It made me turn from an doubtful agnostic theist into an agnostic atheist 1/4 through it.
Amazing read. Will definitely not read it again!
I took the time to read it from the Hebrew/Greek about 25 years ago - have not stepped foot in a church since.
> And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law.
Turns out he was kind of a dick head.
[0] https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132?lang=eng
Sorry, but the Noahs story does not makes sense logically (all the different animals on one ship) nor morally. Killing everyone and only spare some lunatic.
But if you can take from it "do what needs to be done" well, good for you. But I would argue a common trivial dantasy book contains as meaningful wisdom if you neglect 90% like with the bible.
Btw. that the scenario is allmost word for word the same as in the Gilgamesh epos, is another funfact.
For a book used by millions of people as the only source of wisdom for over a dozen centuries, I can hardly disagree more about the 'overlooked' part.
I am not commenting about its actual merits, as it has some merits and some beautiful verses. But it is just a book among many. It should stop being the only book many people read.
As an example, my agnostic, very nerdy brother read the whole thing and said he learned a lot from it. I figure there's a lot of potential people out there just like him.
Grab a Hebrew/Greek Interlinear bible and there are plenty of lexicons available online to see how words were used by contemporary writers.
Every other statement, "I have my own beliefs" is short sighted.
And Bible is not equal to the institution you call "Church"!