Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first.
. I find it shocking that a person of your obvious intelligence has never even read the bible. You ought to at least give the New Testament a boo before you dismiss it outright.
I've talked about this before. I was raised Catholic. I was taught my religion from a catechism--rote Q and A. There was a Bible in my home, but, to the best of my recollection, no one ever opened it. My religious training was just different from yours, Greg. We didn't do Bibles, we did catechism.
There was still prayer in the schools when I was a kid. We would take turns reading from the Bible every day along with the Pledge of Allegiance (which at that time did not contain "under God"}. Mostly everyone read psalms. I went through that section of the Bible and picked out a few I liked and read them when it was my turn. That's all the Bible reading I ever did as a kid.
By the time I was an adult, I was no longer religious so there was not much point in picking up a Bible. Over the years, I have developed an appreciation of the value of cultural literacy and thought I should have the Bible under my belt, no pun intended. I went out and bought an easy-reading version, and picked it up a couple of times but just couldn't seem to get started. I no longer see the point. My time on earth is getting shorter and the Bible is very long. If just reading it were enough, I might find the energy, but I think you have to not just read it but study it intently if you want to understand it. I'm just not willing to put in that effort just to round out my cultural literacy.
I have never read War and Peace, either.
Karen |
