You can't be an atheist if you haven't read the bible

Someone said on an other site "You can't be an atheist if you haven't read the bible".  How can you disagree with something you know nothing about?

Seems like a good question to discuss.  I've never read the bible.  I know stories from the bible. I've read about the bible.  People have been preaching to me since I was a kid. But, I spent my youth playing, studying and being surrounded by a loving family.  I'll take those experiences over the bible study and church going any day.  I'm still an atheist. 

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Permalink Reply by Heather on March 16, 2010 at 4:41pm
Because most of us here came from christianity so it's what we know and that knowledge is repulsive. It's also because that's the religious majority that we have to deal with not only on a personal day to day level, but in our politics as well. Sure, we can complains about Hinduism.. it's just as stupid and irrational, but we dont' have to deal with Hindus making our policies, we dont' have to deal with our Hindu friends, families, school mates, and fellow workers pushing their religion on us or threatening us. The christians are our biggest threats personally right now- I'm sure you'll find atheists in other parts of the world complaining more about the religions that are most prominant. I know UK atheists tend to talk a lot about Islam AND christianity because of how popular Islam is getting over there. You just tend to complain about what it is you have to deal with.
Permalink Reply by J.P.M. on March 16, 2010 at 5:17pm
Ain't that the truth. You have to send you heart out to Obscure Atheist who is young, single and atheist in Tehran...Makes you thankful to grow up in North America - Christians be damned to their own imaginary hell.
Permalink Reply by Ian on February 5, 2010 at 1:37pm
How can you be a Creationist if you haven't read Darwin's Origin of Species, Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, Steven J. Gould's The Structure of Evolutionary Theory . . . and so on until you have as many 'books' as the Bible.

How can you be a (Christian, Moslem, Jew, superstitious in whatever way) unless you have read a whole slew of science books, and the primary religious texts from other superstitions, Mother Goose, the collected fairy stories of the Brothers Grimm, Lord of the Rings, and so on?

This doesn't simply show the lack of logic in such a question, I'm sure there are several people here who can respond 'all of the above' when asked what they have read from the religious texts, bible, and science texts. Thus, such a question may strengthen your hand in that the person asking may well be far less rounded in their education you are.

As for FOA's question regarding our focus on christian myths and legends: it maybe because the North American and Western European culture has been marinated in christian folk tales for several hundred spins around the sun.

Which reminds me - since the month was devised by the Babylonians prior to their development of the week as a time unit, why is the christian creation myth based on their god making everything in seven days instead of twenty nine and a half days?
Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on February 5, 2010 at 8:27pm
13 moon cycles in a solar cycle = 365.25/13= 28+1 (ignore the extra day and a quarter - have a party every year and an extra party every four years) 28/4=7 - 13 months of 4 weeks each of 7 days.

Moses had pull with the women (moon cycles = woman ran the calendar) and the men asked him to convince the women to let them slack off for a day every 7 - "tell 'em the god of the universe said it or something Mo - just tell 'em to let us watch football for a day" - it backfired, everyone had to work 6 days a week - Saturday, they had to go to frikkin' synagogue!
Permalink Reply by Trogman (aaron) on April 11, 2010 at 12:03pm
7 is an incredibly important number in the Bible, http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/7.html
Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on February 6, 2010 at 7:19pm
Most of the days of the week are named for Norse gods or Pagan religions.
Sun day, Moon day, Wodens day, Thor's day, Frei's day. Saturn's day
Permalink Reply by Anders Ljung on March 15, 2010 at 11:56am
Tuesday is named after the Norse god Tyr.

(and btw. I live within a long walk of Old Uppsala Temple, center of the Oden-cult)
Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on March 15, 2010 at 6:27pm
Thanks, I missed Tuesday.
Permalink Reply by Gold Guy on February 5, 2010 at 5:38pm
Someone said on an other site "You can't be an atheist if you haven't read the bible". How can you disagree with something you know nothing about?

An utterly stupid argument. To be atheist is not to be "against" it is to be without. Atheism is our default condition. We are all born atheist, theism is imposed upon us. You don't even need to be able to read to be an atheist.

Still it is a good idea for us to read the Bible so we can better describe what an absurd belief system it entails.
Permalink Reply by Dylan Michael McFarland on February 26, 2010 at 10:05pm
I completely agree with you.

I was raised in a Christian, yet open-minded home and I was free to be whoever I was.
I never once believe in a god. Frankly it's an absurd idea.
I knew there was no god long before I even touched any bible - that is, except for when I used some extras for toilet paper.
Additionally the bible is basically a poorly written novel - a very, very poorly written immoral waste of paper. Honestly the only use I see in reading it, as you said, is to better equip yourself in offense against the morons who believe it.
Permalink Reply by Sonny Mobley on February 5, 2010 at 5:40pm
Nonsense. Atheism doesn't say that the christian god doesn't exist or that the muslim god doesn't exist. NO gods exist is what atheist means. It is important for ex-christians to have read the bible, I believe. And the same goes for any holy text that you supposedly subscribed to when one was a theist. But Only for ammo when dealing with members of that particular sect, though.
Permalink Reply by Rayray on February 5, 2010 at 5:55pm
There are droves of ex-Christians who read the bible and became atheist from the process.

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