Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
Plenty of fiction has philosophy. But it's fiction cause it makes up stories.
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Those books were intended as works of fiction, however. The Bible is intended as history (most of the Old Testament, some of the New) and philosophy (most of the New, some of the Old). Sure, its veracity is questionable, but an inaccurate history is still non-fiction.
We now know that much of
On the Origin of Species is incorrect. Should it be classified as fiction?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart
Well I've never read it and I know enough about history by reading, you know, history, not some (as Batty says) made-up half-fairytale crap. Stuff like that poisons the perception, I feel. I certainly wouldn't want someone to read that and think "Gee! There really was a Garden of Eden?"  As close to fiction as it gets. |
It the whole Bible was a carbon copy of the first chapter of Genesis, you'd be right.
To quote Hilaire Belloc: "The whole story of Europe, her various realms and states and general bodies during the last sixteen centuries has mainly turned upon the successive heresies arising in the Christian world." In my mind, one needs to understand Christian philosophy in order to appreciate that story. Whether you read the Bible itself or some scholar's interpretation doesn't really matter, but I included the original source.
EDIT: Should add that similar reasoning could be used to justify the Quran's placement on my list.