Bible banned from Texas schools for being sexually explicit

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The Bible is well worth reading, from the point of view that no other body of literature has had a greater impact on western civilization. There are also people today who rake in a lot of cash by quoting the Bible.

I am in favor of reading it for what it is, rather than pretending that those bits aren't in it.

It would be difficult to pull off in a public school, given that different groups of parents are going to complain for different reasons.

The Bible belongs in the fiction section of the library.

Whether it’s well-worth reading or not depends on your point of view. My life would’ve been better if I had never read the Bible. I just think that we need to be careful and not underestimate the power that it continues to have. I wouldn’t necessarily be against kids studying portions of it in literature classes if it was focused on education rather than indoctrination by getting into historical and textual criticism, but I don’t foresee that going over very well. Still, I think it could undo some of the problems related to the concept of inerrancy or even divine inspiration.

Of course. Where else would it go?

Reading it critically could help undo some of the problems that have been created. Catholics and Protestants spent centuries murdering each other over it in Europe.

Many Muslims are even nuttier.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg11361q42o

Trying to teach the Koran objectively would not only be a waste of time, but it could be dangerous.

Other religious texts that are worth reading include Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian books.

I remember a Chinese woman who was curious about Christianity started reading the Bible. She was surprised that it didn't really contain any advice on how to live, but was rather a history of the Jewish people.

The Hindu texts contain some magnificent stories. Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian texts contain advice on how to live.

If you want sex in an ancient text, then look up the Epic of Gilgamesh.

By the by, those troubling passages from the Bible could be mentioned as "this was relevant for people in the ANE, and is not indicative of how modern Americans ought to live."

However, some places (I think mostly Islamic countries) still have honor killings, and some Muslim women go in for hymenoplastic surgery, if their fiancés are expecting them to be virgins, and they aren't.

It might be useful for European students to be introduced to Islamic expectations, given the large influx of migrants.

For example, some Muslims will not touch a person of the opposite gender. Not even to shake hands.

That really wouldn’t be sufficient, though. The passages that I cited were just the tip of the iceberg. Issues stemming from purity culture based on the Bible are so harmful and so pervasive.

When it comes to nutjobness, Christianity is very cute in comparaison. Hands down.

So you don't want anyone exposed to any challenging material? Just because you read it doesn't mean that you have to follow it, or even take it seriously.

There’s no need to present a strawman of my argument. I obviously wasn’t saying anything of the sort. I just said that the Bible is not appropriate for children due to graphic sex and violence, some of which has been cited although there’s much more in the other thread I linked.

Thankfully, there’s a wealth of other books to choose from that would be much more age-appropriate. People have their entire lives to read books for adults.
Sure, people don’t have to take it seriously, but many do and will. Responsible educators have to keep stuff like that in mind when sensitive topics come up in the classroom.

ACKSHUALLY--

The history ends up being pretty significant and relevant when it comes to understanding the Bible and the faith as a whole, as the history of the Jewish people is very relevant to the history of Jesus and there's a lot of symbolism therein.

Well, that is the Catholic understanding, and also the understanding of many Protestants.

But yes, from what I've seen a lot of other religious texts are more what you describe?

That's like a two year old laughing at a one year old for still wearing diapers/nappies. In my lifetime, Christian American parents were still sending their little girls to doctors for female circumcision after freaking out that their little girls were exploring their full potential.

I've been in conservative churches where women still wear hats and sit on the opposite side of the aisle to the men.

Now we see their influence in politics behind abortion and Trans discrimination, and trying to get bibles and ten commandments into public schools.

The ONLY difference between the so called 'Christian West' and Islamic countries, is that the West took away Christianity's political dominance. Now we're secular. Wherever Christianity dominated in the past, they were pretty bad.

Now they want dominance again. Can't let that happen. No to Charia Law.

Seems odd that for 1600 years the contents have been shared with children then?. I was watching a south park episode about a Mormon family who moved into the neighbourhood. Invariably the Mormon kids believed irrational bible quotes but despite the contradictions of the beliefs and the bullying from the neighbours the Mormon family and kids stayed true to their beliefs (like Christian martyrs of old) and the joke was the family were so nice that South Park residents converted in droves (making fun of how people who feel empty inside living with no direction are drawn to cults who seem to (on the surface at least) offer genuine happiness, family values and most importantly purpose.

It kind of illustrates how both arguments don't matter. Firstly the irrational MAGA edict banning the bible but then the counter argument the bible does actually contain graphic sex and violence hasn't really created direct problems (has it?). Banning books isn't really the solution. Building a community where children have positive role models creates resilience. As boo mentioned there are nutjobs in all religions, but mixed in there are good family/community orientated people. Books or bibles don't teach people to think critically about being good human beings, family and community do.

Safeguarding children from exposure to material that one might deem inappropriate would be a full time job, given what is available on the internet.