Ban the Bible

[All Surrogate]

A piece of news that raised a smile:

Utah primary schools ban Bible for 'vulgarity and violence'

It is fact just one school district, rather than the whole Utah state, and this isn't the first such event in the USA.

I'm sure there's all sorts of subtleties and such about this, but as an immediate reaction, I thought it's pretty funny. On a more serious note, it reminds me of the attempts of ostensibly satanist churches to defend abortion as a religious ceremony.

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible provides some guidance on the contents of the Bible, if anyone is curious.

[bgmnts]

Very funny story. You'd want a child to read the bible wouldn't you just to see how stupid it was? Obviously in the states it's read under the supervision of the religious reich telling them everything is true so it doesn't work.

Interesting to see what they'll ban next to be honest!

[Noodle Lizard]

Very funny story. You'd want a child to read the bible wouldn't you just to see how stupid it was? Obviously in the states it's read under the supervision of the religious reich telling them everything is true so it doesn't work.

Interesting to see what they'll ban next to be honest!

There's something to be said for this. Like many British people, I went to Church of England schools, sang hymns and read the Bible in RE classes. Yet we're one of the more secular nations, with most young kids cottoning on pretty quickly that even the basics don't make much sense at all.

In the US, public schools are all but forbidden from mentioning religion, but that hasn't stopped it being one of the more religious nations in the world. I'd wager that a whole lot of God-fearing Americans haven't actually read the Bible, though - it seems to mostly come down to the interpretation of their own preacher(s), which leads to some pretty drastic differences in theology between Christians here. They still haven't agreed on who goes to Hell or what happens when Jesus comes back, for instance.

[shoulders]

In the US, public schools are all but forbidden from mentioning religion, but that hasn't stopped it being one of the more religious nations in the world

Church attendance is the key factor here.

[JesusAndYourBush]

You'd want a child to read the bible wouldn't you just to see how stupid it was?

Ha, a couple of years ago I (re-)found a book in the back of a cupboard that was one I'd had as a kid. "The Children's Bible in Colour" (Hamlyn).  So I decided to read it again.  They've taken out some of the sillier stuff so what you get (for the Old Testament) is a pretty good history book of early history (albeit distorted over many retellings before being written down.)  I noticed whenever they give a measurement of days/years etc it's always 40 days/40 years and it gave me the impression that in those days they just used it to signify a long time.  Maybe a lot of people only learned to count up to 40 because you wouldn't need to count higher for most things.  So these measurements aren't to be taken literally.  As for the New Testament... there's far too much Jesus.

[Ray Travez]

I noticed whenever they give a measurement of days/years etc it's always 40 days/40 years and it gave me the impression that in those days they just used it to signify a long time.  Maybe a lot of people only learned to count up to 40 because you wouldn't need to count higher for most things.  So these measurements aren't to be taken literally. 

"And lo, Jesus ventured into the desert, wherein he fasted for... ooh, ages"

[Mr Trumpet]

I had a girlfriend who'd grown up pretty religious and stuck with it into adulthood. After she finally sat down and read the Bible she abruptly about-faced into a Dawkins-loving atheist (which I found a bit annoying in its own right). So there's that.

[Pawspero]

I do not believe anyone who claims that reading the Bible made them an Atheist. That one of the most profound collections of ancient poetry could turn someone into a smug positivist is something I find painful to accept. It may be true, but I cannot accept it.

[All Surrogate]

As an atheist, I was of course smug before reading the bible, and I was even smugger after.