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