AIBU to ask whether you own a Bible?

[BeanQuisine]

Just idle curiosity, really.

We often hear right-wingers insisting "This is a Christian country", whether we're in UK, Oz or the US etc.

So I'm wondering how many of us actually own Bibles, and whether we ever read them. I did read assorted bits of it in my youth, but don't currently own a Bible.

YABU: Whether Mumsnetters own Bibles or not is none of your business.

YANBU: It's a vaguely interesting question.

What a narrow minded view. You know the world is rich with culture right? The bible isn’t the only place you can find culture. And you can enjoy architecture, music and art that have been influenced by Christianity without reading the bible. I say this as someone who has read the bible multiple times.

Your world must be very small if you think anyone who hasn’t read it is ‘culturally impoverished’.

yes i own several Bibles, a couple of New Testaments and about 4 Prayerbooks. I am not a practicing anything.
Why would the people who say "This is a Christian country" about any country be right or be worth taking any notice of? Also why would any corollary to that statement be worth taking any more notice of than if it had been said in a non Christian country?

Yes, and the Book of Mormon, and the Quran. I don't read any of them anymore though since I no longer live with my mum, and she can't force us to get up at 6am to do prayer and scripture reading.

Yes 5 or 6. I had a religious upbringing but it didn't take.

Im a pagan but I have a bible and have read it cover to cover.
God os God and every religion has something to offer.
Im busy reading the Koran at the moment.

Yes but only because DP saw the one he read at his nan’s as a child on eBay and got it for nostalgia. It’s huge and has lots of illustrations. We’re not at all religious but I do want to read it at some point.

Yes, 3 or 4 if you include the 'comic book bible' and the book of bible stories. I've also got a lovely 'religions of the world' book.

I have 5.
My DGP's extremley old inherited ones. The ones my DC were given by their DGP's as christening presents. And my own given by my DGP's as my christening present.

Never read and all gathering dust, I'd happily throw away the most recent but the older ones will be passed down to the next generation.

I am happy to read the Bible in the future, but lots of religious books are beautifully written and influence music, culture and architecture.

Exactly that. I went to a Hindu temple in London and was blown away but the stories and the architecture, it was magical. It’s crazy to think that someone who hasn’t read the bible is ‘culturally impoverished’, very narrow minded.

I think people are culturally impoverished without a deep understanding of one major world religion, yes. I say that because I think I personally don't have that (though I'm trying to remedy it in adulthood) and I see others around me who do (of multiple faiths, but I think it's most meaningful when it's a faith that is "matched" to the country you live in and whose culture you are immersed in, for obvious reasons).

I suppose atheism could count if you had deeply engaged with how atheists had grappled with the deep questions of who we are and came to be, you had read many authors over the centuries writing about it and so on (which includes many agnostics in British history). I do think you should still have a fairly strong understanding of the religious tradition they were reacting against, though. I imagine there are, say, Iranian atheists in history - but they would be participating in an academic conversation with a different "thought partner" and it would influence the development accordingly.

I do but I'm not Christian. I consider it to be a work of fiction, and it has some amazing stories.

I think we should be thankful that science and rational philosophy hold greater intellectual authority and esteem than religion in the modern Western world.

Always a bit odd when people try to put science or philosophy against religion. So many eminent scientists have faith.

I'm a staunch atheist / humanist and I have a bible - King James version. I was very into English literature, especially pre 1900s as a teenager, so read it all as it's fundamental to really understanding lots of books. It's a weird, weird book - the writing is really heavy going and a lot of the old testament is deeply unpleasant.

Yes I have one.

Those who say its fiction...you do know it isn't one book yes? The separate writings by many different authors and over about 3000 years have been gathered, chosen, discarded etc. Its not a binary choice between thinking its fictional fairytale or all 100% true. There's a world of biblical scholarship out there that looks at the separate writers, contexts, comparative evidence from Roman writers or Egyptian texts, archaeological evidence in Israel, Rome, Turkey, Greece. Its as worthy of study and as flawed as the Bayeaux Tapestry, Anglo Saxon Chronice, Ceasar's writings.

The bible is not 'a' book. It is a collection of books written by many different people over a period of least 700 years.

Constructed myth and national history, stories of legendary figures, genealogies, laws, poems, proverbs, a lot of philosophy, novellas. That's just the Old Testament. In some of them God is lovely - try Jonah, a gentle mockery of a very pompous religious man who is appalled and shocked at Gods' stubborn and rather soppy insistence on loving everyone, even the wicked.

I appreciate that some posters are not Christians and therefore do not own or have any interest in reading a bible. And most of the comments I’ve read on here so far are respectful. However, it always annoys me when I’m listening to Desert Island Discs and a few of the guests say something like “it’ll be useful for firewood I suppose”, when Lauren “gives” them the bible. Disrespectful!

I have a new English one, I was given by Sunday School when I was 11. I never look at it, I prefer the language used in the King James version, not that I look at that version much either.

Yes. If I included the kids ones we’d be at 15+ in our house I think.

Definitely own one, probably been one in the house all my life, do I read it, no

Yes, I own a few paper copies and have YouVersion on my phone with many translations

I’m a Christian but I think it can be of interest to loads of people

It’s a fascinating collection of poems, letters, history books, songs etc. which give massive insight into a wide section of people 1900-3500 years ago

I think in a box in the loft I have the little one I was given for a christening gift. A beautiful miniature thing in a white cover with silver page edges. I wouldn’t get rid of that.

But I have been an atheist since I was old enough to think about it properly, despite going to a very religious school, so don’t have one on the bookshelves for general reading.

Love Jordan Petersons thoughts on religion

I have read the bible and it really did not give me a deep understanding of the Christian faith. I learned more in RE at school.

But I don’t see how lack of knowledge of a faith makes one culturally impoverished. Sounds like a christian supremacist mindset and bitterness at the lack of interest others have in one’s own religion / cultural heritage. Especially given just how much culture exists globally. Not knowing one part of it, even if that’s a major faith group, doesn’t make one “culturally impoverished”.