Nobel winner calls Bible 'handbook of bad morals'

In Portugal on Monday, Nobel Prize for Literature winner Jose Saramago stated that society would be better off if there was no Bible because it's a "handbook of bad morals."

Jose Saramago, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, was launching his new book in Lisbon on Monday called “Cain”, which is story about Cain, the son to Adam and Eve, who killed his younger brother Abel. During the discussion about his new book he went on state, according to the Associated Press, “The Bible is a manual of bad morals (which) has a powerful influence on our culture and even our way of life. Without the Bible, we would be different and probably better people.” Roman Catholic leaders believe this was just a publicity stunt for the 86-year-old writer, who actually created similar strife in 1992 because of his book “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.” That book was a story of Jesus losing his virginity to Mary Magdalene and being used by God to control the world. Saramago further said during the launch event that he didn’t think it would offend Catholics “because they do not read the bible,” and went on to say that God is “a cruel, jealous and unbearable God (who) exists only in our heads.” Concluding, “It might offend Jews, but that doesn't really matter to me.” Spokesperson for the Portuguese Conference of Bishops, Father Manuel Marujao, concurred, reports AFP, with other Roman Catholic leaders that this was nothing more than a publicity stunt, “A writer of Jose Saramago's standing can criticize, (but) insults do no-one any good, particularly a Nobel Prize winner.” Saramago left Portugal to move to Lanzarote in the Spanish Canary Islands. Saramago is among writers such as John Steinbeck, Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Mikhail Sholokhov and Gabriel Garcia Marquez who have won the Nobel Prize for Literature.