Reading suggestions

[Rev. Rye]

Why do you feel the need to shit on my thread? I asked for reading suggestions, not to start a debate.

Doing nohting of the sort. You are completely entitled to only reading people who agree with you and will tell you exactly what you want to hear. Just thought if you actually wanted to learn about the Old and New Testaments you might want to also read what actual Biblical scholars had to say as well. You do what you want, it's your brain :-)

There are skeptical scholars, SW. And speaking of Skeptical scholars, Bart D. Ehrman has written quite a few books about the history of the Bible. Misquoting Jesus is one I would particularly recommend.
In addition:
* Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Friedman (focus on the Torah)
*Whose Bible is It? by Jaroslav Pelikan (on sectarian versions of the Bible, the author was a Russian Orthodox)
*Isaac Asimov's guide to the Bible (It's hard to find, but most likely worth it)
*How We Got the Bible by Neil Lightfoot (Written by a Christian, but still a quite influential work in this field.)

Skeptics start with axioms too, so I don't think your reason for not reading both sides of the issue is legitimate. Seems more of just a way to get people to tell you what you want to hear.

Having axioms is nowhere near the same thing as working with a pre-formed conclusion. Also, when did he say he wanted only skeptics? I just remember him saying he would prefer works by skeptics. There's quite a lot of room for debate here, and, thus, it merits having several points of view, whether theistic or not.