<story><title>What if a pill can change your politics or religious beliefs?</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-if-a-pill-can-change-your-politics-or-religious-beliefs/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yodsanklai</author><text>&amp;gt; 1984&lt;p&gt;Agree, without exaggeration it&amp;#x27;s the book that had the most impact on me.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Brave New World&lt;p&gt;Read it when I was a teenager, I think I didn&amp;#x27;t get the point at the time.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The Bible&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m 100% atheist but I&amp;#x27;ve considered reading the bible because it&amp;#x27;s culturally significant. But isn&amp;#x27;t just a bunch of boring and inconsistent tales? is there really anything to be learned from the bible?</text></item><item><author>cblum</author><text>&amp;gt; reading Chomsky as a teenager, Plato in college and Kant after that were much more significant events in terms of my political views&lt;p&gt;I can relate a lot to this. I&amp;#x27;d say my formative reads were:&lt;p&gt;- 1984 and Brave New World. The former should be mandatory reading for everyone, everywhere.&lt;p&gt;- The Bible. Going from &amp;quot;I was raised Christian&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m gonna read this and ask myself if I really believe this stuff&amp;quot; (I do, but in general I deviate massively from mainstream evangelical Christianity).&lt;p&gt;- Dune. Yep, profoundly transformative. I&amp;#x27;m bummed that some people I&amp;#x27;ve recommend it to don&amp;#x27;t seem to have had the same experience as I had reading it.</text></item><item><author>leftyted</author><text>I was intrigued by this kind of stuff so I took LSD.&lt;p&gt;I enjoyed it and I felt it improved my mood temporarily but I don&amp;#x27;t believe it changed me permanently in any way.  As far as I can tell (which may not be that far), reading Chomsky as a teenager, Plato in college and Kant after that were much more significant events in terms of my political views.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mcv</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m 100% atheist but I&amp;#x27;ve considered reading the bible because it&amp;#x27;s culturally significant. But isn&amp;#x27;t just a bunch of boring and inconsistent tales? is there really anything to be learned from the bible? &amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The bible is not a single book; it&amp;#x27;s a collection of dozens of books written at very different times. Just reading it front-to-back is not a very productive way to read it. Genesis and Exodus are okay, but Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are just dreadful.&lt;p&gt;The best place to start is the gospels, at the start of the NT. That gets you right to the heart of what Christianity is about, they&amp;#x27;re good stories, and there&amp;#x27;s quite a bit of wisdom in there. Absolutely worth reading.&lt;p&gt;If you want a philosophical treatise about the meaning of life, read Eclessiastes. The stories of David in the books of Samuel are exciting adventures as well as the most central part of the history of ancient Israel. It&amp;#x27;s also worth reading a couple of psalms (23 probably being the most famous) but if you read them all in one go, they might get a bit repetitive. And of course there&amp;#x27;s the erotic Song of Songs. For more adventure stories, Judges also has a couple of good ones.</text></comment>
<story><title>What if a pill can change your politics or religious beliefs?</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-if-a-pill-can-change-your-politics-or-religious-beliefs/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yodsanklai</author><text>&amp;gt; 1984&lt;p&gt;Agree, without exaggeration it&amp;#x27;s the book that had the most impact on me.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Brave New World&lt;p&gt;Read it when I was a teenager, I think I didn&amp;#x27;t get the point at the time.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The Bible&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m 100% atheist but I&amp;#x27;ve considered reading the bible because it&amp;#x27;s culturally significant. But isn&amp;#x27;t just a bunch of boring and inconsistent tales? is there really anything to be learned from the bible?</text></item><item><author>cblum</author><text>&amp;gt; reading Chomsky as a teenager, Plato in college and Kant after that were much more significant events in terms of my political views&lt;p&gt;I can relate a lot to this. I&amp;#x27;d say my formative reads were:&lt;p&gt;- 1984 and Brave New World. The former should be mandatory reading for everyone, everywhere.&lt;p&gt;- The Bible. Going from &amp;quot;I was raised Christian&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m gonna read this and ask myself if I really believe this stuff&amp;quot; (I do, but in general I deviate massively from mainstream evangelical Christianity).&lt;p&gt;- Dune. Yep, profoundly transformative. I&amp;#x27;m bummed that some people I&amp;#x27;ve recommend it to don&amp;#x27;t seem to have had the same experience as I had reading it.</text></item><item><author>leftyted</author><text>I was intrigued by this kind of stuff so I took LSD.&lt;p&gt;I enjoyed it and I felt it improved my mood temporarily but I don&amp;#x27;t believe it changed me permanently in any way.  As far as I can tell (which may not be that far), reading Chomsky as a teenager, Plato in college and Kant after that were much more significant events in terms of my political views.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>_ccwp</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m 100% atheist but I&amp;#x27;ve considered reading the bible because it&amp;#x27;s culturally significant. But isn&amp;#x27;t just a bunch of boring and inconsistent tales? is there really anything to be learned from the bible?&lt;p&gt;You could say the same thing about the Iliad or Aeneid, or the Arabian Nights, or pretty much any long-standing work of literature.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not a Christian either, but I love the Bible - it&amp;#x27;s a book of great beauty and wisdom, and a foundation &amp;#x2F; moral guide for many of the world&amp;#x27;s great civilizations. If that isn&amp;#x27;t reason enough for you, then nothing will be.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:&lt;p&gt;Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.&amp;quot;</text></comment>