I wasn’t aware of this site until today—I’m sure I’m long behind the times. At any rate it is something to bookmark.

Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon

NB: I am sure that some of their interpretations will be disputed by believers. Something to keep in mind, even as you read the words themselves.

It is a great site when searching for material in these books.

Enjoy!

When I first saw this site last year I though of making a similar site related to the denomination I was previously in, but I did not have the time.

They have some unique doctrines.

Another good site I just stumbled upon is www.godisimaginary.com It gives 50 reasons not to believe in God, many of them quoting the Bible to prove it.

That’s a good site, advocatus. Thanks for posting it.

Biblical Nonesense

I’m not sure that anyone has posted this web site:  http://www.biblicalnonsense.com/

Here are some worth mentioning for those that aren’t familiar with them:

http://members.aol.com/ckbloomfld/

http://freethought.freeservers.com/reason/misc.html

http://jesuspuzzle.com/

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/scott_oser/hojfaq.html

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/m_m_mangasarian/truth_about_jesus.html

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html

Reading the Bible

I’m halfway through the Bible. It’s a great read, actually, and is giving me lots of ammo to use against the Jehovas Witnesses that come to my door.

After I read each book, I read “Blogging the Bible” on Slate.com. It’s not quite atheistic, but almost. It’s open-minded and witty:

http://www.slate.com/id/2150150/

This used to be a sticky post but somehow got unstuck when we upgraded the forum. I’ve re-stuck it.

Hi,

I would be interested in a critical review of the translation of the bible. Modern language research has discovered a lot of errors, and it would be interesting to see how a modern translation would look like, counting for the history of the texts (coming to us via Arabic, Greek, Armenic...). Does somebody know a good book or link?

GdB

I read that last year and even bookmarked it. I also have the Bible Handbook which I use to question any Xian of the bible and lots of them use the cop out “you are taking it out of context” as if that changes anything. I have read entire chapters and it changes nothing as a contradiction is a contradiction no matter how you slice it, dice it or take it apart as it still reads the same.

I told a minister that the Bible was written by men inspired of God and not written by God inspired of men as inspired does not mean God dictated to them that they were only inspired to write the books in the bible. I am inspired to write children’s books from things I hear from other people but other people did not dictate to me what they wanted me to write as inspiration only means getting an idea or being influenced by some one or some thing only. He agreed with me but asked me did I not believe that the writers of the bible wrote what God said? I told him no because inspired does not mean dictation but doing it on your own making up your own words and passages and if any of these writers had hang ups or were prejudice against some one they could just put that in their book. He tried to change the subject as most Xians do when you stump them because they know you are right unless they disagree with you by saying God dictated to them which the bible its self refutes.

So much for Xians having any intelligence.

Very interesting website. Those types of things are handy if you aren’t the type of person that wants to read the original and develop your own interpretations. I believe this is a truer way to do it, and I disagree with ‘translating’ scripture into an easier to read English. However, as you said, most believers will dispute it!

The site is not a translation of scripture into easy to read English.  It is critical analysis, something quite lacking in the sorts of easy to read translations that you are referring to.  Personally, I have read all three of these old storybooks cover to cover a few times (just once in the case of the Book of Mormon) and I was delighted to find this web site to highlight a few new insights.  I suggest that you examine it more critically.

Wow. What a great treasure trove of links! Thank you!

Here are some relevant sites that some participants may not have yet seen:

(http://planetatheism.com/)

Planet Atheism (PA) is an aggregator of atheism-related blogs. At any time, Planet Atheism shows the most recent twenty or so posts from its member blogs, in chronological order.

(http://www.ironchariots.org)

This atheist wiki (user-edited resource) provides information on Christian apologetics and counter-apologetics to counter the glut of misinformation and poor arguments which masquerade as “evidence” for religious claims. The name is drawn from the book of Judges: “And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.”

(http://skepdic.com/)

The Skeptic’s Dictionary features definitions, arguments, and essays on occult topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies, and provides a lively, commonsense trove of detailed information on things supernatural, paranormal, or pseudoscientific.

(http://friendlyatheist.com/)

The Blog and Forums pages for Hemant Mehta, “the eBay atheist.” Even though he is an atheist, he offered to go to church as directed by the highest eBay bidder. His experiences attending church are documented in his book entitled I sold my soul on eBay. The Blog continues as a dialog between him and the eventual high bidder, an incredibly open minded Christian named Mike Clawson.

(http://www.freethunk.net/)

A wonderful compilation of unique, comic drawings, videos, and articles, complete with several series appropriate for the atheist funny pages.

http://www.atheistparents.org/

A web-based atheist community, complete with a forum for atheist parents or parent-hopefuls and articles gathered from various sources and submitted by community members.

]
http://darwin-online.org.uk/

This site contains Darwin’s complete publications, thousands of handwritten manuscripts and the largest Darwin bibliography and manuscript catalogue ever published; also hundreds of supplementary works: biographies, obituaries, reviews, reference works and more. Many of Darwin’s writings are also available for download in MP3 format.

GdB - 12 September 2007 11:15 AM

Hi,

I would be interested in a critical review of the translation of the bible. Modern language research has discovered a lot of errors, and it would be interesting to see how a modern translation would look like, counting for the history of the texts (coming to us via Arabic, Greek, Armenic...). Does somebody know a good book or link?

GdB

Someone who has done a lot of work in this area is Bart D. Ehrman , Professor of Religious Studies At Univ. of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.  He has a series of lectures available through The Teachng Co.  He has written Jesus - Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millenium; The New Tesament: A Historical Intoduction to Early Christian Writings; The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture; Lost Chritianities - The Battle for Sripures and the Faiths We Never Knew & many more.  He not only goes into the changes made into the Biblical texts, sometimes intentional sometimes unintentional,but also places the texts within their historical background, which is crucial key to understanding what they were orginally intended to do and how the texts and their interpertations changed when the societies using them changed.

From you stated interest I would start with Misquoting Jesus - The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible & Why.

From a different author, Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliott Friedman.  This is a bit older than Ehrman work but still interesting.

Gary the Human

Holely Goat - 13 September 2007 03:10 AM

So much for Xians having any intelligence.

Wow.  That’s an intelligent generalization…