This is addressed to “the Bible is a derivative work with many authors”, not “the derivative works lend sacredness to the Bible”. The Pentateuch may be multiauthor but it still adds up to awfulness. Read the damn thing!
I have done so, over many a loooong Saturday morning in the year-and-a-half of shul attendance preceding my bar mitzvah (as mandated by the council of synagogues in my city). Why are you bringing up literary awfulness in a discussion about where people get a sense of sacredness? One has very little to do with the other.
I’m not sure I’d agree, but I think it’s interesting that the word ‘awful’ seems appropriate here—not just plain ‘bad’. ‘awful’ and ‘sacred’ really should be related concepts.
This is addressed to “the Bible is a derivative work with many authors”, not “the derivative works lend sacredness to the Bible”. The Pentateuch may be multiauthor but it still adds up to awfulness. Read the damn thing!
I have done so, over many a loooong Saturday morning in the year-and-a-half of shul attendance preceding my bar mitzvah (as mandated by the council of synagogues in my city). Why are you bringing up literary awfulness in a discussion about where people get a sense of sacredness? One has very little to do with the other.
I’m not sure I’d agree, but I think it’s interesting that the word ‘awful’ seems appropriate here—not just plain ‘bad’. ‘awful’ and ‘sacred’ really should be related concepts.
A non-Bayesian! Burn the heretic!
More seriously, the bible is not uniformly awful—I’m rather fond of bits of Ecclesiastes, for example, particularly when set to music.