In my opinion, there is only so much one can learn from simply reading the Bible alone. To get real value out of the Bible, you have to participate in a Bible study. Otherwise, it's too easy to cheat. For example, for years I simply ignored verses or whole chapters in the Bible that didn't make sense to me. I didn't want to think about a God who wanted blood rituals or human sacrifices. In fact, I tended to avoid the Old Testament, preferring the personification of God as being the loving, kind, and forgiving Jesus, not the apparently cruel and  vacillating Yahweh of the Old Testament. Once upon a time, I was kicked out of one Bible study group after saying that Yahweh and Jesus almost seemed to be two different Gods. But later, in a different, much smaller group that studied the book of Genesis painstakingly line by line, I was forced to confront a chapter than had always bothered me. Bible study inspired me to turn the story into a chapter in my first published book. In Divine Evolution there is a chapter called "Misunderstanding God", which begins by quoting the first verse of Bob Dylan's masterpiece Highway 61 Revisited, which reinterprets the story from Genesis 22: Ah, God said to Abraham, Kill me a son Abe say "Man, you must be puttin' me on." God say, "No." Abe say, "What?" God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but The next time you see me comin' you'd better run. Well Abe say, "Where you want this killin' done?" God says, "Out on Highway 61." The song gives Dylan's colorful interpretation of the story of Abraham and Isaac -- but the … [Read more...]