TomboyMom

You have fans?

TomboyMom

What I consistently find, here at IIDB and elsewhere on the net, is that the contributors who know the Bible best are atheists. Christians rarely know what's in it, and even more rarely know who wrote it or when.

cognac

Ok, I'm an "anyone who wishes to chime in."

Yes, I've read it through many times, some portions I lost count how many times I've read them.

I also studied Hebrew and Greek in grad school and have translated portions of both the OT and NT myself, notably the Psalms and some of Paul's letters. It was necessary for doing much of the literary analysis I did for papers.

Joe Bloe

While I agree with your method, I don't think you have this example right. David heard this story after he was already king, so his response to it was not why God made him king. The prophet Nathan told him this story and David got all mad at the owner of flocks who took the one lamb that the poor man had. Then Nathan said: you are the thief - you have many wives [and here's an interesting point, many parts of the Bible have no problem with polygamy] and you took the one wife that one of your soldiers had, and then conspired to have him killed, so God is pissed at you.

When pointing out problems in the Bible, it's important to get the problems right, since bibliolators (worshipers of the Bible) will pick anything that looks like a flaw in a critique of the Bible and use it as an excuse to dismiss all the critiques. There are plenty of real problems in the Bible, no need to stretch interpretations.

Betenoire

Julia Sweeney had an awesome piece in This American Life about how her Bible study led her away from Christianity.

I read up through Deuteronomy, hit the Psalms, and skipped to the NT. I was also a regular church attendee from age 7 to 17. And, yeah, at the end of all that, it sure looks like a bunch of bronze age nomadic herders were trying to make up shit to justify what happened to them and what they did to others.

Amaleq13

Same here. I'm an atheist because of my familiarity with the Bible.

Cege

I have actually READ the Bible, and continue to read it, although with a different eye and perspective than what my Southern Baptist upbringing has encouraged, even insisted upon. I think what got me started was a pastor who was preaching a series of sermons from OT books. After he read his focal scriptures, I would read chapters before, including, and after his selected verse or verses. I still remember the first shock of finding that immediately after God told Moses to back to Pharoh, God decided to kill Moses because Moses' son wasn't circumcised. God changed his mind only when Moses' wife circumcised the boy herself and put the bloody foreskin on Moses' foot. A bloody foreskin applied to the foot satisfied God, and Moses wasn't killed! (Exodus 4:19-26) Strange the pastor didn't mention that part of the story, and stranger still, I've since found dozens if not hundreds of examples that were just as astounding and horrifying.

Reading through the gospels and comparing them (comparison being something I've never heard in sermons or Sunday School classes over my 58 years) caused me to question the inerrancy position of the NT that I'd been taught. The more I read with an open and questioning mind, the more errors I discover.

As a result, I no longer believe the bible is inerrant or entirely accurate.

I have throughly enjoyed finding this forum, where so many have already read, questioned, researched, and reached conclusions about the Bible in areas I've never been encouraged to explore. In fact, among other Christians I've been discouraged from asking questions instead of just accepting on faith.

Minimalist

Not cover to cover....it's too fucking depressing.

driver8

Its so ridiculous it gives me a headache. I read little bits at a time out of morbid curiousity. I couldn't possibly waste so much time as to read it all, and then again there are the headaches. I came to this conclusion in first grade sunday school class.

Oedipus Complex

Wow, reading this actually sends chills down my spine.

On topic: Having been raised a catholic, before I started doubting my beliefs I have to admit I really hadn't read much of the Bible. I started becoming skeptical after I started reading it. I've read about 80% of it in it's entirety.