Where in The Bible can I find some good life lessons?

I too am an atheist, (and quite a militant one at that hehe.) and as part of my researching for debates I have read it several times. Without trying to offend anyone, I personally found that it is all more or less nonsense. The only parts that have any kind of wisdom to them, and the only parts that are at all helpful in a modern day to day life is proverbs. even then there are exceptions.

Here is a link

My personal favorite is: “21:19 It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.”

Life lessons? I’m not sure what you mean by that. I am not an atheist but I am not any sort of religionist either and certainly not a Christian though that was my upbringing. What do you consider a good “life lesson?” If you can clarify that, I would appreciate it.

I really think you should read all of it – whether you’ll gain life lessons out of it is highly debatable but you won’t know until you try it.

@poisonedantidote Thanks for that link, I’ll check it out in a few mins.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I just got my hands on one that has multiple translations, so I can read the same passage four times to get the full impact.

@lillycoyote “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, that type of shit.

@FutureMemory Well, then, lucky for you I just happen to have one, if not my favorite passages from the bible locked and loaded in TextEdit ready to fire. :-) This is a bit of the bible that many Christians seem to have completely blocked from view, for some reason, completely forgotten about.

Matthew 25:31–46 (King James Version)

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
 34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
 41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

If you can get beyond the whole judging business, and the heaven and hell parts, the passages are just telling us that we should give a shit about one another. Are you hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, in prison (OMG you committed a crime? god forbid anyone should get off track and make a mistake, or even two)? Are you in these circumstance? The rest of us should be there to help you. We are responsible to and for one another.

I think there a number of things going on in these passages, some other levels that have to do with maybe church history and, for me, the way certain people practice what they at least believe to be Christianity but you can read it for yourself, and yes, I think there are some very basic “life lessons,” issues of morality and ethics in these passages from Matthew. The bible is an anthology of texts written by a variety of humans over a long period of time. The texts encompass a wide range of topics and materials, but much of it is people writing about the human condition, things that have been with us for a long time and there is value and wisdom in much of that. It’s a very big, incredibly, monumentally influential collection of texts in terms of the history of Western Civilization and to simply dismiss the bible as a bunch of nonsense without understanding it and without understanding the role that the bible and Christianity has played in history is just intellectual, I don’t even know what… intellectual laziness, arrogance, blindness, but that is really an issue separate from whether or not the bible has any “life lessons” or wisdom in it.

Think @Simone_De_Beauvoir makes lots of sense. Read it and find out is great advise. For finding wisdom, would recommend the Book of Proverbs!

Proverbs 1:2–6
2 To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, 3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; 4 To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion— 5 A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles.

@FutureMemory, you might want to start by reading Slate’s Blogging the Bible by David Plotz. He went through the bible and summarized each book, in a thoughtful manner. The column is also available as audio.

Sometimes the meaning is not in the literal, quotable verse, but in the meaning of the whole book or a section. Proverbs has been the source of many a cross-stitched sampler throughout the ages.

One can read about life lessons in the translation of ancient texts or in today’s newspaper. But if it’s life lessons you want to learn, I believe that only comes from living life fearlessly and keeping an open mind to everything.

No, I have never read the Bible but yes. I continue trying to heed my own advice.

Try starting with Matthew. And get a Bible you can understand. King James is, to me, the most poetic, beautifully written translation but if you’re more into “getting it” you may like the New Inspired Version or any version other than KJames.
Don’t forget the Book of Acts. And yes, Proverbs teaches lessons in a lovely way. (-:

I agree with @Simone_De_Beauvoir, but use a modern translation because English changes over the centuries and older translations require more time when you want to read the whole Bible. This is what I did, realizing some some of the language is not as beautiful as Martin Luther’s original translation to German.

Maybe the two most important sentences are this:

My kingdom is not of this world.
Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and give God what belongs to God.

which can result in separation of church and state, a concept that does not exist in Islam for example.