What Scriptures do you believe have value?

[Sha'irullah]

This is primarily aimed to non-religious, atheists and liberal theists and deists of any kind. Also if you are of a religious faith that is fine to

Do you find any scripture of value? This holy-book would be outside your faith or reason if you are religious or an atheist but you believe it has at most 50% theological or rational value. Please give details as to why you believe it has important and positive quotes in it.

If you are like me and have read numerous holy-book try listing them in order of importance. Don't forget, as long as the book is holy to you then it counts. Philosophy is accepted so don't feel stupid if you post Friedrich Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil or the God Delusion or the literature of Albrecht Ritschl and the devil himself Arthur Schopenhauer .

Here is my personal list....
1. Qur'an
2. Shiva Purana
3. Old Testament / Tanakh
4. Bhagavad Gita
5. Chandogya Upanishad

 

[Gaura Priya]

* Bhagavad Gita, Sri Sikshastaka, Gospel of Thomas, Shepherd of Hermas, Qur'an, the Book of Wisdom, the Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah, writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, Theodore Parker, etc.

Anything that I find inspiring is Scriptural to me!

 

[Caladan]

Canaanite poetry (Ugaritic). Beautiful, and for me autochthonic. The pagan gods of the Levant are connected with the streams and trees of the region I live in, and even my family name is the name of the Canaanite god of the dawn. Much of the vivid nature of the Bible can also be reflected in Canaanite poetry, in fact capturing the fact that there is a continuation from more ancient Levantine traditions and a respect to the cycle of the seasons.

Hebrew Bible. The text in Classical Hebrew is very vivid, there are inspiring parts which are too numerous to mention. Things such as the Prophetic writings with their moral stands and clear and sound political perspectives of the Ancient Near East are memorable and lasting, the love poetry of the Song of Songs, the philosophy of Ecclesiastes, the devotion of Psalms, and of course the various stories about King David or Job which are presented in sublime prose.

Prose and Poetic Edda. Pretty much reflects much of the way I feel and think, my convictions and sense of belonging. The feeling of personal integrity, and the sense of honor of man and people balanced with encouragement for realism, cultivation of important traits such as being cunning and alert and to follow your ambitions.

Sufi poetry. Ibn Arabi, Hafez, Rumi, or Attar. They capture the essence of Abrahamic monotheism and the quest for union found behind all major religions. Rumi's magnificent capture of Biblical characters such as Moses truly present an ideal Islamic ideology, an ideal Abrahamic monotheism, in which people are genuinely interested to understand the words and deeds of Biblical or Qur'anic figures without erasing them with dogma.

Gospel of Thomas. Gives a much more pantheistic perspective on what some early Christians (of the Gnostic form) thought and felt.

There are many other sacred texts that I'm intimately familiar with, but the above is a good start to get the thread going.

 

[1137]

There are so many it's unreasonable to attempt making my list. Subjective meaning can be taken from nearly any source.

 

[Vouthon]

Its fascinating to me that quite a few people on this forum hold The Gospel of Thomas in high regard. I first read it when I was about fourteen. I got my parents too order a copy of it for me as a Christmas gift, since I had always wanted to read it.

I was left with a very deep impression from it. I truly did feel as if I had "drunk from the bubbling spring" that Jesus had poured forth and become one with Him from drinking his "wine" that is his mystical wisdom hidden in the sayings.

I am therefore very happy in this regard and yes, the GHT is a scripture which I believe holds much value.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

Apart from Buddhist scriptures? The Brahma sutras, the Upanishads, the Tao Te Ching, to name a few.

 

[Vinayaka]

Vedas, Upanishads, Agamas, Tirumantiram, Tirukkural ... and probably several apart from those.

 

[BruceDLimber]

• The roughly 200 volumes of Baha'i scripture
• The Bible (both Jewish and Christian scriptures)
• The Qur'an
• to a lesser extent, scriptures of other, older religions

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Sumit]

Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Rudramala Tantra ....... and many more.

 

[Madhuri]

All Vedic scriptures and to some extent, the scriptures of other eastern religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

 

[StarryNightshade]

Practically all scriptures (religious or secular) has at least some value.

 

[LuisDantas]

Do you find any scripture of value?

Sure, lots in fact. As I do many other writings that are not usually considered scripture, up to and including certain comic book scenes.

Religious wisdom is where one finds it. I don't think it is wise to assume that some sacred writing is necessarily worthy of consideration, but many indeed are.

It is all a matter of exercising discernment and interpreting scripture wisely.

This holy-book would be outside your faith or reason if you are religious or an atheist but you believe it has at most 50% theological or rational value. Please give details as to why you believe it has important and positive quotes in it.

The Tao Te Ching is a wonderful source of reflections about certainty and how one may be too attached to it.

The Bhagavad Gita (and much of the Hindu scriptures, really) are wonderful sources of inspiration, both in the artistic and religions senses, regardless of actual belief.

Others, however, should be rejected. That is alright, too. Scripture is never to be accepted blindly.

 

[Satnaam]

Has anyone here read the Guru Granth Sahib or parts of it?

 

[Shermana]

I value much of the so-called "NT Apocrypha" and "Gnostic" writings. Just not the Sethian works. Though they are useful to see where the split occurred between the Jewish-Christian-gnostics and the others. But things like the Gospel and Acts of Thomas are most likely legit.

I also value much of the "OT Pseudipigrapha" like the Ascension of Isaiah, though there's probably some interpolations that have to be picked out among them all just like the NT Apocrypha.