A. C. Grayling, a British humanist, academic, and future president of the Britist Humanist Association, has published a secular Bible designed to reflect on a variety of artistic views, traditions, and outlooks and to assist readers in developing their own set of values. Titled The Good Book: A Humanist Bible, the book is arranged in a similar way to a traditional Bible (chapters, verses, double columns, eloquent language) and was released in correspondence with the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Grayling said to CNN that the traditional Bible would have been “a very different book and may have produced a very different history for mankind” if it had been written by philosophers, artists, authors and poets instead of by representatives of the faithful. He also said his new book isn’t designed to be critical of religion but rather a “contribution to the conversation that mankind must have for itself”; he even hopes the faithful will read and enjoy the book. Grayling began his book tour last week; the book already appears on Amazon UK’s best-seller lists.
