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Here are, I believe, the salient points from the preceeding pages and from the preface of the NIV Bible.  The first thing I noticed was this:

You will be pleased to know that a portion  of the purchase price of your new NIV Bible has been provided to International Bible Society to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

I’ll be honest here; I really wasn’t pleased to know this.  I knew I’d be contributing to the cause by buying the book but it was only $5.95 and a necessity I really couldn’t avoid, if I wanted to use the NIV Bible.  I’d dabbled in the King James version but I found it difficult to trudge through and probably a little less complete than the NIV Bible.  A friend just recommended the NET Bible which is a great free resource.  I’m sure I’ll be referencing and quoting both of these versions periodically throughout this project but most likely I’ll primarily be using the NIV Bible.

(Note: When I mention “IBS” here I mean the “International Bible Society”, not “Irritable Bowel Syndrome”, as one might think.  The irony is not lost on me.)

On Page V I’m told that the Bible was written by many …read more »

So today begins “The Bible Study Project”, a project I’ve been planning for some time but just now finally got around to.  Lately I’ve spent a lot of time reading both atheist and Christian books and articles.  Each of these make interesting points while quoting verses from the Bible.  I’m openly skeptical of the Bible, the message it sends, the actual morality it teaches, its followers’ actual piety, and of Christianity’s audacious claims of divinity.  I’m a science-minded individual, preferring proof to faith, and the Bible, quite frankly, just doesn’t provide me with adequate proof to support the incredible and miraculous claims it makes.  At least not what I’ve read so far which is limited.

David Mills says that one of the contributing reasons people believe science and religion can harmoniously coincide with each other is because neither side really understands the other.  Religious people generally don’t know a lot about science and scientists often don’t know much about religion.  There’s a hopeful ideology that the two can find a common ground that really doesn’t exist, at least in David’s opinion.

I think he’s right but I want to find out for myself.  I don’t believe I can accurately and effectively continue to …read more »