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Wanted: Electronic/Searchable Holy Books

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tinjaw:
I have openly discussed my Atheism here on DonationCoder. I see this as no different than somebody talking about how they are a Jew, Muslim, or Christian. It is just part of who I am and by telling you this, you can better filter my subjective bias from anything I say.

With that addressed up front, I have a serious/legitimate question...

What are your recommendations for the "best" digital holy books? And by best, I mean in terms of academic research.

I am interested in religious books in the same manner as I am interested in the classics of philosophy. I have a BA in Political Science from University of Chicago, with a focus on political philosophy and international relations (mostly the USSR - Class of '89 and the Cold War loomed).

I understand there are many electronic version of holy books, but I have not done the research to find out which ones are best **for the purposes of scholarly study** (i.e. I am not interested in being converted). I would love to have tonnes of footnotes and references available. I would love for a version that contained the texts of all the major religions and would let me compare things like references to the same historical event, compare timelines, etc. If there were footnotes/references to secular texts that cover the same item would be icing on the cake.

I understand that getting ASCII versions of these books is easy, but I am willing to pay for software that has  features like those I have mentioned above. The whole "Digital Media Experience" TM is what I want.

If you would feel uncomfortable posting publicly to this thread, I would keep any personal messages on this matter strictly confidential.

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oops! forgot to add: This doesn't count!

CodeTRUCKER:
Online Bible

Quite a bit to review and most is gratis.

Darwin:
Cool question, Chaim! I've been tempted to buy specialized software to do this in the past but haven't yet taken the plunge. Like you, I'd like to be able to access more than one text and more than one version of any particular text.

CodeTrucker, thank you for the link - I'll check it out.

Deozaan:
Here's an online version of the Bible (KJV) with lots of cross references to other verses, footnotes, Bible Dictionary, Topical Guide, Maps, etc. all linked for easy access/reference.

http://scriptures.lds.org/

Since the website is provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka LDS/Mormons), it also includes LDS scriptures such as the Book of Mormon.

Darwin:
Thanks, Deozaan- I love the KJV. There is a package that's been offered on BitsduJour a couple of times that I didn't jump at either time and sort of regret - SwordSearcher. It only covers the Bible but it looks VERY comprehensive. It was 51% off at Bitsdujour - I didn't jump because I wanted something with texts from other religions, but this does look fabulous nonetheless.

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