Extreme Makeover

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Dale_M

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What if you spent one year following every rule in the Bible?
After A. J. Jacobs spent a year reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica for his book “The Know-It-All,” he figured he had the yearlong experiment thing down. How much harder could it be to follow every rule in the Bible? Much, much harder, he soon discovered, as he found himself growing his beard, struggling not to curse and asking strangers for permission to stone them for adultery. Jacobs spent the year carrying around a stapled list of the more than 700 rules and prohibitions identified in the Good Book, and also consulted with religious leaders and spent time with the Amish, Hassidic Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Most of the religious figures you met with seemed very willing to help you with your quest. Were you afraid anyone would be offended by the idea of you doing this as a commercial project, or see it as a gimmick?
Yes, I thought I would encounter that. I didn’t encounter it that much, and I don’t know why. Maybe because I went in really curious, I didn’t go in to mock religion. It was much more a journey to understand. There are parts of the book where I take the Bible literally and show that that is not a good way to read the Bible. There are people in America who do read it that way, and I think that is a mistake. So there is that aspect to the book, but at the same time it is an earnest spiritual quest where I’m trying to figure out if something’s missing in my life and what I should tell my kids about religion. I actually invited a Jehovah’s Witness over to my apartment, and I think I’m the only person in history who out-Bible-talked a Jehovah’s Witness. After three hours, he looked at his watch and told me he had to leave.
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