A lot of people would not like to hear this, but the book I have most regretted reading is the Bible. It is not about the book itself. I have read many compilations of stories over time which is what the Bible is. Folk tales, mythologies, tall tales, are all things that I enjoy.
What I have not enjoyed is knowing what the Bible says when everyone lies about what it says or how to interpret it. It is honestly exasperating. The picking and choosing of passages or phrases without the full context or even acknowledgement of the existence of contradicting thoughts.
People try to say some of it is open for interpretation while others are not. It is really bizarre. I am not sure there is anything else out there that is as widely contested as the Bible. It is also more telling who has not ready the Bible when they try and fail to quote it or use completely unrelated lines.
It is definitely a product of its various time periods. The Bible as we know it today what you find in a hotel room dresser drawer, not what was written centuries before that and millennia before that. Which is all well and good. Again, I love mythology, folk stories, and tall tales.
After reading it, I learned that most people who claim to have read it or use it as their moral compass have never read it. I wanted to read it and be able to have theoretical discussions and compare interpretations. Instead I have asked people to come back when they have actually read it before trying to dictate how I or society should behave.
I was nearly an adult when I read the majority of it. My childhood was spent around lots of people in a rural environment who used the Bible for so many excuses or reasons for their actions. Only to read it and find that these people have no idea what is in the Bible versus what they are told is in it.
Having not grown up with religion in my home, my parents and grandparents were agnostic, it was disheartening to learn all these “righteous” people were in fact uneducated and lacked their own critical thinking skills. It was an interesting moment in my life to learn that most leaders in my country based their ethics on something they themselves have never read.
Before reading it, I could live in ignorant bliss, assuming everyone was honest and that reading the “good book” would be life changing. In that respect, I suppose it was. It literally only takes acting like you have read something to get everyone to listen to you.
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