by Bernice Pritchard

Created on: August 12, 2008

I really do disagree with the belief The Bible being a valid book for real educational purposes. Here's why:

There is an abundance of controversial issues surrounding different versions of the bible and whether one version of the bible is more accurate than another. That in itself is argument enough to refrain from using the bible for educational purposes. If it is not known which version of the bible is accurate and one chooses to be educated using the inaccurate version, then what would follow is an inaccurate education.

Any minimal study of the bible an its origins would lead to The Textus Receptus. The Textus Receptus is the Greek version of the Bible's new testament and its the version of the bible that the Kings James Version was translated from. However, The Latin Vulgate precedes even the Textus Receptus. The Vulgate is what the Textus Receptus was translated from. Most people are aware of the fact that when a document is translated from another document written in another language, much is lost through the translations. So we're taling about two prior translations of our modern bible (KJV) - first from Latin, then to Greek, finally to English and even before we received our modern English version, there was the translation from the olde English to modern English. Therefore, the truth has already been altered several times. I would liken this situation to something we all know to be familiar. Think about the game telephone most of us played when we were young. Whatever the original message was in the game, by the time it got to the last person, it was not the same message. That's what happened to the Bible we find so popular today. An educational pursuit that has been gained in such a manner would be wrong.

Another reason why I reject the bible being used for real educational purposes is because, I've come to realize that any religious belief one has, can be justified some place in the bible; even those who still believe in sacrificing animals. There's a place in the bible that justifies that.

Finally, the bible is not a good educational tool in my opinion because there are a number of books that was originally a part of the holy book that were rejected. So that's like telling someone a story but leaving out parts that the person telling the story didn't think was either appropriate or important. When things are omitted, the entire story cannot be grasped by the listener. So any decisions based on an incomplete story, will be an incomplete decision. The bible, because of its many ommissions and translations is no a valid tool to use for educational purposes.

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