today's pet peeve:

[deird1]

I really hate people calling the Bible "the world's greatest instruction manual".


The Bible is many things – instruction manual it ain't. If you must compare it to a modern publishing genre to make a quasi-theological point, a better option would be "travel journal". (Which, yes, would be metaphorical. But not nearly so metaphorical as trying to claim that the Book of Joshua is a list of instructions for we the reader to follow.)

Comments

[lliira]

Claiming the Bible is an instruction manual is incredibly common in the U.S. Even more common than the claim that the Bible is a science textbook. Not only is it totally incorrect, but it feels demeaning. Even without thinking the Bible is a sacred text, it is an important historical and religious text, and people who spout such ignorance about it irk me.