Hmmmm, during my "vacation" in Poland I came across something like this
The Usborne Book of World History you can get a glimps inside here note the "new testament" chapter.
Now that book may actually not be so bad as the one I saw, it was most certainly not that book, the illustrations were different and it actually started with the beginning of the universe.
From what I understand of Polish and of the matter at hand all those parts were accurate enough for children, talking about billions of years, evolution, dinosaurs (without humans!), cavemen, Egyptians, Greeks etc.
But about in the middle of the book there was a chapter called "The Bible" and I kid you not it started straight from the beginning again with Genesis, Adam & Eve, the flood, Jesus... with illustrations similar to the ones in the "real" part and with from what I could see just as much authority as any other chapter, no hint that this was the fantasy part of the book.
After those 5 or 6 pages the book continues with the middle ages, renaissance, French revolution, America ... again accurate as far as I can see.
How can someone hold such views together, it really is a mystery to me, compartmentalization like that should be studied, it is what keeps religion in its place, both the creator of the book and it's readers seem to be living in for them 2 very distinct but very real realities.
As an added bonus, have a look at the comments on Amazon for the book I mention in the beginning, for example:
Some even say that it's a pornography book, amazing, so little Billy, you're not gonna learn about those cavemen unless they start putting on some clothes !!! ;-) I guess they skipped over the good parts of the bible ....
The Usborne Book of World History you can get a glimps inside here note the "new testament" chapter.
Now that book may actually not be so bad as the one I saw, it was most certainly not that book, the illustrations were different and it actually started with the beginning of the universe.
From what I understand of Polish and of the matter at hand all those parts were accurate enough for children, talking about billions of years, evolution, dinosaurs (without humans!), cavemen, Egyptians, Greeks etc.
But about in the middle of the book there was a chapter called "The Bible" and I kid you not it started straight from the beginning again with Genesis, Adam & Eve, the flood, Jesus... with illustrations similar to the ones in the "real" part and with from what I could see just as much authority as any other chapter, no hint that this was the fantasy part of the book.
After those 5 or 6 pages the book continues with the middle ages, renaissance, French revolution, America ... again accurate as far as I can see.
How can someone hold such views together, it really is a mystery to me, compartmentalization like that should be studied, it is what keeps religion in its place, both the creator of the book and it's readers seem to be living in for them 2 very distinct but very real realities.
As an added bonus, have a look at the comments on Amazon for the book I mention in the beginning, for example:
The drawings and illustrations are fantastic except for a few pages with women without tops (shirts). We don't feel that is appropriate for our grade school boys so we returned the book.
Some even say that it's a pornography book, amazing, so little Billy, you're not gonna learn about those cavemen unless they start putting on some clothes !!! ;-) I guess they skipped over the good parts of the bible ....
1 comment:
I would also add that Usborne books in general aren't worth the time of day or space on the shelf. They're usually poorly written, blandly illustrated and otherwise not something I want in my house.
They're everywhere because it's another one of those in-home sales scams. Well-meaning ladies organize parties to sell "cute" books. How could that be bad because it's reading! It's for the children!
A book like this is right up the alley of their target demographic. Another reason to avoid giving them your money...
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