Rating: 
Summary: Always relevant
Review: The Bible is book containing various, stories, letters, poetry, songs and important historical accounts of various people sacred to the Jewish and Christian religions. Within all of this contain moral teachings and a profound understanding of the human spirit. This book is a guide for us all.
It is an extremely complicated book and much understanding is needed of the context in which much of it is written. One cannot simply read it cover to cover and say they understand it. There is much to be learnt and understood. Off-handed judgments applied from modern context are not applicable.
The book depicts many historical figures the most important of whom is Jesus Christ, believed by many to be the son of God. This book has had a profound influence on many human cultures and the many historical events within provide a rationale for the faith; it is not on empty faith that Christians believe, nor is it a product of irrational neurological impulse. God is not a product of the mind; denial of God however, is ego driven and irrational product of 19C scientific discoveries that are irrelevant to religious experience. The Bible and the religions that grew out of the teaching have provided a wonderful and successful cultural framework for many centuries of human experience throughout the world. While the faith is temporarily suffering decline in Western nations, it is growing at a large rate in third world nations oppressed by the brutality of Western experience which is largely the result of social Darwinism.
Babies fixate on the all-powerful, all-providing, all-knowing parent figure. This continues into adulthood as humans discover that like a young child, humans to have a creator that loves them unconditionally. Most humans believe in God and this belief is enshrined and celebrated in many cultures. Humankind projects many positive feelings onto God, the father, providing humans fulfillment, love and happiness in life. Much of the evil in this world is projected onto an angel called Satan who whether real or an imagined representation exists as the evil in this world, something Jewish and Christians must fight against.
To believe this book as the word of God is rational; testament to this is found within the evidence for the resurrection of Christ and the many followers who recorded and continued Christ's teachings, even under heavy persecution. Jews and Christians acknowledge that the Bible was written by man but know that they were divinely inspired. The Bible includes many characters, good and bad and shows that many of the prophets were not perfect. The fact that their faults were shown is further testament to its authenticity. As said in Psalm 14:1, "The fool says in his heart, `There is no God.'" This has a lot of relevance today.
Why lie to yourself about the existence of God when there is scientific, philosophical and a rational basis for belief? God created the human mind and allowed us the freedom of choice, therefore giving us the capacity to reject him and deify ourselves. God created man. Every human on earth is capable of knowing God and loving him.
There is historical evidence plenty of historical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ and plenty of evidence for his resurrection, providing a rational basis for the belief that he is the son of God. Humans wish to make sense of suffering. God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16
Christianity is a religion based on rational evidence enabling mankind to:
- understand their own suffering
- come to terms with their own suffering
- grow as people and love
- know God
Among others.
The Bible and Christianity came about because of God:
The Bible gives us guidance and enables us to understand the world around us and our purpose within it. Give us moral guidance for living, preventing mankind from slipping into moral turpitude and learning to know and love each other and God.
Humans who deny God do so because of pride and self-importance and egotism about their own worth. Atheism is simply an irrational dismissal of revealed truth.
If all of humankind were extinguished God would still exist. Man denies God out of egotism, vanity, insecurity, folly and the desire to manipulate.
Chances are that people who dislike this review will promptly generate ever more fierce and tight circles of religious non-belief and thought-loops in order to dismiss it.
On 7th day, God created man in his image. Whether literal or an example, this holds true to this day for knowing our place in this world. Read widely, hold on to the good. The Bible and its teachings will always be there when you need it. Acknowledge God and choose to follow him.
Rating:
Summary: What is there to say?
Review: The top-selling book of all time, believed by many to be the complete word of God, this version based on the original believed-inerrant manuscripts.Don't avoid it because so many believe in it. Ask yourself, if so many people believe in it, aren't the chances good that it has something pertinent to your life? Even if you don't believe Christ was anything but an enlightened prophet, or even just a nice guy, read it. If you're interested in the words of Lao Tzu, Buddha, Mohommad, then you have no excuse not to read the words of Christ that so many have missed. Tolerance, understanding, trust, doing good when you know it's going to be difficult, or when you'll get nothing in return; these are some of the tenets of the life Yeshua said would lead you to enlightenment. Who knows? Chances are you'll end up more enlightened/Christ-like than most Christians these days. Which reminds me:
Don't let many of the loudest Christians give you a bad impression of Christ. They often preach hate and intolerance, while Christ went out of his way to include even whores among his friends. If you end up understanding why he did this, and can look past the outside to the soul of another like he did in this instance, you have solved a major piece of the puzzle already.
Rating: 
Summary: Must Reading
Review: This book is one of the most disjointed novels I've read in a long while. If you think about it, it's more a collection of short stories by various authors that tell the story of God and his sundry children, most of them Hebraic. God is a pretty powerful heavy, though it's implied that he incorporeal and invisible. Although he's usually depicted in the movies sitting on a throne and sporting a long beard, in "Exodus," he appears as a bolt of fire. Other places in the book, he speaks as a burning bush. Excellent special fx all throughout. There's a lot of begats going on, and in the chapter titled "Song of Solomon," we get a nice PG-13 to R-rated glimpse of the ... sensual mores of these people. There's also a pretty cool story about this guy named Job and how God had an ongoing bet with Satan as to who would win his soul. I don't want to give away the ending, but there's a lot of pathos, hubris and plotlines right out of such movies as "Trading Places," "Meet John Doe" and "Life Stinks." My favorite one, though is about Moses, and how he led his people out of Egypt and to the promised land. Along the way, though, Dathan tries to make them worship a golden calf. Personally, I preferred the movie version, as directed by Cecil B. deMille: The character development of Moses (played by Chuck Heston), Dathan (Edward G. Robinson) and Moses' mother (the ever comely Anne Baxter) is much improved. And also, in Technicolor. There is little plot to this book, save for in the second half, much of which revolves around God's son, Jesus, an interesting fellow. Definitely, the story has finally hit a stride, so the New Testament reads like a novella. Everywhere this Jesus guy goes, he travels with his posse of "Apostles," who aren't your standard yes men. Although they all sing his praises when the going's good, one gives a great "I don't know about no Jesus" performance (Peter) worthy of a scruffy rat like Steve Buscemi. Another (Judas) sells out Jesus for a bunch of dead presidents, like Sean Penn did in "Carlito's Way." Unfortunately, Jesus gets rubbed out by an Italian gang, "The Romans," who torture him and nail him to a cross in revenge for representing on their turf. Lots of high drama here. "Revelations" was pretty weird, sort of like watching "Fantasia" while doing mushrooms, only a lot scarier. Altogether, an excellent read.
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