Could the Bible be evil?

[Miniar]

On the subject of distances between Israelites and Germanic Witchcraft I'd like to remind people of the merchants that traveled the world, crossing great distances, and reaching places we now call north america, russia, egypt, etc. etc. etc. and practiced trade all along those places.
Trading happened in those times. Longer distance trading than most of us realize.
The world is smaller today, yes, but it is not impossible that "witchcraft" would have made it to Israel, though in all probability, there was probably another, similar though not the same, practice already established within that region.

[Dryad]

Miniar: Oh, I agree on that one. But calling every ritualist/herbalist/psychologist from those times a witch is like calling Inca Priests Christians.
Inca priests were religious. So are Christians. They both worship god(s). It doesn't make them the same, is all.

[Julie Marie]

Ya'll know this is just a collection of folk tales passed down through countless generations of oral tradition, written down in an now archaic language, then badly translated several times, rewritten to suit kings and empires, and now in your local bookstore?  And that's you're basis of proof?

What the bible proves is that human beings can take an inanimate object, make all sorts of amazing claims about its power and carry out horrifically cruel acts on fellow human beings, using the fairy tale man created around the bible as justification for their cruelty.

It's really mind boggling all we've done with this book.

[Robin.]

The bible evil? No, The Bible is a 2000 year old tome written by sexist men who were homophobic and wanted to control those unable to think for themselves, So no the bible it's self is no evil, just the people who wrote it. Now religion on the other hand is evil, or at least those who take there religion as reality and not what it is, a story... They are the evil ones...

I should have named the topic differently. The real question wasn't wether it was evil so much as wether, if one believes what it holds is truth and knowing that truth makes one culpable does it then make it better not to read it...

[LordKAT]

I know a preist that warns you of just that. He even stresses it in classes he teaches.

[tekla]

The notion that - at least for the 'people of the book' (the three major Western religions) that you're learning religion straight from god has proven pretty powerful.  No shortage of fringe nutcases in all three of those religions.

[Julie Marie]

"AND GOD SAID....!"

Then they quote the bible.

Imagine being one of the people who co-authored the book.  What fun it would have been to put your own beliefs down in writing and have people quote them for a couple millennium and call it the word of god. 

[heatherrose]

God herself could not have said it better.