adam and even never ate an apple. the latin word mistranslated from the original manuscript of the bible was 'malum', which means 'evil'. not apple.

pouring alcohol on the ground in memory of dead compatriots is a 3,000-year-old custom that was mentioned in the christian bible, the iliad, and the odyssey.

thomas jefferson sliced up a copy of the christian bible's new testament and used the cut-outs to create his own, which concentrated on jesus' life and moral instructions.

when you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. i am the lord your god. (leviticus 23:22)

queen victoria is the reason that women were first allowed to have painkillers during childbirth. before she gave birth to her 7th child, christian men objected to the idea, because the bible contains the passage, 'in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children'. no one dared to contradict her when she asked for chloroform to ease her pain.

at the time of this writing, just 24% of americans believe that the bible is the literal word of god.

the bible specifies sodom's sins as 'arrogance, gluttony, and laziness, but [she] did not help the poor and needy'. not a word about sex of any kind.

the bible states in 4 separate sections that certain parts of its laws apply to specific groups of people, but not to others. in fact, 2 of those sections say that the older laws have been superseded and no longer apply. (leviticus 24:46, deuteronomy 5:2-3, hebrews 8:3, and galatians 5:4-6)

there is no passage in the bible that says that god won't give someone more than they can handle. in fact, the bible contains several examples that would lead one to believe that the opposite is usually the case.

in the king james version of the bible, unicorns are mentioned at least 8 times.

in the christian bible, adam and eve weren't kicked out of the garden of eden for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. they were kicked out because god was afraid that they would then eat from the tree of life, and become immortal. (genesis 203:22-23) (“The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.)

'god helps those who help themselves' is a quote from aesop's fable 'hercules and the waggoner', not the bible. it was popularized by benjamin franklin.

a study by the american bible society found that only 27% of americans are 'bible-minded', most of them in the south.

the epic of gilgamesh, the earliest surviving piece of literature, contains a story about a man named utnapishtim, who was told to build a boat and fill it with 2 of each animal to save them from a coming flood. the book predates the christian bible by at least 2,000 years.

despite catholic dogma set in place during the 6th century, bible scholars have concluded that mary magdalene, the mary who was lazarus's sister, and the prostitute who washed jesus' feet were actually 3 different women.

the holy grail is never mentioned in the bible. but it was a great excuse for a monty python film.

jesus is called isa in the muslim faith, and is portrayed as the messiah, who leads god's armies against the islamic antichrist at the end of the world.

so what makes isa different from the bible's jesus? isa is not portrayed as either god or the son of god.

a unicorn is mentioned in the bible in job 39:9-12.

many people don't know that the christian bible originally contained more books than the edited version that eventually rolled out of the vatican (or the hundreds of later translations). some of the bits that hit the cutting room floor:

[according to the text, this story happened when jesus was a toddler]: and, lo, suddenly there came forth from the cave many dragons; and when the children saw them, they cried out in great terror. then jesus went down from the bosom of his mother, and stood on his feet before the dragons; and they adored jesus, and thereafter retired.

[in this one, jesus was a bit older, and another kid splashed in a puddle that he was playing in]: "o evil, ungodly, and foolish one, what hurt did the pools and the waters do thee? behold, now also thou shalt be withered like a tree, and shalt not bear leaves, neither root, nor fruit." and straightway that lad withered up wholly.

[later that same day, a boy bumped into jesus, with this result]: jesus was provoked and said unto him, "thou shalt not finish thy course." and immediately he fell down and died.

[upset by jesus' behavior, the other families in nazareth say to his father, joseph, that either jesus stops running around and killing their kids, or he has to leave. jesus hears about this, with unsurprising results, if you've been following the story so far]: jesus said, "i know that these thy words are not thine: nevertheless for thy sake I will hold my peace: but they shall bear their punishment." and straightway they that accused him were smitten with blindness.

the qu'ran mentions jesus' mother, mary, more often than the christian bible does.