Scary thought, now that Bibles are banned in some schools, kids may start reading them.

[PurgedVoter]

Who knows what might happen next? Someone might realize that the Old Testament that a lot of our founding fathers abhorred, is actually more life affirming, pro human rights and gentle than what Evangelical Christians are preaching. Then when they realize that the New Testament is directly against just about everything the Evangelicals say is Christian, maybe some of those kids might grow up to be a Christian, you know those weird people like Jimmy Carter.

[gay texan]

1. Doubt it

If it's the king james version, it gets boring really quickly

[PurgedVoter]

2. Well there is that.

Do you think a LitRPG version of the Bible might be more popular?

[treestar]

5. There are modernized versions

Have been for 50 years. We had one in High School named "The Way."

[gay texan]

8. I saw a version for hip and rad teens once

Last edited Sat Jun 3, 2023, 04:04 PM - Edit history (1)

Pure propaganda to swing em to the right

[2naSalit]

7. They'd be really...

Bored by the end of the first or second page.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

20. All versions of it are boring

Well, for long stretches, it's boring. When it's not being appalling.

[gay texan]

27. Yes, this!!!

In my brief period of being a closeted gay man, I decided to read the book of revelations. I mean the current group think was that we were living in the LAST days!

Ok, it read like someone had a bad acid trip.

I thought to myself "people take this shit seriously????"

[gratuitous]

3. Could be dangerous

What if they start serving one another in love, or worse, start living peaceably with everyone? Nightmarish!

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

19. You really think that's what people would get from reading that book?

I'd correct that assumption by actually, you know, reading it. If you had, you wouldn't say that with such insouciance.

[gratuitous]

26. That's what our congregation takes from the Bible

Perhaps you don't know everything?

[Aristus]

4. No worries. They'll just think, like most thinking people:

"Dafuq is this shit?!?

[treestar]

6. Just reading it won't convince anyone

I could read the Koran and even know it well, but it won't turn me into a Muslim.

If someone reads the Bible, they won't find any rules in it that are not contradicted somewhere else.

When it was the only book a household had, in centuries past, the stories in the Old Testament entertained people. Everyone knew these stories, so they made for a common reference.

[303squadron]

9. Isaac Asimov quote FTW!

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."

[Mosby]

10. It's only the old Testament to Christians.

Just saying.

[PurgedVoter]

12. Nah, still the Old Testament, loosely based on much older texts.

It isn't even the Ten Commandments in the other versions and when you change the very heart of the story, it kind of changes the story. So it's still the Old Testament since it's more than a translation, it's kind of a rewrite.

[Mosby]

13. Calling it the old Testament is a Christian thing.

Jews don't call it that, which was my point.

[PurgedVoter]

16. You are correct, I was just agreeing by disagreeing. :)

A lot was lost, not just in translation but in culture. Christ, in our current form means G*D incarnate, when at the time of Jesus, and before, Christ, or Messiah meant, anointed. In other words, a king, prophet or priest. Still very important, but the Islamic claim that Jesus was a prophet is more in line with tradition, history and beliefs at the time of Jesus.

I trust Jewish scholarship on the Torah more than I trust Christian scholarship on the Old Testament. A lot of things I could not quite make sense of became clear after I became exposed to Rabbinical scholarship. For example, I always considered the book of Job a horrible monstrosity.
Then I learned that it wasn't from the Torah at all. It was from the book of Ketuvim, a collection of poetic writings. Now I consider it a beautiful thing. It isn't a real story like Christianity typically assumes. It exposes the worst part of the faith and asks you to examine it. It forces you to ask, why do bad things happen to good people? A faith that doesn't examine it's own flaws is a faith without faith in itself.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

22. Good grief

The Jews do have a word for the entire body of their writings, from the Torah to the Nevi'im (books of the prophets and "historical" works), and then the Ketuvim. That composite is called the Tanakh, which is what christians call the Old Testament.

Anyone remotely familiar with Judaism knows something so basic.

And the christian religion spends most of its time ignoring its flaws. It tells its practitioners not to accept reality if it conflicts with their book, but to believe all its contradictory claims despite that--heck, to double down on belief over reason.

That's a flaw that it can never face about itself--that it expects people to believe its claims, even when they're wrong.

That and how it can't seem to face that the book promotes a great deal of hate and violence.

And don't get me started on how much denial they continue to cling to about their clergy's child rape problem.

[GenThePerservering]

11. they'll shipwreck on the begats nt

[ChoppinBroccoli]

14. You Know What Turned Me Into An Atheist Faster Than Anything Else?

Reading the Bible and actually understanding what was in it.

That's why Atheists tend to know what's actually in the Bible better than Talibangelicals. At some point, your common sense kicks in and you go, "Wait a minute. That CAN'T be true." That's why Talibangelicals tend to either be people who haven't read and/or understood the Bible, or people who lack common sense.

[iemanja]

15. Where are bibles banned?

[PurgedVoter]

17. Utah, in a school district.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65794363

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

18. Oh FFS

You obviously haven't read it if you think that horrifying book is in any way life-affirming or pro human rights and gentle.

There are over 1500 incidents of cruelty and violence in the book--one for every page of the average print edition. The book hates women, hates gays, hates people of other faiths, hates people of other races. It doesn't believe in democracy--only monarchy, and absolute monarchy at that.

The New Testament is the worst of all in promising eternal torture for people who disagree with its demigod. Do you have any concept--even the faintest bloody clue--how much hate, rage and cruelty it takes to torture someone for 2 minutes, never mind bloody forever?

It is the ultimate evil to seek to torture people for any reason, never mind permanently. Even the sky daddy in the first part of the book wasn't that cruel, and he's the guy who sent a bear to kill 42 children for making fun of a bald dude. He at least left them alone after they were dead, but not the demigod. Oh no, he reanimates the people he hates and tortures them after living a life of woe on this planet.

BTW, you are wrong wrong wrong wrong and even more bloody F'n wrong to predict what people will learn from reading the book of horrors: It usually doesn't make people join up with the religion adhering to it. No, it tends to make them atheists. Ask an atheist sometime about what convinced them that religion was a crock. Most of us will tell you: I read their book(s), and call me appalled.

I can assure you that a higher percentage of atheists have read the book all the way through than practitioners of the religion have. I doubt if even 10% of them have read it, cover to cover. If they had, so many of them wouldn't be so bloody ignorant of what it actually says.

[Sky Jewels]

25. ...

[milestogo]

21. Then they would know more than most right wing Christians do.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

23. They'd know more than even the not right-wing chrisian would

I'm all but certain that not even 10% of the religion's adherents have read the book. They've been told what's in it, and they've looked at verses if some crock in a frock told them to look at it, but read even an entire book of it, never mind the entire thing?

Nope.

Doesn't happen.

Atheists routinely clean their clocks on knowledge of what the book says.

[Sky Jewels]

24. Even within the genre of convoluted, nonsensical mythology,

the Bible is more convoluted and nonsensical than most. The kids won't get far into it without thinking: "WTF?!"

It's a steaming pile of misogyny and twisted, cruel behavior. God is a yuuuuge asshole.