The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss - Latest Comments in What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Jay — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:12:52 -0000

Ahavah wrote:
"You know, that verse about not rounding the corners of your hair or cutting your beard? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I did a linguistic analysis last semester of that passage and it doesn’t say that. It actually says something like “don’t make pilgrimages to the tombs of famous dead people, but don’t neglect the [nearby] graves of your elders.”

As a rather Hebrew literate person, I determine that you're either exceptionally sick, or what you wrote was a megalomanic attempt at humor.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Hermit — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:13:16 -0000

The whole point of the (Old Testament) Law was to prove that people can't be good enough to satisfy a holy God. You can't keep it, therefore you must look for salvation outside of your own efforts. Therefore, cafeteria religion is not required.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

DK — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:23:01 -0000

Interesting Project. My question is, did he only follow the Old Testament portion of the Bible? It sounds this way just by reading the article. If he only followed the OT portion of the Bible then he missed out on the greatest part of Freedom as he mentioned that is in the Bible and that is the Freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. If he, and I say if he because I haven't read the book would follow the teachings and not only the teachings of Christ then he would have found himself at the end of the project not as a reverent agnostic but as a Born Again child of the Living God. The interesting thing about Christianity compared to all of the other religions of today is that if you take away the teachings of Buddah you no longer have the Buddhist faith, if you take away the teachings of Mohammad you no longer have Islam, but if you even take away the teachings of Christ you STILL have Christianity. You may ask why is this. It's because, Christianity isn't just about the teachings of Christ, it's about the person of Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the Cross. This is the sole purpose of the Christian Faith. If he didn't follow the example of Jesus Christ, I challenge him greatly to do this and then after a year, let's see what his transformation is. Once again interesting project and I applaud him for following this and being faithful and he is correct about GOD's Commandments to mankind. In today's society we all fall so short of following these commandments. I also challenge everyone to follow GOD's Holy Commandments and if you are up for the challenge you will need to ask GOD for His guidance for this, because none of us have the stregnth to do it on our own.. GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU!!

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Rick — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:20:13 -0000

Interesting concept though the point that the law was given by God to show man his sinfulness and can't possibly be followed without fail seemed to have been overlooked in this experiment. As Paul stated so succinctly in Romans; "All have sinned and fall short of the glorious standard of a Holy God". That is why Christ came and suffered for us the punishment we deserved.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Alley — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:47:37 -0000

From now on, I am only wearing white.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Nancy Ulrich — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:11:00 -0000

Tim,

I figure that charity fits the biblical topic.

I'd like to give away the copy of 4 Hour Workweek that I won in the recent eLance Virtual Assistant contest.

I already have one very dog-eared copy, I'd like to give my new one away in a manner that might make a difference in someone else's life. Let me know if you could use another prize for your charitable endeavors. If not, I'll just leave it somewhere random and trust Providence to get it to someone who really needs it.

Nancy Ulrich
(the sock puppet lady)
http://www.elance.com/p/pro...

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Hi Nancy,

That is awesome of you. Please check your e-mail.

All the best,

Tim

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Michael — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:46:36 -0000

what do you think of it bro?

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Michael — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:46:05 -0000

hey man thats cool that you did that. i used to be agnostic myself for a loooooooong time. in the past 3 months i have changed drastically. little did i know that hardly any religion teaches the bible. and honestly what else do you have to go off of right? im just wondering if you have heard of the holy ghost? ya know when jesuse said a man mest be born of the water and of the spirit or he cannot enter into my fathers kingdom or w/e. well i was like whats spirit? well if you read on. on the day of pentacost ppl prayed up in this room for the holy ghost. so then a wind came in fire was above errbodys head then apparently they all spoke in tounges. i was jsut like this is crazy ive never seen this. well a week went by still studying and i tried to get tho holy ghost as far as speaking in tounges. and sure enough my speech started to slur, and i was sayin something completely different. since then ive seen like 5 other ppl new to this have the same effect. its real and it is wild. so check it out for yourself man. it is in the book of acts. peace bro

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Antoine Valot — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:47:04 -0000

Tim, are you aware that in this post, all the apostrophes show up as an accented followed by the euro symbol and the TM symbol, on Safari on my macbook pro. See for yourself at browsershots.org. You might want to fix that, it makes reading painful.

Otherwise, great work as always! Very inspiring.

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Ug -- this is killing me! Thank you for the URL. This annoying typo is from copying and pasting from Word, the invention of the ages. Mensch!

I'll get it fixed eventually :)

Tim

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Joshua — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:42:23 -0000

We dont live in a theocracy like the Israelites did so it would be hard to justify stoning an adulterer today. Instead we could try to teach them the gospel.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

The Castle Steps — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:17:22 -0000

>>AJ was only interested in part of the Bible, which is fine, but he should have more properly introduced himself as someone following the practices of Orthodox Judaism, not the Bible.

This is a cop-out. Anybody (Christian, Orthodox Jew, Conservative Jew, Jehovah's Witness etc.) who believes that the Bible is the word of God has no choice but to follow everything.

My (universal) experience of Christians and Jews is that they pick and choose. Find me a "believer" who refuses to wear polyester and cotton shirts (see my post above), or who agrees that a woman who is raped in the city but who doesn't cry out should be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:24).

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

The Castle Steps Hotel, Prague — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:20:35 -0000

The author doesn't seem to have followed Deuteronomy 22:11 (along with many Christians and Jews). Check your clothes: if you are wearing polyester and cotton you are sinning in the eyes of God.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Mister Snitch — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:09:07 -0000

Unfortunately, AJ only grasped the most superficial aspects of biblical understanding. He often used what he read as little more than grist for his journalist's mill (in this case, fodder for his book). For example, stoning the adulterer. No old-testament Jew would ever have stoned an outsider, and that's what that fellow was, as far as AJ was concerned. The Jewish law regarding stoning was for believers only.

Furthermore, Jesus himself famously set some 'new rules' about the practice which weren't, I guess, as much fun for AJ to follow. AJ was only interested in part of the Bible, which is fine, but he should have more properly introduced himself as someone following the practices of Orthodox Judaism, not the Bible. That would not have sold so widely, of course, but that very deception was itself a lie.

All things considered, it's hard to feel terribly excited by this 'experiment'. In point of fact, it's an insult to anyone who has honestly tried to follow God for most of their lives. (Not that such a person would be outraged, so much as saddened, by this farce.)

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Mad — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:52:07 -0000

LOLOLOLOLOLO!
The lengths some will go to ridicule what is Good! The Mosaic law was for a barbaric people in a barbaric age with barbaric mentalities and enemies. This idiot didn't mention that it protected the Israelites from diseases, and contributed to a happy life and community- DID he?

Only Fools are Free.... (From common sense, from virtue, from their Maker)

Mike

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Helen — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:08:21 -0000

sounds like a fascinating book! Adding it to my to-be-read list. Interesting comments too. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about Judaism.

Greenpeace is my charity of choice. I set up an auto-deposit with them. It's a fantastic feeling - every time I hear about an action on the news, I get to feel like I've contributed. Not quite a trip to Nepal, but nice nonetheless. (And yes, it is about people, not tree-hugging: the poorest people of the world are going to suffer most from Global Warming.)

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Chris — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:16:26 -0000

Mt 28:18-20

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Did he follow this rule? If so, I must have not been home when he knocked on my door.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Josh — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:33:02 -0000

There's several problems to this experiment.

First off, Mr. Jacobs is Jewish. If he wants to simply follow an english translation, that's fine, but that is not the bible as it was given to Moses. It is a poor translation from the Greek which by definition excludes all of the oral law that is constantly alluded to in what we know as the old testament today.

For example, in Hebrew, the first verse of the old testament literally translates to: "In the beginning of, G-d created the heavens and the earth." The first word, "Bereshis", is in the construct form and literally means "In the beginning of". So either there is some deeper meaning being clued to here or G-d had poor grammar.

And if you tell me that heavens and the earth were the first thing created, why did G-d wait to create the earth until the third day? This is one of thousands of examples that the oral tradition explains and greatly impacts the law how to "follow the bible" (Torah).

Any self respecting Christian would do well to understand the Torah in Hebrew, and if they were intellectually honest, would probably end up converting to Judaism upon actually learning the depths of what they read and perhaps unknowingly foolishly take literally.

As for Mr. Jacobs' literal interpretation, much of what is said in the old testament today no longer applies to Torah observant Jews as there is no Temple, nor a Sanhedrin to mete out many of the corporal punishments, like "stoning adulterers". To follow such things literally is the epitome of foolishness and ignorance of his heritage.

If he truly wants to follow the bible, otherwise known as the Torah literally, it is impossible to do so since he does not know or accept the fact that Torah observant Jews believe that there is an oral law that has been passed down since Moses and argued and come to a uniform conclusion among "Orthodox" Jews.

I wonder what it would have been like had Mr. Jacobs followed the actual Torah observant law for a year.

Observing and setting aside Shabbos (the sabbath) is a good first step, but to follow the Torah as Jews have done for thousands of years requires much more than a poor english translation which eliminates many of the exgetical interpretations made by the Sages dealing with the tradition that was given to Moses at Sinai.

For more information on the Oral law or anything related to true Torah-based Judaism, follow this link:

http://www.aish.com/shavuot...

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Alan — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:34:33 -0000

Does anyone know how AJ dealt with that line (Deuteronomy 13:13-15) about how, if you hear of a neighbouring town where they teach any different religion, you must attack it and "put to the sword" every man, woman and child?

Did he also banish (or, by some translations, execute) his wife, family and friends from his life and town if they ate meat from which the blood had not been properly drained? (Leviticus 7:26...)

Great idea though.

http://thebricktestament.co...

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Cristina — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:27:11 -0000

AJ JACOBS DID NOT READ THE REAL BIBLE. HE READ A MADLIB COMIC BOOK. WHAT A LIAR. I FORGIVE YOU TIM FOR GIVING THIS CRAZY GUY A PIECE OF YOUR BLOGSPACE (COZ I LIKE YOU). BUT AJ JACOBS, YOU ARE NOT EVEN FUNNY.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Free Fall Creative — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:13:38 -0000

Hello Tim,

I am going to be running a special deal for design clients and will be donating 25% of all sales to your NEPAL school building fundraiser. What a great opportunity to give back and build up a great generation with a large amount of knowledge.

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Thank you so much! That is most generous of you, and many children will have you to thank for better futures. Rock on :)

Tim

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:52:01 -0000

Best quote for 2007 "Life is short and you are fortunate — give hard!"

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Jim Cyr — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:04:17 -0000

Tim,

We get ourselves in trouble when we try and read and live all of the Bible literally. The Bible must be read as the different types of literature it is: historical narrative, poetry, legal contracts, parables, stories, letters, sermons, apocalyptic literature, etc. Sometimes we lose the eternal truth and principles the Bible teaches in our zeal to live the Bible literally.

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

J. Boe Ellis, Gal 2:20 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:36:53 -0000

Follow the Bible literally for one year?... It only took me a minute to accept Jesus Christ as my savior... I promise you Tim, A.J., anyone reading this, if you really want to follow the Bible, just follow Jesus.

I have included a link here to a short video from Pastor Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life). It's a really simple, real world explanation of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I hope you will take a moment to view it. Call me after you do. I would like to pray with you.

http://videos.purposedriven...

Yours in Christ,

Boe

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Tim Ferriss — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:02:43 -0000

Hi Jenn and All,

Thanks for the great contributions to the conversation, everyone!

Jenn, all people registered for the tele-seminar will be receiving full details via e-mail within the next 48 hours, so no later than Thursday at 5pm PST. It will be fun and very fun and dense on actionable tips.

All the best,

Tim

Re: What Happens When an Agnostic Follows the Bible Literally for One Year?

Jenn Lindberg — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:08:21 -0000

Hey there Tim! Any sense of when the tele conference will be held? I enrolled and am excited to participate. Thanks!

Jenn