How do you feel about burning books?

[cloudyday2]

Imagine you find a huge collection of ancient books from some extinct culture with religious beliefs and practices opposed to your own. There is a lot of new information about that culture in those books, but there is also a lot that disturbs and disgusts you.

Imagine you know that if these books become available to ordinary people then thousands or millions will fall away from your religion and go to hell (or some other bad fate).

(1) How do you feel about burning the books?
(2) How do you feel about not making these books a priority for digitization, preservation, and study?

In other words, you are choosing between preserving history and preserving souls.

 

[Lost4words]

I have seen a few 'teach your pet' books that i would love to burn!

 

[Llleopard]

I'm a librarian. I think about this dilemma most days, as I shelve books for children about how to find and communicate with their angel guide, or evolution or eugenics, or books on spell casting. It would be my preference that these books never saw the light of day, but I am not a censor. I think everyone has the right to information so they can make informed choices. The rest is up to God.

 

[cloudyday2]

I'm a librarian. I think about this dilemma most days, as I shelve books for children about how to find and communicate with their angel guide, or evolution or eugenics, or books on spell casting. It would be my preference that these books never saw the light of day, but I am not a censor. I think everyone has the right to information so they can make informed choices. The rest is up to God.

There is Acts 19:19 where the people who practiced magic brought several million dollars worth of books to Paul to burn, but that was a little different.

There is also the books written by Papias and Origen that apparently weren't prioritized for preservation, because they were considered stupid or unorthodox. I wish I could read what Papias wrote in full.

Then of course there was the widespread burning of books by the Muslims, and the destruction of Incan and Aztec and Mayan books and monuments by the conquistadors.

King Josiah of Judah probably destroyed a lot of history too.

People today would instinctively recoil at the thought of burning books, but if a person takes religion seriously there might be a temptation to protect society from dangerous ideas. For example, facebook and others seem to be pretty harsh with groups that oppose social distancing.

I wish we had Papias. I am sure we would learn a lot.

 

[St_Worm2]

How do you feel about burning books?

I suppose it depends on the dilemma that I'm faced with. For instance, if I'm all set with the S'mores, but then I realize that I don't have anything available to make the campfire with...................

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Imagine you find a huge collection of ancient books from some extinct culture with religious beliefs and practices opposed to your own. There is a lot of new information about that culture in those books, but there is also a lot that disturbs and disgusts you.

Imagine you know that if these books become available to ordinary people then thousands or millions will fall away from your religion and go to hell (or some other bad fate).

(1) How do you feel about burning the books?
(2) How do you feel about not making these books a priority for digitization, preservation, and study?

In other words, you are choosing between preserving history and preserving souls.

As a Westerner with Enlightenment type ideals my natural reflex is to be against it for previous stated cultural reasons (that more knowledge, an inquiry etc. is a better thing than suppression especially given that human nature rebels against authoritarianism)


Probably the one exception to the rule come when people talk about "Christianity persecuting Gnosticism". That's a large topic, but at some point the Nag Hamadi Library comes up. From my past experience with the Coptic Orthodox Church and studying early church history etc. I believe that many Gnostic texts were written from "orthodox"/ catholic scriptorums. Basically heretical people used church resources to write their scrolls and codexs. Anyway In this area, I am much more sympathetic in destroying those kind of books, because I see this as a kind of a case in "Waste, Fraud, and Abuse" of Church property, kind of like embezzling from the Church. Even though my inner historian still hates the loss of these materials which can be very illuminating concerning the nature of heresies etc.


And on this subject, the loss of the library of Alexandria should be mentioned. That came from the hands of over zealous Coptic monks that wanted to erase the heritage of paganism! My ex-wife hated when I would mention that, but I reminded her that I learned that fact from a Coptic Church web site! (I think it is a good thing to own up to the problems in your Church heritage besides lauding all the positive things)

 

[awitch]

If millions of people are going to leave their religion because of some really old books from an extinct culture, then their religion probably wasn't a very good one to being with.

Put those books in museum and sell copies on Amazon.

 

[Silmarien]

If it wasn't a library book, I would totally have tossed Twilight into the fire after dutifully reading it so that I could hate it in good conscience.

On topic, I wouldn't burn anything ancient. Frankly, I don't see how anything ancient could actually cause people to fall away from religion at this point, unless it was genuine evidence that the particular religion was false.

Probably the one exception to the rule come when people talk about "Christianity persecuting Gnosticism". That's a large topic, but at some point the Nag Hamadi Library comes up. From my past experience with the Coptic Orthodox Church and studying early church history etc. I believe that many Gnostic texts were written from "orthodox"/ catholic scriptorums. Basically heretical people used church resources to write their scrolls and codexs. Anyway In this area, I am much more sympathetic in destroying those kind of books, because I see this as a kind of a case in "Waste, Fraud, and Abuse" of Church property, kind of like embezzling from the Church. Even though my inner historian still hates the loss of these materials which can be very illuminating concerning the nature of heresies etc.

Oh, this is interesting. I was actually thinking about Gnostic writings as an example of something that I would not destroy. Until we discovered the actual writings, people generally assumed that Irenaeus and those like him were falsely attributing absurd beliefs to the Gnostics in an attempt to discredit them. Actually having access to the ancient writings is what gives us the ability to know just how much of a syncretic mess they really were, so I'm all for preservation.

 

[dlamberth]

Imagine you find a huge collection of ancient books from some extinct culture with religious beliefs and practices opposed to your own. There is a lot of new information about that culture in those books, but there is also a lot that disturbs and disgusts you.

Imagine you know that if these books become available to ordinary people then thousands or millions will fall away from your religion and go to hell (or some other bad fate).

(1) How do you feel about burning the books?
(2) How do you feel about not making these books a priority for digitization, preservation, and study?

In other words, you are choosing between preserving history and preserving souls.

It's not my place to censor or limit the religious beliefs of others. And I think it very wrong to do so. The ancient's have a lot of wisdom that we might benefit from if approached with an opened and curious mind. If those books cause people to fall away from my religion, then my religion has some pretty big issues to begin with. I don't see it as a choice of preserving history or preserving souls. I see it as preserving knowledge.

 

[Noxot]

Burn and Destroy them in your mind. Truth does not fear the fire because Truth is the fire. No need to show outward displays of dominance over something. Telling your tribe that something is against your tribe is not as good as your tribe members having wisdom for themselves. if there's something that is disgusting to me then it's probably not even worth putting an effort to burn it. I would have to wonder why I was always concerning myself with things that I hate.

Trying to protect and cover up your own religion is already fraudulent in itself. It reminds me of the grand Inquisitor. I don't care about preserving traditions if they are unworthy. God uses everything to push us to one end.

I have already encountered enough Foolish far-right people that love tradition for tradition's sake. They don't even know or understand the tradition, they just need a tradition. It's sickening and an affront to tradition. What they really want is some kind of white identity that they fear they will lose. Book burners strike me as ignorant. Do they even know what they're defending or what they're destroying? Because of the fear of ignorant people who might destroy the truth I prefer to not burn books just because some random person or group of people thinks that they should be burned. There are some truly abhorrent things out there but they should be ignored.

 

[cloudyday2]

Burn and Destroy them in your mind. Truth does not fear the fire because Truth is the fire. No need to show outward displays of dominance over something. Telling your tribe that something is against your tribe is not as good as your tribe members having wisdom for themselves. if there's something that is disgusting to me then it's probably not even worth putting an effort to burn it. I would have to wonder why I was always concerning myself with things that I hate.

In ancient times such as the incident in the book of Acts when Paul oversaw the burning of magic books there was some practical value to book burning. Burning enough copies of a book could eventually cause the book to become lost to posterity. I suppose many magic books did not survive because they were either burned or not preserved through copying.

I wonder how Paul himself felt about burning books? Certainly Paul disapproved of the practice of magic/sorcery/etc., but did Paul want to protect future generations from taboo ideas?

 

[Junia]

If it wasn't a library book, I would totally have tossed Twilight into the fire after dutifully reading it so that I could hate it in good conscience.

On topic, I wouldn't burn anything ancient. Frankly, I don't see how anything ancient could actually cause people to fall away from religion at this point, unless it was genuine evidence that the particular religion was false.



Oh, this is interesting. I was actually thinking about Gnostic writings as an example of something that I would not destroy. Until we discovered the actual writings, people generally assumed that Irenaeus and those like him were falsely attributing absurd beliefs to the Gnostics in an attempt to discredit them. Actually having access to the ancient writings is what gives us the ability to know just how much of a syncretic mess they really were, so I'm all for preservation.

yes to burning Twilight. vile books.

Other Books I would Burn:

50 shades of grey

Lolita

 

[Noxot]

In ancient times such as the incident in the book of Acts when Paul oversaw the burning of magic books there was some practical value to book burning. Burning enough copies of a book could eventually cause the book to become lost to posterity. I suppose many magic books did not survive because they were either burned or not preserved through copying.

I wonder how Paul himself felt about burning books? Certainly Paul disapproved of the practice of magic/sorcery/etc., but did Paul want to protect future generations from taboo ideas?

Some people are very concerned with the spiritual children. They want to protect them from dangers. I have sacrificed material things for God too. I don't really believe in cut-and-dry answers for things. There are many ways to go about doing the good. I don't know what Paul was thinking but obviously attaching yourself to evil beings is going to be a no-go. But it would be dumb to think that we free ourselves completely from them just because we destroyed some books. All evil comes from hell and is part of it. Intentions are very important. There have been very many books created since then and so the problem has become more complex. I think the better tactic nowadays is to have better books. What kind of books would I even burn sense it is hard for someone to always be wrong and even if they are I can still use their book to trigger my own thinking. There is so much stuff in the world that the "burning of books" always happens By mere selection and rejection. Book burning must be done in Justice and wisdom.

 

[Arthra]

Imagine you find a huge collection of ancient books from some extinct culture with religious beliefs and practices opposed to your own. There is a lot of new information about that culture in those books, but there is also a lot that disturbs and disgusts you. Imagine you know that if these books become available to ordinary people then thousands or millions will fall away from your religion and go to hell (or some other bad fate).
(1) How do you feel about burning the books?
(2) How do you feel about not making these books a priority for digitization, preservation, and study?In other words, you are choosing between preserving history and preserving souls.

I'm a bibliophile myself and on occasion contribute books to a nearby university where students can ponder their meanings.

Also there is a rule in the Baha'i Faith in which book burning is forbidden:

"As a token of grace from God, the Revealer of this Most Great Announcement, We have removed from the Holy Scriptures and Tablets the law prescribing the destruction of books."
– Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 25.

Also read:

Why the Baha'i Faith Prohibits Book-Burning

 

[cloudyday2]

I'm a bibliophile myself and on occasion contribute books to a nearby university where students can ponder their meanings.

Also there is a rule in the Baha'i Faith in which book burning is forbidden:

"As a token of grace from God, the Revealer of this Most Great Announcement, We have removed from the Holy Scriptures and Tablets the law prescribing the destruction of books."
– Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 25.

Also read:

Why the Baha'i Faith Prohibits Book-Burning

It is interesting that the Jews often buried their worn-out manuscripts out of respect.

I assume maybe the Muslims may have followed a similar practice, because I have read about ancient Quran manuscripts that were discovered inside the walls of a mosque in Yemen.

It would have been even nicer for archaeologists if Jews and Muslims used clay tablets. Then we would really know some things about how these religions evolved.

 

[JackRT]

I'm a librarian. I think about this dilemma most days, as I shelve books for children about how to find and communicate with their angel guide, or evolution or eugenics, or books on spell casting. It would be my preference that these books never saw the light of day, but I am not a censor. I think everyone has the right to information so they can make informed choices. The rest is up to God.

Why would you include evolution in a list with angel guides, eugenics and spell casting?

 

[Llleopard]

Why would you include evolution in a list with angel guides, eugenics and spell casting?

Because I am a young earth creationist believer, because of the scientific evidence that supports it. I was explaining how I feel about those topics, not what I think anyone else needs to believe or think.

 

[Radagast]

There is also the books written by Papias and Origen that apparently weren't prioritized for preservation, because they were considered stupid or unorthodox. I wish I could read what Papias wrote in full.

Where Papias is quoted, he's quoted positively. And Origen certainly had many followers.

When you go back that far back, a lot of stuff just got lost by accident.

 

[cloudyday2]

Where Papias is quoted, he's quoted positively. And Origen certainly had many followers.

When you go back that far back, a lot of stuff just got lost by accident.

Eusebius considered Papias to be a moron, because of his chiliastic belief (apparently the belief that Christ would reign on Earth for 1000 years? - a fairly common belief today).

Origin was condemned/excommunicated long after his death for speculating about the preexistence of human souls.

The manuscripts weren't necessarily burned, but they were probably a low priority for preservation. Also the writings of Papias and particularly Origen were voluminous and expensive to copy. But probably also in some cases the manuscripts were confiscated and locked away in more secure libraries or simply destroyed.

That's just my guess.

 

[Robban]

Imagine you find a huge collection of ancient books from some extinct culture with religious beliefs and practices opposed to your own. There is a lot of new information about that culture in those books, but there is also a lot that disturbs and disgusts you.

Imagine you know that if these books become available to ordinary people then thousands or millions will fall away from your religion and go to hell (or some other bad fate).

(1) How do you feel about burning the books?
(2) How do you feel about not making these books a priority for digitization, preservation, and study?

In other words, you are choosing between preserving history and preserving souls.

Is there such a thing as ancient books?

When the vikings passed by where I live they left their accounts engraved in the rocks and can be seen today, though not exactly ancient, there were no books.