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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 Seth Brown on February 5, 2010 at 5:45pm

I've never shot-up with heroin but I'm under the impression that it's not a very good idea.

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Permalink Reply by Rayray on February 5, 2010 at 6:04pm

Good point!

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Permalink Reply by FreeThinker on February 5, 2010 at 6:54pm

I've been debating a Christian on another forum for the last few days. He basically tried to make the same argument, but phrased it in a different way. I asked if he had read the Quran or the Book of Mormon. He responded "I've read that Islam and Mormonism are a works based beliefs. Christianity makes much more sense being a faith based belief because it is about whats in your heart, not just your actions."

I'm always amazed at how narrow-minded some Christians can be. I responded that it is funny that he expects me to read the Bible to get an informed opinion, but he relies on hearsay to reject other religions. Of course, the New Testament of the Bible is based on hearsay anyway.

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Permalink Reply by Adrienne Darby on February 5, 2010 at 10:47pm

Did you tell him that? The New Testament is exactly that - new. Look at the way the Jewish people reject it. That is why it is not part of the Torah as we know it today. Next time someone brings this up, you really should say that based on the idiocy of that statement, he should try reading the Qu'ran and the Book of Mormon, not to mention that the Bible is technically a work based upon beliefs of a Christian god.

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Permalink Reply by FreeThinker on February 6, 2010 at 7:36am

I did tell him that. He ignored that part of my reply, though. He keeps trying to switch subjects and put the burden of proof on me. He even made the statement that "I feel that the questions that atheists or people of some other religions have to answer outweigh the questions that arise from reading the Bible." I responded that atheists don't have the burden of proof, but out of morbid curiosity, I asked him to give me the questions anyway. They were the standard argument from design, fine-tuning argument, etc.

One of the questions he asked was where the Earth came from. I said the short answer is gravity and then went on a big, long explaination of how stars form, how they die in a supernova, how new stars can be formed in nebulas, how the spinning motion around a star acts like a centrifuge to seperate the heavier elements from the lighter elements, and how gravity creates the planets. He said that he liked my answer, but it didn't explain where the matter came from. Why didn't he just ask that in the first place?

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Permalink Reply by Rayray on February 6, 2010 at 8:01am

Where did his God come from is what I would like to know.

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Permalink Reply by joseph f logston on February 21, 2010 at 4:58pm

who made g?d ,did g?d make g?d, then who made g?d that made g?d and who made that g?d and that goes on and on and on, all this proves that there is no g?d,... we are star dust, or mater, we came about thought evolution of mater or atoms and netrons. with gravity, and electric energy. this can be proven, g?d cant be proven,ask them to show you g?d, i know that i ever send g?d or hard g?d the christians say they have but cant prove it. it just a dream fairy tail. theory that people are brainwarshed to believe

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Permalink Reply by Adrienne Darby on February 8, 2010 at 12:46pm

You see, now he was just giving you the runaround because he didn't get the answer he was looking for. I know exactly where you are coming from because my mother and my cousins pull that shit with me. It gets old. Fast.

Its not like he has actual proof that a god of any sort even exists. Perhaps you should give him a few articles on the process of matter, as well as a few articles on the laws of physics and subparticle matter, as far as where matter that created the earth comes from. He might understand, he might not. Its a fair crapshoot.

Another book he might want to try out (if he does not think it is too 'controversial' or 'blasphemous') is Intelligent Thought: Science Versus the Intelligent Design Movement. It has a ton of contributors, ranging from physicists to evolutionary experts to paleontologists. Other than that, he is going to have to try a bit harder to argue when there are such blatant debates, articles and scientific proofs that are saying something other than the intelligent design theories.

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Permalink Reply by Johnsky on February 5, 2010 at 7:34pm

... if you haven't read the bible."
What about all the other hundreds of religious books out there?
What makes the bible so special?

Yet another example of one race/creed assuming they are so special that you have to read THEIR texts and listen to what THEY say.
Well bugger off Christians. I have too many reality-impaired groups already screaming at me for attention to bother contemplating paying any to you.
Especially when you're just screaming the same things they are whilst holding a slightly different revision of the same book their holding.

You don't have to read the bible to know there's no magical man in the sky who created everything and dictates every single event.

However, a good education and willingness to accept facts or research them yourself DOES tend to make you an atheist.
Funny how reality will do that to you.

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Permalink Reply by SecularCortex13.x on February 5, 2010 at 9:22pm

I read some ezeikiel parts, the ufo stuff, strange mutant creatures in the sky good stuff...
pslams 82:6, oops.

other than that, the news on tv is just as gory and mind numbing as the visuals the bible summons upon the weak sheep, hugh wah? lies. caveman lies that is.
but it's just another language which the english translated to their format and exported around the globe no? or... nevermind!

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Permalink Reply by Jared Lardo on February 6, 2010 at 11:37am

Hmm, how can I disagree with christianity without having read the bible? Better question: How can someone agree with it without having read the bible?

The bible has nothing to do with christianity. All the things that get called christianity by their adherents are either 1. their own personal set of beliefs that are incapable of being put into words and have nothing to do with anything that anyone else has to say about anything, including the bible, or 2. a low-energy cult into which they've been indoctrinated by their peers and elders which by it's nature has nothing mechanically to do with the bible save its veneration of the book and its contents in idolatry.

I have seen the cults and I have rejected them. I have had personal religious beliefs and I have lost them. I know plenty about it.