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Hijack from Recommended Religious Reading


Cap'n Refsmmat

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  • 2 months later...

I find the following work to be useful, even to a non-religious person like myself. And if you can find the fully illustrated one, it's quite handsome.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-10th-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1594488894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379025334&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+living+dalai+lama

I linked to this edition at Amazon because there is a preview.

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  • 5 months later...

Try out the book of Urantia, I like some of the pagan and neo pagan writings as well.

The Urantia Book was written by William S. Sadler and a cadre of co-conspirators for the purpose of promoting eugenics. It's not worth the ink it is printed with.

 

I did not see it mentioned here, so I recommend The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels.

Edited by Acme
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  • 2 months later...

I'm a bit surprised no one has mentioned Joseph Campbell here. "The Power of Myth" (video series and book) might be a good introduction to Campbell and mythology. He seems to have made a thorough examination of the subject.

 

The idea that one's religion is one's philosophy for living follows his lead.

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  • 3 months later...

The Urantia Book was written by William S. Sadler and a cadre of co-conspirators for the purpose of promoting eugenics. It's not worth the ink it is printed with.

 

I did not see it mentioned here, so I recommend The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels.

 

 

The Urantia book is quite a good story but then I read it from the stand point of science fiction..

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  • 2 months later...
  • 7 months later...

So I'm almost done with Andrew George's translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh. It might not be the most up-to-date translation, but it is cheap. Missing scenes are yet to be uncovered. It's nerdy, but a quick read. Tablets IX, X, and XI are a bit touching.

I haven't read the Genesis flood story yet, but I just read its parallel in tablet XI. It's similar.

The gods tell him to make a boat with all the animals on it, and the flood lasts seven days. Most of the gods regret what they did, and the god responsible, Enlil, becomes upset upon finding that the protagonist survived.

Now I got to the part with the snake and the thorny plant. LOL It's all in the last ten pages!

 

Edited by MonDie
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So I'm almost done with Andrew George's translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh. It might not be the most up-to-date translation, but it is cheap. Missing scenes are yet to be uncovered. It's nerdy, but a quick read. Tablets IX, X, and XI are a bit touching.

I haven't read the Genesis flood story yet, but I just read its parallel in tablet XI. It's similar.

The gods tell him to make a boat with all the animals on it, and the flood lasts seven days. Most of the gods regret what they did, and the god responsible, Enlil, becomes upset upon finding that the protagonist survived.

 

G'donya. By any translator, it is widely accorded as the oldest written story extant. There are a number of free online versions as well. Another parallel to Genesis in the flood story is a dove signaling the end of the journey.

 

In another biblical parallel, this passage sounds very similar to Ecclesiastes 8:

...The life of man is short. Only the godscan live forever. Therefore put on new clothes, a clean robe and a cloak tied with a sash, and wash the filth of the journey from your body. Eat and drink your fill of the food and drink men eat and drink. Let there be pleasure and dancing. ...

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G'donya. By any translator, it is widely accorded as the oldest written story extant.

True, it's old. Andrew George gives an informative introduction. The poems of Bilgames are "known almost entirely from eighteenth-century [bC] copies", but George says these aren't the same as the epic poem written later in Akkadian. Nonetheless, George says the Deluge myth contained therein was itself derived from a poem of Atramhasis, 'When the gods were man'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atra-Hasis

For comparison, the events of Exodus occurred around 1300 BC, and Genesis and the Hebrew Bible were being put into writing shortly after 1000 BC.

 

Jeesh, Genesis alone is probably longer than Gilgamesh. :\

 

..and the writing is so bland! :-(

Edited by MonDie
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  • 7 months later...
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  • 6 months later...

"Zealot: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth"...By Reza Aslan.

 

It's about the true historical man who lived in First Century Roman occupied Palestine whom we have come to know as Jesus of Nazareth. Seems that area and time were filled with political and religious zealots, of which Jesus was but one example. Aslan does a great job of recreating the turbulent atmosphere back then, and the major players in it. A must read for anybody interested in the topic.

Warning..... Fundamentalist Christians who think Jesus was God will not fancy either this book nor Aslans hypothesis of who and what Jesus really was.

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Zealot-Life-Times-Jesus-Nazareth/dp/0812981480/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489787124&sr=1-1&keywords=Zealot

Edited by Velocity_Boy
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  • 4 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Not a religious book so much but Michael Newton phd JOURNEY OF SOULS. He's a hypnotherapist who regresses people to points BETWEEN lives, when they were in heaven. Quasi science. good read though. gives a kind of form of religion. Nearest you'll find to being evidence based.

Edited by fudgetusk
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