Why do people know so much on various topics, yet can't recite one Bible verse?

Question

This is for both believers and non-believers. Even if you are an athiest, the Bible is chock full of great wisdom(Proverbs, for example.) Why don't more people try to tap into this wisdom, see the truth, and live better lives because of it? Explain

Answer 1

A large number of commonly-used expressions that are considered wise or good advice have their origins in the Bible. People who reject the book out of hand would be very surprised to find that some of their "conventional wisdom" is Bible-based.

Answer 2

Why do YOU believers THINK that ONLY the Bible is important as a source of Wisdom???? Is that the only Book you've ever read??? For your information, Sumerian tablets are FULL of Wisdom, that VERY SAME Wisdom the Bible compilers copied from there onto the pages of the Old Testament;) Not to mention the Wisdom within the Ancient Sanscrit texts!!! Or the Ancient Greek Philosophers!! THOUSANDS of YEARS before the Bible was compiled, Ancient civilizations wrote texts of IMMENSE Wisdom. The TRUTH, as you call it, my friend, in its ORIGINAL form, was written thousands of years before the Bible was compiled, and in a much more precise and wise way;)

And, by the way, I KNOW the Bible VERY WELL, and I can quote some verses from the words of King Lamuel that I really like: Proverbs 31:8-9. As you can see, there are PEOPLE who know a lot on various topics, including your Bible;)

Answer 3

There is wisdom in the Bible.
"Chock full" is an exaggeration, in my view, and certainly it's not among the best sources of wisdom, though it probably once was.

I think you'll find that atheists (American ones, at least) can recite Bible verses. "For God so loved the world...", "And so it came to pass...", "In the beginning...", "Through grace are ye saved through faith, not works...", "the meek shall inherit the Earth", etc. I could probably go on for a half-hour before I needed any kind of reminder, but I think you get the point.

I choose other sources of wisdom because I'm willing to make the effort to understand the more difficult things. Wisdom is not something you can buy in a store or pick up in a few Sunday School tales, and religion generally steers people away from making the effort required to gain wisdom, by offering simple (but false) answers.

Answer 4

The wisdom is not new, it has been said befoer and will be said again. I admit some of the people writing it could turn a phrase but I'd rather not use it because I disagree with the weight the book carries and many of the things in it are discriminatory and breed suffering.

Maybe I don't know chapter and verse, did you know it wasn't until the 19th century that the Bible even had numerical references? But i do know the odd one or two.:

Psalm: ...for all the world, He breaketh the bow, and snappeth the spear in sunder. I shall be exalted amoung the heathens I will be exalted in the earth. the Lord of Hosts is with us.

Just to prove your point.

Answer 5

This is a very good question! A lot of people THINK they know what it says in the bible, probably because they have heard it spoken so often in church. However, if you really go into depth in it, it really surprises people just how much they don't really know about it, for example, there are TWO sets of "the ten commandments", that the second chapter of Genesis contradicts the first chapter, etc. They assume they know without checking because they THINK they know. I'm finding out things that I thought were "facts" aren't every single day, like who really invented the printing press (it wasn't Gutenberg - it was the Chinese - Gutenberg just copied the idea).

Answer 6

Well, not everyone who read that book would agree with you that it is chocked full of wisdom. You certainly have a way of blocking out all the horrible things in the bible (there are A LOT of horrible things). I read it, but the sentence structures were so badly written that I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone. Don’t waste your time on the bible, read Shakespeare.

I know it’s frustrating when someone doesn’t get the same thing out of a book as you, but you’re going to have to accept it. I hate it when people say they can’t stand Shakespeare.

Answer 7

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

I did that one from memory but I had to look up where it came from. Exodus 22:18

There are some good bits of wisdom in the bible, but there is also a lot of bad stuff as well. You mentioned proverbs. Lets look at that one, shall we.

Beat your kids if you love them
Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

When fools speak, hit them (aka, give them strokes)
Proverbs 18:6 A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.

Don't stop beating your kids just because they start crying.
Proverbs 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

Beat the foolishness out of your kids
Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

A two parter. Beat your kids, they won't die. Do it and he won't go to hell.
Proverbs 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Proverbs 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

Beat horses and fools. (also put a bridle on the ***)
Proverbs 26:3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ***, and a rod for the fool's back.

Beat some wisdom into those kids (Man, proverbs must be a nightmare for CPS)
Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

Tell your kids if they glare at you, that birds will take and eat their eyes.
Proverbs 30:17 The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.


The goal of this little exercise was to point out that not all bits of wisdom in the bible are good. There are some good things, I grant that, but not all. The moral of the story is to not blindly follow the bible.

Answer 8

It wasn’t that great.
Just because you like a book, doesn’t mean you should memorize it a recite verses. I really liked “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk, but I don’t recite memorized lines from the book. You know why? Because I’m not a lunatic.

Answer 9

If you look at anything written, there is wisdom in it somewere. All the bad in the bible, does not make up for the small amount of sensible things in it. Better off getting a comic book. Has a better moral story then the bible. The Bible.....They dont look like us, or belive like us, they act different then us, Kill Them......

Answer 10

I know many verses. Alot I have fogotten. But I agree with what your saying as far as they know part of a verse here and part of a verse there and yet have no clue whats going on in that context.