Thoroughly reading the bible is what cured me of my faith. Hallelujah!

Yes because their brainwashed... They have the cognitive skill to analyze the Bible without emotion

I have long said that the moral majority/Christian right reads their Constitution with the same care and attention to detail as they read their bible.

I have read Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Leviticus, parts of Judges, Esther, parts of Job, Proverbs, Parts of Ezekiel, Jonah, Mathew, and Revelation. That's enough to know thats all a bunch of bullshit. I thought it was funny that the Xerxes guy from 300 was in Esther. It's a bunch of stupid shit.

They only know the stuff they were spoon fed.

Not me. Even when I was a kid and was taken to church it felt wierd to me.

Yep! Quite often atheists came from religious backgrounds & had at least some grounding in the bibble, & as they lost faith they often went to the 'source' for reinforcement, only to be further disillusioned! Many atheists see it as a part of history/mythology/psychology, & thus of some worth in that respect. & many have studied the bibble as defense against the "cherry-picking" many apologists do with their holy book!

Bible study was a big help in my de-conversion. I tell people all the time that the books of the bible were independent books. They contradict and disagree because they were not meant to be bound together as a story from beginning to end. You cannot tell believers that. Constantine wanted certain texts bound and used and others that seemed ridiculous to not be included. One common text would then work for all and the bogus books would soon be gone. The way it worked out left everyone with one great big bogus book.

I love this and no matter how apparent you make this, the Bible Thumping, Gun Toting, Racist Bigots will be praising and sending thoughts and prayers for their inability to read cognizant articles and books which do not have 5000 known mistakes in translation and interpretation.

It's because we spit and don't swallow!

Ive gone to several churches the first thing that the people as soon as you walk in the door is to judge you the secound is they go through the motions of being friendly they practice what they preach

It reminds me of my job. They hire on kids fresh out of school with so much knowledge and no experience. I have no schooling, but have been in situations their instructors didn't tell them about. I stand back and watch...

I can honestly say I've never read the Bible from start to finish. I've read a few lines or chapters here and there; I know the gist of a lot of the stories but not the fine details. I just don't give a shit about reading it; same for the Qur'an and Book of Mormon (I own all 3). I can't seem to make myself read any of them for too long when I know people actually believe these stories or would die over these outdated books.

Omg! right i have read it 4 times cover to cover. most of my "christian " friends can't even name all the books

The ones that were indoctrinated do at least...

Yes, it's a fact. I took an online religion test. In the end it broke down all the results by religion (including atheist) & we won by a landslide. I wonder, since it is a hard decision to make when religiosity is the norm, if we do a lot of research & questioning before coming to it. More so than if someone decided to change from Baptist to Methodist, for example. Perhaps even more than going from non-belief to belief, since that would seem to me to be a decision based on feelings, not knowledge.

If you want to make it really interesting try asking a bible thumper ABOUT the bible.. where it came from? what the history of it is? how many different ones are there? what was the council of Nicea? Why is the KJV have two versions? Any thing that has to do with real history and they are totally speechless.. bible school doesn't teach anything about the bible.

Speaking purely personally I know very little about the bible picked it up a few times as a child - very boring - left it alone - I was left to make my own decisions and all the books I read from the library were really exciting not half stories with silly endings

Yep.

That is very sad. That we know more about there fairy tales than they do and have enough not to believe in them. I guess religious people have lower intelligence than we do.

As I'm not that well-versed in the bible, the bigger shock to me is when I ask people I know to be Christians general knowledge questions about the bible, but they have no answer. I could ask them who or what Leviticus is and they would have no answer, yet I am wrong for not following the very book that they know remarkably little about.

That's part of being an Atheist. Every Atheist I know has read the Bible at least once Cover to Cover. I've known hundreds of Christians over my 58 years of being an Atheist, and only a handful actually read their bibles. Most of them pick up their bible, to,take it to church, open to what ever the preacher says he's reading from, and seldom do they even look! They pick the Bible up to go home and it sits there till the next church meeting. We read the Bible, we think about what is said. AND we THINK! Most Christians don't even realize that there is only ONE verse in the Bible about healing yourself! Yet there are churches that build their congregation on that one verse! WHY aren't there at least hundreds of churches based on Unicorns? After all they are mentioned in the Bible at least 9 times! No Christians don't read their bibles nor do they think! I honestly think they believe because they are LAZY! They want someone to tell them what to believe so they DON'T have to actually THINK!

Yes! I think it's because at a point in our lives we are curious of the other side (on anything) but tend to be great critical thinkers.

I especially feel that we know the OT WAY better!

I don't think I do; but now I am living in a very religious country here in Northern Ireland & I grew up without ever having or needing a god,in England.

I did some bible study in my youth but was not a believer, must confess I've forgotten most of it.