How familiar are you with Religious Texts?

[Ó Cathasaigh]

Just out of curiosity.

How familiar are you with various Religious Texts?

I have absolutely no knowledge of most religious texts, such as the Koran, and my experience is limited to the Holy Bible. That said, I can't honestly tell you that I'm an expert with that either. Never read it cover to cover, although I have read a decent portion of it at various times.

I've often wondered how well versed everyone is with these texts, and how on earth we come up with all these passages and quotations to support our arguments and detract from those we disagree with. Do you actually read the book itself, or do you Google search for websites that agree with your position and cherry pick quotes from there?

With the Bible, I read it myself and only apply quotes I have come across. However, I can admit I've used the web to find controversial quotations from the Koran in the past. I would have to say that it's not a legitimate way to research. This technique is flawed, as all context is lost and any passage can be twisted and warped to mean any number of things, if framed correctly.

I realize, however that people like TG have a damn fine understanding of numerous texts, but I'm a little more curious as to the rest of us.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I'm hotter on the Bible than most Christians, but that's where my knowledge ends.

[Amorphos]

Mostly I cherry pick from the net. I do have a few bibles, the Koran, many Buddhist texts, druidic texts and a book of Sikh poetry among others.

Usually though I can cherry pick a sentence or paragraph and see if it has truth or not, though I agree that may be taking things out of context. However, I don’t see what’s wrong with taking quotes on single lines, religions themselves do it all the time. If anyone wishes to add depth to such writings, then that’s what debate is for.

[Arch-hereticK]

I've read the bible from cover to cover when I was 14, I've read a few buddhist texts (not cover to cover), I've read the translated pages of a 10th century koran in a museum. And I've read some (crazy) literature of scientology, and I saw that south park episode about mormonism so I feel I know enough about that.

That is my embarasingly short list of faiths I reject.

[empr guy]

I have read my fair share of the bible, although i dont know it by heart. i've only seen other religiouse texts on the internet, mostly through people quoting them to prove their point. it seems obviouse most people quoting holy texts use cherry picked lines and phrases, and i've seen christians disown part of the bible if it dosent agree with them...

oh and i know a bit about the roman greek era religions to

[MaximiIian]

I've tried to read some, like the Bible, but they're often ass-bustingly boring. But, at least the Bible has some narrative to it, especially in the second half. I've never even tried to read the Koran, because most of what I hear is that it's, well, also really boring. But even moreso, because the narrative is irregular and not well-structured. Though I am interested in cracking an English copy open and seeing if this is true.
Though mostly I just look info up on the internet, and that's good enough for a given discussion.

I'm more interested in, and familiar with, ancient Greco-Roman and Egyptian myths, and to a lesser extent Irish and Welsh mythology. Usually have a greater emphasis on narrative in their religious tales and stories. And it's religiously significant to me, unlike the aforementioned monotheist texts.
Though Norse mythology is by far one of the most complex and interesting set of myths.
I've also been wanting to look into Vedic and Buddhist religious texts; at least to see what they're all about.

[Hiero of Syracuse]

I've tried to read some, like the Bible, but they're often ass-bustingly boring. But, at least the Bible has some narrative to it, especially in the second half. I've never even tried to read the Koran, because most of what I hear is that it's, well, also really boring. But even moreso, because the narrative is irregular and not well-structured. Though I am interested in cracking an English copy open and seeing if this is true.
Though mostly I just look info up on the internet, and that's good enough for a given discussion.

I'm more interested in, and familiar with, ancient Greco-Roman and Egyptian myths, and to a lesser extent Irish and Welsh mythology. Usually have a greater emphasis on narrative in their religious tales and stories. And it's religiously significant to me, unlike the aforementioned monotheist texts.
Though Norse mythology is by far one of the most complex and interesting set of myths.
I've also been wanting to look into Vedic and Buddhist religious texts; at least to see what they're all about.

You and I are very alike in this aspect, the reason why the Bible and pagan mythology is easier for me to read is it's narative, though in good faith I read just about every text I can find for other religions like the Qu'ran and several other text that put religion before a decent story.

[The Dude]

Not familiar at all. We have a bible at home here, I tried to read it once. Didn't make it very far. Read the Silmarillion. Was good enough for me.

Qu'ran I picked up once to skim through at a friend's house. Was met with screaming and yelling upon picking it up. Apparently was too unclean to hold it. Riiight.

[MaximiIian]

You and I are very alike in this aspect, the reason why the Bible and pagan mythology is easier for me to read is its narrative...

I try to look at them as literature first, religious texts second. At least on the first read-through. And as good literature, the Abrahamic texts fail spectacularly; they read off like a Ford instruction manual. This is not to say that they haven't made a huge impact on the literary world; just that they make for novels. Of course, the reason for this is that they were split between narratives and instructions, and sometimes mixed the two. The only time I've seen mixing narratives and instruction manuals work out well was with the gameplay guide for Zeus: Master of Olympus; a really, really good city-building game, btw.

At least ancient myths have a coherent story, characterisation, and usage of tropes. They can stand alone as interesting stories, as well as having religious implications or teaching a moral. They make for far superior storytelling, IMO.

[Thanatos]

I've studied a fair bit of:

- Greco-Roman mythology
- Irish/Welsh Mythology
- Scandinavian Mythology
- Bible
- Qu'ran (A wee bit)
- Hindu Texts

[Banana Jelly]

Quran
Bible
Torah (Didn't even bother, because, it seems soooooo similar to the bible so i left it aside)
Hindu Scripture (When I think of the word "Hindu" I think of people half naked with long beards sitting down, and are skinny as hell, so no)

[Copperknickers II]

Relatively familiar with the obvious childhood stories of the Puranas, Vedas, Bible.

Pretty hot on the Quran for a westerner, i keep one on my bedside table for nighttime reading ftb.

A fair bit of Greek and Scandinavian stuff.

Limited Buddhism.

[Fiyenyaa]

I've just opened a Bible (NIV) with the intention of reading it beginning to end. This may take a while. Maybe I'll move on to more scripture after I've done.

[Hax]

I usually say that I'm not a theologian, but a historian. I study religions not from a theological point of view, but rather from a cultural and historical point of view. That left aside, I'm pretty educated on the Bible, the Qu'ran and the major Mahayana Buddhist texts.

[TheXand]

Religious texts cause my skin to burn so I have to look up relevant sources online.

[Hiero of Syracuse]

Well I guess I'd diagree, I personally found the Exodus, Job, and Matthew to be all very interesting reads and each of them seem to have mixed instruction with narrative,though with Matthew being perhaps a better example, though with ancient myth it however up-plays the narrative for an epic read. But I'd have diagree with the tropes thing, tvtropes has a whole catolog filled with bibilical tropes.

[MaximiIian]

Yes, some of the books do a better job than others at mixing the narration with instruction. Some are almost pure narrative, which is refreshing. It's just sometimes jarring to go from storytelling to religious commandments in the same passage.

And I didn't mean that biblical stories did not use or make tropes. Just that I like those of Greek myths better.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Aside from parts of the bible (I've never had enough time to read it through and through), and I read some of the Koran until I simply had to put it down due to my historical disagreements with it (seriously, the Egyptians worshiped Ra and all the other guys, a whole table of them would not scream Allah's name because a man walked through a door before Islam was established) among many other reasons.

Other texts I'm having problems getting my hands on and that's why I haven't read them. Apparently they don't sell the plain old Pali Canon at Amazon.com

So I try not to get into arguments based on a bunch of quotes from certain texts. In a time of need I'll simply divert to wikipedia, which I'm ashamed to admit but hey, people do worse.

[motiv-8]

Some are almost pure narrative, which is refreshing. It's just sometimes jarring to go from storytelling to religious commandments in the same passage.

I think the Gospel of Mark does the best job of mixing the two, what do you think? It is also, to disagree with your earlier observation, excellent literature.

Apparently was too unclean to hold (the Qur'an). Riiight.

Traditionally out of mark of piety and respect one performs ablutions before reading the Qur'an. Simple as a washing of the hands. Strange that your "friends" didn't explain that to you, but it's nothing to get upset about.

[Hiero of Syracuse]

Well I guess I screwed up, I didn't perform any ablution ritual prior to reading the Qu'ran, which sort of makes me feel a bit blasphemous,