NamelessFaceless wrote:I see it's $19.95 on US Amazon.

laklak wrote:I'll definitely be ordering it. I'm going to track you down next time we're in SA and make you sign it for me.

This book continues the rationalisation of the Bible, following on the previous two which covered the books of the Old Testament.
In this volume, I make my observations following my initial first reading of the entire collection of Gospels and Epistles, which led to my reading through them a few more times in order to gain insight into Christianity, and the religion of Jesus.
The god of the Old Testament, known to Christians as “God the Father” is portrayed as a less violent and demanding deity than that of the Old Testament. It is fairly obvious when reading the entire anthology of books, from Genesis to Revelation, that there is little consistency in the portrayal of the deity.
In the beginning of the Old Testament, he is portrayed as a vengeful god who has no compunction about destroying his creation when disappointed. Then he regrets having done this because he realises that the destruction did not prevent his creation becoming exactly what they were before the destruction. He then becomes a patriarchal god, demanding subservience from his children, with threats of dire punishment should they not conform.
In the way of the authoritarian parent, he does not carry out the threat, but rather takes them into exile, and then incites regret in the abductors, sending them home to build even bigger, and better places for his worship. Then, when they continue to disobey his laws, he sends overlords to rule over them in their home state. When this fails to subdue them, he sends himself, as his son, to persuade them. When this doesn’t work, he kills himself (or his son) which causes the few followers to garner disciples in an attempt to persuade the people previously excluded from the worship of the “creator god” to invent new, less demanding ways, to worship him.
This is the background of the New Testament. New people, a thousand years after the invention of the god of the Old Testament, reinvent him to suit their world, and their, better-educated, way of life. However, we know from history that rather than rely on their god to mete out the harsh punishments previously promised, the followers of this new religion devised new, more vicious, and actual punishments on non-followers.
This book covers the writings that incited the worship of God personified as his son.

Sendraks wrote:I find the personalisation at the start of the second paragraph jarring with the rest of the text, which is written in a more matter of fact manner. I would redraft that first sentence along the following lines.

In this volume, the observations are based from extensive reading and re-reading of the entire collection of Gospels and Epistles, in order to gain insight into Christianity, and the religion of Jesus.

Agrippina wrote:So I changed my mind to not submit it for academic review, but rather just decided out there for anyone who might need the Bible explained in simple terms.

Over the years of writing it, I've had a few meetings with religious people where I discussed some of the topics without the discussions ending in a fight, because even though I do say what I do about the violence and the obvious manipulation of the stories to fit each other, I'm not completely disrespectful of what people want to believe.

I'm going to be reviewing it from time to time as more science becomes available. For example, I'm looking now at the digging that's happening at the site of the event that's thought to have killed the dinosaurs. once that research becomes available, I'll insert those results into my chapter on evolution.

Agrippina wrote:Thank you ElDiablo. I wanted to make it easy for non-academic people to read. I initially intended to write it as an academic paper, when I first started out, but then it grew, and my research and reading material sent me down paths I hadn't ever travelled. So I changed my mind to not submit it for academic review, but rather just decided out there for anyone who might need the Bible explained in simple terms. Over the years of writing it, I've had a few meetings with religious people where I discussed some of the topics without the discussions ending in a fight, because even though I do say what I do about the violence and the obvious manipulation of the stories to fit each other, I'm not completely disrespectful of what people want to believe.

I'm going to be reviewing it from time to time as more science becomes available. For example, I'm looking now at the digging that's happening at the site of the event that's thought to have killed the dinosaurs. once that research becomes available, I'll insert those results into my chapter on evolution.