I must read The Bible for school!

[Angrboda]

The bible covers over a millennium (supposedly) of one group of Semites in the ancient Near East. You can't look at the literature, history, culture and myths of any people covering that long a span of time without finding something interesting. Though often the interesting bits are hidden by your or their expectations.

I've joined a heathen bible study group and we'll be discussing books 1-30 of Genesis this month. I don't know if that's fast or slow, but I have a hunch I'd be happier with a traditional bible study, just for a more intense exposure. But I don't really feel inclined to commit the time right now. I belong to a group that calls itself "Secular Bible Study," which is co-sponsored by a UU church, and which isn't really bible study, but rather for two nights a month we discuss topics of relevance to the bible. One month it was the story of Job, the other it was Stoicism and Christianity, and another it was Pauline attitudes towards homosexuality, from the viewpoint of a pair of (totally sweet) radical scholars. It's interesting because you get all sides: the humanist, the atheist, the fundamentalist, the liberal Christian, the Baha'i and my own eclectic contributions. It results in a lot of interesting perspectives as people turn the questions over from each person's specific perspective.

I suppose if worse comes to worse, and you can't spin this as a positive cultural, literary, mythological or other experience, read what you need to read each session, then reread the same section in the online copy of the Skeptic's Annotated Bible; perhaps with occasional supplements from infidels.org.