New Bible Book Is 'Awkward' on Purpose

New Bible Book Is 'Awkward' on Purpose; Illustrations Meant To Stir Critical Thinking
Despite its title and seemingly playful illustrations, the intended audience of The Awkward Moments Children's Bible is not simply boys and girls. Rather than offering familiar Old and New Testament stories alongside colorful depictions of Jesus, Moses, Noah and David, the book contrasts some of Bible's most controversial, strange, and violent verses alongside cheerfully jarring and dramatic pictures.

According to author Horus Gilgamesh, one of the goals behind these provocative juxtapositions is to encourage more Christians to critically think about the Bible.

"Frankly what it comes down to is we want people to think about the Bible for themselves, not just going to church once a month or once a week and nodding their head and cherry-picking and taking things out of context," Gilgamesh told The Christian Post.

According to Gilgamesh, many Christians know little about their own faith, pointing to a 2010 Pew study that showed that 55 percent of American Christians could not name the writers of the four Gospels as evidence. Instead, the author claimed, many over-rely on churches and sermons to explain the Bible to them, without doing their own spiritual homework.The Christian Post

I found this article on The Christian Post and as I was reading thought at some point I would see the book put down but it wasn’t. By the end of the article you come to find out his illustrations has actually brought about some civil conversation on the subject from both sides after a few bumps in the road first. In case the title threw you off it isn’t really a children’s book.

Below is a small quote from the books author.

Our goal? Biblical literacy! To get people to read their Bibles – to really read them! We hope these illustrations will encourage folks to ask some important questions – for themselves, for their children, for their culture, and society. If we get a good belly laugh out of our readers every now and then – it’s just a major bonus!

For more on the the book and some more awkwarp illustrations go to www.awkwardmomentsbible.com...

In case you didnt notice. The in thing in America thanks to the propaganda machine is to polorize the entire nation so we argue with eachother instead of uniting against the open and aggresive tyaranny that is being put in place and rolled out. Division is the key to sucess for the federal governments plan, dont let them win so easy. ;

reply to post by Helious


I don’t see this as dividing I am reading through the book sight now and there are some really good points. Some of these stories should be looked at and discussed IMO.

Where’s The Baby? There is a reason that some Bible stories don’t appear in your average children’s Bible. Though, we don’t really recommend sharing this delightful tale with junior. Before the armchair theologians scream about “context”:

- Yes, this city was under siege and suffering a famine.
- Yes, people were dying left and right anyway.
- No, the Bible doesn’t say whether or not the boys were already dead or how old they were.
- No, none of that matters. I could never eat my own child.

However, to me the funniest part of this story continues after this passage. The poor king had finally HAD IT! He tears his clothes, walking around the city, screaming at God – basically, “WTF?!?!” To be fair, if my people were eating their children, I’d probably lose my sh*t as well.

Isn’t that worth some discussion?

This is a wonderful book because it goes on and makes people question just WTF the bible is and why is it so brutal? If you have ever read the bible, would you ever let your children read it? Probably not because how vulgar it is and trying to explain what rape is to a 6 year old is probably not an easy job when they don't even know there are two sets of genitalia. Of course, that's why they invented bibles for children, which basically changes stories around entirely to appeal to children, however this has nothing to do with the word of god so I don't really understand why they exist.

I believe in god but I don't believe in the Christian god because he's a dick and you get that impression after reading the whole bible.

reply to post by Em2013


What I find strange is how I keep reading posts from mainly Christians saying morals come from the bible yet there is some pretty immoral stuff in that book that god supposedly sanctioned.

So how can something so immoral teach morals its very strange.

If those stories are irrelevant because they are Old Testament then why do so many still cherry pick from the Old Testament? Why not get rid of the Old Testament altogether if the new one is supposed to be the way?

I don’t know if I will ever get satisfactory answers to my questions on the subject because it seems there is no single answer to any of them everyone seems to interpret the bible and how it should be followed in their own way.

Grimpachi
reply to post by Em2013

 

What I find strange is how I keep reading posts from mainly Christians saying morals come from the bible yet there is some pretty immoral stuff in that book that god supposedly sanctioned.

So how can something so immoral teach morals its very strange.

I think they tend to talk about the 10 commandments and that's about it. When my wife (or rather girlfriend at the time) said that she has catholic moral values and that's why she's okay with religion, I explained to her what the bible had and showed her. She then said "well, I wasn't religious in the first place" lol...

I'm surrounded by Christians and their moral values are pretty bad, and the more religious they are the more "traditional" their mind is. This means that sex is to be had missionary and only to conceive, women are to stay at home and take care of children (lots of children!), and science is a source of evil. Of course they genuinely believe that gay people are demons disguised as humans or humans that are possessed so they aren't treated with any kind of respect. Oh, and I make sure to not tell anyone about psychokinesis around Christians, they will turn into demons and hunt me down, no joke the people in the Philippines are very true to their god. Even my best friend stopped talking to me because of this, he said he's no longer going to touch that because he believes it's dark and evil. So much for being besties

reply to post by Grimpachi


Awesome! Now people can see the positive and negative. It puts things into violence.

reply to post by Grimpachi

According to author Horus Gilgamesh

Now there's a name that's destined for something!

Love it! Love the book too. People should be discussing these things, especially those Christians who believe that Jesus and the Old Testament God are one in the same.

Sorry but this is pure garbage. The author of the book is a hypocrite. He claims that people "cherry pick" from the Bible and don't understand the context but then he proceeds to cherry pick his examples without any context. Well I should say in the baby example above he gives the context but then pretends it makes no sense.

Christians wont read this book so all he is doing is pandering to the crowds of atheist who claim to despise religion but would waste time and money on this book . Perhaps at one of the atheist churches being developed they can discuss this book and praise the author.

Helious
In case you didnt notice. The in thing in America thanks to the propaganda machine is to polorize the entire nation so we argue with eachother instead of uniting against the open and aggresive tyaranny that is being put in place and rolled out. Division is the key to sucess for the federal governments plan, dont let them win so easy. ;

Honestly, I could not agree with your sentiments more fully. Really hits the nail on the proverbial head.

reply to post by Grimpachi


We are sooooo buying this for our coffee table. Thanks for posting this thread.

Also, just to comment on it, I'd say that it is very important for Christians to read this as it at least allows them to see what non-Christians see when we look at the bible.

reply to post by NihilistSanta


Well it’s a shame if Christians will not by the book or read it as you say IMO it’s because they act like those stories/segments don’t exist in the bible that a good many feel betrayed when they find out they then leave the church. Maybe those stories can’t be reconciled rationally so they are swept under the rug per say.

You say he explained in the one example satisfactorily however you would be incorrect on that. I simply didn’t quote the entire article or the source where I got the pictures from. If you click on the links provided in the OP it will take you to the section where I got those pics and each one has further explanations. That was your mistake attacking the premise before doing the smallest research into it.

reply to post by Grimpachi

So you would like to discuss ancient Syrian culture?

reply to post by usertwelve


I believe I said I think the odd biblical stories should be discussed that includes various cultures to my understanding. Are you saying everything in the Old Testament is Syrian?

I had thought about starting a topic on each of the books excerpts for discussion after seeing how this thread went.

yep...

anything to make a $

reply to post by Komodo


Maybe so, but you have to admit those stories are downright weird. I have heard all men are created equal attributed to god yet you see passages on slavery which doesn't make much sense. The waisting seed one is a big part of catholic doctrin and attributed to the epidemics of our lifetime. The one where he offers his kids to be raped is just FUBAR.

Grimpachi
reply to post by Komodo

 

Maybe so, but you have to admit those stories are downright weird. I have heard all men are created equal attributed to god yet you see passages on slavery which doesn't make much sense. The waisting seed one is a big part of catholic doctrin and attributed to the epidemics of our lifetime. The one where he offers his kids to be raped is just FUBAR.

edit on 17-11-2013 by Grimpachi because: (no reason given)

Cherry picking from the OT is dishonest. This isnt giving CONTEXT to what is written down. Its Propoganda. I would not be surprised the book is paid for by someone with islamic ties.Heres what most do not understand the OT was NOT FOR MODERN CHRISTIANS. the OT was for the people living before the time of Christ and not for today. Its a history to Modern christians thats it.

reply to post by yuppa



The book is funded by free market supply and demand no overlords needed.

Question though. If it is simply ha history book then why are stories such as the spilling seed used to justify not providing things like birth control?

Cherry picking is being done by those in the church I have seen it.

yuppa
Heres what most do not understand the OT was NOT FOR MODERN CHRISTIANS. the OT was for the people living before the time of Christ and not for today. Its a history to Modern christians thats it.

I'm not disagreeing, but this is not how most Christians see the old testament.

I don't even believe that Jesus is speaking of the same god than the ole' book does but this would be blasphemy to most believers.

theMediator

yuppa
Heres what most do not understand the OT was NOT FOR MODERN CHRISTIANS. the OT was for the people living before the time of Christ and not for today. Its a history to Modern christians thats it.

I'm not disagreeing, but this is not how most Christians see the old testament.

I don't even believe that Jesus is speaking of the same god than the ole' book does but this would be blasphemy to most believers.

edit on 18-11-2013 by theMediator because: (no reason given)

Actually jesus is speaking to God of abraham and that is who he is speaking to. ANd most christians who believe that the OT applies to them are not learned enough. The OT i s being used by the modern church to try to get people into them or to make them listen to them instead of thinking for themselves which we are suppossed to do and are encouraged to do.

@grimpachi.
The examples used are not applicaple to modern christians. That was for the israelites/hebrews alone. And the way the pages of that book look it appears it is cherry picked and out of context. I t needs explanation and clarification.