Why Read the Bible?
Author and mathematician David Berlinski is no Christian, yet he’s a big proponent of the Bible. He calls the Old Testament “the greatest repository of human knowledge and wisdom in the history of civilization.” He also notes that few people actually open it.
Berlinski said that when he polls his students, many claim to have read the Bible. Yet when he asks them even the most rudimentary questions about it, the truth becomes apparent. They have a Bible. They’ve never read it.
Let’s say we grant Berlinski his point about reading the Bible. In this Age of TikTok and Instagram, wading into a book that size is daunting. Where do we even begin?
Beyond that, we stumble into big problems once we do start. The Bible contains storylines unfit for Sunday school consumption. It should come with a warning label: this book provides an unfiltered view of the human condition and contains material many readers may find disturbing.
I know several people who are not Christians precisely because they have read the Bible. They seek neat, clean answers to the world’s problems, and they simply don’t find them here.
I can’t make up anyone’s mind for them, nor would I disrespect them by trying to do so. But here’s what I have learned.
