Why do atheists ask Christians to explain their religion without using the Bible?

Question

That's like if I asked someone to explain science without using a science book.
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If the Bible doesn't mean anything to atheists, why do they ask Christians questions about Christianity? Is it only to pick a fight with a Christian?
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Maybe I should have asked what other book do atheists think represents Christianity more than the Bible?
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Answer 1

It's mainly for one reason: they don't believe in absolutes. They are relativists (which is a contradiction in itself because saying something is relative is actually making an absolute statement) and the moment they come under the absolutes of the Bible, they are then held morally responsible.

Answer 2

Here's the catch: no one claims that any science book is completely infallible, timeless, and divinely inspired. Science books CHANGE to fit NEW information, concepts, and theories that BEST explain the world, and beyond, around us. The Bible doesn't have this versatility, therefore, the two are not comparable in that one doesn't need one specific science book to explain all of science, but one needs the Bible, for some reason, to explain all of Christianity, even though it claims all of the things above, minus the versatility, verifiability, and reliability.

The idea is to get you to explain your ideas and reasoning (if you can call it that) in your own words, and not the words of 2000 year old men (or 1900, or 1800 or what have you). Use your own brain, and really think about what you're saying and believing. Please.

Answer 3

I'm not an atheist, but I'll try to answer this question anyway:

Too many Christians use circular logic when using the Bible, so non-Christians want you to try to explain your faith on its own merits. Can you explain how you feel or why you feel something without having to point it out in the Bible?

Science can be explained without a science book because it's observable, so that analogy really doesn't work, sorry.

Answer 4

Actually you can do it without the book, sometimes it's better.

Using Bible quotes is like throwing out bits and pieces of Relativity, String Theory or Quantum Mechnics.

You don't win any converts, you hit them with techno jargon that means nothing to anyone except a theologian or scientist and no one walks away any smarter.

If you can't explain something in your own words, then you don't know the topic yourself.

For a long long time I wanted to know about sine, cosine, secant, cosecant, tangent, cotangent. I was using these in programming and graphics and I wanted to know the symmetry of the math involved.

So I asked my college educated math and science friends and the answer I got was text book

Sine and cosines are ratios

Whoop!

That tells me a lot

After years of asking experts and searching and reading textbooks I stumbled upon an interactive animated physics site here on the internet with a boat in the water and in the flash of an instant I could see sine, cosine and tangent, at least. I'm still working on secant and cosecant.

I could finally visualize the math involved.

I immediately form a view in my mind of a surfer on a surf board and suddenly I knew the significance of points on a wave, angle of attack, momentum and propegation.

My college friends said "well that's PHD stuff I only went for 4 years and that's all they taught me about it!"

Gee, he seemed to know more, but held that back. Why, because he didn't explain it in his own words. He gave me a text book explaination.

Had he told me in simple words, he might have pointed me in the right direction to learn more.

Answer 5

Science can be explained by observing nature and using math.

Christianity is based out of a 1,500 year-old, mis-translated book.

See the difference?

Answer 6

examining the Bible quickly by using grew to become into what did it for me. i think of what incredibly have been given me grew to become into the story of what handed off to David and Bathsheba's newborn son (in case you do not remember that one, God punished David for killing Bathsheba's husband and taking her in marriage via killing the baby baby - this after asserting the sins of the fathers should not be visited on the sons). i might desire to enable for inconsistencies because of fact I understood how mythology and legend and background artwork (at that element I had not yet come into touch with literalist fundies), yet i could not get previous the various places the place God acted in a vindictive, irrational and downright immoral (!) way. Plus, i grew to become into very conscious of the mythologies of alternative peoples interior the area, and can desire to work out the parallels - in each case, the Bible grew to become into the later of the two supplies. If it have been first with an concept in simple terms as quickly as ... even though it wasn't. that's all by-product. Aaron S: you comprehend you're incorrect 3 for 3, maximum suitable?

Answer 7

I think atheists would be more accepting of Christians whose belief is purely faith based on the Bible. However, some Christians do get very smug about their belief, speaking of it as if its a foregone conclusion, and scientifically-provable or whatnot.

When a Christian gets like this, that's often when you'll see the atheists begin to make demands like what you described above.

Answer 8

If a single book it all it can be based on, well it seems a rather weak argument...if your faith and religion is for real, then it should be able to stand better on it's own without the support of a book...

And science can be and often is talked about without the use of a science book, so that doesn't make sense...

Answer 9

I understand your point but a science book has been researched over and over (multiple sources). The bible is a very old text that has little or no other historical documentation and a lot of controversy.

Answer 10

It's because the bible doesn't mean anything to us. It is nothing more than an ancient book of fiction. Just because you can quote a verse that doesn't mean its true.
A science book has research and evidence behind it.

Answer 11

No, because science books are constantly updated with new revisions and science papers, and the bibliography can be checked.

The Bible just says everything in it is true because it is true.