Monday, September 24, 2007

RELIGION & ITS ALTERNATIVES


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU FOLLOW EVERY RULE IN THE BIBLE?

MSNBC - After A. J. Jacobs spent a year reading the entire Encyclopedia
Britannica for his book "The Know-It-All," he figured he had the
yearlong experiment thing down. How much harder could it be to follow
every rule in the Bible? Much, much harder, he soon discovered, as he
found himself growing his beard, struggling not to curse and asking
strangers for permission to stone them for adultery. Jacobs spent the
year carrying around a stapled list of the more than 700 rules and
prohibitions identified in the Good Book, and also consulted with
religious leaders and spent time with the Amish, Hassidic Jews and
Jehovah's Witnesses. He spoke to NEWSWEEK's Jennie Yabroff about his
experience and his new book, "The Year of Living Biblically" . . .

What rule was the hardest to follow? T

Two kinds of rules were hard. Avoiding sins we commit every day like
lying, gossiping and coveting was hard, and then there were the rules
that were hard to do in modern life, like stoning adulterers. But I did
manage to fulfill that one. What happened was, I was in the park,
dressed in my white garb, and this man in his 70s came over and asked
what I was doing. I explained I was trying to follow every rule in the
Bible as literally as possible, including growing my beard, not mixing
fibers, stoning adulterers, and he said, "I'm an adulterer, are you
going to stone me?" I said, "Yeah that would be great." The Bible
doesn't say what size the stones have to be, so I had been carrying
around these pebbles in my pocket for just such an occasion. I took the
pebbles out of my pocket, and he instantly picked one up and threw it at
me, so I decided, an eye for an eye, and I tossed one at him. It did
provide an entry for talking to people about capital punishment and the
Bible. How could they stone adulterers, what was life like back then,
does it apply today. I tried to say to the guy, you shouldn't sleep with
other women, but I don't know if it sunk in.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20910659/site/newsweek/?from=rss

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

No comments: