If the whole world read the book [i]The Secret Origins of the Bible[/i], there would be no more Christians, Muslims or Jews. It's that conclusive. Truly eye-opening information. But most people don't care about that topic or are so level-headed that they prefer to honor the accepted taboo on challenging religious notions. My only problem with that is, upon watching Bill Maher's popular movie ";Religulous,"; I'm convinced that being ";tolerant"; of mankind's global religious psychosis is nearly tantamount to participating in it. With that in mind, I went to the library today and found this book, which was written by Michael Shermer, whose name I've heard several times now, and I think it might be a little more interesting to the average American. (He's the editor of Skeptic magazine and is featured in this really helpful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU). Obviously, I wish that every rational person would read it.

And for what it's worth, I only post this kind of stuff on here because I've always interpreted this crowd as being a more or less bright group of people.

The Science of Good and Evil:
http://www.michaelshermer.com/science-good-evil/

File this in the [b]WAY OFF TOPIC[/b] section...

This is turning into a bad family reunion (or band staff lunch): we're discussing religion and it won't be long before it's politics... Look out!

No kidding, let's just not bring up Rush Limbaugh or Fox News. You Texas band directors out there saw what happened to The Yellowboard after that:)

This group can handle a discussion about religion, as it relates to scholarship and reason.

And really, the more important book, in my opinion, is [u]The Secret Origins of the Bible[/u]; but its explanations of the Bible and its origins are so profoundly conclusive that it may be too much reality all at once for people steeped in religion. [u]The Science of Good and Evil[/u], though, is more user-friendly.

I'm assuming that, at least once or twice, while you guys were in school, one of your teachers gave you some information about this or that subject that just totally opened your eyes - gave you a pleasant shift of paradigm. These books do that same thing. And I think that it's important enough a topic to respectfully disregard a social more or two, in order to get it discussed.

[u]Secret Origins of the Bible[/u] is pretty weighty material, though. You almost have to have a college degree [i]before[/i] you read it.

Ryan,

No offense, but this is straying into 'way off topic' territory. I'm not opposed to sharing views on topics outside of music, but we don't have the bandwidth (or time) to get into these sorts of debates here. I'm sure there are many other forums better suited for such topics. Thanks for understanding.

Topic closed.