It has been said that atheists tend to know the Bible better than Christians do. Certainly many of us reasoned our way out of the mire of organized religion at some point. But our community is complex, and our backgrounds vary widely. How about you? How much do you know about organized religion?
I think it's generally true that nonbelievers know more about religion than most religious people. I would guess that's because we can study/learn about it with some degree of objectivity, whereas religious people learn about their own religion through a filter that blocks out inconsistencies and things we now know to be non-factual and seeks guidance and inspiration. I can't imagine getting a good grasp on any subject if you had to learn with those being your objectives.
I was raised in a Catholic school and during this period of my life I asked many questions of the priests and nuns that taught me. I was told that I was being nasty and that if I kept asking these type of questions I would surely go to hell. They never tried to show my error in questioning them rather they chose to try and scare me by saying I would go to hell. I must admit it worked for a while but then just became more and more stupid to me. This led me to investigate many different religions which I found all had the same myths and projected the same fears to it's members.None of these religions appealed to my belief system which I found to be based upon science. Since then I became a solid atheist and have been much happier since. I still have a conscience and believe myself in many ways to be better than many Christians who do things they would consider to be a sin and then go to confession or pray and then feel all is good.
Too much. That's why I'm an atheist.
Irony: I know so-called Christians who don't have a bible. I'm an atheist and I have three.
Too much- Catholic school for 12 years hard time.
Too much! I look forward to the day, probably centuries away, where religion is viewed as history and the stumbling of mankind towards enlightenment.
went to a religious school, the teachings only made me question more, I feel that any one whom honestly questions the bible or the Koran and most likely any other religious text will find that the texts are at the very least implausible, I agree that as such many atheists would know the teachings better as they have thought more deeply about them than those remaining a religion
I grew up in a religious household with my father a minister of an evangelical religion. So I got to know the inner workings of the organisation as well as being inoculated against the "faith"
Eight years in a Jesuit Roman Catholic Parochial school taught by Dominican nuns followed with four years at a Catholic high school run by the Irish Christian Brothers. I spent one year studying to become an Irish Christian Brother then left in lieu of a more appealing secular life. In the years following I remained active in the music ministry but eventually left to pursue other interests. I've looked into many other religions but never found anything I wanted to get involved with. The people I looked up to were just every day ordinairy men, nothing special. Then I realized the whole yhing including all the others were shams.
I believe that atheists know the Bible far better than Christians do, what for did they become atheists?
All I know about organized religion is that it's a damn good business enterprise, lucrative, very profitable and very powerful.
I know the Bible because I've had to study it for so many years. I've never been a theist but I do debate religion often and I knew I would need a solid understanding of the Bible to effectively debate issues. As far as the concept of established religion, I know enough to know I don't trust it. I also know enough to know it's not all bad.
A level-headed man
I was raised Seventh Day Adventist, a Christian denomination that is quite fundamentalist and bookish. I was expected to be able to recite the books of the Bible in order when I was ~7-8yrs-old, and we were raised to expect and encourage religious discussion with people outside our faith, so we could hone our skills with respect to debate and rhetoric. so, by the time I left that church I had read the Bible cover-to-cover a few times. I have since read 5 other translations of it, plus The Book of Mormon, the Koran (at least the English translation of it), the Baghavad Gita, the Urantia Book(very entertaining), and quite a few other major and minor religious works. I attended services at every church in my neighborhood as a teenager, partly out of curiosity and partly to piss off my parents, so I've experienced Catholic, Church of the Nazarene, United Christ Congregational, Mormon, Episcopalian, Pentecostal, and of course Seventh Day Adventist church services. I still have friends from just about every organized religion, and have so far not pissed any of them off so much that they refuse to discuss religious/secular/ethical questions with me over semi-public facebook posts. I no longer can quote chapter and verse for Bible debates, having not needed to for years, but I remember enough to get by still.
You can never go wrong, girl, go on live your life. I'll keep chasing rainbows