Sounds like something that Thomas Paine had pointed out. Some books are valuable because of their inherent worth; eg, Shakespeare, Euclid. And some books are only valuable because of who wrote them; eg, the Bible of which it is claimed that God wrote it, with Moses as collaborator on the first five books. If it were to turn out that Euclid or Shakespeare never wrote what's attributed to them, or never even existed for that matter, then the value of the books attributed to them would be no less valuable. If it were to turn out that a book valued only for its purported authorship was not actually written by that author, then that book would be deemed worthless.
So, if the only thing that makes the Bible valuable is the claim that God wrote it, then unless one held that belief, what possible worth could it have? I mean -- hello! -- why would a nonbeliever lend any credence at all to the Bible if the only thing it has going for it is the wild and unsubstantiated claim that God (in whom they do not believe, mind you) wrote it. Duh?
But if we view it as the collected wisdom of an entire people, then it starts to take on some inherent value. Human nature is, after all, universal.
And then there's Suds' proposal. This guy, a Christian, who used to be on CompuServe had some weird ideas, many of them involving a kind of word magick that if we say something is a certain way then it becomes that way. However, he did say something that made a lot of sense: it would not matter one bit if Christianity is not the least bit true, because the history of Europe was shaped by people who
believed it to be true. Christianity actually being true? Completely unimportant. The results and consequences of people acting with the mere
belief that Christianity is true. Important. In case it's not clear, if everybody acts as if a delusion were true, then the consequences would be the same whether that delusion is true or not -- assuming, of course, that that delusion does not immediately contrary the laws of nature, like believing that we can breathe under water.
So, to the extent that the Bible is responsible for shaping our society's history, it would be important. Though actually, the Bible itself did less than one would think, because a lot of Christian beliefs are of extra-biblical origin, including the beliefs of Christians who claim to only believe in the Bible.
And if you deal with art or literature, then a knowledge of the Bible would be valuable because stories and themes from the Bible were heavily used as source material. As were pagan myths, so those are also valuable to learn.
Edited by dwise1, : No reason given.
Edited by dwise1, : No reason given.
{When you search for God, y}ou can't go to the people who believe already. They've made up their minds and want to convince you of their own personal heresy.("The Jehovah Contract", AKA "Der Jehova-Vertrag", by Viktor Koman, 1984)
And we who listen to the stars, or walk the dusty grade,
Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made,
Or study cells, or living things, seek truth with open hand.
The profoundest act of worship is to try to understand.
Deep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed,
The truth has left its living word for anyone to read.
So turn and look where best you think the story is unfurled.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world. (filk song "Word of God" by Dr. Catherine Faber,
No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.echoschildren.org/CDlyrics/WORDGOD.HTML)