Reading the Bible

Never read any of it ( adult bible ), but i know of some of the stuff cuz i had a childrens picture bible as a kid...( the pics were ace to copy )

Put that way, with pics, some of the stories are good actually, just take the religion out of it and its a good read...( like aesops fables, hans christian anderson ) that sort a thing..

i read the old testament when i got blocked while a guest of her majesty
it was the only bloody book in there
it was hard going

When in primary school I read the Good News Bible pretty much cover to cover (usually in detention ... with one teacher it was either that or copy out the dictionary).
I can't say I remember a great deal, but I know that even then it struck me as - for want of a better word - odd.

However, I think religion in general - from it's conception to dogma to death to ressurection - carries a great deal of 'human nature' through time.
By that I mean that we all have a great deal to learn (about ourselves more than anything) from religion, even the 'un-believers'...

Which is why I plan to, starting with my King James Bible, read each religious text I can find from start to finish... eventually, lol.

Yes I have read the bible, and several version of it from King James to Douay Rheims, Tanakh/Torah(Hebrew bible) through to the Amplified bibles, in their entirety. As a story book it is not bad and that is it.

I've also attempted to read the Qur'an. I got bored with it.

I even made an attempt to read the original Bible written in Hebrew/koine Greek but, my Hebrew/koine Greek is limited at best, and many of the words written cannot be translated into English or any other language. Makes for an interesting hobby if not a frustrating one. Lovely how it is written, artistically speaking.

Before you ask, I am an atheist if I must be put into some religious or non religious file.

I was actually challenged by a Rabbi and took him up on it. I have only my self to blame I challenged him in the segregation of women and men and the different Bibles used for each. Lovely man, I was sad to see him pass away. I enjoyed our challenges, he said they weren't arguments, LOL. Al that from visiting a synagogue as part of a school activity. No wonder my parents though I was going to become a nun, as I excelled in religion after he challenged me.

I used to attend Sunday school for years as a child so I've read and heard a lot of the stories in it, I did try to read it like a book once but only got as far as Genesis, who begot whom became very boring so I gave up........

As a teenager my friends mother was very ill and she took us to pentecostal church with her where they did the speaking in tongues and stuff, they urged us to read Revelations which I did, now that makes for some scary reading!!!

I'm not religious, I was christened Catholic but don't follow it, wear a Star of David necklace but not Jewish and went to a C of E school.
I loved and still have my little Gideon bible that they gave to us upon starting high school, as most say already, the bible has some lovely stories but to me that's really all they are.

It was pointed out to day about the, bigotry?, of religion. How the Koran is blamed for the extremists and those Muslims that follow it are, therefore extremists. Yet Catholics and Christians who read and follow the bible are not labeled the same.

I thought how odd is that? Yet I know that religious zealots and extremest do exist within the Christian and Catholic faiths.

There was also a comment about how the Koran treats women unfairly, yet there are examples in the bible that do the same. Is it the Koran to blame or more down to the Christian and Catholic, for instance, faith intolerance of 'other' faiths?

There is no such good holy books, religious leaders are being nice but there are lots of hole in the bible that could interpret like this: Jesus is the only Son of God (banish those who pretends i.e Islam's prophet Mohammad)

I've never read the whole bible i've read bits due to learning RE in school.

Pastors, vicars, clergymen, recommend not to read the bible like a book, but just read it as a collection of letters and stories by a lot of different authors, I have "read" the bible, most of it anyway.

I think you SHOULD read the bible as a book, well Genesis and the books of the Old Testiment anyway - I don't care much for the rest of the bollox written.

Take all god references out of the Old Testiment and it is probably the single most important historical document we have to day. I think to many people read to much into the early books without taking it literal, which imo is exactly how it should be read - as literal.

I used to but not anymore.

I've read parts...particularly a part that promote incestuous relationships as being perfectly fine according to god.

The bible is full of gems like that.

Without much effort I can use it to justify rape, murder of homosexuals, slavery and genocide...

Quote :

If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father
fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath
humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

^ Deuteronomy 22:28-29

Quote :

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them
have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their
blood shall be upon them.

^ Leviticus 20:13

Quote :

Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of
the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and
bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of
them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they
begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

^ Leviticus 25:44-45

Quote :

If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

^ Exodus 21:2

Quote :

And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

^ Exodus 21:20-21

Quote :

So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it
came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the
people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so
that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him,
and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and
woman, both young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of
the sword.

^ Joshua 6:20-21