Have you read The Bible?

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Option one for me.

[afleitch]

Yes, it assisted me on my journey away from faith.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Option one for me.

[ZuWo]

Yes, the entire Bible and more than once.

[Napoleon]

No. I have better things to waste my time on.

[DC Al Fine]

Yes, the entire Bible and more than once.

[King]

More of it than I should have.

It's probably the least profound religious text on the planet.  I can see why the Catholic Church chose to keep it hidden for so long.  Their supplements to it are far more interesting.  Psalms and Proverbs* almost get clever at points and the story of Job is interesting, but the New Testament is a huge bore and the Jesus stuff is pretty light on the details.

*It's also interesting that the Book of Proverbs is even in the Bible, as it implicitly stated throughout it as not the word of God,or inspired by God, but the sayings of wise Jews of the day.

[DemPGH]

#6 - I probably have read over the years about 2/3 of the total of it I'll guess.

It's simply an array of ancient literature / mythology edited and spliced together quite sloppily, evidenced by the fact that it opens in Genesis 1 and 2 with very, very different creation stories.

[© tweed]

I'd like to undertake a Bible study led by non-Christians (or at least, in which my peers would not all be Christians), if such a thing exists.

[fezzyfestoon]

I'd like to undertake a Bible study led by non-Christians (or at least, in which my peers would not all be Christians), if such a thing exists.

Yeah, I wonder if that's possible. I've been to Baptist Bible studies and they're just impossibly insular. Once they reached the appropriate conclusion on something, everyone smiled and moved right along in perfect harmony.

[TJ in Oregon]

I haven't read all of it, the Old Testament in particular. I've tried a few times and have slowly made some progress. If I live long enough I might finish before I die.

[© tweed]

I'd like to undertake a Bible study led by non-Christians (or at least, in which my peers would not all be Christians), if such a thing exists.

Yeah, I wonder if that's possible. I've been to Baptist Bible studies and they're just impossibly insular. Once they reached the appropriate conclusion on something, everyone smiled and moved right along in perfect harmony.

NYC has everything so if it doesn't exist 30 miles to my West, it probably doesn't exist.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

The Bible really doesn't take that long to read if you read a little each day.  I was able to finish it in less than ten months when I was a freshman in high school.  You can find reading plans online which are helpful, too.

[ZuWo]

Reading plans are certainly helpful. Alternatively, you can simply read one chapter (or more, if the chapters are very short) a day. The first nine chapters of the Books of Chronicles, for example, may be a bit tedious, but you will be rewarded with an interesting insight into the early Jewish kings once you have finished that.

[DemPGH]

For secular Bible Study, I might recommend Unitarian Universalism, for one. I know several atheists who have invited me to it - to church, and I said, why? What's the point. Apparently, there's some serious investigation from a secular standpoint (including almost every perspective imaginable), which I would enjoy, but as yet I've not bothered since I actually like to not do anything on Sunday morning. But also, in a more academic sense, since it seems that there are a lot of students on here, religious studies often examines the Bible from a secular standpoint. But for secular Bible study, I'd say check out the first.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Yes, the entire Bible and more than once.

Same here, and theist.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

No, but I watch joel olstein and he repackage the bible in more in lines of hope than sin.

[Joe Biden 2020]

No, but I watch joel olstein and he repackage the bible in more in lines of hope than sin.

The main problem I have with Joel and Victoria Osteen as well as the likes of Joyce Meyer is they sugar coat things way too often.

Anyway, I read the entire Bible in a year - year after year for the past 10-12 years.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

I've personally found Joel Osteen's messages refreshing because they're intended to motivate.  I know he's criticized a lot by more conservative Christians for not talking about gays/abortion enough.  However, I honestly don't have much positive to say about his style of wearing thousand dollar suits and speaking at a big megachurch every week...

[DC Al Fine]

I've personally found Joel Osteen's messages refreshing because they're intended to motivate.  I know he's criticized a lot by more conservative Christians for not talking about gays/abortion enough.  However, I honestly don't have much positive to say about his style of wearing thousand dollar suits and speaking at a big megachurch every week...

My biggest concern is that he sometimes seems like he is preaching the prosperity gospel. The suits would fit in with that.

[anvi]

I've read most of it, as both a young believer and long since as a non-believer. 

[afleitch]

I've personally found Joel Osteen's messages refreshing because they're intended to motivate.  I know he's criticized a lot by more conservative Christians for not talking about gays/abortion enough.  However, I honestly don't have much positive to say about his style of wearing thousand dollar suits and speaking at a big megachurch every week...

I think the man is horrible; bigotry with a suit and teeth veneers. (I have a feeling I’ve mentioned this to you before somewhere..) He motivates people to be intolerant of those who are LGBT by condemning them as sinners and their love as sin, just like the very type of pastor he claims he’s not like. What makes it far worse is that he chooses to not talk about it specifically so he can be seen to be separate from more conservative evangelicals. If he believes it, he’s deliberately coy about admitting it. If he doesn’t believe it then he harms people by not speaking out in support of it and instead being silent. He might be ‘refreshing’ or inspiring but I could never, in my heart and in my gut find fall for anyone who was charismatic and invigorating if they were all these things but were a racist, or a sexist, or a homophobe. Some flaws are so wide that they are unbridgeable even if you like all the rest.

[King]

I'm very pro Osteen.  We need more evangelical ministers who "sugar coat things" instead of focusing on the heretical non-Gospel teachings of Revelation.

Hopefully his ministry will turn the young evangelicals watching TV on Sunday into people of stronger character than their Falwell and Robertson polluted parents.

Rome wasn't built in a day, afleitch.  If Osteen is what the Christian right looks like from now on, we'll be better off.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Not cover to cover, no.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I have more or less read the entire Bible by now, but never straight through.