A California man is trying to raise $25,000 to translate the Bible into emoticons through crowfunding site Kickstarter.
Kamran Kastle will complete the project whether or not the money is raised, but "The Bible Translated into Emoticons" will be released digitally instead of in print if the ambitious goal is not met.
Kastle said that he was inspired to translate the Bible into pictures after finding out that a group of students he teaches had never read the holy book.
"After administering a Movie Screening of 'Ben-Hur' (1959) a good number of the inner city students sitting before [Kastle] expressed never having read the Bible," the Kickstarter description explained.
"Naturally, he asked 'How come?'
"One 16-year-old girl responded, 'If I can't read it on my iPhone, I don't read it.'
"Kamran asked, 'If I translated the Bible into Emoticons, would you read it?'
"With a curious smile upon her face, the teenager said, 'Yes!' Thus, the inspiration to translate the oldest book into the newest language - Emoticons - was immaculately conceived."
Kastle will complete the entire line-by-line translation of the Old and New Testaments himself, and will create about 5,000 new emoticons to express each verse's meaning.
"There isn't an emoji for the Red Sea parting... So I invented it," he told VICE. "There isn't even a Jesus emoji, so I created that one, too. I am not only translating the Bible into emoticons, I'm also designing the emoticons myself."
While some may view Kastle's project as trivialising a religious work, the University of Southern California graduate said that he means no offense.
"I have had people tell me that certain individuals may be offended," he admitted. "I find that odd, because the purpose of my emoticon bible is to make people who do not typically read the Bible, read it."
"The Bible Translated into Emoticons" has nine days left in its Kickstarter campaign, and with only $52 raised so far, his chances of meeting his target are looking small.
