Texas could become the first state to require Bible readings in public schools, but religious scholars who reviewed the proposed list have questioned its academic merit.
Fellow atheist here. It’s not so much the text, it’s the critical thinking that you do when you read it, and the self-knowledge needed to keep yourself rational. It’s the fanatics’ belief in their own infallibility (the sin of Pride) that makes them such obnoxious, pushy assholes. Also their failure to engage with the fact that the source texts are a mess of copying errors, paraphrases, lacunae, interpolations, mistranslations, compounded over generations of hand-copying. Ancient and medieval document management was a dog’s breakfast.
Fellow atheist here. It’s not so much the text, it’s the critical thinking that you do when you read it, and the self-knowledge needed to keep yourself rational. It’s the fanatics’ belief in their own infallibility (the sin of Pride) that makes them such obnoxious, pushy assholes. Also their failure to engage with the fact that the source texts are a mess of copying errors, paraphrases, lacunae, interpolations, mistranslations, compounded over generations of hand-copying. Ancient and medieval document management was a dog’s breakfast.