I’m Done with the Bible
Being Sunday I figured there’s no better time to announce that I’m done attempting to complete the Bible probably forever.
The added benefit I’d gain at this point is far surpassed by the opportunity cost. I’d much rather spend my time learning about topics with real world applications instead of completing the Bible such that when I’m inevitably asked by a believer if I have I can say “yes, ” to give myself some kind of legitimacy in their eyes. Until such a day when someone demonstrates that you can know if miracles happen, said miracles would be proof of anything, god is a meaningful concept, something like this concept exists and it is Yahweh of the Bible there’s no epistemological basis for me to do so. Similarly until someone refutes the Euthyphro dilemma, and demonstrates a legitimate way to discount the routine barbarism found in the Hebrew Bible and the infinite injustice of eternal torture in the New Testament there’s little reason from an ethical perspective.
Yes the Bible could be important to me because it’s important to others, I’ve made this argument in the past myself and I still think it is, but it’s a stretch at best to say therefore everyone, including nonbelievers, should complete it. In a society where many people believe this book has special significance I’d advocate anyone be familiar with what it says, which I am, but I needn’t complete the massive tome to do so. I already know plenty about it, far more than most believers, and for the foreseeable future I’m content with that base of knowledge.
Maybe when I’m an old man who wants to better understand Milton and Shakespeare I will bring myself to complete the Bible. Until then knowing more about practically every other topic will, I believe, legitimately take priority.
