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I would read SHORT but incisive texts from great religions or religious thinkers. Just one or two a day to start with.

I personally love The Hidden Words by Baha'u'llah, but there are many great interfaith collections as well. One nice one is God's Big Instruction Book, here used, which is actually many tiny delicious nuggets from different world Faiths.

I'd read one or two short interesting pieces, and meditate on them.

I think the spirit is quite easily reawakened and nourished! Also looking forward to seeing others' recommendations...

I also really like this prayer:

>O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart. Illumine my powers. I lay all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge. I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being. O God! I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.

>O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.

Here in musical form

There's also a really neat event called Soul Food that happens in several cities, with very uplifting and inspiring interfaith readings. Attending something like that might also be helpful: but really, I think short prayer, meditation, and reading are the best.

Boy was that the wrong question to ask. Wall of text inbound.

Judaism is my least-studied religion, but as I understand it Rabbinic literature is basically all commentary. The Mishnah, Tosefta, various Talmuds etc, they're all commentaries on the Tanakh. Of course, they are so old as to basically need their own commentaries, but there you have it. why_nn_doesnt_study_judaism.jpg

We Christians have a really different view on the 'Old Testament', and inter-commentary is pretty common in our scriptures. The New Testament may come at the end of our Bible, but it's the key to our way of reading the old scriptures as well, so start there. William Barclay was not super-dee-duper orthodox in his views, but he was a good Biblical scholar and I still like his 'Daily Study Bible' New Testament commentary for beginners. Patristics is a study of the development of early Christian orthodox thought, and consists mostly of reading post-NT commentaries by the Church Fathers, but those books are a giant money-sink so I'll let you get into that in your own time. 'Dogmatik' may be a bit heavy, but it's a good summary of our thought on our whole religion, scripture and all.

Islam is tricky, because the Qur'an is taken much more literally than orthodox Christians and Jews treat their scriptures, i.e. it cannot be translated out of Arabic, only interpreted. Maybe one of our Muslim friends can chime in with a better suggestion, but the version of the Qur'an used by my classes (which has some light commentary) is the Oxford World's Classics version. Quran.com can also be pretty useful since you can hover over an Arabic word and get its direct translation.

As far as Buddhism goes, I think the BDK English Tripitaka has some big flaws (it's also way incomplete), but it's pretty academic and a lot of its texts are the only versions available in English. Individual sutras are around, I always appreciate the work of the Sanskrit scholar Red Pine, he's done the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra and maybe some others, from a Japanese Zen perspective. Buddhist scripture is sorta endless.

The only other religious texts I've read extensively are the European esoteric stuff I hope to do my graduate work in, in which case all the texts are weird, and all the commentaries are as weird or weirder. It's religious studies on Hard Mode.

I hope that gives you some places to start! And I hope I haven't scared you off! Good luck!

Hey, there. As someone who's been where you are and left the Christian faith for decades before returning, I'll share my two cents. Something that helped me was moving away from thinking of Christianity as a set of rules I had to follow to ensure I went to "the right place" after I died. Yes, there are inconsistencies in the Bible. That's because it's not one book; it's many books arranged together over a period of centuries. Those inconsistencies are a result of a community of faith wrestling with what it means to be God's people, and making a record of their understanding of that at given points in time. I found that learning about how the Bible came together, and what believers believed about it, helped me to come to a greater appreciation of it, and ultimately, to faith in Christ. There are lots of readable books that talk about the Bible's history. Here's a popular one. Learning about God's word isn't scary; God wants us to ask questions! That's why God's gifted us with reason. The only faith worth having is an examined one. The fact that you're asking is, I think, a sign that you are craving deeper relationship with God.

So, if Christianity isn't about rules for who's in and who's out, what is it about? While everyone has to work that out for themselves, for me, the answer is trust and relationship: in Christ, through the Holy Spirit who he has sent to guide us, and with others. I consider my own faith in Christ to be the greatest gift I've ever received, all the more precious because I have to continue to wrestle with what it means. I've found the only way I can live the way Christ calls me to live is in the Church, as part of his body. I had to leave my childhood church, because it was very rule and fear based. Finding a church based in love and relationship has helped me grow in faith immensely. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to talk more. You're engaged in holy work, and the difficult, painful questions are the most important ones.

Just want to start off of with saying that I am currently a christian sort of non-denomoninal I guess but I might think about that in more detail in the future. But I understand that you could be confused about the different accounts in the bible from the biblical writers. However humans tend to have somewhat different accounts of the same historical events which can be due to a few reasons, one is that they somehow interpreted the event somewhat differently, another possible reason could be due to the fact that the biblical writers got there at different times or may not have been paying attention the whole entire time thorefore it would not be shocking if they did indeed have somewhat different accounts. But my beliefs are that Jesus was who he said was which is the son of God and that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. However I do think that is indeed some truth in the majority of the widely followed religions, since if we observe them more closely we can see that they have similar fundamental themes from different cultures who for the most part did not interact that much globably with other cultures since the world was much less connected back in that era. But I say though that you might be interested in philosopical theism here is an wikipedia article on it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_theism , and this wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnism , and this wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_theology also possibly look at some books at christian metaphysics, and look at scholastic philosophy here is an wikipedia article on it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticism, read some of works by thomoas aqunias he was known as one of the greatest Christian Theologian/Philosophers who ever lived. I would also recommend the book the Experience of God by David Bently Hart, and the Atheist Delusion by David Bently Hart I have not read these books though yet but I have listening to some videos of him speaking on youtube and his ideas make a lot of sense and are very profound. I do plan on reading this books tho.

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EDIT: I would also recommend mere christianity by C.S. Lewis who was an atheist himself before he converted to christianity. And also some books by edward feser who was himself an atheist for a period of time after he lost his christian faith but then returned back to his faith. I would also recommend this book by Francis Collins who is an well-respected scientist in his field has a PhD in Physical Chemsitry from Yale University and also earned an MD degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is director of the NIH since 2009, and he has founded the biologos organization which has a goal of making the christian faith compatible with science in which is always has been until we got into a postmodern state of science vs fundamentalism religion which of course is certainly not the case and this us vs them is of course a false dichotomy science and religon are perfectly compatible insofar that they are not extreamly dogmatic with everything in the bible being the literally true word of God without there being any metaphores or similar literary devices. But anyway I should at least also mention that Francis Collins was an atheist during his time completing his higher eduction and ended up converting to the christian religion. Anyways here is the book he has written https://www.amazon.com/Language-God-Scientist-Presents-Evidence-ebook/dp/B000NY12E6

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Exploring the world's many religions is a fun and enriching activity. I'll tell you what I tell everyone who makes this post here:

First, you should start out by perusing one or both of the following websites - [BBC Religions] (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/) and [Harvard University's Pluralism Project] (http://pluralism.org/religions/). Both of these sites offer high-quality, scholarly yet accessible introductions to most of the world's major traditions. These sites alone can keep you occupied for days.

Once you're ready to jump into books, you have two options. Your first option is to find a book that offers an overview of what's called "comparative religions." The classic is Huston Smith's [The World's Religions] (https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Religions-Plus-Huston-Smith/dp/0061660183/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1536540983&sr=8-2&keywords=huston+smith+the+world%27s+religions). There are others that are newer and probably more up-to-date, but this is a beloved book for a reason, and won't disappoint.

Your other option is to dig into one particular tradition that you've identified as of special interest from your internet search. If you go that route, which has its advantages and disadvantages, I'd encourage you to do some research online (including on the tradition's individual subreddit) to see what books are recommended. If you have specific questions on this, I may be able to help as well.

Hope this was helpful - good luck!

CONSCIOUSNESS AS AN ONTOLOGICAL PRIMITIVE: THE EXISTENCE OF GOD(S)

• Consciousness is empirically proven to be ontologically distinct from matter. This can be shown by comparing the properties of both, such as minds being nonspacial and matter taking up space, the contents of mind being subjective and those of matter objective, the contents of mind private to the individual and those of matter accessible to anyone, the contents of mind being about things and the contents of matter lacking aboutness, and these are only a few examples. Anyone can test this at any time. For instance, the volume in a room your body takes up will be the same if you're actively consciously thinking or dead, there's no difference. Or that no matter who you love the most of feeling you cannot actually access those feelings. [1]
  
  
• Consciousness is an absolute certainty, it is the one thing we know directly and can be sure exists. The existence of the Self and Consciousness is an axiomatic fact, it must be true and cannot even be logically argued against without violating that same logic. Anything that is Not-Consciousness in known through Consciousness, including the material world, body, and brain. Anything you ever have or will know about matter relies on consciousness, and while consciousness cannot have its existence doubted [2-3], we can EASILY doubt matter (such as brain in a vat, solipsism, idealism, philosophical skepticism, etc.) [4-7]. To reduce what we can doubt and never directly or certainly to something axiomatically true that we know with direct certainty is the height of unreasonable.
  
  
• Consciousness, even in less advanced being like animals, comes with very specific traits. This includes being aware of the self and others to some extent, having needs and desires, seeking either social situations or isolation actively, emotions, and so forth.
  
  
• CONCLUSION: since consciousness axiomatically exists, cannot be doubted, and is proven ontologically distinct from matter, consciousness must be a separate “substance” or “thing”, an ontological primitive. We know this primitive because we have direct access to it, so we can know about the nature of consciousness. An ontological primitive – something immaterial and eternal – which desires, has emotions, experiences, is self-aware, etc. is the best possible definition for a God. Therefore at least one God exists.
  
  
  
  THE NATURE/RISE OF CONSCIOUSNESS: THE INTERFERENCE FROM GOD(S)
  
  
• Not only are the properties of consciousness mutually exclusive from those of matter, but what we see consciousness is capable of, at least in humans, does not line up with the deterministic, linearly moving, material universe. For instance the mind of humans can question, manipulate, and even go against this linear, deterministic matter. Questioning is proven in this very writing, we are stepping outside of the system and looking in to figure out how it works, something which, to our knowledge, no other life does. If it does the certainly and evidently don’t to the same extent. We can manipulate nature such as the creation of complex chemical medications, the harnessing of electricity itself, the building of mega-structures that stand the tests of time [8-9], not to mention devices such as what you’re reading this on which would never have grown in a consciousness-less nature. Contradiction of this material nature is scientifically proven in things such as Self-Regulation, Cognitive Therapy, and Placebos without Deception [10-12]. All of these prove that we can willfully recognize our deterministic patters and freely choose to act differently.
  
  
• The rise of the higher consciousness possessed by humans is suspicious even if we ignore that this consciousness came to be able to contradict nature, and doesn’t fit with what we know about biological evolution. This is specifically in the Great Leap Forward of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution, a scientifically proven event well known in anthropology. Mankind went from “just another animal” to an abstractly questioning and thinking being. Art arose, religion, language, math, cultures, agriculture, and society and civilization themselves. This has never occurred to the same extent in another species, not even close. Further, there was no genetic change that occurred at this time, and biologically modern humans had already existed for over 100,000 years when the UPR happened![13~15?]
  
  
• CONCLUSION: The nature of the consciousness it birthed, along with the scientifically evidenced fact that it occurred abruptly and without biological evolution, suggest the interference of something outside of nature, i.e. a God.
  
  
  
  
  TELEOLOGY OF MIND AND BODY: THE PLAN OF GOD(S)
  
  
• There is a Telos to the mind which was proven by psychological scientist Abraham Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs. This shows the best path for human beings to follow in order to reach their ideal life, something that applies across times in cultures. Maslow showed that there is a “proper” hierarchy to human priorities, and a “proper” end-goal of Self-Actualization whatever that may before you. [16]
  
  
• There is a Telos to the body which was proven by the Yale School of Medicine, especially through the works of Dr. Harold Burr. It shows that there are external fields creating and controlling, not simply produced by, the physical forms of all life. Anything from trees to amphibians to human beings. Readings of these “Life Fields” can predict cancer, ovulation, birth defects, and much more. Unfortunately Dr. Burr believed this to be evidence of an intelligent plan (it is…), so it has been largely swept under the rug in favor of (much more profitable!) materialism. [17-19]
  
  
• CONCLUSION: There being a clear proper path for both all matter and consciousness shows that there is a Telos, or purpose, to human life and that we do not exist or evolve randomly.
  
  
  
  
  PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: DIRECT EXPERIENCES OF GOD(S)
  
  
• Every single culture has experienced Gods. Hundreds of millions of people throughout human history and across cultures have experienced Gods, and these experiences have extremely similar characteristics. In fact these are so clear the can be categorized into 3 specific types of experiences (see Philosophy of Religion, and Introduction, by atheism William Rowe for example) [20]. Yes, the pantheons experienced seem to differ, but this is exactly what we would expect from cultures dependent on geography, weather, economy, class system, and so forth. To say this shows the experiences are invalid would be like saying the stars don’t exist because cultures came up with different constellations.
  
  
• We also don’t inherently reject and human experience as delusion off the bat. We accept people experience pain, love, fear, happiness, depression, etc., despite never having actual access to their experiences. Yet when it comes to religious experiences many non-believers fall back on SPECIAL PLEADING, which is to judge this one type of experience differently from the rest. [21]
  
  
• CONCLUSION: since we would expect gods to be interpreted differently by cultures, and without reasons to reject religious experiences (which would have to be on an individual basis, such as pain), all we have is something all cultures have consistent experienced across time, which parsimony would suggest means they actually experienced.
  
  
  
  
  
  POLYTHEISM: MORE THAN ONE GOD
  
  
• There are experiences of all different gods throughout time, and so if one accepts experience (you have to without reasons specific to that individual case, such as intoxication or mental illness) they cannot say THEIR god is valid while others are not without SPECIAL PLEADING.
  
  
• Monotheistic gods have been logically defeated, such as by the problem of evil, lack of miracles, lack of answered prayers, etc.
  
  
• CONCLUSION: If you believe ANY gods exist, it is more reasonable to believe MANY do.
  
  
  SOME References
  
  1- Mind/Body Dualism, SEP
  https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dualism/#MinBod
  
  2- About of Consciousness http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/Axiom_of_Consciousness
  
  3- Ontological Argument for Idealism by Bernardo Kastrup
  
  4 to 7- Skepticism and Content Externalism https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/skepticism-content-externalism/
  
  8- Making Medicines
  http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/themes/treatments/medicines
  
  9- Powering a Generation
  https://americanhistory.si.edu/powering/generate/gnmain.htm
  
  10- How to Practice Self Regulation
  https://www.verywellmind.com/how-you-can-practice-self-regulation-4163536
  
  11- Cognitive Appraisal
  https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1005-9_1115
  
  12- Placebos Without Deception
  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0015591
  
  13- Framework of the UPR
  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0392192107076869
  
  14- Modern Humans Take the World
  https://www.thoughtco.com/upper-paleolithic-modern-humans-173073
  
  15- UP Technology, Art, Culture
  https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/origin-humans-early-societies/a/paleolithic-culture-and-technology
  
  16- Hierarchy of Needs
  https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
  
  17- The Electrical Patterns of Life
  http://www.wrf.org/men-women-medicine/dr-harold-s-burr.php
  
  18- Harold Burr's Biofields
  http://www.energymed.org/hbank/handouts/harold_burr_biofields.htm
  
  19- Electromagnetics of Life (PDF)
  https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://journals.sfu.ca/seemj/index.php/seemj/article/download/401/362&ved=2ahUKEwjv6Mm9xe_kAhW_CTQIHSjDCd8QFjAHegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw0xWf76krbzIG2DWHWuOP4q&cshid=1569537305106
  
  20- Phi of Religion https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Religion-Introduction-William-Rowe/dp/0495007250
  
  21- Special Pleading
  https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/163/Special-Pleading

>I'd love to do the Vedas or the Tripiṭaka, but from what I'm reading, these are almost impossible to understand without the formal training and would take more than a year to complete (if you can even find English translations of them).


The Tripitaka actually has a lot of very accessible parts -- reading the entire thing would be a massive undertaking (this would be thousands and thousands of pages), but the Majjhima Nikaya (the middle length discourses of the Buddha) and the Digha Nikaya (the long length discourses of the Buddha) are IMO extremely accessible and cover most of the non-Mahayana Buddhist teachings. Both come with very good forwards which serve as a good introduction for understanding the rest of the text.

For Mahayana Buddhism, there are a number of sutras translated, but probably the most foundational/important would be the Bodhicharyavatara (the way of the Bodhisattvas) which is amazing, but really needs more unpacking to fully appreciate. For that I'd recommend The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech which is an excellent and detailed commentary on it.

(courtesy of /u/lightnlng):


Check what you like from this list of Resources. I recommend starting with the Quran and a biography of prophet Muhammad (pbuh). If you want books, these ones are popular:

• [Book] The Message of the Qur'an - Muhammad Asad, if you're looking for the Quran in book form, this has helpful commentary to provide a thorough understanding.
  
  
• [Book] Quran - Abdel Haleem, another Quran in book form, this one is written in extremely clear modern English that makes it easy and pleasurable to read.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad Man and Prophet - Adil Salahi, a Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet, from birth in the Arabian desert to the triumph of Islam and its gaining a permanent hold on Arabia.
  
  
• [Book] In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad - Tariq Ramadan, presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings.
  
  ----
  
  Introduction book to Islam:
  
  
• [Book] Islam and the Destiny of Man - Charles Le Gai Eaton, introduction to Islam aimed at the Westerner. Online PDF
  
  -----
  
  Some popular videos on YouTube:
  
  
• [Video] How the Bible Led Me to Islam - Joshua Evans, former Christian youth minister conveys his journey to Islam.
  
  
• [Video] The DeenShow - a talk show that introduces many of the basic teachings of Islam and addresses common misconceptions. Their website here.
  
  
  
• [Video] The Purpose of Life - Khalid Yasin, gives a comprehensive lecture on the fundamental question that every human being must ask: "What is the purpose of life?"

Other posters are correct, feel free to read the book front to back. A Muslim friend of mine recommended to me The Message of the Qur'an it's a very good modern translation into English and has an extensive scholarly apparatus and footnotes. It is not a "readers" copy, it's intended for serious academic study. I also bought The Book of Hadith at the same time.

A few points worth keeping in mind:

1. From the point of view of Islam, "translation" of the Quran is not technically possible. All translations are, functionally considered something akin to paraphrases or commentaries on the original classical Arabic.
   
2. Although the Quran is perfectly approachable read front to back, your suspicions are correct, the text is not chronological. This is important because some passages have the function of abrogating other passages in chronological manner.
   
3. There text, in a way, assumes knowledge on the part of the reader that you won't have. All religious texts and many historical texts do this too. So, I suggest getting used to reading haditha and various events in the Quran. These are legends surrounding Muhammad. Be advised there is a "sorting system" that hadith have that rank their credibility. Roughly, someone who claims to be an eye witness to an event is given more weight than an individual asserting a fact writing 200 years after said event, and so-forth.
   
4. I may be getting confused here, but if memory serves, there is a sacred (or quasi-sacred) biography of Muhammad that might help you wrap your mind around the historical goings on in the text of the Quran as well. I can't recall the Arabic name of this commentary off the top of my head. Perhaps /u/Comrox or /u/TheOneFreeEngineer would do me the kindness of supplying the name of that text or clearing up my confusion. This text is distinct from a source critical biography in the modern scholarly sense, which surely would also help you, but bear in mind it is a religious document and contains its own religious bias.
   
   I hope this helps. Good luck wrapping your mind around the texts.

Those are two different questions, and in my case do not go together. I'll make separate comments for these questions.

>Why do religious people attack other religious people

First of all, I want you to understand it hasn't always been this way. This violence is one of the many gifts of monotheism, the belief in a one true god.

Before this concept spread, most people believed in many gods. None of these many gods demanded exclusive worship, let alone the death or conversion of people who worshiped a different god.The concept would have made no sense. It's very likely that this and/or animism was the state of religion for the vast majority of our existence, with the concept of a jealous One True God being a johnny-come-lately innovation.

All of these ancient religions were fundamentally compatible with each other. People saw each other's gods as the same as their own (but under different names and faces), or as different, but just as worthy of worship. It was also considered pious and good manners to give honor, respect, and worship to the god of a place, if you went there. (Many gods were focused on specific cities, like Athena on Athens in Greece, Hathor (who the Greeks equated with Aphrodite) on Dendera in Egypt, Eshmun (who the Greeks considered to be Asklepios) on Sidon in Lebanon, etc.

(Book recommendation: "God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism" by Jonathan Kirsch)

So, reading the Bible is somewhat of a chore. If you're just reading it to say you've done so, or give yourself a brief glimpse of what it has, you can look here to get an idea of what each version offers. Some versions are more "modern" and use current language and syntax. They're easier to read but may include translations of words or phrases that may not be as accurate as others. On the other hand, some versions go to great lengths to be as accurate as possible and lose some readability because of it.

Once you've decided, you can go here to read a lot of those versions - or multiple versions at once. You can also find apps that do similar things - sword-reader, or something to that effect, and probably others.

There are also places like this that are geared towards atheists. They're often snarky, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

I think, and agree with weeglos, that you're better off reading something like this or this to get an idea of what it's about and the changes that have been made (and why).

One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship, by Mary Pope Osborne – Survey of all the world’s religions from children’s perspectives, geared for 9-12 year olds.

Buller, Laura (2005). A Faith Like Mine. New York, NY: DK.  Includes Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Sikhism in detail, with bits on Zoroastrianism, Shinto, Taoism, Jainism and Baha’i, for ages 9-12.

DK Publishing (2011). What Do You Believe? New York, NY: DK. Includes all of the largest faiths, many smaller religious, plus ancient philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato, as well as modern thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kant, and Sartre.

The Little Book of Hindu Deities: From the Goddess of Wealth to the Sacred Cow, by Sanjay Patel – This is actually not a children’s book, but came highly recommended

Demi (2005). Jesus. New York, NY: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Zen Shorts, by Jon Muth – Introduction to Zen principles by a giant panda, targeted to children 9-12

DK Publishing (2011). What Do You Believe?  New York, NY: DK. Includes all of the largest faiths, many smaller religious, plus ancient philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato, as well as modern thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kant, and Sartre.

The Elephant Prince: The Story of Ganesh, by Amy Novesky – Beautifully illustrated tale of Ganesh, Hindu deity.

Demi (2003). Muhammad. New York, NY: Margaret K. McElderry Books

By the way you may also like the NRSV Oxford Annotated Study Bible it's pretty much the standard Bible used in academia and contains tons of information about translation choices, maps, information about cultural references, etc. I study religion at a secular state run university and this is the standard Bible that all the religion professors recommend.

You might also find The Book of Moses from The Pearl of Great Price an interesting read if you are into creation story stuff. It's from the Mormon canon: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses/2?lang=eng

My favorite Christianity-related creation story though is On the Origin of the World

Man Seeks God: Flirtations with the Divine
It goes into Abrahamic religions, and then goes outside of them too. For a broader perspective.

*Edited to add - Don't Know Much About the Bible I was taking several undergraduate classes about the bible, and was listening to this at the same time. Its not as in depth, but it was really good, and pretty accurate to what I was hearing in class. I found it really interesting, and the book on tape is really good!

Read the Qur'an with a commentary.


A really, really, really good place to start is "The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an in Today's English" by Yahiya Emerick". Written by an American Muslim for Americans with no background knowledge on Islam at all. It's really, really, really well done, and the best for people going in blind.


Yusuf Ali's translation and commentary is the standard, and the new Study Qur'an is wonderfully done and also recommended - but the notes may be a bit too specialist in tone. Pick it up in a book store and read a bit of it to see.


But yes, reading it front to back is perfectly fine. I have suggested maybe starting at "Joseph", as it's the only traditional style narrative in the whole book, and you skip the first 8 or 9 chapters that are a bit heavier in legalistic and ritualistic stuff, which some find challenging without any aides.

Do you want to become a theist (start believing in one or more gods) or just find a community and set of rituals? I think you can have either one without the other, depending on what your goals are. There are things like the Unitarian church as well as Sunday Assembly (essentially church for atheists).

For me personally, I didn't feel like I had found purpose in life until after I became an atheist and had to discover for myself what I found important in life. Having a family also helps provide purpose :)

That all said, I really enjoyed the textbook we used in my World Religions course in college (note, I linked to the "smile" version of the Amazon link, which is a small way you can have 'purpose' by having Amazon contribute a portion of a purchase price to a charity of your choice)

Not sure if this fits under your definition of "world religions" but Mormonism is currently undergoing an interesting, scholarly reassessment of its history. Mormons have a pretty unique and (if I may say so myself) fascinating cosmology that you may enjoy learning about. If you're interested I would start by reading Bushman's Rough Stone Rolling.

First of all, can I just say how much I love giving and receiving book recommendations? I was a religious studies major in college (and was even a T.A. in the World Religions class) so, this is right up my alley. So, I'm just going to take a seat in front of my book cases...

General:

1. A History of God by Karen Armstrong
   
   
2. The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong
   
   
3. Myths: gods, heroes, and saviors by Leonard Biallas (highly recommended)
   
   
4. Natural History of Religion by David Hume
   
   
5. Beyond Tolerance by Gustav Niebuhr
   
   
6. Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel (very highly recommended, completely shaped my view on pluralism and interfaith dialogue)
   
   
7. The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
   
   Christianity:
   
   
8. Tales of the End by David L. Barr
   
   
9. The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
   
   
10. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan
    
    
11. The Birth of Christianity by John Dominic Crossan
    
    
12. Who Wrote the New Testament? by Burton Mack
    
    
13. Jesus in America by Richard Wightman Fox
    
    
14. The Five Gospels by Robert Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar (highly recommended)
    
    
15. Remedial Christianity by Paul Alan Laughlin
    
    Judaism:
    
    
16. The Jewish Mystical Tradition by Ben Zion Bokser
    
    
17. Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliot Friedman
    
    Islam:
    
    
18. Muhammad by Karen Armstrong
    
    
19. No God but God by Reza Aslan
    
    
20. Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations by Michael Sells
    
    Buddhism:
    
    
21. Buddha by Karen Armstrong
    
    
22. Entering the Stream ed. Samuel Bercholz & Sherab Chodzin Kohn
    
    
23. The Life of Milarepa translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa
    
    
24. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
    
    
25. Zen Flesh, Zen Bones compiled by Paul Reps (a classic in Western approached to Buddhism)
    
    
26. Buddhist Thought by Paul Williams (if you're at all interested in Buddhist doctrine and philosophy, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not reading this book)
    
    Taoism:
    
    
27. The Essential Chuang Tzu trans. by Sam Hamill & J.P. Seaton
    
    Atheism:
    
    
28. Atheism by Julian Baggini
    
    
29. The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud
    
    
30. Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht
    
    
31. When Atheism Becomes Religion by Chris Hedges
    
    
32. Atheism: The Case Against God by George H. Smith

ChristoPaganism would probably work well for you. From what I understand they tend to worship Mary as a goddess, and many believe in a larger divine feminine. A view like yours would mix well with Paganism as well. This book is a good starting place.

https://www.amazon.com/ChristoPaganism-Inclusive-Path-Joyce-Higginbotham/dp/0738714674/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542960161&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=christo-pagan+an+inclusive+path

[I would definitely recommend this version of the Bible.] (http://www.amazon.ca/Little-Rock-Catholic-Study-Bible-NABRE/dp/0814636489/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414062377&sr=8-1&keywords=the+little+rock+catholic+study+bible) - ridiculously scholarly, but written for the layman. It's amazing. Just amazing.


[And this version of the Qur'an.] (http://www.amazon.ca/Meaning-Holy-Quran-Todays-English/dp/1450549535/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414062405&sr=8-1&keywords=the+meaning+of+the+holy+quran+in+todays+english) - Very scholarly, written by an American convert for Americans with little knowledge of Islamic history or Arab culture. Ridiculously informative. The layout could be better, but this is a great starting point.

While I don't consider it to be a cult, the history of Mormonism is extremely interesting, as is the life of it's founder, Joseph Smith.

A good book written by a member of the church is called "Rough Stone Rolling." Another great one by a non mormon is called "No Man Knows My History"

For your Bible studies I suggest the following.

1. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha
   
   
2. Yale College free video lectures: Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible).
   
   
3. Yale College free video lectures: Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature.
   
   
4. The Complete Gospels

A History of God by Karen Armstrong is a great book to learn a little about the "big 3" Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
http://www.amazon.com/History-God-000-Year-Judaism-Christianity/dp/0345384563/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I have quite a few, and this has been consistently the best: https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/0195289609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495511539&sr=8-1&keywords=new+oxford+annotated+bible+with+apocrypha

The World's Religions by Huston Smith:

http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Religions-Plus-Huston-Smith/dp/0061660183/ref=la_B000APX9CG_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367371571&sr=1-1