Is there anything to be gained from reading the bible?

Is there anything to be gained from reading the bible?

What about with or without secular annotations?

Oh gee I don't know, maybe just maybe The Kingdom Of Heaven?

Oh you know, just eternal life.

Seriously? The most important book in the history of mankind, written by God Himself and you ask that stupid question?

Wtf.

Interpreting the Bible is how we got hermeneutics, the Bible challenges you to interpret it and I've never seen texts the same way again.

It is required reading, stop running away from it.

Of course there is. Take the story of Cain & Abel, for example. You can discuss this thing for hours, you can write about it (as Steinbeck did in East of Eden). It's great. It's like some really good lyrics that maybe totally relate to you or leave you thinking, what the fuck is that meant to be? At the very least, you can learn something about yourself if you try to pick apart some of the good stuffin there.

You get more out of a religious text if you don't take it literally.

Watch some Church of England services on youtube...its basically the bible for atheists

>written by God himself
Muslims >eternal life where you spend all of your days sucking God's dick
>valuable

Its one of the pillars of western literature, are you really that fucking dumb?

Yeah, but only because a bunch of retards have been pretending it's nonfiction for the past 1900 years. Just because it influenced a lot of literature doesn't mean anything. I don't want to read it if all I'm going to get out of it is the basis for increasingly obscure idioms and allegories.

You are an ignorant nigger and with that attitude you should go fuck around on /v/ or an atheist blog on reddit, but for others reading I would say that the literary merit of the bible is top tier, it passes muster on alot of historical-critical assessment, and as a faith or moral compass it is a great achievement of mankind. If you have any interest I would try the Yale Open Courses on the Bible.

So I was supposed to know the full literary merit of the bible without having read the bible?

Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning.
- Proverbs 9:9

If have an attitude that you can't find some value or wisdom in reading it, you have no business doing so. As with any media consumption, you limit yourself by going into it without an open mind. That isn't to say you should completely accept everything it says without thought, but that you should treat everything as a potential learning opportunity. You can spend a few minutes listening to an idiot, and walk away a wiser man because you now understand idiots a little better (a useful skill in our world). That kind of teaching is a tiny snippet from a book that is stuffed full of some of the longest-standing poetry, logic, philosophy, and narrative that the western world has experienced as writing. You do yourself a disservice by leaving it on the shelf forever.

its the word of God to all of us humans, so it would seem pretty useful to me

The Bible is not supposed to be the word of God.

>>eternal life where you spend all of your days sucking God's dick
Protestant detected.

It draws a ton of inspiration from the Greeks, and it has page after page of beautiful poetry.
Some good teachings in their too.
It has massive influence in contemporary culture and reading it would allow you to understand and relate to the culture around you.
There are some stories in it that are so stupid you can have a legitimate chuckle at them. The book of Job for example.

There also the religious aspect of it but lets be honest only a complete retard would actually believe anything in it is real.

Hope that helps OP

Nope

...

enjoy burning in hell user :^)

>hell
>burning
Not canon at all

Enjoy being subservient and having your life being reduced to simply praising someone else for eternal

Why wouldn't you praise the supreme being for creating you?

Why would I praise a supreme being for creating me? Especially when the only options in the afterlife he provides are slavery or non-existence

the options are living gracefully outside of your human body without any negativity, no bad energy and 100% freedom in the heavens or sucking satans prickly dick, it's your choice

I'll keep you in my prayers, user.

Not an argument, but to suggest there is 100% freedom in the heavens is ridiculous. You would be reduced to the form and capabilities of a child, with no knowledge of your self, as Adam and eve were in genesis. Your entire existence would be sucking God's prickly dick, and that's all. It. Would be. I'm sure if. You didn't like it you could. Opt out and go. To hell, but that's not much of a choice. Yet on the other hand, you have enjoying this life as much as you can, then non-existence. And imo, slavery is preferable to non-existence
Pray me a Ferrari please

lol, the reason you get into heaven in the first place is because you've lived your whole life to decide what moral path to take, adam and eve fucked up right then and there because they didnt have a lifetimes amount to decide that maybe sinning isnt the best path, but you have that choice user. You need to read the bible figuratively and start going to church like a big boy, you'll grow out of your atheist nihilist hissy fit eventually

>reading the jewish manual on how to be a good goy

You don't have to spend your whole life on it, you just have to repent and shit before you die

If you had adequate reading comprehension you'd realise my reference to Adam and eve was before the fall

>bro just interpret however you want, it's all mettyfors and shit
Nice postmodern heresy

Reading the Bible gives you insight into how nearly half of the entire planet is raised and taught to think.

How do you not understand how that can be useful or interesting?

>Profanity
Have fun in bottomless perdition

I've read it. I don't think I understood anything. I recognize biblical allusions in other works, though, so that's nice. But it seemed like an incoherent mess, and I don't see how it is supposed to provide moral guidance.

I mean, the four gospels purport to tell the same story, but have different details and timelines. That's fine for Rashomon, but not if the fate of my immortal soul depends on knowing absolute truth.