Does anybody just read the Quran? I listened to some comparative religion lectures by Huston Smith where he said basically it's impossible to just read. He tried it and didn't understand it. It's a book that is very hard to get into without an existing knowledge of Islam that comes from somewhere other than reading the Quran. Eventually he began to understand it after a lot of background reading from the Sufis.

An Atheists Perspective ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AvepssBwzY

Reading the Quran ... from "The Greatest Lier in History" ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n527uhH6RWE

I appreciate learning other cultures, but why the Quran? Seems heavy - why not some sociology textbook on Islamic culture?

"... Quran presents life as more; like it uses a symbol - like a book ..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdzbzkJ1mjg