Intro & stuff

'Morning. For some reason I have decided to do a bit of reading, more precisely a Harper Collins edition of the Bible, Revised Standard Edition. Part of what kicked me off was a legal situation that required swearing an oath... now I have no problem with that apart from the swearing on the bible bit. Sorry... takes my sense of irony a little too far that does, confirming that something you believe is true is so, while you don't feel the same about what you swear the oath by. All resolved thanks to the 1977 Oaths Act but that's beside the point.

However, this, and several other episodes in the near past, got me thinking.

I was Christened when little, are nominally CofE, spent 10 years as a Scout, yadda yadda yadda. What, exactly, does all this mean? As far as I can see not much. I've always been pretty skeptical over sweeping unsubstantiated claims, and have no idea how books several thousands of years old hold such, in some cases literal, sway over us.

So, I don't believe in anything. The older and uglier I get, the less I do. Now, this is the bit that confuses the religious nuts amongst us - I don't know so I choose not to believe. I don't want to fall into the trap that religious belief lays for us as an explanation for life, the universe and everything. Call me arrogant, fine, but that's somewhat hypocritical in my view. I also hate god in the way that I hate invisible unicorns - hate, or any other emotion, is useless when used against nothing.

By a somewhat circuitous route I've come here. I decided to read t'bible from start to finish. I aired the idea that I'd blog it on a forum that I've now been banned from (oops) which had some encouraging responses so what the hell (...?), why not?

Now, I've made it as far as Numbers, but I'll go back and comment on the first books anyway to keep everything in order. Suffice to say the plot has thickened and several genocides have been committed with Moses, Joseph, Abraham and God getting pretty medieval on a wide variety of asses. Still no sign of any afterlife, mind you, with God being pretty content to allow his favourites to live a long life (usually after fucking with them royally) and also making his enemies die in a variety of interesting ways.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

Any commentry I make about 'x doing y' or 'I think a of b' where I mention any characters from the texts (up to and including, El, LORD, or whatever he calls himself) will be in the literary sense. By saying 'god can't have been happy with the Egyptians' I am in no way implying that 'god' exists outside the pages of the book.

Just so you know.

Enjoy!