Jacobs is agnostic, but he decides to spend a year living his life as the Bible dictates which includes the obvious--following the Ten Commandments--and the less obvious, growing a beard and not shaking hands. The book is most interesting when Jacobs takes the reader inside uber religious communities and shares objective and open-minded insight on believers from Hasidic Jews to Amish to creationism enthusiasts. He points out some pretty strange lines from the Bible that leave much to be interpreted. For example, Mark 16:18 states, "They will pick up Serpents..." and many Christians take "serpents" to be a metaphor for challenges. For literalists like the Tennessee man who attends the Church of God, devotion to Jesus is shown by picking up venomous snakes during church services. I probably would have enjoyed the book more had it only covered six months. It started dragging a bit and I found myself getting annoyed at his continued project and couldn't help but feel sympathy for his family and friends. In the end, it's a new twist on religious tolerance.
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