is that a fact? 
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Church going agnostic here. Definitely striving to be a better person. Studied bible some, not a capital āCā christian, but I like the cut of his jib. Red text in the bible is the best part sort of guy.
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I already agreed with you in another comment about the subjective nature of even modern recording of history. So you are actually one who wants to go on. People canāt even agree about what is going on in the present, without a great deal of argument based on their own perception and philosophy, so why should the past be any different? BUTā¦ There are things that are known facts, one of them is that people who are clinically dead for three days undergo decomposition, there is scientific proof of this and as well as anecdotal evidence. So I can say that there are parts of the bible that are, in fact, not fact. We know that the pharaohs never rose again to eat their meat, so the fact is they didnāt arise. There are perceptions about history and we could argue history, but there are things in there that are not scientifically possible and so that which can not be proven to be real, can not be considered an actual historical event although it does represent some opinion or belief of that time. Also, I donāt have to agree with everything you say to be your friend. Iām not really black/white, I see some shades of gray, but for some things I like proof. I donāt care if other people believe these things as fact. I just donāt think that I have to.
The Library of Congress and the college libraries that follow its lead put Bibles in the BS section
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I wasnāt saying that Christians are persecuted; take it easy. I was saying, āhey, Christians and Muslims ought to get along, so donāt you think atheists and Christians ought to too?ā
Itās even got its own extended universe and fanfiction!
Apocrypha means āhidden thingsā in Greek. The Apocryphical books of the Bible fall into two categories: texts which were included in some canonical version of the Bible at some point, and other texts of a Biblical nature which have never been canonical.
Well, they share the same opinion on the existence of 99.9% of deities, so I guess so.
I have the same amount of respect for the beliefs of Muslims as I do for those of Christians, at least. 
$15??? oh, $14.99. oh, thatās much better. i too find the fiction.
To take the Koran as an example for comparison, the Bible was written by dozens of people, re-written by a bunch of people, has large sections misattributed and re-written for various political reasons that were important at the time they were re-written but which the average person today isnāt remotely aware of. While the Koran was written after the death of Mohammed, it doesnāt have nearly this history of literary malfeasance associated with it but weāre meant to fall in line with the Bible as if itās the inerrant unchanging word of the Christian god.
With the Koran, I can at least have some degree of confidence that Mohammed actually said something like whatās written in there at least once in his life. I donāt have to believe the message of either to hold the veracity of one higher than the other.
Itās a little childish and spiteful to label the Bible fiction, Iāll grant you that. However, having grown up a Christian and had a rather abusive interpretation of it internalized very thoroughly, I donāt feel a particularly strong need to protect the religious feelings of those I left behind. They were content to leave me in emotional agony and self-hatred that they helped inculcate. The raspberryāin the form of the stickerāis rather a mild response.
P.S. The best people I know who are Christians are all heretics and most of them would get a chuckle out of the fiction label.
Freedom of belief and expression and freedom from ridicule are two wildly different things. I think a Muslim should have every right to wander around in a burqa if that gets that holy rocks off and I would be in the streets protesting someone tried to pass a law that says other, but I can still find a burqa to be a stupid and offensive misogynist piece of clothing worn by either victims who are coerced to or idiots. I think that neo-Naziās and the KKK should have every right to hold their shithead beliefs and spout off about them without the government tossing them in jail, but I would still be out screaming with an unending stream of obscenities and making them feel very unwelcome if some of those fuckers showed up in my town.
I think Christians should have every right to think that the their sky man could beat up the Muslim sky man and that their stupid and archaic religious laws are like 10,000 times better than then a Muslimās stupid and archaic religious laws, so long as neither of the two bastards try and make their religious laws actual laws that people are forced to follow at the point of a government gun.
I think the Bible is stupid. I really wish people would stop believing in magic. Magic isnāt really; sorry bro. I find it hilarious that Costco (accidentally) labeled the Bible, which is a book about magic, truthfully, as a piece of fiction. I donāt feel terribly bad about it. You are free to to believe I am an asshole and tell me. Isnāt freedom of expression grand?
WANT!!!
boing boing says I have to be a little more descriptive. My body is invalid.
WANT!!!WANT!!!WANT!!!WANT!!!WANT!!!WANT!!!WANT!!!WANT!!!
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A healthy response, sez I. I think one of the things that elicits my most fervent eyerolls is when people take themselves and their beliefs too seriously. As a white heterosexual male Yankee, I enjoy every advantage a human being could enjoy short of royal birth, old money, a winning Lotto ticket, or Brad Pittās looks. And I hold as many opinions as the next guy, many of which Iāve done my best to arm with considerable thought and research. And yet I cannot hope to expect my beliefs and opinions to go unchallenged and unmocked by anyone who should happen to disagree.
I used to believe in God and the New Testament. I used to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, though for some reason I always harbored deep suspicions about the egg-hiding Bunny. I used to believe that homosexual love was somehow inferior to heterosexual love. I used to prefer old Fords to old Chevys. I used to think Y2K was something to be genuinely nervous about, and I thought there was a better-than-even chance that the wheels of civilization might fall off (or at least wobble noticeably) on New Yearās Day 2000. I used to think Return of the Jedi was a better movie than The Empire Strikes Back.
I am not particularly proud of any of these former beliefs, but theyāre a part of my history. Who knows what faith to which I currently cling might turn out to be my next Idiocy-Of-The-Month? Iām a perennial defender of Peanut Butter Mary Janes and Circus Peanuts on the Candy Hierarchy, for the love of Mike. Everywhere I go, whatever I do and whatever I say, Iām sure there can be people who might point and laugh, if they even notice me at all. And I donāt care. Itās nice to think of Dignity as a basic human right, but itās a right of our own invention, like Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Remember that guy Job we mentioned upthread a ways? For all the blathering on certain white men of privilege did about āall menā being āendowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,ā it doesnāt seem to me that Job was endowed with any right to dignity at allā¦ and neither were the rest of us. We get hit by buses, we slip on banana peels and topple over precipices, we drink bad water and crap out our intestines, we accidentally hang ourselves while whacking off in the closet, we get swept out to the sea with the rest of the villagers, we get incinerated with the rest of the kids when the orphanage goes up in flamesā¦ sometimes we even outlive our beloved children even as weāre tormented by painful but not quite fatal maladies. A lot of bad shit happens utterly at random, mostly to people who donāt necessarily deserve it, and thatās the way the world works. It might suit someoneās purpose to worship a god in the hopes that said deity might make an effort to improve the situation, but really I think weāre better served by consciously trying to exert that world-saving effort ourselves, even if in small doses.
I donāt think the Universe owes my insignificant ass any dignity at all, and though it would certainly be polite (and appreciated!) if people would respect my views and try to afford me a little dignity, I think itās too much for me to expect such treatment. The Golden Rule is, I think, a good one, and itās one I try to live by myself, but itās a dumb rule to try to enforce in other people. I think Iād still believe even more stupid falsehoods than I already do if nobody tried to heckle me out my stupid beliefs.
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Luckily not in our primitive times. Give it 2,000 years, when the gospels of Tom, John, Kirstie and Doug E. have been read by all the Sunday school children in L.Aā¦
Itās the ALL-CAPS that invalidates it. Not a judgment call on my part, just the coding.
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If anything, the risk is that the FSM book ends up in the cookbook sectionā¦
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There are many wonderful places to steal high quality bibles.
bullshit.
well, I would just like to see the label.
I wonder if this means theyāll have to put the DVDs for Russell Croweās next film under āDocumentaries.ā
Iām really, honestly, seriously not here to start a fight. Heck, Iām not even defending Christianity in itself. Iām just saying that dismissing all Christians as closed-minded or backwards-thinking is still stereotyping. Some posters are lumping a lot of good people in with a bunch of idiots.
[quote=āIgnatius, post:89, topic:14759ā]
P.S. The best people I know who are Christians are all heretics and most of them would get a chuckle out of the fiction label. ^_^[/quote]
I get this, by the way. The friends I have who are Christian would just chuckle at that labeling too, but there are some comments here on this board by other BoingBoingers that they wouldnāt chuckle at.
Edit: @Rindan, I donāt think youāre an asshole. Shit, Iām not a Christian; I donāt believe that the Bible is fact (though some parts may be derived from historical events). And for goodness sake, I donāt believe in magic.
Personally, I responded because the other responses I saw didnāt represent my position (and I felt my position needed representing 
), not because I had a burning desire to issue a righteous smackdown.
I didnāt get the impression you were trying to start a fight (though I wasnāt certain).
To state my position in a way that may be more useful and more on-point: to me, the Bible is just a book. Parts of it are quite good (Ecclesiastes and Job spring to mind) and others Iād rather not get into. I donāt hate the Bible. I hate what people have done to me in its name.
And the book isnāt going to have its feelings hurt if I poke fun at it a bit. Hopefully just the same specific group of people who used it on me.
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