An Atheist's Reading for Maybe Midrash 2025
Another Bibliophile Reads
[{'start': '6.960', 'end': '12.400', 'text': 'why would an atheist like myself want to'}, {'start': '12.400', 'end': '24.040', 'text': 'participate in a book event about\xa0\nreading religious books [Music]'}, {'start': '28.080', 'end': '37.120', 'text': 'hello welcome to my channel another bibliophile\xa0\nreads my name is Greg and I am participating in'}, {'start': '37.120', 'end': '47.280', 'text': 'maybe midrash this is an event where people\xa0\nare encouraged to read books about religion'}, {'start': '47.280', 'end': '57.680', 'text': 'fiction or non-fiction now midrash is something\xa0\nI should describe and its creator Jason at Old'}, {'start': '57.680', 'end': '69.360', 'text': "Blues chapter and verse describes it this way what\xa0\nis maybe midrash you ask we'd be better served to"}, {'start': '69.360', 'end': '80.720', 'text': "first define midrash as best as one can anyway as\xa0\nit's a notoriously slippery word to define midrash"}, {'start': '80.720', 'end': '88.400', 'text': 'is a Jewish literary discipline in which readers\xa0\ninterpret stories and events in scripture less'}, {'start': '88.400', 'end': '99.440', 'text': 'with an eye to arriving at concrete meanings eg\xa0\nthe text says X Y and Z so therefore then with an'}, {'start': '99.440', 'end': '107.600', 'text': 'understanding that the texts vibrate with possible\xa0\nmeanings that interpretations are in conversation'}, {'start': '107.600', 'end': '116.560', 'text': 'with each other that gaps and absences in stories\xa0\nare not holes so much as opportunities for readers'}, {'start': '116.560', 'end': '126.080', 'text': 'to make meaning by inference stitching or\xa0\nexplosion midrash as I see it is the act of'}, {'start': '126.080', 'end': '134.080', 'text': 'readers and writers complicating well-known\xa0\nreligious narratives and ideas with creative'}, {'start': '134.080', 'end': '143.200', 'text': 'and often irreverent embroidery made me midrash\xa0\nthen is a book event during which participants'}, {'start': '143.200', 'end': '151.040', 'text': 'spend the month of May reading a work of literary\xa0\nfiction that engages seriously and provocatively'}, {'start': '151.040', 'end': '160.720', 'text': 'with religion and or a work of non-fiction\xa0\nthat does the same now as I said in my opening'}, {'start': '160.720', 'end': '171.600', 'text': 'I consider myself an atheist i do not believe in\xa0\nany supernatural beings or events so why would I'}, {'start': '171.600', 'end': '179.920', 'text': 'want to read books that engage with religion well\xa0\nmany people in this world are religious there are'}, {'start': '179.920', 'end': '190.480', 'text': 'the Hindus the Buddhists the Jews and Christians\xa0\nand the Muslims not to mention the Mormons and'}, {'start': '190.480', 'end': '198.640', 'text': 'other religions and to be someone in this world I\xa0\nthink it is important to be cognizant about other'}, {'start': '198.640', 'end': '207.920', 'text': "people's religion even if I do not share in those\xa0\nbeliefs myself which is why I'm always curious to"}, {'start': '207.920', 'end': '217.600', 'text': "engage in maybe midrash to see if there's anything\xa0\nthat I can learn from other people's beliefs"}, {'start': '217.600', 'end': '226.560', 'text': 'now the books I have selected are in some cases a\xa0\nlittle irreligious in and of themselves but they'}, {'start': '226.560', 'end': '233.760', 'text': 'do try to take religion on its surface and explore\xa0\nwhat you can learn from it now I will be reading a'}, {'start': '233.760', 'end': '240.480', 'text': "number of books some of these books have already\xa0\nbeen scheduled for other reading events and I'm"}, {'start': '240.480', 'end': '248.960', 'text': 'just going to include them in maybe midrash and\xa0\nthe first is another roadside attraction by Tom'}, {'start': '248.960', 'end': '259.360', 'text': "Robbins this asks a question what if the second\xa0\ncoming didn't quite come off as advertise what if"}, {'start': '259.360', 'end': '267.600', 'text': 'the corpse on display in that funky roadside zoo\xa0\nis really who they say it is what that does that'}, {'start': '267.600', 'end': '275.680', 'text': 'portend for the future of Western civilization and\xa0\nI I understand this this is a comic novel about a'}, {'start': '275.680', 'end': '283.920', 'text': "roadside attraction that has the corpse of Jesus\xa0\nChrist on its very surface it's very irreligious"}, {'start': '283.920', 'end': '293.440', 'text': "and maybe a little bit irrelevant but I'm curious\xa0\nto see what nuggets I can pull out of this book"}, {'start': '293.440', 'end': '300.720', 'text': 'another novel I want to read is Barabbas by\xa0\nPar Lagerkvist translated from the Swedish'}, {'start': '300.720', 'end': '310.160', 'text': 'he did win the Nobel Prize in literature and this\xa0\nis the story of Barabbas Barabbas is the acquitted'}, {'start': '310.160', 'end': '318.560', 'text': 'man whose life was exchanged for that of Jesus of\xa0\nNazareth crucified on the hill of Golthia barabus'}, {'start': '318.560', 'end': '328.960', 'text': 'is a man condemned to have no god christos is\xa0\ncarved on the disc suspended on his neck but he'}, {'start': '328.960', 'end': '339.600', 'text': 'cannot affirm his faith he cannot pray he can only\xa0\nsay "I want to believe." So this is an exploration'}, {'start': '339.600', 'end': '350.400', 'text': "of Christianity i will be listening to an audio\xa0\nbook of Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin how religious"}, {'start': '350.400', 'end': '358.000', 'text': "this book is I'm not certain is it serious\xa0\nabout religion or does it just take religion"}, {'start': '358.000', 'end': '367.680', 'text': 'as a backdrop as a a plot device to move the story\xa0\nalong it is of course about a young woman getting'}, {'start': '367.680', 'end': '375.440', 'text': 'into a rather fancy apartment in New York City\xa0\nand the people in this apartment have ideas of'}, {'start': '375.440', 'end': '384.000', 'text': 'what they want to do with Rosemary it is a horror\xa0\nnovel supposedly about devil worship i did read'}, {'start': '384.000', 'end': '394.000', 'text': "it many many years ago but I've mostly forgotten\xa0\nthe story i kind of remember how it ends though"}, {'start': '394.000', 'end': '406.160', 'text': 'if I have time I want to read Samskara a right\xa0\nfor a dead band by you are an UR Ananthamurthy'}, {'start': '406.160', 'end': '415.520', 'text': "i'm probably not pronouncing his name correctly\xa0\nthis is translated from a language called Kanada"}, {'start': '415.520', 'end': '424.880', 'text': "with a K it is about Hinduism i have read this\xa0\nbook before and I will frankly admit that I didn't"}, {'start': '424.880', 'end': '431.680', 'text': 'understand a whole lot of what was going on in it\xa0\nso I I want to take another shot at this book to'}, {'start': '431.680', 'end': '442.160', 'text': 'see what I can glean on the back this is described\xa0\nas a tale of existential suspense a life and death'}, {'start': '442.160', 'end': '450.400', 'text': 'encounter between the sacred and the profane\xa0\nthe pure and the impure the aesthetic and the'}, {'start': '450.400', 'end': '459.440', 'text': 'erotic maybe the second time reading this will\xa0\nbe The Charm the next book I want to read is'}, {'start': '459.440', 'end': '468.960', 'text': 'not really fiction nor is it non-fiction it is\xa0\na collection of poetry water by Roomie roomie'}, {'start': '468.960', 'end': '479.520', 'text': 'was the Persian Sufi mystic and in his poems\xa0\nhe explores God and love and existence in a'}, {'start': '479.520', 'end': '490.160', 'text': 'religion Sufiism that I really know almost nothing\xa0\nabout other than what Roomie says in his poems for'}, {'start': '490.160', 'end': '501.120', 'text': 'non-fiction I am listening to an audio book God\xa0\nand Anatomy by Francisco Strauk Pulu again I am'}, {'start': '501.120', 'end': '508.720', 'text': 'almost certainly mispronouncing her last name and\xa0\nthis is an assumption that people make that God is'}, {'start': '508.720', 'end': '519.760', 'text': 'an incomporal being he has no physical existence\xa0\nbut if you look at the ancient sacred texts God is'}, {'start': '519.760', 'end': '527.920', 'text': 'assumed to have a physical body and this book goes\xa0\nthrough all those references and what they could'}, {'start': '527.920', 'end': '535.760', 'text': 'possibly mean and there are important things about\xa0\nthe physical body that God could have his feet his'}, {'start': '535.760', 'end': '546.160', 'text': "torso his hands his head his genitals it is on\xa0\nthe parts I've already read a little bit dry and"}, {'start': '546.160', 'end': '555.200', 'text': 'scholarly but it is a fascinating look into how\xa0\npeople once viewed God as having a physical body'}, {'start': '555.920', 'end': '564.480', 'text': 'okay those are my plans for maybe\xa0\nmidrash i hope more people try this'}, {'start': '564.480', 'end': '570.880', 'text': 'you do not have to be religious as I am\xa0\nnot but explore these religious books in'}, {'start': '570.880', 'end': '579.120', 'text': 'either in fiction or non-fiction thank\xa0\nyou for watching and keep on reading'}]