2007-01-20 23:00:04 · 26 answers · asked by df a 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Most atheists, myself included, were raised in Christian or other religious households. Like others, they were heavily indoctrinated with religious supersition when they were kids. This type of indoctrination is difficult to break. Most do it by first asking questions and finding out things that don't make sense in their religion.
This is only the start, though. To fully break from the religion takes a lot of study and introspection. That parental tug of indoctrination is strong. They have to learn more about their religion than the average Christian in order to get enough to finally get straight in their mind the truth about it. Only then will reason push out long held superstition.
The average Christian doesn't have to be so studious. They're already indoctrinated and can just passively sit there.
2007-01-20 23:02:45 · answer #1 · answered by nondescript 7 · 8⤊ 2⤋
Simply put, atheists don't usually start out that way. Like most everybody else, they are born and raised into one religion or another. However, wheras most people just blindly accept what they are told to believe, there are those who want to know more, and understand more. There are contradictions in every religion, if for no other reason than that different people interpret the same religion differently, and while an answer of "the bible says so, or god wills it" is good enough for the majority of believers, it isn't for that small minority.
They go and look for the answers themselves, usually starting with the holy texts of the religion they grew up in. Finding only more questions and contradictions there, they start learning about other religions, comparing and studying in an effort to find the truth. Eventually, still not finding not finding the answers they seek, they abandon religion, turn to science, and call themselves atheists or agnostics.
In short, most atheists know religion better than most theists do because they have had the courage to look for their own answers. While that doesn't necessarily mean that they are correct - we might well prove the existence of a deity one day, they should be respected for that courage.
2007-01-21 06:15:36 · answer #2 · answered by dead_elves 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with the very first reply
Most atheists were raised as Christians and studied the bible as other Christians do
most Christians I know, do not know the bible from cover to cover, old testement and new...now that's the people I know and I'm certainly not speaking for the Christians on this site...but it is a shocking fact....most atheists I know have studied more books and chapters because they want answers to inconsistencies they may have encountered, which inevitably leads to more reading and researching...
I am not atheist btw
2007-01-20 23:30:11 · answer #3 · answered by town_cl0wn 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have read the Bible cover to cover twice.I have studied it constantly for 7 years i wrote a book all about it and when the publishers were ready to publish it,I said its all wrong and I tore up the book.I was a Bible worshiper not a Jesus worshiper.Since then I have changed.I now love Jesus with all my heart and love everyone no matter what they say or do.I am filled with the Holy Spirit and try my best to be a lovable person not by anything I have done but by what Jesus has done for me.All the Glory goes to Jesus.I screw up just like everyone else.I am sorry for my short comings but I have to be me because if I am not me I am living a lie and then who would I be.Its not about me Its all about the one who saved me.and that is my Savior Jesus.Lots of love to all.
2007-01-20 23:25:42 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
0% I had in no way examine the bible in the previous I grew to grow to be an atheist. i replaced right into a polytheist and then found out I now no longer believed in any gods. I had rejected Christianity and a heap of alternative religions long in the previous that. as quickly as I completely known that i replaced into an atheist I examine the Bible for the 1st time. i found it thoroughly ridiculous and illogical. i did no longer could examine it to understand Christianity replaced into no longer a faith i ought to ever have faith in yet i'm happy I examine it besides (i've got examine it two times greater on the grounds that then) -- educations is in no way a bad factor. I additionally examine the Tanakh and relatively a number of the Qur'an.
2016-10-31 21:51:37 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The key word here is "seem." Some atheists read the Bible in order to find textual inconsistencies or paradoxes which they interpret as contradictions. They call attention to things in the text that people seeking to draw closer to God don't focus on. The Scriptures were not written for such an audience and shouldn't be read that way. The Bible is a collection of ancient manuscripts, and most modern readers don't enjoy reading them. And while knowing the Bible is valuable, it is far more important to know the Author, God. He will illuminate the scriptures for the believer and then the believer will see that it is better to pray for atheists than to argue with them.
2007-01-20 23:15:59 · answer #6 · answered by celebduath 4 · 2⤊ 3⤋
I think you assume that because they love to quote small sections of the Bible, some New some Old testament but the problem they face is when they quote Rabbinic Law it's without the Schmeeka that should follow (three verses up three down, also possibly another Torah reference) which is the Hebrew way. And New Testament stuff is always taken out of context because it generally takes an entire chapter to explain an individual statement (because most books are letters or visions or personal descriptions of events in Jesus' life)
So you see you can paint with half a brush and still see a picture even if it is distorted.
2007-01-20 23:09:20 · answer #7 · answered by Loren H 3 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Atheist nor do Christians understand the bible. Atheist are not wrong when they say it is not historical, however it is allegorical for esoteric truths of mind and being. And Christians are not wrong when they say the truth of it is revealed within them, however the manners in which one understands is consistent with their overall capacity/mindset which speaks of the condition of their mind, from what prospective they view through - much of the Christians view through probably the most carnal prospectives ever. Pretty much they are pharisaic in mind which means they take these truths and apply them outwardly, this is what constitutes a fundamentalist literalistic understanding and traditions rather than apply them to their own mind since it is allegorical for it. They can in no matter understand these things, it is all surface and superficial, with them.
Most of the Atheist I know don't generally know about the bible history, or rather how things was pre-4th century. They tend to only want to discredit the scriptures so they speak from a reactionary prospective to modern Christians and their beliefs as though these beliefs or interpretations, let alone the what is written in the bible even mirrors how it was historically. In truth it was completely different and they didn't take it literally, they knew it was allegorical for esoteric truths. For crying out loud the OT was known to be 100% allegory, it's mystery religion stuff. Atheist know it is easy to discredit what Christians believe in know, because it makes no sense, negates reason, and is not historically what was taught. But they focus on bringing down religion, rather than educating on how things actually were. There was much reason and mysticism long ago - i.e. Gnostics and Ebonites.
2007-01-20 23:19:19 · answer #8 · answered by Automaton 5 · 1⤊ 4⤋
I think you have something there nondescript.
An Atheist questions that which believers seem to blindly accept.
I watched the series Walking the Bible, a most intersting documentary . At one point God Says to Moses at the site of the Burning Bush ( at St katherines) " Moses take off your sandles for you are standing on Holy Ground.."
What sort of rubbish is that? Why would God refer to any site being Holy ground, or even a use the word Holy at all? This statement seems to be more like someone else would say other than a God who never treads the ground anywhere in the whole of the Bible.
Believers swallow many statements like this and never seem to question the logic. Atheists do and try to make sense of those things . I expect the Die hards will now add thumbs down to my input because it offends their need to only hear what they want to hear.
2007-01-20 23:16:21 · answer #9 · answered by Shelty K 5 · 3⤊ 4⤋
Don't be fooled by what atheists say, they know very little of what the Holy Bible says. The vase majority have not even read more than three chapters. The ones that say that at one time they where Christians, never had a true conversion.
A true atheist wouldn't even brother coming to this site, the ones who come here are not sure what they believe, the blind leading the blind.
2007-01-20 23:15:40 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋