Friday 6 February 2009

Bibling

I'm an atheist, and I'm reasonably comfortable with that view of the universe. I'm by no means militant in my atheism, indeed I find that new species of particularly truculent atheism rather embarrassing and somewhat hypocritical.

That said, I will discuss and defend my opinions in appropriate arenas, and one of the criticisms I'm often dealt is that I "haven't read the bible" and am, therefore, in no position to comment. As loathe as I am to admit it, it's a fair point. I haven't read the bible, yet I do comment on things biblical. I'd say I had a decent knowledge of the bible - better than your average man in the street, for sure - but I've never read it from cover to cover, so I've no idea how it comes together as a cohesive work. Maybe second or third hand knowledge of the bible doesn't do the book justice, perhaps you need the deep, first hand experience to really understand it.

So, I'm going to read it. I fully expect it to be mostly rather boring so I expect this will be a long term project. Unlike how I would approach a novel, I'm going to approach this (at first at least, we'll see how it goes) in small chunks. Every day (give or take) I'll read a few passages, or as much as I can be bothered, starting at the first word of Genesis and finishing at the last word of Revelation, and I'll post my thoughts on what I've read here.

It might take me a year. Maybe longer. Maybe I'll become so enraptured by the beauty of the text that I'll finish it in a week. Who knows?

Anyway....on with the project. Feel free to comment or point out misunderstandings or ommissions.

Oh, a probably important point has just occurred to me: I'll be using the bible I have in my house, I think it's one of the Gideon ones (not the wee tiny red ones they hand out in schools, but a weighty, hardback tome with those wee ribbons on that you find in bibles and diaries). I know that there're different "types" of bible, and I thought this might be important.

1 comment:

  1. I once tried reading the bible at school and found it one of the most difficult pieces of literature to read. good luck!

    ReplyDelete