Having just gotten back from vacation it struck me how good a job the people of Gideon's bible have done of distributing their bible. It's truly amazing that pretty much every hotel room I stay in (in the U.S. at least) contains a copy. The unfortunate thing is that they (Gideon) seem to have somewhat of a monopoly at the moment. Wouldn't it be great if there was a book (or maybe even a pamphlet?) sitting next to their bible that provided details of what non-religious people believe, based on science (e.g. geology, physics, biology, evolution, and so on)? The non-religious point of view should be at least on equal footing with the religious stuff. I guess we non-religious folks aren't quite as inspired and/or well-organized as the Gideon folks. But we should be. A non-religious version of the "good book" would be a powerful and concrete way to communicate our point of view.

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Tags: gideon's bible, non-religious bible

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Comment by Rosemary LYNDALL WEMM on April 4, 2009 at 9:25pm
You will notice that the Gideon Society have determined that their Magic Book is so difficult to read and understand, especially in the only divinely guided Olde Englishe Version, that they have written a little evangelical tract to put in the front. They must be really scared that people might get the wrong idea is they actually tried to read the Real Thing instead of their expurgated cherry-picked "summary".
Comment by Cheryl on April 4, 2009 at 7:21pm
I agree with Lorien. I am always tempted to make a little note in front of the bible in hotel room. I think next time I will.
Comment by Lorien on March 22, 2009 at 8:10pm
Are you short of toilet paper at home? A little rough isn't it?
Comment by Creature on March 22, 2009 at 8:07pm
I doubt that you'll get in much trouble for altering the books. I ripped off one from every hotel room I've stayed in during the past 10 years and have yet to face any consequences.
Comment by Lorien on March 22, 2009 at 10:00am
Is there any penalty for writing in those books in the hotel room? Or putting those stickers on it?

I went to one hotel recently and there were two books in there..... Gideons and the Mormons....

I wrote Dangerous - Read with caution on its title page....
Comment by Father Nature on March 22, 2009 at 8:18am
Until we start putting The God Delusion in hotel rooms, you can use this or this.
Comment by Rosemary LYNDALL WEMM on March 22, 2009 at 3:50am
I agree wholeheartedly. I am sure such a book would be a lot more readable than the Bible, too. The problem would be in getting hotel owners to agree to put it in the same drawer as the Gideon book.

Another problem is that this opens the floodgates for every religion in the US to leave their sacred book there as well: mormons, scientologists, muslims, hindus, etc.

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