Book of Mormon goes 'under the knife' in new humanist 'Bible'

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh);

“As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands” (Quran);

“The fourfold division of castes was created by me (Krishna) according to the appointment of qualities and duties” (Bhagavad Gita);

“Whatever of sensual pleasure there may be on earth, or in the kingdom of the gods, it is not worth a sixteenth part of the joy which springs from the destruction of desire” (Buddhist sutras);

“And it came to pass that those Lamanites which had united with the Nephites, were numbered among the Nephites; and their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites” (Book of Mormon).

Sam Rohrer, president of the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, told Winston that he didn’t think much of the new “Jefferson Bible,” saying it is “just another way that a small minority of atheists is attempting to rewrite American history, deny the existence of God and build a society based solely on the humanist religion.”

Granados said the new e-book is being delivered free of charge to President Barack Obama and all members of Congress.

“In 1901, the U.S. Congress felt that the Jefferson Bible was of such great value that it authorized the printing of 9,000 copies for itself,” he said, adding that free copies were delivered to each new member of Congress until the supply ran out in the 1950s. “With today’s Congress representing a much more religiously diverse population, including a fifth of the population that is not religious, we thought it was appropriate to deliver a new Jefferson Bible that acknowledges that diversity.”