| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Thandarr" |
| Date: |
04 Apr 2007 11:11:43 PM |
| Object: |
Request for book recommendations about silliness of Bible |
A guy I know was a serious Christian and read and studied the Bible.
A lot. He fell prey to the thing that can happen when you read the
Bible a lot. He noticed that it was quite full of nonsense.
Now he wants to write a book to help people who were in the same
predicament he was in. He wants to use the four corners of the Bible,
nothing more, to show why the Bible is indefensible. He doesn't want
to go to science or textual criticism or anything like that, because
once you go beyond the Bible they will stop listening to anything. He
believes it is possible to construct arguments using nothing but the
Bible that will disprove the Bible.
Honestly, I haven't even read all of the Bible. I don't know if that
is possible or not. I do know that there are a lot of books out there
on the Bible. Hundreds of thousands of them. Has something like this
been done?
I know about Ken's Guide to the Bible. That's the closest I know of.
We've talked about Dennis McKinsey's Biblical Errancy. He doesn't
think that will do the job. There's that 101 Myths of the Bible.
It's close, but it doesn't really do what he wants it to do. Sam
Harris's stuff is way too combative. The Skeptic's Annotated Bible
does a good job of cataloging some of the contradictions and
absurdities. I know you can go back as far as the earliest Roman
critics, and the great Julian the Apostate, for pretty good criticisms
of Christianity. Thomas Paine was pretty good in the Age of Reason.
But what he wants to do is something along the line of a handbook that
would summarize the contradictions and goofy quotes from the Bible
with Chapter and Verse so the Christian could read them him/rself. He
thinks arguments can be designed that will draw thinking people away
from faith in these fables. I have no idea whether what he proposes
can be done or not, but he understands how these guys think, having
spent many wasted hours in their churches and Sunday schools.
Are there any recommendations for other books? I'd hate to see this
guy just try to reinvent the wheel. If there's not, I'll probably be
helping him try to put this together, as long as he doesn't backslide
or something. Of course, "helping" is probably a huge exaggeration.
I have little to add, and I'm so damned lazy I can barely keep up with
posts on usenet. Still, I'm asking for recommendations of anything
like this.
There's a part of me that wants to recommend that he not waste any
more of his life on this, but just accept that they've fucked him out
of precious hours of his life and go on.
Thandarr
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| User: "Ron Baker, Pluralitas!" |
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| Title: Re: Request for book recommendations about silliness of Bible |
04 Apr 2007 11:53:10 PM |
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"Thandarr" <thandarr@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1175746303.921096.135560@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
A guy I know
That's funny. I know a guy too!
He looks at too many pictures of naked women.
It's not me. It's just this guy I know.
was a serious Christian and read and studied the Bible.
A lot. He fell prey to the thing that can happen when you read the
Bible a lot. He noticed that it was quite full of nonsense.
Now he wants to write a book to help people who were in the same
predicament he was in. He wants to use the four corners of the Bible,
nothing more, to show why the Bible is indefensible. He doesn't want
to go to science or textual criticism or anything like that, because
once you go beyond the Bible they will stop listening to anything. He
believes it is possible to construct arguments using nothing but the
Bible that will disprove the Bible.
It won't work. Nobody really believes the Bible.
They believe what they want to believe and rationalize
or equivocate, i.e. "interpret", the Bible into agreeing with
their fantasy. The contradictions and inconsistancies
your friend will point out will be rationalized as
"misinterpretations".
But the "guy" should check out:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html
<snip>
Thandarr
--
rb
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| User: "Thandarr" |
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| Title: Re: Request for book recommendations about silliness of Bible |
05 Apr 2007 11:37:41 AM |
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On Apr 4, 11:53 pm, "Ron Baker, Pluralitas!"
<sto...@bellsouth.net.po> wrote:
"Thandarr" <thand...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1175746303.921096.135560@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
A guy I know
That's funny. I know a guy too!
He looks at too many pictures of naked women.
It's not me. It's just this guy I know.
I might be the guy you know who looks at too many pictures of naked
women. Unfortunately, I'm far too lazy to be the guy who wants to
read the book.
was a serious Christian and read and studied the Bible.
A lot. He fell prey to the thing that can happen when you read the
Bible a lot. He noticed that it was quite full of nonsense.
Now he wants to write a book to help people who were in the same
predicament he was in. He wants to use the four corners of the Bible,
nothing more, to show why the Bible is indefensible. He doesn't want
to go to science or textual criticism or anything like that, because
once you go beyond the Bible they will stop listening to anything. He
believes it is possible to construct arguments using nothing but the
Bible that will disprove the Bible.
It won't work. Nobody really believes the Bible.
They believe what they want to believe and rationalize
or equivocate, i.e. "interpret", the Bible into agreeing with
their fantasy. The contradictions and inconsistancies
your friend will point out will be rationalized as
"misinterpretations".
Like I said, I don't know if he can do it or not. He seems to think
that there are some things that they'll either have to concede or
they'll have to interpret the language so loosely it'll be
meaningless. But to me, it already is.
But the "guy" should check out:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html
He's seen this. The material is good, but he thinks he has some
things to add.
Still, thanks.
Thandarr
<snip>
Thandarr
--
rb
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| User: "J Forbes" |
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| Title: Re: Request for book recommendations about silliness of Bible |
04 Apr 2007 11:40:29 PM |
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Thandarr wrote:
There's a part of me that wants to recommend that he not waste any
more of his life on this, but just accept that they've fucked him out
of precious hours of his life and go on.
that part of you is called your "wisdom"
Jim
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