Do you ponder / study bible contents even if you're not a "thumper" or a "believer" type

Question

do you do it for academic purposes?

Care to share?

Answer 1

Of course.

I worry about individuals so biased and stereotypical of Catholocism/Christianity based upon hearsay/conjecture/limited experience/FoxNews/Republicans/straightup ignorance that they refuse to actually read the material they have such a vehement distaste for.

For those that refuse, yet continue to make generalizations and stereotypes regarding "Christians", their allegations are, if not complete ad hominems (as they tend to be) but otherwise ill founded. In academic fields, one would never be able to get away with condemning a field of study or thought without having read the material corresponding to it first. They'd be laughed out of the lecture room.

For those that do choose to read it and take it out of context for the sake of their points, either deliberately or via laziness/not doing their historical homework, they are doing themselves and their argument a disservice.

In my experience, people seem to have as an open of mind as possible regarding most any area of thought with the drastic exception of Judeo-Christian Theology. This discrepency mistifies me.

I personally am an Agnostic trying to find truth, in all it's beauty and various forms. I've read the Bible, yes, translated parts from the original koine greek, audited classes on Hebrew and Old Testament Survey from the local Seminary, and personally made a point to get through the whole thing, for academic reasons as well as enrichment. Additionally, I've audited both the History and Religion of Islam, as well as Asian Thought, Buddhism, and read the Koran in its entirety as well as the Lotus Sutra. I had a duty to it, as I have to continued study.

I don't offer this information for any other reason but to show that A) my previous statements defending the Bible were meant in complete objectivity and B) I feel, personally anway, it is the duty of every individual who seeks wisdom - or conversely, individuals who seek to attack 'religion' - to genuinely emerse themselves in the books regarding it. In my experience, even the most devout Christians and learned Atheists don't know nearly enough of the spiritual facets and/or historical logistics of the Bible to properly defend or attack it.

Additionally, even the Atheist who may not believe a word of any of it, it is at his or her own loss that they completely throw it (the Bible, in this case) away as utterly worthless. There is so much beauty, and wisdom, and yes, TRUTH to be found in it, says this Agnostic. As well as in various other holy writings.

But yeah, I digress.

Answer 2

When I was a young and easily impressionable child, my mom made me read the Bible. Though now I know better than to believe in such tales, I do appreciate that she got me to read it for educational purposes (though I was mad at first because I thought she was trying to brainwash me from an early age). I've also studied certain excerpts of it in class as a literary piece, and I say that it's an excellent source of stories and anecdotes about customs, etc. that could rival the Odyssey. Plus, it's often referred to in philosophical, political, social, etc. pieces as mentioned in the previous answer, so it would be useful to have at least a basic knowledge of some of the stories in it because they make for good allegories/parallels in the world.

Answer 3

I did. I tried being the believer type, but I found it took too long to figure out what half the stuff meant, since there are so many different ways of translating the meanings of the stories.

Answer 4

I mostly study the ancient writings of the Jewish Sages.

It is my contention that if I know what their customs were, what their daily life was like, the different problems they faced and so on that I will come to a better understanding of what Jesus said.

Answer 5

Simple boredom has provoked me to read the Bible from time to time i am a believer, but it does have its academic purposes

Answer 6

i do not see the way you should probably study about a Loving God from the bible. The bible is in ordinary words one among countless teachings given to guy to assist him discover his beforehand to God information. Little changed into written till between six hundred BCE and 1000BCE. It changed into frequently oral custom till then. Egyptians and some Indians used kinds of hieroglyphics a lot beforehand. there changed into the Torah, Zend Avista, Gita, Upanishads, chinese books, new testomony Koran and some extra in a lengthy time period. the reason i do not see ordinary the right thanks to study some thing about God from the bible is that the god of the Bible is sadistic, advise, a baby molester, one which take aspects in violent conflicts and facilitates His children to wade through with no end in sight in fireplace. In different words a neurotic god made up by using the authors of those scrolls. that is a e book crammed with violence. the in ordinary words thanks to get alongside with that god is to be a toady. Jesus turned right into a Rabbi and changed into conversant with the jewish regulations, yet he also gave us 2 commandments about love and he advised thoughts about a Loving Father who allowed him to heal peoples misunderstandings about their lack of perfection.

Answer 7

i do. when you read tomas paines common sense he talks a lot of what the bible says about government so i guess from an historical or political standpoint you could do that.