but because I was curious and would read anything that wasn't nailed down. A lot of it was boring and forgettable; some of it was really pretty interesting and occasionally weird. I consider it to be a collection of ancient myths, folklore and legends that provide a fascinating look at the Bronze Age in the Middle East, if one has an interest in cultural anthropology. It also contains occasional words of wisdom.

I recently acquired an interesting old Bible. It's enormous - at least 8" thick, and containing dozens of beautiful illustrations, including Doré etchings. Since it's in Norwegian I'll probably give it to Mindekirken.

three different translations. The first time, I was a teen Christian. The other five times, I was an atheist. I read it because it represents the core texts of the dominant religion in this country. I'm a fast reader, so a complete read-through takes me about three months of part-time reading in the evenings.

I will admit to skimming the geneology books, pretty much. The rest, though, got careful readings each time. Translations read include the KJV, RSV, and NIV at different times.

The prose has pretty much gone to crap since then. The stories seem a little less silly when they sound like Shakespeare.

I read the other two as an exercise, really, and to be able to say I had done it.

On the other hand, not everyone prefers 17th century English as reading matter, so I have no real problem with people's preferences for other translations. I just happen to like the KJV when I'm reading the thing.

BTW, my last read-through was in 2008. I probably won't do it again. I can't see any reason, to, really. I have a couple of Bibles around here, though. These days, however, I use a website to search for passages. biblegateway.com. It makes it very easy to view passages in just about every translation, as well.

I'm a member of the 9% group that has read the Bible all the way through more than once. It was a good experience for me and was the key to developing my concepts of perspective in application to writing in general and religious writing in particular. It was also the beginning of my contempt for all organized religion. It's interesting how the same behavior will affect different people in different ways!

as part of my individualized confirmation classes.

Doing that did more than anything else to steer me toward non-belief.

When I was 15, I memorized Matthew for a Bible memorization contest at the church I attended. When asked to recite what I had memorized, I got started, but only got through Chapter 2 before being told, "That's enough, thank you..." Apparently, they had some lesser goals in mind in the contest, for which I won a very nice KJV edition. I still have that prize. I can no longer recite Matthew from memory, however.

than to force them to write a summary of every book. If a person is going to seminary, yes, or maybe studying anthropology, but they'd be doing it voluntarily. Otherwise it would be just excruciating to have to review the whole damn thing (and in the process start noticing how weird, contradictory and improbable a lot of it is). If a member of the clergy wants to steer a young person toward atheism I can't think of a better way to do it.

They use it as a fetish or a weapon. Resding the Bible is unimportant to such people. it's power as an object is what counts to them.

Most people know a few individual verses they can quote when needed. Systematic bible reading is not something most people bother with, frankly. In most Christian denominations, only a select set of Bible readings are presented for use in the liturgy.



Or, the more modern version:

and as weird as the Bible is by itself, fundie pastors (in particular) often add their own spin. Abortion, for example, isn't mentioned anywhere. Jesus never mentions homosexuality, although it's in the list of no-nos in Leviticus along with wearing clothing made of mixed threads. A question about this was raised some years ago in a letter to wingnut "Dr." Laura Schlessinger:

The responses to it I heard from most Christians was that, for various reasons, some of those laws still counted and some didn't. It mostly revolved around throwing out the ones that are inconvenient for them, or fail to conform to their world view in some way. Sort of like when the same crowd label this or that part of the Bible "metaphorical."

If you're a true believer in the Bible as the inerrant word of God, you'd better not be wearing a polyester-cotton blend shirt.

that I almost choked on my coffee.

I did read some through the years when I went to church but now the only time I read it is to find out where in the bible it says one thing or another about a subject people use the bible as a weapon.

My friend who is a die hard Catholic and I get into discussions and when I say something he may not agree on we look at passages on the subject.

The sad thing is that my friend has enough knowledge of the bible to be a priest but yet when I am bringing up passages about most of our discussions I seem to prove my point more times than not.

Reading the entire Bible is an exercise, really, in becoming familiar with the entire thing. The usefulness of that is questionable, really, but it also shows you the range of things discussed in it. A limited knowledge is all most people need to practice their religion, really, since most churches, too, focus on only selected parts.

In today's technological world, it's pretty easy to search the Bible for what it says about just about anything. Some people learn the Bible that way, but still don't get the experience of following it from beginning to end.

I would have to read it about 10 times to remember a quarter of it. When you have so many passages throughout that contradict each other memorizing things is pointless. I'm unable to memorize anything else so to memorize the bible would be pointless.

I figure that at least I am willing to bring up all of the passages in the bible on what ever subject I am discussing instead of blindly saying what I believe.

Of course my side of belief is not believing the bible. Everytime I go through passeges I am clearly reminded why I stay away from religion.