Books for making a choice to believe in the Bible or not (page 2)

Aunt Fancy

Thank you for all of your recommendations, it will give me a place to start. Since waking up about TTATT I have wondered about the Bible and I just don't trust anything that came from the WTBTS!

Messerschmitt

jgnat, what books did you read that dealt with the origins of the bible?

breakfast of champions

This may not be the angle you're looking for, but there's a podcast called "The Human Bible" which takes a look at the bible as a book written by men, not by god.

To be honest, that's how I started reading the bible on my own, and it makes a hel of a lot more sense!

Phizzy

Dear Aunt Fancy, your mistrust of the WT is well placed. I have the default position that anything they teach uniquely is wrong, and most of the rest of their teaching is pure hogwash.

My spiritual journey, from being born-in and then waking up in my late fifties !, was time consuming. It consisted of seeing where the WT was wrong, searching for a truish religion, not a perfect one, within christendom, then examining the claims made for the Bible, then examining the very existence of God or gods.

You may like to save yourself the time and start where I eventually ended up, examining whether there is a "god" or not.

If there is no "god" at all, or indeed, no Christian god, then the Bible cannot be true.

I know that when we first wake up we are afraid to contemplate the question of god, we are afraid that the warm fuzzy reassurance that belief in a loving god gives us will be badly missed, a god-shaped hole, whatever shape that may be !

I can assure you that, along with many of my non-theist friends, we do not have a problem, we do not wish that god did exist. The same with religion, when I left a M.S said to me, and an Elder another time, "but where will you go ?".

I didn't need to go anywhere. When you have been fed all your life a diet of Bulls**t, to be free to appreciate Truth is like now being fed the very best gourmet food and drink after all those years of pig swill, and it lifts my spirits, I soar away with the pleasure of learning Truth.

So, "The God Delusion" by Dawkins, "God is not Great" by the much lamented Christopher Hitchins, or the recent "The God Argument" by A.C Grayling are great starting points. The latter demolishes all the old (from Aristotle on) and new arguments for "god", very good.

Later if you wish to find out more about the Bible, I concur that Karen Armstrong's book is good, as are Barton Ehrmanns works.

Don't waste too much time before the Truth has really set you free, life is for living !

mP

jgnat:

Read

Callahan secret origins of the Bible.

After youve read it you will see many major stories in a completely different light. It mostly focuses on the OT which is often skipped and ignored because its a difficult and gruesome read.

Theocratic Sedition

Check out Robert Ingersoll's Some Mistakes of Moses, and a compilation of his writings Superstitions & other Essays. HL Mencken's Treatise on the Gods, and On Religion which is another compilation are good reads too. The latter writer's thoughts are more of an indictment on organized religion than the Bible itself.

Witness My Fury

Forgot about this little gem: Atheists book of bible stories

Christ Alone

Check out why some atheists switched their view and believe the Bible as well. Look also at why some atheists have decided to believe in God. Look at both sides, not just those with an subjective agenda of "disproving" the Bible.

Here are some good ones:

The Case for Christ - Lee Strobel

There is a God: How the Worlds most notorious atheist changed his mind - Antony Flew

The Language of God - Francis Collins

Is the Bible True...Really?: A Dialogue on Skepticism, Evidence, and Truth - Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett

The Fourth Day: Why the Bible is Hisotrically Accurate - Darren Thompson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbm9S-z1YQ8