to those who answer to my Q. thank you but if you read the bible, and became an atheists?

Question

does it mean you read but didn't or don't fully understand it?

Answer 1

I fully understand the bible. I have a degree in Christian theology and pastoral counseling. I have been involved in church life for many years. I left Christianity shortly after 9/11 because of all of the vileness coming out of the mouths of church leaders. That started the ball rolling for me - led me to the truth that
1. Religion is private. You can worship how and where you please but you cannot try to convert people into membership

2. Religion stops causing conflict in laws, world and national politics. Do you not see that people are dying needlessly because a group of radicals of a certain faith are trying to make us fear them..

If we each kept our faith to ourselves, could talk about our faiths without the fear of being judged.

Yes - I have read many versions of the Bible and studied it for years.

Answer 2

Have to wonder how anyone could claim to fully understand it, given the language and cultural barriers. IMO, Christians read into it what they want to see.

In any case, I understand the myths all right. I just think it's ridiculous to imagine that they are factual accounts.

Christians believe that an omnipotent, omniscient god created sinful humans and put them in a no-win situation in the garden, then punished them and all their progeny forever for the nature he gave them. Then, the only way this god could forgive humanity for Adam and Eve's sin was to incarnate himself on earth by impregnating an earth woman and then sacrificing himself TO himself. BUT, only if people cease to think rationally and profess to find this idiotic myth believable can they be saved from eternal damnation.

Does that make a lot of sense?

That's part of why I'm an atheist. The rest has to do with an understanding of astronomy, biology, evolution, and other branches of science, and study of Bible history and mythology.

Answer 3

I'm not going to pretend I understand everything to do with the bible, as I am not Christian (just as I doubt you completely understand all of the nuances of holy books from other cultures and religions).

After all, many people have spent years exploring the symbolism, theology, translation difficulties, etc-- and even they don't claim to understand every concept of the bible-- and they have done FAR more than simply READING it.

However, I do understand that the book is offering it's views of one way of life. I no more believe that it's the only path available to follow than I believe that aliens will be destroying people for food--- a concept that has also had non-fiction books written about it.

Answer 4

I'm afraid it's more likely that YOU don't fully understand it. Consider, we are reputedly made in God's "image". That means we can think the same way God does. So if God's intentions in the Bible don't make sense, then something's wrong.

Consider the Christian doctrine of the "Atonement". Supposedly, God has a grudge against all the creatures who are capable of understanding him because the first ones defied him, one time. Even though God is perfectly just and merciful, this grudge has continued for thousands and thousands of years. Despite God's efforts to reboot humanity (Noah's ark), establish a special relationships with particular humans (Abraham, etc.), rescue a "special" nation from oblivion (Exodus), twice (Babylon), the infraction technically is unresolvable until Jesus comes along. His sacrificial death somehow satisfies the debt and saves humanity from ultimate doom (and endless supernatural torture) because of his unique nature: both human (so he represents the right party) and divine (so his effort is adequate), although no one can explain exactly what that means. What is the point of all that? Only God can solve this problem that exists solely because God insists that it does? Sure, we're helpless, but are we even involved? To GET us involved, the evangelist warns us that we have to BELIEVE that the problem existed and was solved by Jesus. The threat still exists, only the criteria have changed. Irreconcilable disobedience is merely replaced by inexcusable doubt.

And because Christianity is supposed to be monotheistic, Jesus' divinity complicates things. Either God ends up negotiating with himself or the supernatural world starts filling up with sub-deities and other metaphysical complications that tempt the believer to slide down a rabbit-hole of speculative fantasies. It's not so much a matter of disbelieving in God as realizing that the "God" described is impossible to believe in.

I like the Bible. I think it has some important messages in it, and even the "crazy" parts make a kind of sense in context. But the typical legalistic, literalistic interpretation that most Christians apply to it turn God into a monster, perfectly content to torture intelligent beings for infinitely longer than the entire duration of the universe, simply for the crime of not believing the disputable contention that Jesus is their personal friend and "savior". "Salvation" becomes a cruel game, and a shell game at that. To win, you have to pick the right story, without using your God-given powers of critical reasoning. A setup like that would make the prospect of spending eternity with such a God unattractive.

I'm not averse to believing in god, I just don't see the advantage. Theists have effectively made their "God" unbelievable.

Answer 5

"It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

Mark Twain.

Edit:

lol, Yeah I saw that Gazoo. Nevertheless great quote.

Deserves being answered twice.

Answer 6

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
-- Mark Twain

Added: Damn that is twice in a row that X Theist has beat me to a great quote.

Answer 7

Yes, it is very difficult to understand indeed.
Especially , Omniscient God's not knowing about Satan's movements.

Answer 8

Substitute the Koran (or any of the other thousand or so holy books) for Bible and ask yourself the same question.

Answer 9

I understood it completely. I also understood history and science, both of which contradict the bible on many counts, and are verifible...which the bible is not.