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KoHeartsGPA Game profile

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Jan 19th 2012, 22:19:59

I'm by no means religeous, nor atheist, I also don't believe the "evolution of man" theory nor the "Big bang theory" they too have more holes on them than swiss cheese!
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Twain Game profile

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Feb 6th 2012, 22:47:56

Originally posted by mrford:
now i am fully open to the fact that i could be wrong, as i agree that there is no proof either way. but to sit there, as a man of science like i am, and try to rationalize the existence of a supreme being..... it doesnt work for me.


You're clearly not open to the fact that you could be wrong, otherwise you wouldn't be so vehemently going after people for their beliefs.

Dibs: I don't imagine there's any central location for the type of information you're looking for. My best bet would be to use amazon and find the publishers of different versions of the Bible, Koran and others and look for who the publishers/translators are and then research those groups/people, which personally sounds like a huge pain in the ass to me.

I do know there is an actual Catholic edition of the Bible, but since most other religions aren't quite as centralized as Catholicism is, I doubt you'll have the same luck with most other religious texts.

Twain Game profile

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Feb 6th 2012, 22:56:30

A few other things on the direction this thread has gone (and not at all relevant to Dibs' original query):

1) Even if you're atheist, the study of religious texts can still be very enlightening. To be quite honest, if you want to understand the vast majority of Books written by English or American writers, there are about 3 places the literary allusions comes from: The Bible, Classic Mythology and Shakespeare.

I study Classic Mythology, but it doesn't mean I believe Zeus will smite me if I anger him. I just want to be able to understand the world I'm reading about when I read The Odyssey or the Aeneid or any other Roman or Greek text.

Even if you're an atheist, you can regard the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, or the Bhagavad Gita (or Classical Mythology, for that matter) as compelling fiction that helps illustrate the values of a particular culture.

2) Having said that, I am Catholic and I do believe in God. I also believe the theory of evolution is far closer to the mark than the idea that God created a man and a woman and that a talking snake tricked them into eating a magic apple. Even as a good Christian, why is it hard to see that Jesus taught in parables, which are basically extended metaphors? Why can't the book of Genesis pretty much just be a set of parables to teach life lessons, like: listen to what God says to do, don't kill your brother, and don't fall victim to hubris (as opposed to don't eat magic apples or build a giant tower for the purpose of reaching the heavens, which are far less valuable lessons to most people).

Dibs Ludicrous Game profile

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Feb 6th 2012, 23:32:24

it's all comes under history, so i'm fairly certain it's been studied somewhere by someone. plus i can probably search The Gutenberg Project. i'm not in a real hurry, but i sometimes want to see what they quoted in the context it was yanked out of. besides might be able to use my Nook to thump up some spare change if i get stuck in the gutter.
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manogamez Game profile

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Feb 9th 2012, 23:10:45

If you're still interested and not tired of the trolls:

The best translation of the Quran (there's only one version in Arabic) is IMO this:

http://www.imaanstar.com/juz30.php

Technically, that program has more than one translation but it also offers recitation and transliteration. If you want interpretation that's going to be 10x harder to understand and discover. My advice is just to start with the very basics. Don't try biting off more than you can chew.

cyref Game profile

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Feb 13th 2012, 13:43:49

Not exactly what your looking for and not yet available for the nook but still a worthy read:

Asimov's Guide to the Bible: the Old and New Testaments

from wikipedia:
Asimov's Guide to the Bible is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes, covering the Old Testament in 1967 and the New Testament (including the Apocrypha) in 1969. He combined them into a single 1296-page volume in 1981. They included maps by the artist Rafael Palacios.
Including numerous black-and-white maps, the guide goes through the books of the Bible in KJV order, explaining the historical and geographical setting of each one and the political and historical influences that affected it, as well as biographical information about the main characters. Asimov treats the secular aspects of the Bible with intellectual instead of theological commentary. His appendix "Guides to the Old and New Testament" include biblical verse, footnotes, references and subject indices.

Amazon has new hardcovers for $100, used from $13.50.
I still have my separate editions purchased in the 1970s; just a couple years ago i found a single edition copy in very good condition at a used book store for $5

Excellent read :)
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Oceana Game profile

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Feb 17th 2012, 13:34:33

http://www.cob-net.org/compare.htm

Now if your at or near a Large University check the library, We had a book here ( don't remember its title ) but it had it was a composite Bible with the index showing the differences or to what sect the different books went with. for the most part their is little differences even when comparing the Jewish books to the Old testiment, as there appears to be more difference then actually the christian vs. the jews versions are mostly a matter of one spliting a book into multi parts and moving its location and elsewhere the christian version combined multi jewish books into a single. but the texts are almost the same.

Reason I say problematic for the Koran is that from what I have read though it, it is very much different, in its approach and reading. Yes, it all the same one God.

Now maybe someone will make an abreviated version of the bible as it still has excess of redundancy even though much was remvoved over the years.

Oceana Game profile

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Feb 17th 2012, 13:39:30