The Born Again Skeptic's Guide To The Bible

Rating:
Summary: The origin of female subservience
Review: The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible by Ruth Hurmence Green is a "must read" for every woman who has ever wondered who decided that females were second class creatures. Chapter 7 of Green's book, "Treatment of Women in the Sweetest Story Ever Told" will leave no doubt that the Bible is the source and promoter of many woes of women. Females are not only owned by the men, but are unclean and untouchable. Chapter 9 is also enlightening: "Preposterous Passages from the Pages of the Holy Book." Green begins with this epigram: Although God creates the Universe in six days out of nothing, he needs dust to make a mere man and one of Adam's ribs to fashion woman. If the Bible were not so frightening, it would be terribly funny. Green's book is both didactic and entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Only funny if you're of a like mind...
Review: The late Ms. Green's observations and opinions regarding God, the Bible, and everything between them leave me with a very cold and hollow feeling - I think that she could find just as much stuff to whine and moan about in the poems of Emily Dickinson or the children's stories of Dr. Seuss as she has found with this topic!!! In other words, she was a very negative person, and this book clearly reflects that state of mind. You don't have to believe in the Bible as faith literature to appreciate it, even from a socio-historical point of view, but Ms. Green comes up from her hunt with only goose eggs - very negative goose eggs. I would laugh at some of her propositions, but, to me, she seems like she wasn't laughing at them herself, and given her physical conditions (and apparent state of mind) during the time that she composed this work, I couldn't feel comfortable laughing at it either.

Instead, I come away feeling quite sad that this person could not thread her way through the Bible and find the countless beautiful things it has to offer to its readers - be they of either religious or secular orientation. To see only the bad is to shield one's eyes from everything else.

(Not to mention that she totally ignores the great Christian and _Jewish_ commentators, past and present - maybe she was ignorant of such a thing as Biblical commentary, or maybe she considered others' views on the same Book to be insignificant.)

In short, what we have from her is a bitter pill, indeed. Coming from a Jewish perspective, I can only hope that my fellow readers choose more kosher selections for their mind meals. ;-) Read a _real_ commentary - _any_ real commentary - instead of this hopeless, thoughtless critique!

Rating:
Summary: An Arsonal of Skepticism
Review: The Late Ruth Green is a master of compilation. This book is not intended to be read linerally. Rather, it is a companion book. Writing a critique of Religion or the Bible? Need to brush up for a debate? Want to justify your views to others? The Skeptics Guide to the Bible is for you!
This book dissects the "good" book and thorougly thrashes the misconception that it's based on altruism, facts or even common-sense. Done with a lovely sense of humor, you can tell it's written by an old codger. I love that, maybe it's cause it reminds me of my grandma.
This book also includes some personal essays and writings on feminism and the bible.
A+ Mrs.Green - I Salute you!

Dustin

Rating:
Summary: Kicks the Hell out of the Bible God!
Review: The previous reviewer was incorrect. Although Ruth Green had cancer, she died by her own hand from a drug overdose. As the book says, she believed her life was hers to take. Reading this book will reveal what a monster the God of the Bible is, and how illogical the beliefs people have concerning the Bible. The God that most Christians worship is neither the Old Testament God or the New Testament God. He is better; but he is not to be found in the foul book, the Bible.

Rating:
Summary: Good One For Ex-Christians
Review: This book is a compilation of essays written over time by the author. She exposes the Bible for what it is. I only wish that she were alive today...she's the kind of gutsy lady who I would love to have over for coffee....

Rating:
Summary: Atheism at its worst
Review: This book is absolutely terrible. It should be an embarrassment to atheists. It uses the same tired old objections that atheists have been firing at the bible for centuries and many Christian scholars have answered.

It's laughable in the naivete of its diatribes. Mindless readers will undoubtedly find it an absolute hoot.

Rating:
Summary: Right on target!
Review: This book should be required reading for churchgoers and Sunday school students. It shows how, subjected to even a moderate amount of scrutiny, Christian literalism collapses like the house of cards that it is. It also reveals the numerous sordid aspects of the "Good Book" that fundamentalists generally prefer not to discuss. The author undertook the mind-numbing task of reading the King James Bible from cover to cover, and she was rightly appalled by what she found. She does a fantastic job of showing the absurd and comical aspects of a literal interpretation of such horrific material.

Fundamentalists would have us believe us that the biblical God is an all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving deity. The author puts the lie to that in a big hurry. Time after time, in hundreds of passages, the god of the Hebrews is shown to be a murderous, misogynist, xenophobic sadist. The Old Testament has God on numerous occasions ordering the murder of babies, the raping of women, and the annihilation of entire cities. Typical examples include 1 Samuel 15:2,3 ("Thus saith the LORD of hosts...Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling..."), Isaiah 13:15,16 ("Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished."), or Hosea 13:16 ("Samaria shall become desolate...they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up."). The New Testament God ups the ante even further by consigning the vast majority of humanity to eternal torture for not accepting such contradictory, nonsensical, and morally repugnant stories.

As for the reviewer who called this book "absolutely terrible" and who claimed that it contains "the same tired old objections that...Christian scholars have answered," a number of things may be said. First of all, it is a virtual certainty that the reviewer did not actually read the book, simply because it is unlikely that any Christian literalist could withstand such a pummeling. Second, fundamentalists have NOT answered these "tired old objections" nor will they ever be able to do so because they have no answers to give. When faced with the contradictory and morally repellant nature of the biblical stories, fundamentalists routinely engage in obfuscation, semantic gymnastics, and changing of the subject. Third, the phrase "Christian scholars", at least in the context presented by the reviewer, is a contradiction in terms, simply because the concept of scholarship is fundamentally inconsistent with having one's mind made up in advance about the outcome of their investigations. It is for this reason that Christian fundamentalists are singularly unqualified as scholars and scientists. Fourth, the reviewer did not mention a single name of any of their so-called Christian scholars, nor did they offer any rebuttal whatsoever to the findings of the book. The reason for this omission should be obvious: namely that such rebuttals, if they exist at all, can't withstand rational scrutiny. And finally, the reviewer's reference to "mindless readers" is a perfect example of the big lie. When it comes to mindlessness, fundamentalists have the market cornered. In fact, it is the author's on-target contention that continued ignorance of the Bible is absolutely necessary to the success of Christian fundamentalism.

Over 200 years ago, Thomas Paine referred to the Bible as "a history of wickedness." If you have any doubts about that, read The Born-Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible. It is more than just a great read, it is a call to action to resist the irrational, insidious, pernicious agenda of Christian fundamentalism wherever it appears. Buy this book for yourself, and then send it to your friends and family. The sooner humanity sends religious fundamentalism to the proverbial rubbish heap by rising above primitive, morally-bankrupt superstitions, the better off the world will be.

Rating:
Summary: Hostile and Sarcastic
Review: This book, by Ruth Green was the result of her having actually sat down at the age of 60, during convalescence from radiation Rx for throat cancer, and read thru the Bible. Heretofore she'd attended church perfunctorily, and heard only those portions of the Bible that ministers wanted to dwell upon. It has 4 essays, and 12 reference chapters of specific criticism.

Unfortunately in her lead-off essay, Ruth Green reveals herself to be a very angry woman. This deprives her book of any sense of scholarship. Examples abound: Her use of pejorative adjectives. Not content to discuss the ancient Hebrew concept of God she has to throw in the descriptive adjective "unimaginative" before printing the word God. (it gets worse, much worse)

Similarly she dismisses the Hebrew Creation Myth as having been "contrived by a child", ignoring that all cultures have their Creation Myths. It was the best we humans could do at the time to understand the Universe. Her criticism that the particular ceation Myth embodied in the King James Version is not consistent with "astronomy, biology, zoology, botany" ignores the fact that these sciences simply did not exist 4,000 yrs ago. What was written then, and is imperfectly preserved in these ancient texts was the best available information at the time. She ought to wonder why, knowing what we do, so many people still cling to the ancient texts; not to conclude that the ancient texts were "contrived by a child".

Sadly the first 4 essays are nothing more than sarcastic diatribes. Even worse, the sarcasm continues for the balance of the book. She concludes that God must be a hermaphrodite (forgetting that sex is purely function of certain animals on planet earth. She characterizes the OT prophets as "wild eyed prophets who spent most of their lives in a daze"

I had hoped for scholarship, but the extent of the hostility and sarcasm quickly turned me off, and I was unable to finish the book. This is a pity, -- there is a need for calm, reasoned books to quietly expose the silliness of blind adherence to ancient beliefs.

Ah well, I suppose everybody has an axe to grind.

Rating:
Summary: don't wast your time
Review: This book, while well written, tries to disguise the authoress's little knowledge of the subject she is writting about. It is not a calm or even rational analyses of the Bible, it simply an entertaining myriad of sarcastic remarks. I don't know, maybe she actually thinks that's legitimate content for something with the word "guide" in the title, and to some it might seem so. But it seemed to me that it was simply an attempt to divert the reader from the fact that, though funny, sarcasm, witty epilogues and quipps really can't make an arguement hold water. They merely get her opinion across. Ruth H. Green is certainly entitled to her opinion, and she is certainly entitled to share it with others; but if you ask me, the title of this book should have been "Guide to Ruth Hurmence Green's Reason's for not taking the Bible Seriously" Please don't misunderstand. I'm not undertaking to say that there's something wrong with her having reasons, merely with her masquerading them as expertise. Reading such a book as the Bible doesn't mean you understand it enough to write an educated critique on it.

Rating:
Summary: Haven't read it, just have a question
Review: Why do all the negative reviewers use the word "bitter" to describe the author?
Do they know Ruth Hurmence Green? Do they know her motivation for writing this book? Probably not, so why cast dispersions?
I'm reminded of the "cast the first stone" verse in the bible when I hear all these Christians tossing stones around.
Actually, I guess it's to be expected. Religion is like a nice, warm, comfort blanket for so many people. It provides them strength where they cannot find it elsewhere. So, when people point out the stains and holes in the blanket, I can expect some...um, what's the word?...ah, yes...bitterness!