The Bible: not a page turner!

[ThomM]

I totally agree. The Quran is the same way. Some Atheists always talk about how horrible the bible is, but mostly it's just boring. Mind numbingly boring.

Actually - the bible contains lots of stories that I would not want a young child of mine to read - I would make the bible an adult book of it were my choice.

But - you are correct about much of the bible - it is certainly not of any literary value.

I would suggest that a person read the religious texts written before the bible first - so that you can immediately see how the stories were adapted and extended as the years passed. IT becomes harder to ignore when you realize that stories were added to the bible = that are similar to the religious stories of other people - when the jews were in bondage to those people.

[xpastor]

Again: I say this without in any way critiquing the truth of the bible, or its moral and religious significance.

By comparison, the bhagavad gita and its 'mommy' the mahabharata are beautiful and poetic texts that are fun and exiting to read. Even if they can be a little hard to understand sometimes, and they don't exactly end on a high note.
The Koran has a spaced-out poetic quality that makes it interesting, even when you don't understand it or it seems bat shit crazy (although I'm told much of this poetic quality is lost in translation from the Arabic)
The Poetic Edda is a fun read and contains a lot of thoughts and sayings that are valid even today, without mixing in any spirituality.
Some Zoroastrian texts I've read are interesting to read because those guys seemed to be like christians on LSD or something... Marry myself? Fuck yeah!

I twinge slightly with guilt when I think about the fact that I only know the overarching story of the Bible because I read a series of biblical comic books in my early teens.
So. My question to christians and de-converts alike: how the heck does one find the strength and energy to read the entire bible? Do/did you find it as boring as I did? How did you find it?

I find the Koran even more boring than the bible. Maybe it's better in Swedish than in English?

As for the bible, there are some good bits: the stories of Job and Jonah are both well-crafted fiction. Ecclesiastes is an intriguing skeptical philosopher. But, yeah, much of it is boring, where it's not gruesome like all the genocides and the barbaric punishments. I used to be a devout Christian, and I realize in retrospect that I was reading it with my mind on cruise control. The words were flowing through my mind without registering the meaning, at least until I came to an interesting passage.

I can't resist recycling some of my old humor. Several years ago on the Friendly Atheist Forum one of the guys challenged us to write a review of the bible as if it was newly published.

I started off

The Holy Bible. Anonymous. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2010. 1341 pp. $18.99 @ amazon.ca.

This book will never sell. It’s a big anthology, and it suffers from a lack of focus on a target audience. Do they want to sell to kids? To fantasy fans? To the self-help market? It’s got all that and more.

If you want to read the rest of my "review" you can follow this link.

[The Valkyrie]

I found it to be quite a page turner, "Holy crap this is bullshit, I wonder what's on the next page"

[Minimalist]

More bullshit?

[truthBtold]

Its an ass wiper. . I know cause when I was done... it was full of shit.!