Does the Bible have too much animal sacrifice for your taste? The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is cooking up an animal cruelty-free Bible with the help of AI technology.
“The Book: PETA’s Version of the Creation Story” is the “vegan interpretation of the Book of Genesis,” according to the group's website.
The digital ebook is cheekily ‘bound’ in “vegan leather” and runs some 75 pages. This initial book only covers Genesis, although PETA reportedly has plans to veganize the entire Bible eventually.
This new vegan-friendly edition of the Bible has, somewhat expectedly, ruffled the feathers of some faith leaders, who say that God’s word should not be tampered with.
For PETA’s Sake
PETA is an animal rights group well-known for its controversial activism in service of protecting animals. More recently, the group has also gained a reputation for stirring the pot on social media.
A few years ago, they made headlines for a chart they created designed to help social media users remove “speciesism” from their speech, likening its usage to racist, sexist, or anti-LGBTQ speech:
But this time it's not popular slang they're reimagining – it's the most popular book of all time.
The Vegan Word of God
“The Bible has long been used to justify all forms of oppression, so we’ve used ChatGPT to make it clear that a loving God would never endorse exploitation of or cruelty to animals,” explained PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.
She says this new Bible will actually refocus the text on God’s love and grace, rather than His thirst for sacrifice and bloodshed.
As it so happens, the group has been beating this drum for a while:
What PETA's Bible Says
So, what exactly has been changed? There are dozens of changes great and small in PETA’s new vegan Bible.
For example, animals are no longer referred to as “beasts,” but rather “beings” in this new version. Animal skins and leather worn by biblical figures are instead made of hemp.
But some changes are far more significant. Per the book’s product description, “among other new interpretations, in Genesis Chapter 22, Abraham travels to the land of Moriah and befriends a gentle lamb to show his reverence and respect for God’s creation, rather than slaughtering a ram to demonstrate his faith — much as human sacrifice, once a reality, is now outlawed all over the world.”
Telling New Tales
Meanwhile, other stories have been made up entirely. In PETA's Genesis 21, Abraham and Sarah “add to their growing family by adopting a dog named Herbie.”
“As they walked with Herbie,” the passage reads, “Sarah and Abraham thought of the importance of adopting dogs from shelters and rescue organizations rather than purchasing them from breeders.”
As you might imagine, this interpretation isn’t bringing home the bagels for some Christian leaders. “You can’t rewrite the Bible by this kind of revisionism and then claim it is a biblical sanction,” argues Darrell L. Bock, a senior research professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. “It produces a fraudulent claim of divine sanction, making God in our image,” he says.
It’s worth noting that PETA is hardly the first group to reinterpret the Bible. There have been innumerable reimaginings of the Christian holy text, including the infamous “Jefferson Bible,” edited by US President Thomas Jefferson to keep all the moral messages but remove all supernatural elements.
Regardless of its content, the fact that this new version is being written with AI technology is enough to cause alarm bells for some. Just last week, we noted growing concerns about the potential ability of AI to create new religions. It would seem PETA is jumping on that train early.
What do you think? Do you support PETA reinterpreting the Bible to be more animal friendly, or is it better to leave holy texts untouched?
92 comments
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The point is.. No mere book is God. Scripture is the work of humans. Mere mythology.
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I fail to see the actual use of this rewritten Bible. Are people nowadays really this fragile? Everything needs to couched in language as inoffensive as possible? All the while lacking the grasp of the human condition that someone, somewhere will still be offended by whatever isn't supposed to be offensive?
I dunno. Maybe people need to become adults. Live in the real world. Understand that everything isn't tailored for them. Accept reality as it is and move on. Don't expect to be pampered for life. I learned a long time ago how to blow things off. As long as it isn't actual, physical abuse just let it go.
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It has nothing to do with being fragile. It has to do with evolving standards of decency.
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I understand that standards change over time. But that concerns the present. Why do people need to retcon ancient writings? Isn't that just trying to erase something some people aren't comfortable with?
If people want to invent new stories where everyone is a vegan and wears hemp, why not just make up a totally new story? Because it's still the same fiction, either way. Just not messing with what many people consider sacred texts with theological points being made.
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@revkev It's about destroying something they hate. That's all.
I must say, if the Bible is as accurate spiritually as it is historically/archeologicaly and socially, the PETA crowd responsible has got a rough ride ahead of them. Ouch.
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@Rev. Kev You asked, "Are people nowadays really this fragile?" YES These people are adults.
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I accept they may be over the age of 18 and considered an adult. Personally, I don't consider an individual an adult until they show personal responsibility, maturity, and integrity.
Maybe that's too high a bar these days?
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@ Rev. Kev. You know I completely agree with you…. “ Personally, I don't consider an individual an adult until they show personal responsibility, maturity, and integrity.”
Are the any pastors, ministers, bishops you consider adults? I don’t think so. You have defiantly set the bar too high.
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People today are just like Adam and Eve were back then. They fail to take responsibility for anything, they blame all of their woes on someone else. Eve blamed the snake for her mistake and Adam blamed God for giving him Eve. People have more excuses than Carter has liver pills.
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Isn't it funny that whenever a conservative talks about 'personal responsibility', he's talking about somebody else's?
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Yes it is.
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Eve blamed snake for her mistake. Adam blamed G-d for giving him Eve. G-d blamed all three of them. People still blame the snake, even today.
Poor, poor snake, who simply and kindly wanted to share a juicy and so tasty apple, together with some vital knowledge (of good and evil)... Nobody appreciates the knowledge...
How else this world would have started if not the snake's apple?
So sad about the snake... So unfair... But there is still hope!
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I absolutely agree with Rev Kev. Grow up and STOP becoming a victim of wake-thought. Our God, gender unknown and unnecessary, loves each of us and only asks two things of His rather pathetic flock. First, have no God before me. And, second, love one another. That’s it! Simple and easy to understand.
Admittedly I haven’t read many bibles, leather bound or paper, but I do embrace His love and pray this silliness stops so that people can stop cruelty. You are not a victim, you are a Child of God. Grown up and be the leader that we desperately need.
D. Casamatta Mayfield Village, Ohio
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The same sort of tripe could have been said regarding the slavery of humans. "Accept reality as it is and move on." As for your disdain for actual physical abuse, I hate to think of what would qualify in your mind. The abuse heaped on innocent animals for their skins is horrible. So are the various portrayals of animal sacrifice in the Judeo-Christian bible. Isn't having one's throat cut violent enough for you?
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Ooooo. Slid in a slavery comment. Good job. 👍🏻👍🏻
That comment is irrelevant regarding the context of what I wrote. What you did there is a logical fallacy known as appeal to extremes. It didn't invalidate what I wrote, and had no relation to what I wrote.
What comes to my mind when I mention physical abuse are things like spousal abuse, sexual crimes, or beating innocent people up. Because I was specifically talking about human behaviour.
Context is super important.
Are other animals treated cruelly? Sure. Do some religions use animal sacrifice? Yes, again. Do I personally approve of it? Nope. But rewriting the Bible won't change either. In fact, it will be a lie to say they didn't engage in it to make it more palatable. I'd rather face hard truths than live in pleasant lies.
The Bible contains a lot of violence against humans and other animals. Earth is not a pleasant place. I'm sure you've watched documentaries about nature. Animals, themselves, can be very cruel. They hunt and eat one another. For people who found themselves in a position where they are suddenly a helpless part of the food chain (being hunted by a hungry predator) that raw fact of nature becomes very clear.
We can't change the past. Rewriting it won't actually make it any different or better. We cannot change the innate behaviours of animals. At best, we can strive to make humans less violent and prone to warfare and cruelty. Wars have decreased over time, and violent crime is down in developed nations. So that might be some progress. I fully support less wars and crimes of any sort. But none of that will be fixed overnight. If there was currently a way to do that (short of exterminating the human race in one swoop) I'm thinking we would've done it by now.
I'm sure the world would be grateful if you had some constructive suggestions to that end. Indignation ain't gonna do it.
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At last count, there were over 700 versions of the Bible in English alone. 125 of them are still in print. This is what Christians do. If they don't like "the Word of God Eternal and Unchanging", they simply write their own version and start their own church.
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You are witnessing evolution.
The best bible ever written was the Wicked Bible. This is the one where it states "Thou shall commit adulatory".
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Don't forget those books that were excluded, I think maybe the Ethiopian bible might be the most complete to date, but I could be wrong.
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Shalom.
You are close to be correct. What is the Bible? The Bible is the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament is a translation of the Torah, Ketuvim, Neviim, and Tanakh (a.k.a. the Jewish Bible) minus nearly 100 texts that are still hidden from Christians. The New Testament also has nearly 100 texts missing and unavailable to Christians, because of the decisions of the leaders of the Christian Church. Interestingly why, right?
Apart from that, all modern Bible translations are... slightly different from their original sources (from Latin, Greek, and especially from Hebrew and Aramaic versions of these religious texts).
For example, if the modern Bible in 2Peter 1:19 says "the morning star (will rise in your hearts", then the original 2nd century AD 2Petri 1:19 (in Latin) had there the word "Lucifer (will rise in your hearts)".
Compare it with Revelations 22:16, where Jesus openly calls himself "the Morning Star". There were only two entities with that name in the Bible. Because they both were literally doing the same (rebelling against, and accusing for wrongdoing, you know who). Good for them.
But also (speaking of animal sacrifices vividly and oftently mentioned in the Bible, and, accordingly, actually coming to the Bible from the Jewish Torah), the Greek word for the religious sacrifices of animals (in favor of the Jewish G-d) is "holocaust". This word (in Greek) describes a very important and good deed to do for every religious Jew, the deed ("holocaust", or "animal sacrifice by burning") that pleases the Jewish G-d.
But who are animals? To understand the real answer to this question we must proceed deeper, into the books of the Talmud. The passage from Yevamot 61a:1 states: "the Jewish people are called men [adam] but Gentiles are not called men [adam]". And another book, Keritot 6b 19-20 confirms it. The book Bava Metzia 114b:2 also says the same, again. Sounds pretty racist and outrageous, don't you find? Jesus thought exactly the same, that's why (it was actually only one of the several His big reasons) He was rebelling, and He was accusing, and He was right. But to be fair, I would restrain from calling Him as "Christian", He was not, not even close. Nor was He Jewish, by the way. But that is already for another story...
Sadly, many modern people (especially between Christians) do not know anything of it, do not realize it, they even don't want to realize or know it. Do you know why? Probably, because something had been lost in the translation... Pure Truth shines bright and blinds those who come from darkness, they prefer dim candles instead... Well, it's their choice.
And speaking of Ephiopians, historically they were one of the first Jews who began following the Torah. Mainly because of their conservativism, many of them refused and rejected the Talmud. Such approach between Ephiopians exists even now. That's why some religious (Judaic) Israeli Jews treat poor Ephiopians as subhumans, but such attitude already should not surprise you when you know better the Talmud (sepharia.org may also help you with that).
Best regards, keep searching for the truth, LadyLucifer. You are doing good.
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I thought the good book was made from tree's or originally parchment leather bound I don't have one and never have.All the versions I have seen have never been leather bound.Or am I missing something.PETA would create a vegan one so what do we do eat it or what.I don't buy anything from the body of an animal never have and never will.Fur is beautiful on animals not human beings Minister Nick Page UK.
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Being full of death, destruction, and man’s inhumanity to man, I wonder why it’s called “The Good Book”?
🦁❤️
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It was written in primitive, violent times. Some of us have evolved. Too bad we all haven't.
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I own about 15 translations of the Bible and several of them are leather bound. Perhaps if you did own one and read it you might understand things better.
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I read mine, Colleen, and studied it, and that’s what convinced me that the god of that book is a horrible brutal monster of a deity, definitely not worth worshipping.
🦁❤️
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My post was in reply to the one above yours. Nicholas J Page stated that he never owned one and couldn't imagine a leather bound copy
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I agree wholeheartedly
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@ Colleen McAllister. You have quite the collection of Bibles. Do you just read them? Or have you studied them? Have you done a comparisons of what is said in your 15 different Bibles? While you I’m sure you find a lot of good in the Bibles, don’t you find a lot of wickedness, death and destruction by God?
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@DouglasRobertSpindler. I have read and studied my Bibles. I often compare versions to understand them better. I also have several commentaries. If you do so then you understand that even though different wording is used the meaning remains the same. When it does not I do extra research to find out why. There is one denomination that edited the Scripture to fit their own doctrines. I no longer own that one. Intelligent people take nothing at face value. My faith is in God not a book.
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@Colleen McAllister Sorry, I'm a bit confused. If the Bible is the word of God, and you put your faith in God why not God's book? With all of the Bibles you have, and the comparison you've made between the Bibles do you also do a comparison with the Oxyrhynchus Papyri?
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Oooh. Leather. The Nazis had leather lampshades. It was human leather, but I guess you're good with that.
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Shalom.
What you've said was incorrect. Yad Vashem and the International Institute for Holocaust Research (Israel) officially stated that the Nazis never had any "lampshades made of Jews", nor "soap made of humans". Never. All these multiple "blood-chilling" accusations against the Nazis were simply blatant Soviet lies.
Therefore, it is generally highly recommended to study history using other sources (than Soviet/Russian deceivers). Instead, conscious and smart people should definitely use more credible sources, indeed.
Best regards.
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You are absolutely wrong that there were no human skin lampshades created by Nazis. But much more fascinating is your efforts to besmirch the brave Soviets who carried the bulk of the war against Naziism. I am happy to stand with the Soviets from the world war. Human animal leather was evil then. Nonhuman animal leather is evil now.
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Pretty much what I was asking myself, if it was edible!
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I'm sure it could be used for toilet paper.
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I understand bibles are very popular in prisons - the pages are good as cigarette paper.
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I understand bibles are very popular in prisons - the pages can be used as cigarette paper.
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Minister Najah Tamargo USA
OH....for goodness sakes!!!! Are we REALLY having this conversation? There is a Buddhist "Bible", There is a Mormon "Bible", there is a Muslim "Bible"......I could go on and on. And this includes the number of Bibles that already exist - Old Testament, New Testament, King James, etc. If the Vegan's want their own "Bible", so be it. I think there are so many other horrific things going on in the world that need our attention, resources and prayers, wasting time on a "Vegan Bible" is a just plain ridiculous!
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@Najah P Tamargo You are witnessing first hand evolution of the religious/bible kind.
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I can't imagine what kind of evil would consider trying to create a nonviolent version of a popular book to be a waste of time.
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Once again PETA has gone over the edge. I am an animal lover but there is a limit. This is not simple interpretation this is a complete rewriting of what are considered sacred texts. To take the animal sacrifices out of the Bible is to negate the thread of sacrificial atonement for sin and the ministry of Jesus.
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Amen
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Good! Disgusting to think that you can make up for your transgressions by killing others.
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The Bible was, is, and ALWAYS will be a rewritten work to suit the author's personal ambitions.
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If anyone has read The Essene Gospel of Peace, Jesus quite clearly makes the point that a raw diet devoid of all animal product is the only diet to follow. I highly recommend the translated from Aramaic writings by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely.
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I think a doctor or nutritionist would be better qualified to determine a healthy diet.
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Jesus wasn't a nutritionist. That nothwistanding, mankind survived 200,000 generations or 2.5 million years by eating a diet estimated by to be about 90% of animals and animal products. We wouldn't have survived two generations if it weren't for meat.
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We weren’t even ‘us’ until about 40,000 ago. No pre+frontal cortex.
Also, lamb with those spices calls for a nicely chilled bottle of Pinot Noir from Oregon.
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Ain't true now though.
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Ah, yes. Szekely. Quite a coincidence that he was a vegetarian and raw foodist, then would write of a Jesus who was a vegetarian. According to Szekely's book 'Essene Gospel of Peace', he was a descendant of Hungarian philologist and orientologist Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (although the latter never married and had no children). ["Kőrösi Csoma Sándor's Family Tree". www.geni.com. Retrieved 2017-10-26.]
He claimed to have found and translated obscure texts for his "Gospel" while at the Vatican in 1923. When University of Lund theologian Per Beskow investigated Szekely's claims in Strange Tales About Jesus, both the Vatican and the National Library of Vienna denied that the original manuscripts existed. The Vatican also denied that Szekely had ever been admitted to the Vatican Archives in 1923.
Richard A. Young has written:
"Proof that Jesus was vegetarian is based on The Essene Gospel of Peace, which Szekely claims to have translated from an ancient text he supposedly discovered in the 1920s. Szekely alleges that this ancient gospel text is authentic and that the canonical gospels are forgeries. However, no one besides Szekely has ever seen the manuscript. This and other reasons prompt scholars to conclude that The Essene Gospel of Peace is a disreputable forgery." [Young, Richard A. (1999). Is God a Vegetarian?: Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights. Open Court. p. 5. ISBN 0-8126-9393-0]
As with the Book of Mormon, the source material that was translated has never been seen by anyone but the purported "translator".
Also curious about his ability to translate several languages, such as Aramaic, Hebrew and Slavonic when there is no mention of such an education in any biography of his I can find. But that's more of an aside.
Personally, I wouldn't take this text to heart.
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@Rev. Kev - FYI the Mormon Bible is the Bible - KJV is what my brother used in Seminary. The Book of Mormon is one of their doctrinal books - Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
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Thanks, but I already knew that.
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@Dawn Try reading Ezekiel 23:20.
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You do realize this just one part of the current movement to hi-hack and manipulate Christians and change the Christian religion with a capitalist and political agendas. The Christians who love to be followers are being hi-jacked and don't even know it.
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Christians were "hi jacked" when the first Christian bible was created.
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@LadyLucifer And the scribes ink was still wet.
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douglas spindler, so what you're saying is...x tians, who by definition are followers, are now becoming followers and that the religion is becoming capitalist and political because it wasn't capitalist and political enough before? what about those preachers/churches teaching the prosperity bible? what about the churches and preachers telling voters how and who to vote for? the bible and x tians are already corrupted and that happened over the last 2000 thousand years.
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A devote Christian once said, Religion was created when the first con man found the first fool And there are still so many fools in the world.
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@Rev. Dr. Father JJ Yes and no. Yes I agree with everting you have said. But what you are missing is that Christians who are following the Christian leader haven't realized their Christian leaders have been hi-jacked. So you have the followers following the leaders who are following a group that has hi-jacked their religion..
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"..and don't even know it."
Of course...but Isn't that always true?
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If King James can do it, well, why not. And there should be an atheist version. That’s going to be a major circumcision. Moses goes up on the mountain after eating some mushrooms, mistakes a rose bush for a flaming bush and back down with The Commandment….Try Not To Be A Dick.
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The remark reminds me of my favorite, absolutely favorite for many years, religious and Bible critic: the incomparable Christopher Hitchens. Whenever I need moral buttressing, I read something of his.
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I love it. where can I buy this vegan bible? It's modern concepts that embrace christ & God's word in a gentle format. Think outside the box.
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Thank you! Agreed
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You can get it on PETA's website.
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Oh please, PETA, next try this with the Quran.
Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top of it and a double dog dare.
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Please stop the planet I want to get off! I never underestimate the power or human stupidity but there appears to be a lot more stupid these days than simple common sense…..
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^Covfefe!^
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A new idea that is definitely worth a look... Precisely because it's a new idea.
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If vegetarian Roman Catholics have incorporated cannibalism into their religious practices, by eating actual parts of the body of their Jesus, ergo the the rest of us, who are not cannibalistic, are compelled to be tolerant of this practice, under the guise of religious freedom.
After all, if the body of Jesus, is available for human consumption, aren’t all other animals susceptible to being cannibalized also?
Google “transubstantiation” to find out how Roman Catholics actually turn bread-type wafers, into an actual (AKA, real) part of the Christian God’s son — commonly called Jesus.
This is not symbolic cannibalism— it’s actual (real) cannibalism, whether you like it or not.
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Oy vey. More scriptural goofiness.
How do they interpret Genesis 3:21 or Leviticus chapter 11 just to name a couple.
Then there's Deuteronomy 4:2. Yes there have been some mistakes through mistranslation, but a radical, purposeful miswording to change the meaning? Yeah, such a book can no longer be called a Bible, period.
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no, nope, no lamb at all, yuk, disgusting taste
but rewriting the bible is overdue 👍
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Yes, starting with “In the begining, was a he/she….”🤭
🦁❤️
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To me it seems like sacrilege to change the word of God. The Bible was written by teachers of faith as well as ordinary people who were fortunate enough to receive the word of God directly. As for calling animals beasts. What were they supposed to call them? People looked upon them as a creation of Gods but they weren’t human hence why they called animals beasts.
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We have the wicked Bible, that’s been around for centuries. I’ve always been waiting for the porn Bible, but guess there’s so much sex and porn in the Bible already that’s what’s making it a best seller.
I wonder if a Trans-Bible will be next?
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This was inevitable. Thanks PETA! (Not sarcasm. I bracket sarcasm with sarcastrophies ^^)
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You can’t re write the Bible.
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You can’t re write the Bible.
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You can’t re write the Bible.
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You can’t re write the Bible.
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@Thomas A. Follis The Bible has been rewritten many times. All one has to do is look at the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. This was the origin of the Bible.
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Any anti christ would be pleased with this boring assault on God. One thing worries me, you'd have to be pretty disturbed to actually do all the work required for a project like this. Like really driven by pure hatred for your maker. Feel bad for the fools.
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@ServantOfJudgement I hope you know the Oxyrhynchus Papyri is the origin of the Bible. And there are many Bibles that have been written since. Yes it's a larger project, Mohamad did it and so did the Angel Moroni. With so many profits and Bibles out there how do you know the one you are reading is the right one? And that you are not the fool? Could it be you are the fool for worshiping the wrong book?
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You have to be pretty disturbed to worship a deity who feels free to kill innocent animals. Talk about a nasty deity with an overblown ego. Come to think of it, that deity is pretty disturbed, too.
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Not just innocent animals, but innocent children of the first born, not to mention those babies, children, and pregnant women, who would have drowned…….if the Arc story was true. 🤷🏼
🦁❤️
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Keep the Bible as is in the NKJV. I have a number of versions of the Bible and accept it pre Vegan whatever. Putting bubble wrap on isn't going to make it anything but cutesy.
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How many versions of the Bible have been printed? How many times has the Bible been rewritten? How many times have you read any version of the Bible? May I suggest that we all find one that we believe in and read it. "P"eople "E"ating "T"asty "A"nimals P.E.T.A. What do they know about any Bible?
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I say thank you PETA. But my view of the bible, and other religious scriptures is simply one where they are a lot of good stories, mainly by people who wanted to promote their vision. I read between the lines of these scriptures.
PETA have provide a good outlook in this and I welcome it, but I also adore what the Cherokee native Americans do, in giving thanks to tge animal for its food, thus allowing its Spirit to live on.
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Ya know, it never occurred to me just to rewrite the book of myths... I feel so stupid now. This whole time I could have made a fortune with the "Holy Beef". And in my version Jesus did not die on a cross, he used the wood and stone to build a bbq pit. Feed people loaves and fishes, no, he fed them t-bones and ribs. Hmmm, I need to start writing.... Peace ✌️
the HOLY LAMB....mmmmmmmmmm.....savory! with mint, and carrots....and a nice cabernet...maybe some fava beans
Lamb kabobs with tzaziki, fresh greens, and lemon. And I'll take a nice dry beer, like Asahi.
Doesn't say much for your religion that you think the torture and eating of infants is something to laugh at.
P.E.T.A. = People Eating Tasty Animals !!!