I've decised to read the Bible..again.

[Rum]

I used to know the New Testament inside out and bits of the OT when I was a practicing Christian in my late teens, but I have forgotten much of it. And as I seem to find myself in debates about religion quite a lot these days I would like to be able to bring the absurdity of much of it to mind to be able if not quote at least refer to.

So I have the Bible on my Ipad and I will wade through most of it (leaving out a few of the longer rather eventless bit of the OT).

Wish me luck!

[tattuchu]

Godspeed, old chum

[Thumpalumpacus]

Good luck. I tried to reread it about two years ago, highlighter in hand, for this purpose. Both Leviticus and Numbers dried out my highlighter and bogged me down. I guess I can't be bothered.

[Rum]

Good luck. I tried to reread it about two years ago, highlighter in hand, for this purpose. Both Leviticus and Numbers dried out my highlighter and bogged me down. I guess I can't be bothered.

The Ipad version I have downloaded has tools for highlighting and making notes.

I will try not to get bogged down with every second sentence which will certainly be hard to do!

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, that was definitely the bog, for me.

I did the same thing with one of William Lane Craig's books -- The Case for Christ, I think -- and was hard at it for a while. I thought the EPA was going to cite me for an ink-spill after that mess. The book was glowing in the dark by the time I finished.

[tattuchu]

Oh but the OT doesn't count, dontcha know. Because, uh, Christ lived to fulfill the Old Testament, thus rendering it null and void. Or something. At least this the bollocks I always get from Christfags when the subject comes up of all the absurd rubbish in the OT. Of course they don't mind picking and choosing which bits they like to retain from the OT, naturally.

[John_fi_Skye]

That's fundamentalism for you - a fundamental belief in the bits that suit.

[John_fi_Skye]

I used to know the New Testament inside out and bits of the OT when I was a practicing Christian in my late teens, but I have forgotten much of it. And as I seem to find myself in debates about religion quite a lot these days I would like to be able to bring the absurdity of much of it to mind to be able if not quote at least refer to.

So I have the Bible on my Ipad and I will wade through most of it (leaving out a few of the longer rather eventless bit of the OT).

Wish me luck!

Let us know if it converts you.

[Thinking Aloud]

"Decised" is a great word, and really ought to mean something. It's sort of deceased-meets-incision.

[Thumpalumpacus]

It always cracks me up ... when atheists criticize a Biblical passage, we're pulling it out of context, and we should instead read the Bible as a whole. But when believers ignore the requirement to, say, kill adulteresses, they're not practicing selective reading -- no, not at all.

As I wrote elsewhere:

That little quibble notwithstanding, I still regarded the rest of the Bible as literal truth -- but such is the fickle nature of religious belief; like a tornado hopping over a barn to carry off the pigtrough, it carves random swaths of destruction through otherwise rational minds.

[Azathoth]

I bet you skip the begats

[Elessarina]

Did you decise this while you were having a glass of wine? *hic*?

[Hermit]

Oh but the OT doesn't count, dontcha know. Because, uh, Christ lived to fulfill the Old Testament, thus rendering it null and void.

...at which point I usually ask what the OT is doing on the pulpit of every christian church.

[Rum]

Did you decise this while you were having a glass of wine? *hic*?

Unfortunately I don't have that excuse. However I was on my first cup of coffee of the day and still a bit bleary eyed.

[Thinking Aloud]

Oh but the OT doesn't count, dontcha know. Because, uh, Christ lived to fulfill the Old Testament, thus rendering it null and void.

...at which point I usually ask what the OT is doing on the pulpit of every christian church.

To put the NT into context, of course. Background reading. The back story. The curious but slightly weird prequel.