The Bible says atheists don't exist, only idolaters (people who create their own gods) or those who make themselves gods (one believing in himself). Why do atheists delude themselves by having gods and yet say they lack faith in gods? Doublethink?
Originally Answered: The Bible says atheists don't exist, only idolaters (people who create their own gods) or those who make themselves gods (one believing in himself). Why do "atheists" delude themselves by having gods and yet say they lack faith in gods? Doublethink?

Damn. I've got to admit you've got me there. Bang to rights. Can't argue with that unshakeable logic. Except…well…and I'm just thinking out loud here. But what if, just possibly, the Bible wasn't actually 100% true. What if everything it said wasn't the gospel, so to speak, truth?

Just to pick a random section from the bible- say Noah's Ark. The story of an impossibly several hundred year old man and his impossibly old sons who build an impossibly big boat and collect 2 (or sometimes 5) of every species in the world- which is of course impossible. They then house the impossibly collected animals in their impossible boat and impossibly feed them (cunningly ignoring the fact that half of them would have to act as food sources for the other half). They then sail around the impossibly completely flooded planet, while numerous other people around the world impossibly carry right on with their lives, having apparently impossibly failed to notice that they were dead.

Now you might accuse me of nitpicking here, but when you think about it, there are just one or two aspects of that story that might make a person a little dubious. And that in turn gives me just enough wiggle room to suggest that perhaps you can't take what the bible says as literally true. So when the bible tells you that I can't possibly think what I think I think, it may actually be the case that the bible is less informed about what I think than my own brain is. So perhaps when I tell you that I don't believe in any gods you could just have the courtesy to believe me, instead of making up nonsensical stories to cover up your own insecurity. Just a thought.

--Gordon Strathdee on Quora