Bibles in Hotel Rooms

[Geneviev]

I think he means why does simply seeing a bible in a hotel room annoy you?

The usual minor annoyance at the utter prevalence of Christianity and religion in general.

It's not very prevalent anymore. Most people ignore the Bibles.

[Korhal IVV]

But, you are alone.

Korhal, please clarify what you meant by this.

Alone in the hotel room.

[The Snazzylands]

That's pretty childish, even if it is only minor annoyance.

Not...really no.
A person isn't allowed to have a private thought?

Not if their thoughts disagree with my sophisticated adult ones.

[The New California Republic]

Korhal, please clarify what you meant by this.

Alone in the hotel room.

Wrong. Why would you assume that?

[Rastrian]

I really do think, if a book needs another book to explain it, it hasn't really done its job well enough.

More like because we of the modern world live in a time removed by thousands of kilometers and years and a gigantic cultural gap from the book’s setting, and the concepts, idioms, and writing style of ancient Hebrews and early Christians in the Roman Empire have to be clarified in order to ensure that no mistakes are made.

So why do many claim that it's relevant today? Either the message is uncorrupted and understandable to most, or the book likely isn't relevant.

[Eglaecia]

KJV has many shortcomings and the only reason I'm familiar with it is the KJV-onlyist nonsense my Baptist friends spout.

What translation would you recommend? Bear in mind, that an English only person can only choose from an English translation, but by definition it isn't going to be completely accurate to the source material which was in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

KJV is said to be very accurate by the standards of its day. NKJV is more or less an attempt to keep as much of the KJV intact as is possible, while modernizing the language so modern people can understand it better when reading it. But this arguably detracts from the "majestic" character KJV is said to have because it is very Shakespeare in style.

NRSV is the most accurate English version. KJV is full of errors and uses inaccurate sources for both OT & NT translations.

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

Maybe we should also see about making an easy to print textbook on Evo-Devo that we can stick into hotel drawers as well. For the sake of balance.

[Geneviev]

More like because we of the modern world live in a time removed by thousands of kilometers and years and a gigantic cultural gap from the book’s setting, and the concepts, idioms, and writing style of ancient Hebrews and early Christians in the Roman Empire have to be clarified in order to ensure that no mistakes are made.

So why do many claim that it's relevant today? Either the message is uncorrupted and understandable to most, or the book likely isn't relevant.

The information in the Bible is still relevant today.

[Scomagia]

That's pretty childish, even if it is only minor annoyance.

Not...really no.
A person isn't allowed to have a private thought?

Sure you're allowed. Doesn't make it mature, though.

[The Snazzylands]

The usual minor annoyance at the utter prevalence of Christianity and religion in general.

More like nominal prevalence.

The usual minor annoyance at the utter prevalence of Christianity and religion in general.

It's not very prevalent anymore. Most people ignore the Bibles.

Seems like religious people only notice the secular elements in society, and irreligious people only notice the religious ones.

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

So why do many claim that it's relevant today? Either the message is uncorrupted and understandable to most, or the book likely isn't relevant.

The information in the Bible is still relevant today.

Filed under ‘Hope springs eternal, and falls flat twice as often’.

Cross-Referenced with ‘For very general definitions of the word’.

[Rastrian]

So why do many claim that it's relevant today? Either the message is uncorrupted and understandable to most, or the book likely isn't relevant.

The information in the Bible is still relevant today.

But locked behind a massive wall of understanding. My point is that it's not relevant to sometime who may be in a very fragile mental state and who probably just wanted to read a book to encourage them, perhaps not to kill themselves. So a better book would be some kind of encouragement or motivation book, not one that you need to read another book to understand.

[Zizou]

Truthfully, I don't really think it matters what books are placed in a hotel room. If you don't like the book, just ignore it and leave it there.

[Aeritai]

I think this is wonderful that this happens helps Christians out if they left their Bibles at home during vacation. If your an atheist then you don't have to read them God gave us Free Will after all.

[Geneviev]

The information in the Bible is still relevant today.

But locked behind a massive wall of understanding. My point is that it's not relevant to sometime who may be in a very fragile mental state and who probably just wanted to read a book to encourage them, perhaps not to kill themselves. So a better book would be some kind of encouragement or motivation book, not one that you need to read another book to understand.

People should be able to be encouraged by the Bible without interpretation.

[The New California Republic]

Maybe we should also see about making an easy to print textbook on Evo-Devo that we can stick into hotel drawers as well. For the sake of balance.

I'd actually like to see abridged versions of On the Origin of Species in hotel rooms.

[Korhal IVV]

More like nominal prevalence.

It's not very prevalent anymore. Most people ignore the Bibles.

Seems like religious people only notice the secular elements in society, and irreligious people only notice the religious ones.

Apparently the majority of “Christians” actually practice it in any meaningful manner.

The information in the Bible is still relevant today.

But locked behind a massive wall of understanding. My point is that it's not relevant to sometime who may be in a very fragile mental state and who probably just wanted to read a book to encourage them, perhaps not to kill themselves. So a better book would be some kind of encouragement or motivation book, not one that you need to read another book to understand.

The hotels I have been in have that.

[Rastrian]

But locked behind a massive wall of understanding. My point is that it's not relevant to sometime who may be in a very fragile mental state and who probably just wanted to read a book to encourage them, perhaps not to kill themselves. So a better book would be some kind of encouragement or motivation book, not one that you need to read another book to understand.

People should be able to be encouraged by the Bible without interpretation.

But as I said, it's a fairly random chance whether you come across the "lovey" verses like John 3:16, and the reprehensible commands in Leviticus, or the genealogies I'm Matthew or Genesis.

[Camelone]

Since people don't understand the Bible sometimes, other books on Biblical interpretation are helpful.

So, in my opinion, that makes the Bible fairly redundant.
If you needed to have a the Silmarillion next to you if you want to read Lord of the Rings to simply understand it, I doubt anytime would read Lord of the Rings.

Context is incredibly important when reading the Bible, you need to know why x is happening and it is usually because of y but y may be assumed to be known by the author. Or certain books are happening at relatively the same time but or overlap with time, most specifically the Old Testament with the Minor Prophets overlapping and happening at the same time as I believe it was the Book of Kings, 1 and 2. It's much more complicated than most people think because it is not one book.

[Aclion]

I've read both the Quran and the book of Mormon purely because they were in hotel rooms and i'm glad they were there. The argument that it's forcing religion on people is fucking dumb, and i'm really sick of these childish atheists who see it as their duty to push anything Christian(why is it always Christian?) out of the public eye.

Also lets be honest, none of us have actually opened that drawer other then to see what books were there.

Maybe we should also see about making an easy to print textbook on Evo-Devo that we can stick into hotel drawers as well. For the sake of balance.

I'd actually like to see abridged versions of On the Origin of Species in hotel rooms.

Hmm, I wonder if I could get copies of The Law distributed that way.

[Geneviev]

People should be able to be encouraged by the Bible without interpretation.

But as I said, it's a fairly random chance whether you come across the "lovey" verses like John 3:16, and the reprehensible commands in Leviticus, or the genealogies I'm Matthew or Genesis.

Most of the Bible is not law, or genealogies.

Maybe we should also see about making an easy to print textbook on Evo-Devo that we can stick into hotel drawers as well. For the sake of balance.

I'd actually like to see abridged versions of On the Origin of Species in hotel rooms.

I don't know if I would just ignore it, but it would be interesting.

[Rastrian]

So, in my opinion, that makes the Bible fairly redundant.
If you needed to have a the Silmarillion next to you if you want to read Lord of the Rings to simply understand it, I doubt anytime would read Lord of the Rings.

Context is incredibly important when reading the Bible, you need to know why x is happening and it is usually because of y but y may be assumed to be known by the author. Or certain books are happening at relatively the same time but or overlap with time, most specifically the Old Testament with the Minor Prophets overlapping and happening at the same time as I believe it was the Book of Kings, 1 and 2. It's much more complicated than most people think because it is not one book.

Yes. Like I say, Christians claim that context is important. So why do they insist that Bibles on their own should be in hotel rooms.

[Hurdergaryp]

This is not a regular thing around Europe.

I've had it once or twice. I go to the reception and say that they should clean better because the previous guest left their book in my room.

And when they try to explain it to me, I just nod and go, no no no, here you go.

And then go back to my regular schedule

Why not just leave in the room?

Have you ever seen a description of a hotel room online where it explicitly says that religious scripture is part of the services provided?

[Newmanistan]

The demographic that travels that most is senior citizens.
Seniors tend to also be the most religious.

That's why they are still there, it's not any more complicated then that.

[Saiwania]

NRSV is the most accurate English version. KJV is full of errors and uses inaccurate sources for both OT & NT translations.

And we can be sure that NRSV was written by Conservatives and not Liberals, correct? Liberals by definition, want to introduce change for change's sake. If NRSV is more accurate, it isn't as widespread as KJV is from my understanding; because there are a bunch of people who lag behind newer developments and take for granted that the KJV is the best translation there is- when this might well not be the case anymore. Notwithstanding the KJV only people.

For an awfully long time, KJV was upheld as the standard Bible for the English speaking world. Lots of people will look for reasons to not move on from this translation for this reason alone.