it eventually became obvious to most intelligent people that it's bunk.

Some intelligent people still think it's worth making-believe that it's not bunk, (mainly to keep the lower orders in their place). But the majority of intelligent people nowadays think this idea has had its day and that the game isn't worth the candle.

Dean Anderson

So - have you read all of the Bible, Dave?

Not just the "nice" bits that most Christians read, but also the bits with human sacrifice, genocide, rape and so on that most Christians are shocked by (and hastily try to explain away as not meaning what they say)?