Depending on the age and condition, you can either flog it or donate it to a museum. I’m a collector of books and prior to my “deconversion”, I’ve managed to attain quite a few really old bibles, they weigh a ton and take up a crapload of space (the one is printed in A3 and leather bound), but can be worth the same in gold as well.
i only collect books that i actually want to read. i got a bible for like, my 13th birthday or something. i havent the foggiest idea what happened to it. might have made paper aeroplanes with it. or built a viking death barge with it for my deceased goldfish.
What a neat idea, I hope you used the old testament, it is full of fire and brimstone.
Lol… An old friend of mine used to carry one of those tiny blue Gideon’s bibles around with him. He used the pages to roll joints. We always used to joke that he should’ve started with Revelations.
I still have the Bible I got after my confirmation. Big old black Afrikaans thing. And years later my sister gave me a really beautifully bound NEV Bible. I also have a nice Koran, given to me by a friend, which I haven’t even opened yet. I guess my love of books extends as much to the aesthetic as is does to the content. All I need now is a copy of the Book of Mormon, Torah, and maybe the I Ching, then I’d have a nice collection of religious texts going… As long as they’re pretty on the outside of course.
All I need now is a copy of the Book of Mormon, Torah, and maybe the I Ching
Don’t forget two of the most commonly available in 2nd hand shops:-
Dianetics (scientology)
The science of self realisation (krishna-consciousness)
Not sure what buddhist or hindu texts would be appropriate.
i have a fair amount of buddhist books. old things i found in a secondhand book shop. and they are actually nice to read. things to think about. I also have books by the Dalai Lama. He is a very wize old toppie. I also a collection of Erich von Daniiken. just coz i can. he got my head out of religion, so i owe him that much. I have a tellinger book. that was a good piece of fantasy ;D
I also a collection of Erich von Daniiken. just coz i can. he got my head out of religion, so i owe him that much.
I owe something to a book called “The manna machine” which was a similar sort of wild fantasy about aliens giving Moses a nuclear powered hydroponics tank to feed the people for 40 years in the desert. It was well written and very closely tied to the texts and how they could be interpreted from an engineering standpoint.
That sort of thing serves a purpose in that firstly it can be entertaining, but more usefully it can open your eyes to how easy it is to make the texts fit whatever spin you wish to put on them. If you have a wild idea, it can seem perfectly logical that all the ancient religious texts support your fantasy, and so it is no wonder there are so many denominations, sects, fanatics etc.
A cryptic text is immune to correct interpretation, and incorrect interpretation, it is useful to anyone who wishes to use it, and useless to anyone who wishes to learn facts from it.
old von daniiken had me going ‘holy fucking fuck’ when i was like 15. (still dont know how the hell his books were not banned from the small-town library). i still like to read his books, and i still go holy fucking fuck. then i realise that as cool as all the alien stuff would be, it’s propably the least likely explanation. then again, it may not be. i wont be breaking my head about it.
It is also a very good illustration of extreme confirmation bias at work, the driving force behind conspiracy theories and cults. Everything that can be interpreted to support your cause is given special significance, and every attempt by others to look at things from another perspective is seen as suppression of the truth by those with bad motives or invested interests, while failing to realise that a ‘pet theory’ is an invested interest all by itself.
We’re a bit off topic here, but a final sad note is that the Encyclopedia Brittanica is going out of print - they have around 4000 copies left to sell and will in future only sell electronic formats. I weep.
But think of the trees!
True…
Thanks to Wikipedia, they might well not last long even in electronic format.
'ol wiki isn’t allways that accurate though…
It is not all that much less accurate than Britannica, and has the advantage that unlike Britannica, it has article on anything and everything. 
Wikipedia is just another encyclopedia. I don’t think it was ever intended to be the definitive authority on anything. It’s merely a summation of information already available elsewhere. I especially like that they cite the actual patent numbers with links on mechanical subjects. It’s sure better than aimlessly trawling for sites that might or might not have the information I’m looking for. And it’s definitely more up to date than any printed encyclopedia I’ve had access to in the last ten years. And if you don’t trust the references it’s the perfect excuse to do more research. Win-win if you ask me.
point and case: i found an article about cats. the biggest load is shit ever. people add articles, and the moderator doesnt know whether it’s accurate or not, and really couldnt be bothered to find out. or other users ammend it, add their own two cents… it’s layman’s forum that.
The most valuable part of Wikipedia is list of links at the bottom of the article. Get an overview of the subject matter from the Wiki, then drill down into the source matter…