Do atheists in general, understand history better, and with less bias?

Question

i know this is a blanket question, but what the hell!!

Answer 1

Depends entirely on the person.

I am an atheist and based on what I have read on Y!A, there appear to be some atheists who are not particularly well read on the bible or history. In my case, I became an atheist primarily due to my extensive studies of both history and religion.

Labels rarely reveal the actual product within.

Edit: It is not possible to understand religion without becoming familiar with history. Atheism, in my case, does not rely on faith or "spirituality," it relies on knowledge.

Answer 2

I'm an atheist. I don't like generalizations like this. It implies all athiests are smarter than all devoted religious people, and that isn't always true.

There isn't much bias in history regarding religion unless you're examining the history of biblical figures.

I might say there is bias against science though. Very religious people have a hard time understanding and accepting common scientific principles because it (1) scares them or (2) directly conflicts with their understanding of the Bible.

Answer 3

if atheists do not read or know about the history of the pentateuch/ the chronicles/ the canonization/ or the Bible, there might be bias. But true scholars simply don't make conclusion nor do they make conclusion. But atheists and extremists do.
So, in general, it depends on where you want to stand.
atheists don't understand the biblical history better. theists do because it takes more faith, endeavor, curiousity and searching to know the background and history of someone or something(Jesus/Bible) before saying that you are a theist.

Answer 4

No, everyone has their own bias. Just because an atheist would claim to interpret facts without prejudice doesn't mean they will still explore the whole picture. Everyone tends to omit ideas that don't agree with them (have you heard the phrase history is written by the victors?)

Answer 5

Everyone in general has with a better understanding of history or a limited understanding of history. Everyone in general is biased.

Answer 6

Some of atheis was a religious people. But in the way of their searching, they find the truth and turned their back. But some other atheis start everything with zero, they just enjoy humiliate the religious people. So depend of the atheist

Answer 7

Good question Meta, I think so. But I think you can take that idea a lot further, for instance try riding yourself of any nationlist or patriotic feelings every now and then, and not just for looking at history, for current affairs also.
Believe it or not, it helps me chill out.

Answer 8

i don't think your religious bias, or lack thereof, is an indicator of knowledge. whether you are a Christian Muslim, Atheist or Buddhist has no impact on knowledge. If an atheist is trying to convince you they are brighter than you - it will be be because they read more than you than any other reason.

Answer 9

The idea that all religion is nonsense is a religious opinion. Sometimes they can downplay some good things Christians have done, like preserving western civilization after barbarian hordes conquered Rome. No one is truly neutral (not even agnostics).

Answer 10

Understand? Maybe, maybe not. One would tend to say their understanding is more Objective, dealing with the facts of the matter without interjecting supposition about religious favoritism(the "They won because God was on their side" syndrome.).