From a scientific perspective that would be like saying: I want to study the stars but I won’t look at any books written by astronomers or astrologers.

Just to clarify the astrologers are the “doubters”: people who interpret w/o a frame of reference and conclude whatever they want eg: Leos are agressive (lol) or Jesus would drive a Prius (Llol). Whereas the astronomers are the “apologists”; the ones who have been studying this material for thousands of years NOT trying to CREATE a truth, but trying to UNDERSTAND that truth. They are anthropologists, historians and archeologists all rolled up into one. Listen to them.

Sure there are those who believe w/o knowledge, but I’m not referring to those. You are doing yourself a real favor if you find a few different study bibles. You’ll be surprised at how secular and scientific these can be (a little too much in some cases in my opinion). Good luck with your quest.

BUt it is definitely interesting when he talks about faith – which he often does. This is definitely a departing from his satirical “bill orielly” character when he does so.

Orielly rarely speaks in terms of defending his faith from a rational and theological point. And hardly EVER offers a real defense. And Colbert is a Catholic (albeit I dunno how solid he is when it comes to the dignity of life, marriage, etc.). But when it comes to many of the aspects of the Church, he actually makes some surprisingly good points.

If he truly wanted to represent the “arrogant bible thumpers” in satire it would be pretty easy to do. But he doesn’t really go that far.

Regardless of whether or not he is sincere or just playing a character in those moments…he actually makes a good defense of the faith. If he’s trying to make fun of his own character in those moments…he’s doing a terrible job, because he’s making his character look really smart.

And he usually manages to do it with good humor at the same time.

Jesus was quoting Psalm 22 (Check it out for yourselves)

This author is going to probably make a ton of money and he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about! The only contradiction is between Bart Ehrman’s interpretation of the Scriptures and what is actually happening in the Gospels.

I’m just reading the Bible for the first time and it’s hard for me to not try to interpret it.

As a newcomer it’s hard to determine who knows what they are talking about, so I’m avoiding books by both apologetics and doubters.

Right now I’m trying to focus objectively on the message than on the answers I’m looking for.