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.

@Namechangedatheist I love quoting that to my friend who is a member of the Order of Preachers. (Dominicans) when he’s worrying about how he looks. 🤣🤣

You are going to be a bad influence on me. 😂

One of the pages from my Geneva Bible as illustration of this.

Yes, many. English and Welsh. Wouldn’t say I’m religious but have an interest in history. A knowledge of Christianity and other faiths is needed if you want to understand history, as well as appreciate much of the art and music of the common era.

We have a few in the house, mostly Sunday school gifts or baptism gifts from our youth. They aren’t read regularly though, sometimes get brought out if they come up in conversation with the kids but no one in the house is a practising Christian.

Well I didn't, really. The question in the title is: am I being unreasonable to ask whether you own a Bible?

It might have been more sensible to just ask "Do you own a Bible?", but I wanted to post in AIBU for traffic. 😀

I have several Bibles and try to get through the Bible in a year.

I have a few, including the one we had to take with us to assembly every morning in primary school back in the 70s.

In my twenties I read the bible from cover to cover, but I’m still an atheist and regard the UK as a secular country.

Treasures!

Nope. I remember getting a bible at school and binning it. Won’t have one in the house

I do own a bible, though I am not Christian (nor any other religion). The bible was a gift from my Christian grandparents when I was born, so I keep it for sentimental reasons.

I am not religious nor have I ever been, but I do take and enjoy the state-given bank holidays for Easter, Christmas, etc. So on that basis I accept the national religion of the UK.

Yes but I am an atheist.my nan bought it for my sixteenth birthday. I did have a phase of reading it. Very useful in quizzes

I suppose, technically, I own loads of bibles. I’m not religious, don’t believe in it all and never really have. My mum though, I’ve found 12 while clearing out her flat. Not quite sure what to do with them to be honest. Feels wrong to bin them somehow, even though I don’t want them.

Very wise.

We probably have about 4. A couple of them were gifts. I don’t regularly read them but sometimes look things up.

I have one somewhere. A great fictional story!

I own loads - some going back to my 60s childhood which I got as Sundy school prizes.
I've gone to quite a few different churches and each one used a different version.
My dad ws RC so I inherited his when he died.
I have a whole shelf full of bibles, hymn books, prayer books etc.

Yes, I do. My parents bought it for me when I was quite a small child in the 1960's. I haven't read it. At the time, I also had a 'Children's Bible' which was written with simplified versions of some of the Bible stories, and I did read that. However even at the time, I found a lot of the themes very uncomfortable. Even all those years ago it seemed to me that it was a way of controlling people, especially women (all Eve's fault that we have to suffer everything apparently), and indoctrinating them to know their place.
'Do what we tell you and follow the teachings, or go to hell'.
No ta.

Why would you write such a provocative comment.
If someone said they had several copies of the Koran in their house would you assume or suggest it must be because they collect them.
Like frog ornaments or something.

We had more bibles some from old bookstores, we like old things.

We're not a religious family - I'm an atheist - but we have Bibles, yes.

Husband and I both brought up in C of E churchgoing families where we heard the bible stories and sang the hymns. I enjoyed this.

As parents we wanted to pass on the cultural knowledge which underpins so much of European literature, art, music etc, so we wanted our children to know the bible stories. We used that fabulous old Children's Bible (in most charity shops!) with incredible technicolour illustrations, rather like the Hollywood epics in style. While they were at primary school the question of belief didn't arise, and we didn't bring it up. But neither did we push or promote the idea of God or Jesus...we just allowed the children's interest to lead us.

They learned about other major religions in school, of course, but being able to go to an art gallery and understand what's happening in a Nativity, a Crucifixion, a Last Supper...or to understand references to Noah's Ark, the Israelites in Egypt, the Ten Commandments, Joshua and the Battle of Jericho etc etc etc is hugely helpful and enriching. I don't know how kids studying art history, history, English lit etc etc manage nowadays - so much of what they have to deal with must mystify them!

WE even enjoy watching the Easter films - The Greatest Story Ever Told etc.

I think all children should be culturally aware - of other cultures, but especially the one they were born into, regardless of actual religious faith. They are missing so, so much if they don't get this.

yes, ones I’ve been given over the years. Some are more teen oriented with detailed maps/definitions/discussion points listed at the sides. Others just plain text. A big family one I got given from my church when I got married. DH isn’t a christian so didn’t have any except what his parents might have had or the gideon’s ones politely stowed away in a drawer at home from school.

Yes, I have many.

The little red pocket Bible I was given at school
King James which I bought in my teens
NiV student Bible which I bought at uni
Huge illustrated Bible - can't remember why I got that, but it's beautiful.
The Message
Children's Bible for DC
Old Bible inherited from grandparents.
Kindle Bible.

I used to read it everyday in my 20s. I have read the whole thing.

I only read it occasionally now.

Just the one - bed time reading