I’m surprised…
According to this quiz:
Wow! You are truly a student of the Bible! Some of the questions were difficult, but they didn’t slow you down! You know the books, the characters, the events . . . Very impressive!
And, as I have said before, I’m a hardcore atheist.
Nearly 20 years ago, after being goaded into it by some fundies I used to like arguing with, I read the Bible (King James version). Cover to cover.
It was the most grueling, uninteresting, unbelievable chore I have ever voluntarily endured. Some people see great poetry, some see the it as the ultimate form of the English language. I just found it to be an impenetrable mess of deliberately-obfuscated language designed to give the impression of great insight while in fact telling mediocre stories that a seven year old would find hard to swallow (much like Jonah’s fish).
Amazingly enough (indeed it surprised the fundies) I came out the other side as much of an atheist as I was before I started, if not slightly more contemptuous of those who actually believe that the guff presented as literally true.
I have also skimmed the Quran (like with the Bible, nothing there was remotely believable), and glanced at the Bhagavad Gita; as works of literary history they are valuable, but as works of history they are flawed at the very best.
Show me a quiz about football, however, and the score would be in single digits…
January 21st, 2007