Preface

In which the author describes his position and methodologies for the production of this project.

This blog is not just another random commentary on life or nothing at all. It is a project. In this project, I will read the entire Christian Bible from cover to cover. Why? Well, kinda to prove a point. I imagine that by the time I read the entire Old Testament, I will have read two to three times as much of the Christian Bible than 90% of all Christians. And by the time I read the rest of it, I should be somewhere in the top one percentile.

Along the way, I will make notes about the words I am reading. I will raise questions and remark on anything that astounds, amazes, confounds, confuses, or even marginally interests me. When I'm done, this blog should contain more words than the Bible itself, and I presume, given my viewpoint on religion and Christianity, will probably serve as a pretty good source for denouncing the Bible and making it look stupid. That's not so much a goal as it is an eventuality.

Let me begin by making a few notes about the Bible I'm reading. It's the “New International Version” given to my wife on February 22, 1999 (so says the dedication page in the book itself). The church that approves of this version of the Bible is the Comfort Baptist Church in Comfort, Texas.

I don't presume to know exactly what that means, if it means anything at all, but anybody who would like to place a claim that my Bible is somehow invalid can tell me which passages I quote that they take umbrage with and how their version differs from mine. I will try to address all differences when possible if they are left in the comments.

Also, it is only fair to state in advance that the commentary in this blog comes from my perspective. That is, an atheist and humanist perspective. I was born, baptized, and raised in Catholicism, but have since realized the problems inherent in such a method of personal growth. I now lean toward logic and rationality while recognizing that fiction makes for great entertainment. Any other related opinions of mine should become apparent over the course of this blog. Hopefully I find the Bible to be at least good fiction.

Begin with Genesis