The Bible, easily considered that ultimate in literary achievement ever created, is cast aside as taboo. Furthermore, it's also the most authoritative source of ancient history mankind has.
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"The Bible, easily considered that ultimate in literary achievement ever created "
Only by you freaks, and except for every other book ever written.
"Furthermore, it's also the most authoritative source of ancient history mankind has. "
Except for only covering (supposedly) 6000 years, and being a completely nonsensical work of bad fiction.
Everyone thinks it's the best thing ever, but nobody likes it.
Well maybe it isn't actually the best thing ever. It's fucking hard to read. I couldn't get through Genesis. And it shits in the face of real evidence about the ancient history of mankind.
The ultimate in literary achievement? Have you read it? Or perhaps the real question is: Have you read anything else?
And no, it's not very reliable as a historical text.
[Furthermore, it's also the most authoritative source of ancient history mankind has. ]
Ancient history can be proven.
The bible has yet to be.
The Bible certainly plays an important part in our history, and should be preserved as such, but using it as an authority on how we should live our lives is every bit as stupid as using "Mein Kampf" as a guide to morality.
"The Hobbit" is more historically accurate than the bible.
How would you people at RR know, it becomes more and more obvious everyday that you've read very little of it(if you read more you might that "rapture" isn't in there)!PS As a literary work it is okay maybe, but as a history book???? Shesh maybe you guys need to read some real history books!
"...and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps" - Revelation 14:2
Yup. Sheer literary genius, that.
Well, it does seem to be the basis for much of our more contemporary fiction.
"In the beginning..."
"Once upon a time..."
Then there's the quintessential good vs evil which leads up to "happily ever after."
Brilliant. If you're 5.
I treat the Bible as I would any other book of mythology: As a window into the times in which it was written. I wouldn't get my morals out of it, but as someone who is rather fascinated by all sorts of mythologies, I find it rather interesting to see what was world was like and how ancient people thought the world worked.
"The Bible, easily considered that ultimate in literary achievement ever created, is cast aside as taboo."
Where the hell do you people come up with things like this? Green Eggs and Ham is a higher literary achievement than your Babble could ever aspire to.
"Furthermore, it's also the most authoritative source of ancient history mankind has."
I think not. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Chinese, just to name a few, left us far better accounts than your hopelessly muddled little book of pseudohistory.
*laughs at the timing of Horsefeathers' and Old Viking's respective posts*
Were he still alive, I'm sure Dr. Seuss would be proud to hear that.
(Mortok)
"It's because 'Green Eggs and Ham' is about letting go of prejudices, and trying new things. Ideas that the Bible staunchly opposes."
Oh, I've always known that. Back when I first got introduced to Dr. Seuss as a wee 'un, the Atari 2600 was state-of-the-art. *grins* As for the Bible, it didn't take long at all for that book to set off my bullshit detector (and unlike other folk tales I was learning about, it wasn't even a fun read).
Man, if there is an afterlife of any sort, then Bernardd is going to get the grandmother of all beat-downs from Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ssu-ma Chi'en and a dozen others. Edward Gibbon will probably get to teabag him at the end.
Furthermore, it's also the most authoritative source of ancient history mankind has.
Historians disagree.
It is no more authoritative than the works of Homer
(insofar as it is a mix of facts and fiction)
"The Bible is the greatest piece of literature ever written." Just because you keep claiming it, does not make it true!
I used to hear that garbage a lot when I was a child and, because I was a child, I believed it. But I grew up and by age 12, I had read Dickens, Twain, Stevenson, Orwell, Huxley, Azimov, Joyce, and even some <gasp> Oscar Wilde.
The Bible doesn't even come close to being called literature.
I think some Vedic and Greek epics would like a word with you on this.
Also, some ancient cultures with their texts, while few, acknowledge much longer time scales and histories than your bible. While most of them are mythologies, guess which ones line up better with the scientific age of the Earth?
...hint...hint... The Bible, taken literally, is NOT one of them.
The bible is the greatest work of fiction ever written.
And by "greatest", I don't mean "most well-written" or "best selling". I mean "containing more fiction than any other work".
The Bible, easily considered that ultimate in literary achievement...
Except for Shakespeare's plays and sonnets...and Homer's Illiad and Odyssey ...Joyce's Finnegan's Wake ...Christopher Marlowe's Faust ...Paul Cornell's Love and War and No Future ...
Furthermore, it's also the most authoritative source of ancient history mankind has.
Except for all those documents written by the people who actually experienced and/or observed the events in question.
Meh. It's an aside from his main point. He's arguing with a fellow believer that home-schooled is better than public school.
He's using the non-teaching of the Bible as an example to support his view. When both agree on a conclusion, he's got no obligation to spell out his reasoning against the possibility an outsider wants to come and kibbitz.
Its a weird opinion, but not much weirder than any other bit of nonsense the world's religious nuts come up with.
What is hilarious is the way he bemoans the other guy's not citing statistics, yet he fails to do so himself!
For the time it was writter. Literary achievment isn't really something that can reach an ultimate, its subjective to the opinion of the reader.
Furthermore, why is more and more archaeological evidince being dug up that proves, while some things that are accounted in the bible may have happened. They most certainly did not happen to the letter.
"Ultimate in literary achievement?"
Oh, wish it were! If it *were* ultimate in literary achievement, you'd think people were reading it more. But the plain fact is, it's a few brilliant lines in sea of muddy boring prose. Anyone who claims otherwise doesn't read enough (and by "read enough", I also mean "even the Bible itself").
When I was a kid, the rational Christian people were saying things like "oh, it's a good book, start reading it from, like, the New Testament. The Old Testament is major boring material and nobody can get past the genealogies. *Nobody.*"
The Bible would be drastically cut by modern editors. Too bad people would drastically cut the modern editor if they did that. *sigh*
"I used to hear that garbage a lot when I was a child and, because I was a child, I believed it. But I grew up and by age 12, I had read Dickens, Twain, Stevenson, Orwell, Huxley, Azimov, Joyce, and even some <gasp> Oscar Wilde."
Internet smart guy
Let's get some things straight here.
Is the Bible a historically relevant piece of written history? Yes (well at least the Old Testament is).
Is it 100% true? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Things in ancient history that the Bible doesn't cover:
-the Sumerians (big omission, that)
-The Celts
Things it doesn't say very much about:
-The Greeks (at least outside the Apocrypha)
-Egypt before the Hyksos
-The Celts
-The Nubians
"Most authoritative source of ancient history mankind has"?
Well, I'd like to learn about chinese and japanese ancient history. I'd very grateful if someone can quote me the relevant bible verses.
Furthermore, I'm also interested in polynesian, pre-colonization american, celtic, nordic, slavic, african, and indian history. The bible surely is very authoritative on these topics, and will answer any questions in the best way possible.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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