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The Born Again Skeptic's Guide To The Bible
The Bible examined from a freethought perspective. Combined with autobiographical "The Book of Ruth."
440 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 12, 2010
This book is about a lady who read The Bible and found the God of the Bible cruel, inhumane, unjust, masochistic, etc.. Ruth Green manages to be halarious and very clear. I couln't put it down. Read the whole thing in one sitting.
February 8, 2018
Life is unfair, unpredictable, and sometimes brutal. Humans look for an explanation, and think that there may be a being, or beings, behind mysterious events. The writers of the Old Testament found exactly the sort of God who would account for their beautiful, but chaotic, world. He was capricious and violent. Much of the Old Testament is a bloodbath, directed by God himself. The characters in the stories go in for every kind of misbehavior, but these are not tales with morals: the wrong people almost invariably get punished for the sins of the favored. As an explanation of the world, God satisfied, but needed an explanation himself: why the evil and suffering from a loving God?
The New Testament is also no walk in the park. Much of it has been used to justify the subjugation of women, as well as slavery, for example. Paul, Peter, and even Jesus counsel their disciples to obey the earthly powers that be, on the assumption that all power comes from God, and therefore people are in power because God wants them to be. Jesus instructs his disciples to abandon their families without explanation, and follow him. Jesus has, in fact, done the same with his family of origin, and the few times we see his interactions with his mother, he is not kind.
Ruth Hurmence Kelly, who became known informally as "Missouri's atheist," grew up in a fairly well-off family in Iowa. They all went to the Methodist church, but for Ruth it was mainly the center for community social life. As a child, she thought that the Bible was supposed to be treated like Grimm's fairy tales, and was surprised when she got a little older to find that the stories were supposed to be true. As an adult, she decided to read the Bible all the way through, and what she found turned her firmly into an unbeliever.
The author writes well, but is sometimes a bit snide, which would be fine with me, except that the remarks usually aren't really funny. But I learned a lot about the parts of the Bible that the church usually avoids delving into.
The New Testament is also no walk in the park. Much of it has been used to justify the subjugation of women, as well as slavery, for example. Paul, Peter, and even Jesus counsel their disciples to obey the earthly powers that be, on the assumption that all power comes from God, and therefore people are in power because God wants them to be. Jesus instructs his disciples to abandon their families without explanation, and follow him. Jesus has, in fact, done the same with his family of origin, and the few times we see his interactions with his mother, he is not kind.
Ruth Hurmence Kelly, who became known informally as "Missouri's atheist," grew up in a fairly well-off family in Iowa. They all went to the Methodist church, but for Ruth it was mainly the center for community social life. As a child, she thought that the Bible was supposed to be treated like Grimm's fairy tales, and was surprised when she got a little older to find that the stories were supposed to be true. As an adult, she decided to read the Bible all the way through, and what she found turned her firmly into an unbeliever.
The author writes well, but is sometimes a bit snide, which would be fine with me, except that the remarks usually aren't really funny. But I learned a lot about the parts of the Bible that the church usually avoids delving into.
November 2, 2020
A realistic appraisal of the Judeo/Christian message
Fascinating as it is, Jesus appeared offering those who would be his spiritual slave eternal life. What about those who died prior to his proclamation, which apparently included his “father” Joseph. Ruth tells us it was Paul’s opinion that No they would not make it to the great beyond. This is the same take we get from Billy Graham who said that only those who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and yap, yap would be welcomed in heaven, precluding everlasting happiness to every other religion, those who died before making the great step, etc.
Ruth explicates fascinating and disgusting details from the scriptures. The Christian apologist would come back that is not what the scriptures really mean, and quote other scriptures, but, indeed, that is what the holy book says.
Then, there is the supposition that only those ordained in the book of eternal life written before they were born get the good afterlife. That was not written in Jack T. Chick comics.
Ruth concluded that skepticism is the way to knowledge and that she is proud to be a skeptic.
The bible has been ridiculed in more recent books such as “The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” by Bobby Henderson and “The Gospel of the Good Fairy” by C.W. Charles, but Ruth takes a more serious scholarly approach.
Ruth was born into a seriously religious family but survived. Perhaps you can also.
Stay skeptical my friends.
Fascinating as it is, Jesus appeared offering those who would be his spiritual slave eternal life. What about those who died prior to his proclamation, which apparently included his “father” Joseph. Ruth tells us it was Paul’s opinion that No they would not make it to the great beyond. This is the same take we get from Billy Graham who said that only those who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and yap, yap would be welcomed in heaven, precluding everlasting happiness to every other religion, those who died before making the great step, etc.
Ruth explicates fascinating and disgusting details from the scriptures. The Christian apologist would come back that is not what the scriptures really mean, and quote other scriptures, but, indeed, that is what the holy book says.
Then, there is the supposition that only those ordained in the book of eternal life written before they were born get the good afterlife. That was not written in Jack T. Chick comics.
Ruth concluded that skepticism is the way to knowledge and that she is proud to be a skeptic.
The bible has been ridiculed in more recent books such as “The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” by Bobby Henderson and “The Gospel of the Good Fairy” by C.W. Charles, but Ruth takes a more serious scholarly approach.
Ruth was born into a seriously religious family but survived. Perhaps you can also.
Stay skeptical my friends.
April 11, 2019
Unreal! Remarkable. Brilliant. To think this older woman in the 1970s, not formally educated in theology, religious studies, or even a basic critical thinking class (I believe) could simply read the Christian Bible from cover to cover, and find it so remarkably absurd and vile - especially after all of the good things she had heard about it throughout her life - that she took the time to basically rewrite it with her own particular brand of witty and sarcastic commentary is simply astounding! And this book blew me away. I learned more, confirmed my own thinking more, and THOUGHT more than I have after reading the majority of theology, apologetics, philosophical treatises, atheistic and/or scientific attacks on Christianity and theism in general, and that's saying a lot because I've read a heck of a lot over the years. I strongly recommend this for EVERYONE, but especially evangelical Christians (who wouldn't dare read it), because it will confirm what you know, stretch your beliefs, challenge your teachings or assumptions and actually make you THINK about the literal truth behind the most influential book in history. Highly recommended.
March 28, 2017
A great collection of some of the absurdities of the Bible.
March 23, 2024
A great book, just has a problem with formatting.
May 27, 2012
It took me a while to get past the author's rather verbose writing style and appreciate the depth of her research and quality of the material she's presented. She also repeats the same or similar points in multiple chapters, which, while understandable as many of the accounts she's describing span multiple categories (e.g. an Israelite destruction of a Canaanite city could encompass genocide, child abuse, attitude to women, slavery and war crimes), they were generally already accommodated within the excellent, comprehensive index.
I also wasn't particularly bothered reading the author's, albeit abbreviated, autobiography ...
However, all this is not to diminish the quality of the research which trumps all my other minor niggles.
I also wasn't particularly bothered reading the author's, albeit abbreviated, autobiography ...
However, all this is not to diminish the quality of the research which trumps all my other minor niggles.
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May 8, 2014Enjoyable, once I got into it. Something of a longer version of "Ken's guide to the Bible". It suffers a little from being based on an English translation, which put me off originally, but having read more since I got it, I was more confident that for most of the quotes, the translation was sound
December 30, 2010
Great insights, interpretations and humor abound! Love this book. Thanks for leaving us this gift Ruth!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews