Can reading the Bible be unhealthy?

To much Bible propaganda causes guilt. Understanding Gods Grace grants freedom. what you’ve heard about hell is mostly propaganda envisioned from Dante’s Inferno, not from the Bible.

I think that it is natural, and healthy, to ask these questions. What you conclude the answers to be is something entirely personal to you, but I think the unhealthy thing is to never ask in the first place.

No no no, read the whole thing – nothing will make you an atheist faster. I mean after Genesis alone… And that’s book one! It’s ok to fornicate with your father as long as you get him drunk, look it up. Lot and his daughters = gross.

And slavery gets an AMEN from G O D just a few books later. Well, well, well. Bible is not the word of God, and if it was – God is totally not worth worshiping because it would make him a total prick and when I say him, I mean that no female god would ever be as retarded.

The fact that you feel guilt over a book should tell you your answer right there.

The fact that you are even asking this makes you more of a Christian than people who live according to the Bible.

If the Bible is to be believed, we were in a state of grace until God made us feel shame and guilt, yet makes us beg for more of those negative feelings out of fear for our eternal souls. That means that either the Bible is inherently unhealthy or that the Bible is wrong enough that is should not form the core of any belief system.

That said, reading the Bible without all of th brainwashing that you often get from a church can actually be enlightening… so long as you do not take the entirety of it at face value and mold your belief system around it an it alone like some hostage with Stockholm Syndrome. Reading it is perfectly healthy so long as you have a large supply of salt grains to take it with.

Yes.

“Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.”
Luke 6:22–23, KJV

Don’t watch christians. They’re still human and prone to error. Keep your eyes on God and watch what he wants you to do.

I sit here and see people denigrate the Bible without understanding what’s in it, denigrate christians largely because they are trying to become better people, and denigrate God because the universe doesn’t conform to their expectations of it. We each have to find our own answers to the question, “What will you do with Jesus Christ?”

@CaptainHarley I denigrate the Bible as I see it as a book written by Man, and denigrate those that follow the Bible literally instead of opening their minds and their hearts to listen to what God says instead of blindly following what some people claim He said. You can’t keep your eyes on God and watch what He wants you to do if your nose is buried in a book :p

I have been thinking about religion quite a lot over the past few months, and I have quite a few new ideas that I would like to share, as well as a few old ideas that I have found better words to explain, so this could get a bit long and perhaps a touch off topic at times, so sorry if it gets a little boring, but this question is a good opportunity for me to share my ideas.

There is nothing wrong with reading the bible or any other religious text, but believing it is very unhealthy.

There is a reason you feel bad for leaving Christianity, the reason being that the designers intended to gain as many members as possible. The past was a dangerous place, and there is safety in numbers. Seeing as humans actually kill members of their own species, evolution has given us this thing called religion to help keep us safe by segmenting us in to rival gangs.

If you feel bad when you leave a religion, then there is a good change you won’t leave, or at least there is a chance that you will come back if you do. Lots of parts of Christianity and other religions are the way they are for the sole purpose of gaining and keeping members.

At first religions were crude and simplistic, but over the years the “priests” and “shaman” learned how to refine religions to better control people. Religions evolved and changed as the “holy men” learned exactly what controls people and what does not. They learned exactly what ideas can be dismissed with ease, and what ideas will haunt you for life.

Just take a good look at Christianity or almost any other religion and you can start to see with ease just how much of it is designed to gain and keep members, and just how much is designed to control the members. This is something that applies to both the old rules and ideas just as much as the more modern ones.

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Some examples of rules and ideas regarding the gaining and keeping members are:

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- Homosexuality does not lead to birth, most people are born in to their religion, so less birth means less members, so homosexuality is therefore bad.

- Condoms reduce the amount of births, this also reduces the amount of members your religion has, so they too are bad.

- Abortion also reduces the amount of births, so this too is also bad.

- Eating pork and shellfish without proper refrigeration (2000 years ago) is dangerous, so to prevent deaths and a loss of members, eating said things is bad.

-Greed in a time of poverty leads to deaths, deaths lead to a loss of members, so sharing is good and greed is bad. This is why we see scripture about rich people going through the eye of a needle, and wearing clothes made of more than one material, and etc.

- Killing members of your own tribe decreases population, this causes you to lose members, so killing members of your own tribe is bad. (killing those who belong to other tribes is good)

- When a religion’s members are confused they will feel a desire to seek answers, so it is beneficial for a religion to confuse it’s members and then provide experts with answers, as this helps to keep members.

- When a religion’s members are feeling guilt or shame it will lead to a desire to repair what they did wrong, so having members feel guilt or shame regarding leaving their religion will help keep members.

- When a religion’s members are scared they will be seek answers and be more obedient, so threats of death and hell are good for keeping members under control, and ultimately stop them from leaving

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The bible is designed to keep it’s members in a loop of fear, guilt, shame and confusion to make them keep coming back to it’s experts for answers and guidance and ultimately control.

In short: The bible is basically designed to pollute minds in order to keep it’s subjects in a suggestible state of mind, and this is why believing it is unhealthy.

Anyway, as I’m saying negative things about religion, and doing so could cause someone to lose members, I am sure there will be some questions/debate for me to answer to so I’ll stop here for now, and I can deal with the counter arguments if and when they start rolling in.

It certainly can be. Being a homosexual and reading a line in the Bible that commands your execution for that very reason isn’t exactly positive material and could get someone down. The whole idea of Hell and eternal torment for small infractions made no sense to me and is part of the reason I started to think more atheistically (other than not really believing in the first place and realizing I was just doing what I thought I was supposed to do).

I understand what you are saying—when I first started to not believe and shy away from Christianity I started thinking “by doing this am I going to burn for all eternity?” (This is a 13-year-old me thinking this). Then I started realizing that the whole threat of damnation as motivation for belief is absurd in itself and defeats itself. I don’t want to follow any religion that threatens eternal torment or stresses guilt and shame over natural normal actions or commands the death of anyone. If there is a God, then that God truly is a loving and understanding God and should be sought individually, not through a religious system, that’s just my idea and it’s not about guilt or eternal damnation…

And I guess I just see through the outdated “rules” of the Bible. No sex before marriage, no homosexuality…these aren’t God’s biases, these are the rules of the cultures of the men who wrote the Bible, so naturally they occur in the Bible as well. But times have changed and are changing.

I’m sort of thinking out loud here, so forgive me…

What a clever way for leaders of that epoch to keep people quiet, submissive and ignorant.
“Have faith and doubt not.” Just follow the instructions otherwise you’ll burn in hell. I am not denigrating the higher power that exists, but I refuse to bow to the huge number ( I admit not all of them) of sick relgious leaders throughout the ages who have tailored religion to keep their power intact. If it’s a true Christian you want to be, then I guess the “Holy Bible” is not the instruction guide you should be following!

I think @DominicX touches on something that strikes me as important. Reading the Bible is not unhealthy. Asking questions is not unhealthy. Adhering to a set of beliefs because you have been conditioned to fear straying, that is not healthy, in my opinion.

@ZEPHYRA If memory serves, there was a long period where most people were illiterate except for clergy, and they really didn’t like it when people stated being able to read the Bible for themselves to see what it really said.

Obsessing can be unhealthy. It’s important to remember that the bible was written as a guide, not an instruction manual.

Whether or not you read the bible, believe the bible or if you get your code of conduct or morals and ethics somewhere else, you still will have feelings of guilt when you do something against your moral or ethical code. With few exceptions when people do something that goes against their moral code, the do have a feeling of guilt. That does not come from the bible it is something that is within you.

@jerv

I gave you a “great answer” on that because what you say is ( mostly ) true and needs to be said. Interpreting the Bible as literally true in all respects is almost as much of an error as refusing to believe a word that’s in it.

I have always sought truth wherever it may be found, and to reject an entire book just because some distort what’s written in it is simply foolish.

If one believes it, yes.

If you take everything it says literally then I believe it can become unhealthy and, in some cases, harmful. I believe in God but I also believe that the Bible is the word of man, not God. That’s not to say that I think the Bible is all bad however, there are some useful lessons in there too.

It bothers me that a lot of The Bible seems to be about doing everything to get in a better place when you die, and that everything you do on this Earth is just to make sure you get in Heaven. Even in the more tame versions like The New Testament, it’s like, you just do shit for a front row seat ticket, instead of for the value of some virtue or another. Shouldn’t we enjoy life now, and love people because we love em and want to love them? Why does there have to be some secondary, underlying reason? @digitalimpression‘s quote freaks me out. The Bible isn’t supposed to freak you out, not on how it presents itself, anyway.
I’m not saying it’s unhealthy to read it, not at all, but it’s already a good step of you to not wholly rely on it. If there really is a God, I hope He’s proud.

Yes, without background understanding or being open to it it can be the most dangerous misconstrue available to you. The Bible actually reads us when we are in a place to recognize this.

It can be very unhealthy for ignorant people when they turn into irresponsible zealots damaging themselves as well as their children.