Living Religiously

Voice 1:
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight. I’m Ryan Geertsma.

Voice 2:
And I’m Marina Santee. Welcome to Spotlight. This program uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1:
Why does doubt often seem to follow faith and religion? Why do we question? People question the truth about science, politics, and many other things. But no matter what a person believes, everyone questions the truth about God some time during his or her life. Often these questions lead the person to explore matters of spirit and faith.

Voice 2:
A.J. Jacobs is an American writer. He was raised in a Jewish home. But he says that he was not very religious. In fact, he says he was an agnostic - he believed that it is not possible to know if God exists or not. But his doubts caused him to begin a life experiment. He says,

Voice 3:
“I always thought religion would just disappear. I was very wrong. So was I missing something important to being human? Or was half of the world fooled? I decided to...try to experience the Bible myself and to find out what is good in it and what may not be as fitting to the twenty-first century.”

Voice 1:
So Jacobs decided to spend one year obeying every single rule in the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible has two parts. The Old Testament records stories from before the life of Jesus Christ. The New Testament records the life of Christ. And it records the life of Christ’s followers after he returned to heaven. The Bible is a book of books. It is one book, but in it there are sixty-six [66] books, written over several centuries.

Voice 2:
Jacobs began his year by writing down every rule he found in the Bible. This list had more than seven hundred [700] rules. He obeyed famous laws like the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ command to love your neighbour. But he also obeyed the many detailed laws from the Old Testament. Some of these laws explained how to punish particular sins. Others told believers exactly what to wear. And other laws told them what to eat and what not to eat. Jacobs decided that he would try to obey every law exactly as it was written.

Voice 1:
For example, in the book of the Bible called Ecclesiastes it says “Let your clothes always be white.” So Jacobs did just that. All his clothes were white: white trousers, a white shirt, and a white coat.

Voice 2:
Some of the laws were difficult for Jacobs to follow. In the book of Leviticus, God told the Israelite men not to cut the hair on their faces. It was not physically or socially easy for Jacobs to follow this law.

Voice 3:
“The hair on my face became very uncomfortable. And I had to hear every joke about facial hair.”

Voice 1:
Other laws he found difficult to obey made his life better. He was amazed at how often he used to say negative things about others. So as he tried not to gossip, he felt better about himself. In a similar way, he felt better about himself when he tried to stop lying.

Voice 2:
At the end of the year, A.J. Jacobs wrote a book recording the experiences of his spiritual exploration. He called it, The Year of Living Biblically. For him, the year was informative and interesting. And he learned many surprising things. He became very interested in the laws that are not well known today. He studied them and tried to explain the purpose of the laws. And he explored how these uncommon laws could be followed in the twenty-first century.