RE: I must read The Bible for school!
September 6, 2012 at 10:11 pm
(This post was last modified: September 6, 2012 at 10:12 pm by Jackalope.)
I suppose it depends on why you're being asked to read it, and whether it's cover-to-cover or selected books / chapters.
I've read it twice cover-to-cover (mostly skipping over the so-and-so begat whats-his-name parts), and periodically use it as a reference to support arguments, etc. Some of it isn't bad as literature (e.g. Song of Solomon), some is interesting when read as ancient mythology (e.g. Genesis), and other parts are interesting vignettes into ancient culture (if not what they thought and what their values were, for what they thought worth writing and reading). Some of it is appalling when you consider that some hold it to be the basis for an absolute moral standard.
If it's for the purpose of indoctrination, I have two thoughts on that. Firstly, that's bullshit for a secular school, and second, that in your case, I doubt very seriously it will have the intended effect (more likely, the opposite).
Reading it with the Skeptic's Annotated Bible handy is good for some laughs. I'll warn you in advance that if you use the comments from SAB in arguments against the Bible, choose your battles carefully, and be prepared for the rebuttal, because many apologists are fully aware of the SAB and have prepared answers handy. (It's a resource, not a magic bullet.)
Are you expected to write a report or are you being tested on what you read? The latter could be problematic in that there's a hell of a lot of room for interpretation (unless you're just going to be tested on trivia to make sure you actually read the damn thing). The former could be entertaining, depending on how far you're willing to push your luck with the teacher in question (I'm envisioning a report contrasting the NT message of "Love your neighbor" vs. the OT tales of YHWH-inspired genocide. I might call my report "The Trinity: Sound Theology, or Dissociative Identity Disorder with Psychotic Features?").
I've read it twice cover-to-cover (mostly skipping over the so-and-so begat whats-his-name parts), and periodically use it as a reference to support arguments, etc. Some of it isn't bad as literature (e.g. Song of Solomon), some is interesting when read as ancient mythology (e.g. Genesis), and other parts are interesting vignettes into ancient culture (if not what they thought and what their values were, for what they thought worth writing and reading). Some of it is appalling when you consider that some hold it to be the basis for an absolute moral standard.
If it's for the purpose of indoctrination, I have two thoughts on that. Firstly, that's bullshit for a secular school, and second, that in your case, I doubt very seriously it will have the intended effect (more likely, the opposite).
Reading it with the Skeptic's Annotated Bible handy is good for some laughs. I'll warn you in advance that if you use the comments from SAB in arguments against the Bible, choose your battles carefully, and be prepared for the rebuttal, because many apologists are fully aware of the SAB and have prepared answers handy. (It's a resource, not a magic bullet.)
Are you expected to write a report or are you being tested on what you read? The latter could be problematic in that there's a hell of a lot of room for interpretation (unless you're just going to be tested on trivia to make sure you actually read the damn thing). The former could be entertaining, depending on how far you're willing to push your luck with the teacher in question (I'm envisioning a report contrasting the NT message of "Love your neighbor" vs. the OT tales of YHWH-inspired genocide. I might call my report "The Trinity: Sound Theology, or Dissociative Identity Disorder with Psychotic Features?").
