Holy book

{{scriptures}}
{{cquote|'''SCRIPTURES''', noun; The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from [[Other|the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based]].|||Ambrose Bierce, ''[[The Devil's Dictionary]]''}}
{{cquote|What I’m saying is, if [[God]] wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job.|||[[Carl Sagan]], ''Contact''<ref>''Contact: A Novel'' by Carl Sagan (1985) Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671434004. Chapter 10 (p. 164)</ref>}}
{{cquote|Why should one think that God performed the [[miracle]] of inspiring the words of the Bible, if he didn't perform the miracle of preserving the words of the Bible?|||[[Bart Ehrman]]<ref>Heyns Lecture Series, April 25, 2007</ref>}}

A '''holy book''' is a text sacred to a particular religion. Not to be confused with a ''holey book'', a book that has been eaten by worms, though there is some overlap between the two categories.

==Notable holy books==
:''In order of approximate publication dates:''

* The [[Vedas]] (~1500 BCE)<ref>[http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/index.htm Internet Sacred Text Archives: Hindusim — The Vedas]</ref>
* The {{wpl|Upanishads}} (primary texts written during 8<sup>th</sup>-6<sup>th</sup> Century BCE, but several minor texts produced as late as the 1500s.)<ref>[http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm Internet Sacred Text Archive: The Upanishads]</ref>
* The Avesta ([[Zoroastrianism]], compiled between 600-300 BCE)
* The [[Torah]] (compiled between 600-400 BCE from scrolls dating back to 1200 BCE)<ref>[http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et0.htm The Hebrew Bible in English]</ref> Or maybe a much later date…<ref>[http://vridar.org/2010/07/04/the-old-testament-a-hellenistic-book-and-other-digressions/ This discusses ''some'' of the issues.]</ref>
* The [[Tao Te Ching]] (6<sup>th</sup> century BCE)<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9047153/Lao-tzu Encyclopedia Britannica: Lao-tzu]</ref>
* The Mozi (Mohism, c. 5<sup>th</sup> century BCE)
* The Tripitaka ([[Buddhism]], compiled c. 1<sup>st</sup> century BCE)
* The [[Bible]] (compiled from books written between 1200 BCE and 150-200 CE)<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com BibleGateway.com]</ref> (Incorporates the Torah, q.v. above.)
* The Seven Treatises of Manichaeism (3<sup>rd</sup> century CE)
* The [[Qur'an]] (roughly 650 CE)<ref>Mr. Mohammed, Esq.</ref>
* Bardo Thodol/Tibetan Book of the Dead (14<sup>th</sup> century/1927)
* The {{wpl|Guru Granth Sahib}} of [[Sikhism]]
* [[Math|Calculus]] textbooks (17<sup>th</sup> century)<ref>See [[Isaac Newton]] and [[Gottfried Leibniz]], as in "simultaneously and independently", as they say in College Bowls.</ref>
* The [[Book of Mormon]] (19<sup>th</sup> century)<ref>[[Joseph Smith]]</ref>
* The [[Aqdas]] (19<sup>th</sup> century)
* The Ofudesaki, Mikagura-uta, and Osashizu (Tenrikyo, 19<sup>th</sup> to early 20<sup>th</sup> centuries)
* The Canonical Codes ([[Cao Dai]], 1920s)
* [[Church of Scientology |Dianetics]] (20<sup>th</sup> century)<ref>[[L. Ron Hubbard]]</ref>
* The [[Fun:42|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]] (20<sup>th</sup> century)<ref>The honourable [[Douglas Adams]]</ref>
* The [[Principia Discordia]] (20<sup>th</sup> century)<ref>[http://www.principiadiscordia.com/ The Wholey Booque of Discordians Everywhere]</ref>
* The [[Church of the SubGenius|Book of the SubGenius, Revelation X, and the Bobliographon]] (20<sup>th</sup> and 21<sup>st</sup> centuries)
* The [[Flying Spaghetti Monster|Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster]] (21<sup>st</sup> century)

==See also==
* [[Holy]]
* ''[[The Sacred and the Profane]]''

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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Categories: Lists, Religious terms, Scriptures