I started reading the bible seriously when I was 14. By the time I got through Leviticus, I was an atheist; I just couldn't believe in a god with less compassion than me. But I stuck it through and read the whole thing, including the ravings of Mad John the Evangelist, otherwise known as "Revelation," the primary source of the insanity known as Evangelical Christianity.

Now I am a relaxed agnostic - in that there is no possible way to materially prove or disprove the existence of an immaterial being. Soon enough we will ALL know for ourselves one way or the other - in the interim, I consider courtesy, kindness and decency to be the dues we pay to each other to be in this club called H. Quasi Sapiens

I actually attended 4 years and graduated from a Baptist high school. The great thing about it was they had dorms and I got to attend classes with students from all over the US and many foreign countries (Taiwan, Ethiopia, Japan,etc.), the bad thing was it was heavily religious(duh). OTOH, many of the US students and some of the foreign students were pretty wild and had been sent to this school to "straighten them out", so a young kid from the mountains of SE Kentucky got an international education in MANY ways, Lol.
This school had a mandatory 2 years (!) of bible study. While Iwas also just becoming enlightened in my political and my religious beliefs. That study helped me in many of my later college and coffee house religious discussions. Older relatives were always the least informed biblically which always amazed me. I suppose they left that up to the "pastor".
This long winded reply was meant to just say I completely agree

True - Iknow a lot about the bible - ive read the new testament many times - the old testament ive read a fair bit of - but its an odious book - Ithink if christians had read it then they would no longer be christians - during the middle ages when people could not read and the bible wasnt available in the languages they spoke anyway it was easier to convince people that the book contained the word of god - but if anyone really reads the bible (or the Quran for that matter) then they are going to question how can this be the word of god - unless god is a sexist bigotted racist xenpohic ass?? -- sorry ive had a few drinks - perhaps Ishould log off!!

It’s not that they don’t read (won’t read) it’s more that your average theist vaguely listens to sermons in regular services and only retains the bits that reinforce any righteous notions that the believer has regarding their own superiority over anyone who doesn’t conform to their ideals

That's because they don't read. Period. They prefer to be told what to believe, and how to vote, having been trained to check their brains at the church door.

If they actually read the Bible with comprehension, they'd be horrified, and leave Christianity at once.

They can quote 'scripture and verse verbatim' because those particular snippets are what they've cherry picked out ot their storybook which reflect their own personal biases. They don't need to know anything in depth about it other than the talking points used to support their hateful rhetoric.

Well, when you actually study the Bible, you realize it is a political document, and a mythology, and not in any sense an accurate historical account. For the most part, and I hate to generalize, people who have never studied it deeply believe it at face value. People who have studied it understand the reasons behind the document, and treat it that way. There's the issue.

It's easy to be a christian if all you do is listen to your priests and pastors. It's much harder when you read the book without the cherry picking filter.

You must only remind them that we know who wrote Alice in Wonderland, but do not or ever have written proof who wrote the Bible. See where that goes.

I have zero interest in reading the bible. I feel the same about the koran or any other religious text. While I do enjoy a good book, fantasy is not a genre that personally appeals to me.

Just had that kind of experience myself, during a respectful conversation on differences. I brought up some ideas from the bible, and the "gad fearing" one, was rather clueless. From what I've seen, it seems many people with "blind faith" , put that in their heads, and shut the door. No research, no questions, no reading, just heaven/hell, sins, and the jeezus guy. Oh - and being quite sure that they'll live forever in paradise , so why bother in this life ?

Obsessive Disorder. You talk for hours about something you don't believe on.... but you do anyways. ????? Obsession.

Yup. It's definitely ironic that's for sure. I think probably because a lot of atheists used to be believers and to do research into it and find out if we did actually believe we actually deeply read the book. That's my opinion atleast

I sometimes think , the newer they are to the game , the more enthuastic they are , because they know less about the topic . Many here are non believers , because we took the time to learn about it , and it just didn't make sense .

Atheists-some grew up with religion till they questioned the Bible.