Is the Bible worth reading for someone with absolutely zero faith? Or is it a waste of time?

Its definitely worth it, KJV/DRA is on the level of the Greeks in terms of importance

I worded that wrong.
For version, use KJV or DRA, KJV is best cost wise.
Even if you aren’t religious, Christian morality is extremely sound. It also lead to other important Veeky Forums figures like Augustine and Aquinas. Maybe Nietzsche indirectly

Well, as someone in a similar situation I've begun to read the Holy Bible recently and the first book is unbelievably boring. "This guy lived for 600 years and had these five kids. Now this kid lived for 650 years and had three kids. Now this kid lived for 730 years and had two kids." I'm really bored by this supposed Jewish history.

Yea, its best to just skip Genesis, B E G A T gets boring reaaal quick.
I just skipped to Leviticus

Will you lose any important context if you skip through parts?

Don't skip anything, you can only find out in hindsight if you like something or not, nobody can tell you in advance if you will like things or not. You are being memed.

>I know that I will never be religious.
Most diehard christ fans said this at one time in their lives

Source on that claim?

Yes except for Genesis which is mostly THIS PERSON BEGAT THIS GUY WHO BEGAT THIS GUY WHO...
Im only saying to skip Genesis due to the begat fest

>skip Genesis
Yeah just go ahead and skip one if the most influential books in human history.

Never mind, Begat fest is only a small part
READ GENESIS

>I know that I will never be religious.
I too once believed this, and I was wrong.

so how did it happen

You can't PROVE there's a god, though. Why do you believe in one? You can't prove there's an afterlife either. Why does religion hold any importance? Why do people take this stuff seriously? A lot of people believing in one thing doesn't make it true. Explain yourself.

Yes, the King James Bible is a must-read. This is not, in my opinion, negotiable.

Obviously some bits are much more important than others, and there's a lot of repetition, but don't mess about trying to save a few minutes here and there, just read it ALL, and then go back and re-read the key bits.

You do this, firstly because of its merit as literature in its own right.

But also because if you haven't read it, you really can't appreciate fully any serious literature that came after it.

Basically, most people who wrote anything after the KJB would have read it, and would have known it very well (i.e. lots of it by heart), and most important, *would expect that his readers would know it too*.

It's astounding how many references to it you notice once you're familiar with it.

Some of these are very obvious - e.g. exactly why did T.E.Lawrence call his Autobiography "The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom"?

But some are much more subtle. Here's just one example off the top of my head. In "The Silence Of The Lambs", after Hannibal Lecter escapes, he stays at an hotel. Harris writes something like this (I don't have the book handy so this might not be word-for-word, but it's pretty close) -

"The hotel suite seemed enormous to Doctor Lecter after his long confinement. He enjoyed going to and fro and walking up and down in it."

Well if you know your King James Bible that line just JUMPS OUT at you because it's from Job. Basically the devil is talking to God and God says "How did you get here?" and the devil says "From going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it".

Of course it's a big slog, and OK, you can skip a paragraph if it is just literally a list of names begetting other names, but you have to put the time in.

It's often said that Abraham Lincoln learned everything he needed about writing from the King James Bible and the Complete Shakespeare. OK, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit. Get to work! :)

Well what harm is there in believing in such? Why not?
Theres literally no reason to be Atheist.

This type of proof wrangling is pretty funny to me now. If you think of it from this perspective your'e never going to understand it. I didn't understand it either. People don't have faith because they read a compelling argument somewhere, you know? You'll either experience it or you won't. If that isn't "evidence" enough, I don't really care.

How is it logical to believe in something with zero evidence? There's no reason not to be aethiest.

Faith doesn't equal truth, though. It may all just be a huge delusion. Can you explain religious faith in a logical manner? If not, then what is the value of this faith? How is it not worthless?

*atheist

I like this argument, and appreciate the effort.

>muh logic
Tell me the harm of theism, please. You’re spouting things that I would have expected to see in 2008.
Tell me how its logical to givethe middle finger to every religion thus possibly (not sure of every religions stance on this) killing every possible afterlife while simultaneously not believing in an afterlife because Atheists reject the entire concept.

>2008.
wasn't that long ago at all

Maybe it was 2010 or whatever, its the time where r/atheism and The Amazing Banana Fucker were a big thing

You can't just throw out logic. You're dodging the question. The harm, is that people like yourself choose to disregard logic and encourage others to do the same. Tradition and FEELS don't mean shit. Why does it manner that there are a million flavors of theism? There's still no logical basis in any of it. Again, a lot of people believing in one thing doesn't make it true. A lot of groups believing different things doesn't make any one of things true either.

And who says you cannot be religious AND logical?
Alot of historical philosophers and inventors were infact religious, at the least Voltaire was Deist but the complete rejection of theism is a more recent thing.
Im going to ask again, show me how religion harms either the individual or society.

If there is no God, I have no obligation to be logical or truthful about anything, so your point is meaningless.

It's the most eternal anglo book there is. They even have their own version tailored especially for anglos

Have there been no wars due to religion? Or religious persecution? Or influence in politics? No arcane laws? Overly strict parents fucking up their kid's childhood? Perversion of religion, notably Islam? It's never held back innovation? No one's ever felt "brainwashed"? No one has been excluded due to their beliefs? No one has been wrongly judged? You could go on and on. Don't claim it does no harm.

Is there any credit to the theory that a roman soldier was the father of jesus?

>overly strict parents
im sorry your parents didnt let you read harry potter user

The more literary essayists I read, the more I realize how novice-friendly Harold Bloom's big projects are. Opie, you should read pic related if you're not religious and unfamilar with the KJV. It's peppered with excerpts, so you don't need a Bible of your own. Kind of an equivalent to "A Very Short Introduction to..." — but actually useful.

Beyond this, I wholly agree with .

Do you have any REAL arguments?

What about the marriages that never happened because of religious differences? Or friendships? Or corrupted church figures? Radical Islam? No big deal, right?

>Is the Bible worth reading for someone with absolutely zero faith?
No, obviously not. Unless you have an interest in the history of culture and religion, don't bother.

>has there been no wars due to religion?
Has every war be religious in origin?
>religious persecution
Kinda like USSR’s State Atheism?
>influence in politics
Why is this a bad thing
>overly strict parents
Im assuming you mean not letting kids play Pokemon or some shit, so MUH FEELS
>Perversion of religion
Its almost as if ANY belief system can be radicalized
>never held back innovation
Dont tell me you actually believe Christianity caused the Dark Ages
>brainwashed
So more fee fee’s? Who cares? Not logical to give a shit about someone’s feelings
>no one has been excluded
If your friends reject you cause of your religion or lack there of they are probably shit friends. Its still more MUH FEELS in this situation
>wrongly judged
How the fuck is this exclusive to religion

Wew, lad...you're one of those...

Not him but a lot of it is just ideological and will appear either way - hippie parents fucking up their children, secular purges and genocides, perversion of ideas etc.
and even besides that, most people are shit, they just tie their beliefs into their interactions with the world around them.

do you have any real arguments?

This is nothing, right?

Was another user.

This is actually a sad thing, we could learn a thing or two from the mudslimes.

If you had a son who turned out to be gay, would you have him killed?

What are you trying to convey with this picture? Europe and the Americas (both culturally Christian) have the highest tolerance for fags, while Arabia and Muslim Africa have the least.

Is your point that some of the Africans are culturally Christian or something?

Surprisingly low amount of countries which execute gays, seems like most the islamic world simply criminalizes it
Also, what did you mean by “im one of those”

Not him, but I would have him sent to therapy.
I would try to fix my son

>Has every war been religious in origin?
Aside from the Crusades (and arguably not even then), the casus bellis for all wars seem to fit Socrates' "we want more land/resources" thesis from the Republic.

>being gay is something to "fix"

yes, I agree, I would also accept him if he wasn't acting on his urges
if he persisted then I'd have to put him down, even if it would pain me.

yes, Homosexuality is a mental disorder
Thus I would fix
Such disorder

Death penalty for homosexuality is due to sharia law.

I didn't say it, another user did.

I recommend reading it several times. In its original Hebrew (old testament) is pretty much an example of primary orality, and even if the new testament appeared after the advent of writing, it is still fascinating in its original Greek.

The second re-reading: the Vulgata. This is the way the world experienced religion up to the Protestant reformation.

Finally, in your native language, compare different versions if you have the energy.

The Bible is idiotic and tribal, its 'wisdom' is that of superstitious dimwits and controlled crowds. It is a collection of spooks. That, however, does not undermine its value to the modern intellectual: a glimpse into a formerly predominant way of viewing history and the world, and one of the many (perhaps the clearest) manifestations of a myriad Jungian archetypes in plain sight. It is a reflection of many aspects of the human mind which the modern man strives to transcend (aufheben).

Finally, for bonus points, read the Hawaiian pidgin new testament. It is both hilarious in its retardation and an essay in linguistics.

>literally parroting a debunked 50 year old meme
You're just retarded, mate.

Yeah, Sharia law. What does this have to do with the Bible?

It has to do with Islamic law.

Stellar observation m8, but this is a thread about the Bible and Christianity.

See:

>show me how religion harms either the individual or society

In his mind every religion in every country works in the same way, and every individual has to obey the same interpretation of the religion and religious laws
He considers all of it to be stupid cancer and doesn't see the differences

So seeking to mate with those of your own gender rather than mating with the opposite gender which we are biologically made to do in order to reproduce which is the entire fucking point of sex in the first place is NOT a mental disorder.
Even IF faggotism is not a mental disorder i would still send my son to therapy
Even then, not all the islamic countries act upon such law, most seem to only imprison gays.

Religion is all stupid cancer that veers close to mental illness or psychopathy but it's not PC to bring that up. Because the only group worse than sjws, are the fundies.

>So seeking to mate with those of your own gender rather than mating with the opposite gender which we are biologically made to do in order to reproduce which is the entire fucking point of sex in the first place is NOT a mental disorder
Nope, and we haven't considered it a disorder in over 50 years. Sorry if that spergs you out, but it's true. You can look up the DSM yourself.

>ess jay dubyahs
Stop watching Sargon

Sorry that you had to go to the church too many times. Or maybe your mom told you that's its wrong to touch yourself

Religion has clearly done harm, and continues to do so. user:
asked how, specifically.

And yes, I realize there are differences betweens countries/religions/laws/etc.

>everyone who is critical of religion must have had some middle class "trauma" with their parents or are just rebelling against society man! Because their family is religious.
It couldn't possibly be that I'm juat critical of religion.

Sargon is a faggot, I don't watch him.

anyone?

The harm you pointed out is minimal however, religious wars are an extremely small minority compared to wars of casus beli
And things like countries persecuting gays are more of arguments against state religion as this rarely happens in secular societies even if such societies are majority Christian for example.
I was mainly seeking an answer like how does an individual adopting a religion like Christianity harm him? How does it impede logical thinking?

when your opinion is so one-sided, hateful and emotionally charged then it's prudent to assume that you've had some bad experiences with it yourself.

and fuck i was so close to getting quads

>one sided
>hateful
I don't hate anyone outside of people who use faith to prey on the grieving and weak, but I absolutely dislike the concept of organized religion and what it does to people and societies. When the same neurons that fire in your brain during a psychotic break or a schizoid episode as when someone experiences a "miracle", you have a hard time convincing me that this isn't an alarming medical issue.

>You can't just throw out logic
Watch me.
But seriously, why do you hold reason and empiricism as the only way to know? Is faith and experiential intuition something you've never had? I'm sure if you examined your beliefs at their foundation you would find that you take a lot on faith and because it "sounds right" to you.

It impedes logical thinking because you start believing things that have no evidence or basis in science. I still have gotten no answer for how this rational.

*how this is rational

>Religion is all stupid cancer
yep, totally not one sided and hateful :v
>I don't hate anyone outside of people who use faith to prey on the grieving and weak, but I absolutely dislike the concept of organized religion and what it does to people and societies.
then you could say that in the first post instead of spouting r/atheism smear all over the place
this

So it barely affects logical thinking whatsoever.
You’re acting like all theists are brainless sheep and that no theist can ever think logically.
You basically called nearly everyone in history and modern day irrational, including many philosophers and intellectuals.
You know what’s irrational? Believing that being religious denies any potential logic

and I'd like some sauce on this, out of curiosity
>When the same neurons that fire in your brain during a psychotic break or a schizoid episode as when someone experiences a "miracle"

>it's a smear
Fucking kill yourself, mate.

see

Slippery slope? The foundational axioms of science can't be proven by science either, so what?

go on a walk and drink some tea, it should calm you down
unless you're that much of a wanker all the time, in that case you should seek a therapist.

There are numerous studies:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3968360/

This was a bad link, I meant more actual neuroscience:
academic.oup.com/jaar/article/81/1/295/705172

>being religious denies any potential logic
I never said it denies ANY potential logic

Then why claim that religion somehow impedes it? Anyone can think rationally religious or not, you have yet to prove that Religion harms rational thinking

Do you? Slit your wrists.

How come there aren't any mentions of the ESV translation? I'm under the impression that translations like KJV are written as thought-for-thought translations instead of word-for-word. So the translators wrote what they wanted the passages to say instead of writing the passages as they were originally written.

Is faith in a religion itself rational? What about making decisions based on your religious beliefs. Religion has influenced people's actions, correct? This is where things get irrational. Just think about it.

Not him, but how does religion do anything different from secular philosophies? Everyone starts with presuppositions and builds from there.

There are two primary "schools" of biblical translation: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. Formal equivalence translations try to hew closely as possible to the original language in grammar and expression; dynamic equivalence translations attempt to render the thought being expressed, which less concern for grammatical closeness. Formal equivalence translations should be preferred, in my opinion, but to dismiss dynamic equivalence as being "what [the translators] wanted the passages to say" is unfair; it may be the case at times, but you can find this sort of work in any translation as none are wholly unbiased. That being said, the King James Version is a formal equivalence translation, so your impression of it is wrong. Other formal equivalence translations are the RSV, ESV, NASB, NKJV.

Only with your katana mr.fedora McPickleRick
Strawman, this is not proof
Its just “these people are just a bit less rational than me because they are religious checkmate”
You’e sounding like a parody of the Skeptics at this point

Not a strawman. Decision making involves thought. Making decisions based on irrational beliefs is irrational, therefore rational thinking is impeded.

>therefore rational thinking is impeded.
And?