# religious books...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-books/89556>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 25, 2001, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-books/89556 "2001-10-25T15:05:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chekmate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/46a35a/32.png) [@Chekmate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chekmate)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-books/89556/1 "2001-10-25T15:05:45Z")

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Bible: Chistianity  
Book of Mormon: Mormonism  
Koran: Islam

I know that there are some that I am missing, but I can’t find an index or anything like that on the net. What other religious books are out there, and what are their respective religions?

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**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-books/89556/2 "2001-10-25T17:00:44Z")

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If you define a “religious” book as a book about a religion, explaining its basic beliefs and philosophy, there are tons of religious books out there, and each months new ones are written.

If a “religious” book means a Holy Scripture that is accepted by all believers of the religion as the fundamental compilation of the faith, then you won’t be that lucky. Islam, Christianity and Judaism are called the scripture religions, because they do have such a basic scripture (in the case of Judaism it’s what the Christians call the Old Testament, especially the first five books of it). Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions do have traditional writings that are widely used and respected but do not have the same value their counterparts in the scripture religions have.

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-books/89556/3 "2001-10-25T17:04:12Z")

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I would have included Taoism, whose principle texts are the _Tao Te Ching_ and the _Chuang Tzu_, but perhaps that is my own ignorance speaking. 🙂

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**Author:** ![gooti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gooti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooti)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-books/89556/4 "2001-10-25T17:28:04Z")

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I guess you could also include the _Upanishads_ and the _Bhagvad Gita_ for Hinduism and maybe the _Annalects of Confucius_ for (of course) Confucianism. The sacred text of the Zoroastrians is called the\* Avesta-E-Zend\* or _Zend-E-Avesta_. I used to be a Baha’i and there were many sacred writings by several different authors in that tradition.

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**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-books/89556/5 "2001-10-25T23:02:05Z")

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[Jataka](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/9241/jataka.htm) is a biography of the lives of the Buddha. Find more here: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/world.htm](http://www.sacred-texts.com/world.htm)