BOOK REVIEW
The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible by Steve Wells 2012
About the Author
Steve Wells is the author of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible and Drunk with Blood: God’s killings in the Bible. He also created and maintains the website www.skepticsannotatedbible.com and www.dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com. When he’s not critiquing the “holy books”, he can usually be found with a field guide identifying insects/plants/birds, sailing, or auditing classes at the local university.
About the Book
“I am often told by believers (and even sometimes by skeptics), most of whom have never read the Bible, that only those who know Hebrew and Greek, have studied hermeneutics, exegesis, linguistics, etc. are qualified to discuss the Bible. Since I am not an expert in any of these fields, they tell me I have no right to criticize the Bible.
It reminds me of Hans Christian Anderson’s wonderful story, The Emperor’s New Clothes, where only the “stupid and incompetent” failed to admire the emperor’s new, but nonexistent, clothes.
But it was obvious to a child who “could only see things as his eyes showed them to him” that the emperor had no clothes. Similarly, it is obvious to anyone who takes the time to read the Bible that, whatever else it might be, it is not a book that was inspired by a good, just, loving, and all-knowing god.
Still, I am not completely uneducated. I have a B.S. in Botany and a more than 50 semester hours of graduate credit in Chemistry and Mathematics, with 20 years of experience as an industrial statistician. And although I am not a Bible scholar, I have spent many years studying the Bible, and I rely on and cite the work of scholars, updating the SAB with the most recent and best information available.
Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that education is not important when examining the Bible. The more, better, and broader the education, the more apparent it will be that the Bible was not inspired by a kind, loving, omniscient God. What is obvious to a child should be even more obvious to a well-educated adult.” — http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/faq.html
Endorsements
“Finally, Wells has published his famous online resource in book form. This volume belongs in every thinking person’s library–and in every hotel room in America…” Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, and Free Will.
Discussion
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