For this week’s Religion in the News posting, I wanted to find an article on some religious literature. Looking through my New York Times app, I found an interesting article in the “Book Review” section titled ‘The Bible doesn’t offer a consistent view on much of anything’. The author, Benjamin Moser argues that The Bible was written by many authors, in varying countries, in many different languages, and over many centuries, which is grounds for there to be some significant inconsistencies within the text. Moser talks specifically of the people who use The Bible as a means to argue questions or moralities, noting that the people who invoke these conversations usually already know the ‘correct’ answer (according to their religion), making the questions anachronistic for others. This was largely discussed in terms people’s ‘sex lives’, focusing on gay marriage and females. I think this correlates with the diminishing ‘confidence’ in religious organizations, religion is often grouped with conservative right-wing values. This ‘alliance’ tends to push the younger generations away, since things such as gay marriage and female sexual freedom are becoming much more acceptable in society today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/books/review/which-canonical-work-is-frequently-and-frustratingly-misread.html?_r=0