thought i ought to get round to saying hi and introducing myself

[Cooper20]

Great read! Welcome!

[Will37]

Having read the Bible pretty much cover to cover and the Qur'an (undoubtedly the most unpleasant book I've ever read), I didn't find anything to suggest the evidence of a god in these books. In fact I found very little that could be called positive in either book. If there is a creative force behind the Universe, it's not the god of Judaism, Christianity or Islam. These religions seem to me to be 100% the creation of men, and have brought little to the history of humanity other than warfare, intolerance and suffering.

Well.  You're off to a good start.  I often publish critical evaluations of books I've 'pretty much' read cover to cover. 

Considering that Bible means collection of books and that all the included books were not written with the intent of being bound together your tongue in cheek comment was not appropriate in that case.

It would be appropriate for the quran since that was dictated by one guy claiming to be speaking for god.

And your retort would be appropiate if he announced that he was writing an analysis of a particular book in the Bible.  Like the book of Job.  However you will notice that he didn't say he was writing an analysis of parts of the Bible but rather the Bible full stop, which apparently he hasn't finished reading yet. 

[Tank]

I didn't find anything to suggest the evidence of a god in these books.

How about the fact that these book are still around for you to read?

On that basis we should all be Jewish as the Tora is older or we should all be Muslim as the Koran is younger. You can't have special pleading for your holy book. Holy books are ten a penny. Sorry.

EDIT: Posted before I read your response to a later post. Glad to see you saw the problem

[Too Few Lions]

Yeah...what about the books that didn't make it into being part of the Bible?

I think some of the stuff that didn't make it into the Bible's far more interesting than the stuff that did! The Nag Hammadi scrolls show some of the more bizarre elements of ancient religion, such as the mystical ascents via the stars and planets involving strange secret glyphs and formulas that had to be presented to all the various celestial archons.

Plus I've always quite liked the way the Gnostics tried to explain a world full of suffering, warfare, disease and the like, coming to the conclusion that the world wasn't created by a benevolent god but a blind and rather malicious demiurge!

Plus, as for pretty much reading the Bible cover-to-cover, some of the Old Testament's incredibly dull and pretty irrelevant in terms of looking at the basic myths, I think Deuteronomy can be pretty much skip-read!

[Too Few Lions]

I didn't find anything to suggest the evidence of a god in these books.

How about the fact that these book are still around for you to read?

I think there's a good reason why the Bible's still around for people to read, and it's nothing to do with the existence of its god(s) or the pertinence of its message(s).
If I'd have questioned its veracity even a hundred years ago I'd have been imprisoned, the last person jailed for the 'crime' of blasphemy in the UK was in 1921. 200 years ago I'd have been executed if I'd been in Spain! It spent almost 1500 years as the unquestionable 'Word of God' in most of Europe.

[Will37]

Plus, as for pretty much reading the Bible cover-to-cover, some of the Old Testament's incredibly dull and pretty irrelevant in terms of looking at the basic myths, I think Deuteronomy can be pretty much skip-read!

Are you kidding me?  Deuteronomy?  We're not even talking about one of the books from a minor prophet like Amos.  Deuteronomy is easily one of the most important books in the Bible.  It is a key theological cornerstone of the entire Bible.  It is a text that is indispensable to theological core of Judaism and Christianity.  I'm just shocked that somebody claiming to be trying to get a book published on the Bible would say make such a comment.  This sort of lackadaisical attitude towards your reaserch may go a long way towards explaining your difficulties in finding a publisher. 

[The Magic Pudding]

I'm just shocked that somebody claiming to be trying to get a book published on the Bible would say make such a comment.  This sort of lackadaisical attitude towards your reaserch may go a long way towards explaining your difficulties in finding a publisher. 

If you don't like the message attack the messenger, it is a useful technique.  Probably works best in a crowd that shares your dislike of the message though.

[Will37]

I'm just shocked that somebody claiming to be trying to get a book published on the Bible would say make such a comment.  This sort of lackadaisical attitude towards your reaserch may go a long way towards explaining your difficulties in finding a publisher. 

If you don't like the message attack the messenger, it is a useful technique.  Probably works best in a crowd that shares your dislike of the message though.

I'm an apostate Catholic.  That is to say an indivual baptized in the Church who has professed his disbelief in the Christian religion.  I have no problem with the message that the Bible is a document produced by men, altered over time (Deuteronomy is also an essential text for understanding the political process by which the Jews transitioned from a polytheistic or henotheistic to a monotheistic culture).  There is plenty of solid reaserch on the Bible defending this message writen by serious scholars who actually bothered to read the whole book and didn't 'skip-read' some of the most essential portions of the book on the grounds that it's dense and boring. 

[Too Few Lions]

Plus, as for pretty much reading the Bible cover-to-cover, some of the Old Testament's incredibly dull and pretty irrelevant in terms of looking at the basic myths, I think Deuteronomy can be pretty much skip-read!

Are you kidding me?  Deuteronomy?  We're not even talking about one of the books from a minor prophet like Amos.  Deuteronomy is easily one of the most important books in the Bible.  It is a key theological cornerstone of the entire Bible.  It is a text that is indispensable to theological core of Judaism and Christianity.  I'm just shocked that somebody claiming to be trying to get a book published on the Bible would say make such a comment.  This sort of lackadaisical attitude towards your reaserch may go a long way towards explaining your difficulties in finding a publisher. 

I hate to point this out, but please look again at my original introduction. I've written a book  looking at the Bible as mythology, looking at the cosmological and mythological elements which I personally think are at the heart of the Bible. I said that Deuteronomy was pretty dull and isn't one of the most important or interesting books of the Bible in this respect, which I think is true.

The same goes for some of the books of the lesser prophets and some of the letters of the New Testament. I don't think they're as important to basic biblical mythology / cosmology as say the books of Genesis or Exodus, or the gospels.

[Too Few Lions]

oh, and I didn't actually skip-read Deuteronomy, I did read it all carefully and painstakingly. But for what I'm interested in, I may as well have skip-read it.

[PapistItalian16]

I'm an apostate Catholic.  That is to say an indivual baptized in the Church who has professed his disbelief in the Christian religion.  I have no problem with the message that the Bible is a document produced by men, altered over time (Deuteronomy is also an essential text for understanding the political process by which the Jews transitioned from a polytheistic or henotheistic to a monotheistic culture).  There is plenty of solid reaserch on the Bible defending this message writen by serious scholars who actually bothered to read the whole book and didn't 'skip-read' some of the most essential portions of the book on the grounds that it's dense and boring. 

I concur.

[thedport]

I am going to say hello, and welcome to one of the best forums I have ever been on. For fear of sounding like I have the intelegance of a malformed duck, I will leave it at I am looking forward to seeing some of the post you make when you hit your 50.

[Cecilie]

Hello and welcome.

[Will37]

Plus, as for pretty much reading the Bible cover-to-cover, some of the Old Testament's incredibly dull and pretty irrelevant in terms of looking at the basic myths, I think Deuteronomy can be pretty much skip-read!

Are you kidding me?  Deuteronomy?  We're not even talking about one of the books from a minor prophet like Amos.  Deuteronomy is easily one of the most important books in the Bible.  It is a key theological cornerstone of the entire Bible.  It is a text that is indispensable to theological core of Judaism and Christianity.  I'm just shocked that somebody claiming to be trying to get a book published on the Bible would say make such a comment.  This sort of lackadaisical attitude towards your reaserch may go a long way towards explaining your difficulties in finding a publisher. 

I hate to point this out, but please look again at my original introduction. I've written a book  looking at the Bible as mythology, looking at the cosmological and mythological elements which I personally think are at the heart of the Bible. I said that Deuteronomy was pretty dull and isn't one of the most important or interesting books of the Bible in this respect, which I think is true.The same goes for some of the books of the lesser prophets and some of the letters of the New Testament. I don't think they're as important to basic biblical mythology / cosmology as say the books of Genesis or Exodus, or the gospels.

Right, I understand what your project is (unless you are using the phrase 'Bible as myth' in some highly unusual way) and that is exactly why I am finding it hard to believe that you could have done serious reaserch and concluded that Deuteronomy is 'pretty much irrelevant' to the 'basic myth' of the Bible.  Usually when people say "the Bible as myth' they mean they will examine the Bible as they would anyother legendary account of man and his place in the universe.  Used in this sense it is very difficult to see how someone could seriously claim that Deuteronomy is pretty much irrelevant to the basic structure of the Biblical story.  Deuteronomy is central to the basic myth of the Bible.  Unless you consider monotheism and Moses pretty irrelevant to the Biblical legend. 

[Crow]

I said that Deuteronomy was pretty dull

The entirety of the bible is dull never mind deuteronomy I can't think of a single time where I thought this is riveting stuff.