Monday, October 19, 2009

Saramago calls the Bible "a manual of bad morals."

Jose Saramago, who is one of my favorite authors, weighs in on the Bible:
"The Bible is a manual of bad morals (which) has a powerful influence on our culture and even our way of life. Without the Bible, we would be different, and probably better people," he was quoted as saying by the news agency Lusa.
He adds (from a different article, same subject) that the Bible is "a catalog of cruelty and of what's worst in human nature."

These comments accompanied the release of his latest book, Cain, which retells the biblical story of Cain, who killed his brother Abel. Saramago is no stranger to biblically oriented controversy; in 1982 he published the Gospel According to Jesus Christ, which, as I have read, treats Jesus as conscripted into God's work.

All these comments aside, I highly recommend his novels Blindness, and its loose sequel, Seeing. (In fact, reading Blindness actually convinced me not to see the movie, although I don't know what that comment is worth).

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