Why An Atheist SHOULD Read The Bible

[xSilverPhinx]

The best thing to use against Christians is the Bible itself. So many of them (not generalising here, I think those who are know they are) are hypocritical cherry pickers who choose precisely the bits that enhance their worldview, even if to distort it more and give justification and validation to their bigoted beliefs.

I found this one on why there shouldn't be public prayers in secular institutions (since secular law isn't good enough for them):

'And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.' (Matthew 6:6-6)

Any other good passages and good reasons for atheists to read the Bible?

[Crow]

How can anyone make an intelligent informed decision on whether they believe those teachings or not unless they read the religious books.

Same goes for believers, how do they know that Christianity for example is better than Islam or Buddhism if they do not know what those other faiths are teaching.

[The Magic Pudding]

Any other good passages and good reasons for atheists to read the Bible?

Because it feels good when you stop?

[xSilverPhinx]

How can anyone make an intelligent informed decision on whether they believe those teachings or not unless they read the religious books.

Agreed. Though speaking for myself I'm not looking for any religion because of salvation (or what people think gives them that).  Christian theology in particular doesn't interest me beyond the stories, and if the book wasn't the centre of an entire religion, with the problems it offers (which is what I'll focus on here) then it would be like reading another mythology book, which are interesting. Ancient bigoted opinions aren't so bad when people don't have them anymore. 

Same goes for believers, how do they know that Christianity for example is better than Islam or Buddhism if they do not know what those other faiths are teaching.

I guess if they try Christianity and feel it 'fits' well into their worldview, that's one thing which might make looking to other religions and philosophies unnecessary. Though I think in some cases people might not know if a certain religion is actually doing them good, it might just be all they've ever known *shrug*.

[xSilverPhinx]

Any other good passages and good reasons for atheists to read the Bible?

Because it feels good when you stop?

Heh 

Not me, I still fume for a few minutes after prolonged exposure to certain opinions.

[OldGit]

Because - whether we like it or not - the bible has had a huge influence on our language and literature and one misses so much if one doesn't get all the allusions to biblical language and stories.  For this reason, given my interest in Germanic etymology and linguistic history, I keep a Luther bible and a vulgate as well as the KJV.  Also a concordance.

Also the language of the KJV and the Prayer Book is beautiful.  Yes, I know, we find it beautiful because it has so long been the model of good English, so it's a bootstrap thing.  Nevertheless I get pleasure from reading it.

[Gawen]

The best thing to use against Christians is the Bible itself. So many of them (not generalising here, I think those who are know they are) are hypocritical cherry pickers who choose precisely the bits that enhance their worldview, even if to distort it more and give justification and validation to their bigoted beliefs.

I found this one on why there shouldn't be public prayers in secular institutions (since secular law isn't good enough for them):

'And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.' (Matthew 6:6-6)

Your entire quote, SP, sums up a conversation I had with many of my fellow coworkers a couple years ago in our break room. They all know I'm an atheist. But I'm not the only one. There was one other that was vocal enough that everyone knew he was an atheist and there are a couple others that are but won't get caught up in an argument.

Well, one day one of the newer guys (at the time and a west Texas Baptist) thought it would be funny to pull my chain a bit. Knowing that everyone's attention would be on me, including the other atheists in the room, I had to come up with something substantive in reply. I can't remember what he said exactly, but it had something to do with the Christmas party prayer and how I didn't bow my head.

So I came up with the Matthew quote and then chided him specifically (and the rest generally) for being hypocrites and then further for cherry picking to suit their needs. And then to top it off before anyone could reply asked a (rhetorical) question of how anyone one of them could be what they claim to be without reading the manual.

It got real quiet. I smiled a lot.

The sadly ironic ending of this story is not more than a month ago, Mr. West Texas quit the church he and his wife had been going to for the last couple years because everyone in the church were......you guessed it.....hypocrites!  He's now looking for a church to suit his cherrypicking needs and the rest of the other believers are still sheeple. His wife still goes to that church because it's where her family goes.

[Whitney]

How can anyone make an intelligent informed decision on whether they believe those teachings or not unless they read the religious books.

Considering that the supernatural is not experienced in modern times in any verifiable way nor by my own perceptions then there is no way a religious text would convince me that it happened in the past.  That's how someone could know they don't believe in something without having to read the whole book....I certainly am not going to waste my time reading through every religious text ever written just to make sure I don't believe in them.

I did read the bible when I was a Christian and that's why I'm not one anymore. 

[The Magic Pudding]

I did read the bible when I was a Christian and that's why I'm not one anymore. 

[xSilverPhinx]

Because - whether we like it or not - the bible has had a huge influence on our language and literature and one misses so much if one doesn't get all the allusions to biblical language and stories.  For this reason, given my interest in Germanic etymology and linguistic history, I keep a Luther bible and a vulgate as well as the KJV.  Also a concordance.

Also the language of the KJV and the Prayer Book is beautiful.  Yes, I know, we find it beautiful because it has so long been the model of good English, so it's a bootstrap thing.  Nevertheless I get pleasure from reading it.

With this I agree. I have a KJV and read parts of it. What struck me as interesting was the language not the actual content. 

[xSilverPhinx]

The best thing to use against Christians is the Bible itself. So many of them (not generalising here, I think those who are know they are) are hypocritical cherry pickers who choose precisely the bits that enhance their worldview, even if to distort it more and give justification and validation to their bigoted beliefs.

I found this one on why there shouldn't be public prayers in secular institutions (since secular law isn't good enough for them):

'And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.' (Matthew 6:6-6)

Your entire quote, SP, sums up a conversation I had with many of my fellow coworkers a couple years ago in our break room. They all know I'm an atheist. But I'm not the only one. There was one other that was vocal enough that everyone knew he was an atheist and there are a couple others that are but won't get caught up in an argument.

Well, one day one of the newer guys (at the time and a west Texas Baptist) thought it would be funny to pull my chain a bit. Knowing that everyone's attention would be on me, including the other atheists in the room, I had to come up with something substantive in reply. I can't remember what he said exactly, but it had something to do with the Christmas party prayer and how I didn't bow my head.

So I came up with the Matthew quote and then chided him specifically (and the rest generally) for being hypocrites and then further for cherry picking to suit their needs. And then to top it off before anyone could reply asked a (rhetorical) question of how anyone one of them could be what they claim to be without reading the manual.

It got real quiet. I smiled a lot.

The sadly ironic ending of this story is not more than a month ago, Mr. West Texas quit the church he and his wife had been going to for the last couple years because everyone in the church were......you guessed it.....hypocrites!  He's now looking for a church to suit his cherrypicking needs and the rest of the other believers are still sheeple. His wife still goes to that church because it's where her family goes.

That's exactly the kinds of situations I was thinking about when starting this thread. The issue of public prayer is frowned upon by their own bible and yet they fervently fight against secularism and the right to not have to partake in prayers of any religion.

[xSilverPhinx]

How can anyone make an intelligent informed decision on whether they believe those teachings or not unless they read the religious books.

Considering that the supernatural is not experienced in modern times in any verifiable way nor by my own perceptions then there is no way a religious text would convince me that it happened in the past.  That's how someone could know they don't believe in something without having to read the whole book....I certainly am not going to waste my time reading through every religious text ever written just to make sure I don't believe in them.

I did read the bible when I was a Christian and that's why I'm not one anymore. 

I think it's a little ironic and especially convenient that the loads of supernatural miracles (not restricted to Christianity) happened 2000+ years ago and were experienced by illerterate goatherders. If there was someone claiming to be and do what Jesus did today, they would probably be locked in an asylum.

[ThinkAnarchy]

I read parts of the bible when I was a Catholic, but honestly I now find it so boring. There are so many other books out there that deserve reading, I can't bring myself to read a useless book. Yes, as literary history it has merit, but so does Shakespeare and I avoid him like the plague.

[xSilverPhinx]

I don't have any deep knowledge on the bible, but from what I gather it isn't even that good in the literary sense, at least not at the level of Shakespeare. It lacks cohesion, has accumulated mistakes but at the same time is composed of a few deep truths about human nature and the stuff that makes timeless universal stories (I think this is what people find appealing about the stories and mistake it for Truth).

The KJV did influence the English language, but it's not a literary masterpiece.

[Stevil]

I read the first few pages and "it was good", nah, just kidding. It seemed pretty childish, very mythlike. Explaining why a woman has pain during child birth, why a snake slithers...
Just silly stories to explain things that people didn't know the answers to.

It gets quite sexist early on, with Eve being Adam's play thing and the one that corrupts him and that men are there to worship god and women are then to support the man.
And it gets unjust and horrid with all women for eternity to pay with pain because Eve ate a fruit.

I couldn't take anymore of this crap. It really is soul destroying stuff.