Sauron

Silly Faid.

Davey only started this thread because he couldn't answer questions about flood layers. For weeks and weeks, he couldn't answer them.

That, and he needs a way to distract us from the fact that he keeps avoiding the Thread of Checkmate that Calisseia has set up for him.

There's a strong streak of moral cowardice running through evangelical Protestant Christianity. It's only matched by an equally common streak of old-fashioned intellectual laziness. Davey is just a five-star example of both of them.

notta_skeptic

Not only did I read the Bible cover-to-cover many times over, I participated in Bible verse memorization contests, witnessed to friends, belonged to Campus Crusade for Christ, buttonholed total strangers to ask them about their relationship to Jesus Christ, taught Sunday School for over 2 decades, seriously thought about becoming a minister in my early 20s, had all my children baptized, etc.

You get the picture.

Once I finally started studying other religions, studying the works of Biblical scholars who actually did RESEARCH on when the Bible first became a written work instead of oral stories, and started asking questions about my belief in inerrancy did I stop believing.

In fact, it was re-reading the Bible from start to finish during my 40s that started me on the path from fundamentalist to apologetic atheist. (I use that term because I still wish I had my simplistic view of life and the universe - and I apologize to my family members that I no longer share their beliefs.)

Reading the entire Bible as an adult turned me into an atheist. Is that an adequate answer to your question, Dave?

Chris Weimer

I gotta admit, I may have read the Bible several times, especially in my youth (if I did not memorize two verses a day, I was beaten), but I am thankful to say that I deconverted early enough to save myself the embarrassment of pulling a former Dean Anderson!

Mister Agenda

Back when I was a Christian, I read the KJV. Then I read a Modern English version just to make sure it really said what I thought it said. Then I stopped being a Christian.

Baalazel

What makes you think the conditions you mention regarding the Bible are erroneous? To the best of my knowledge they are all true. The stories about David are Iron Age myths. The Bible is full of errors. How did King Saul die? Tell us the truth about Sauls death. The walls of Jericho make a good case for implausibility. Not to mention snakes and donkeys that talk and concepts like the knowledge of good and evil being put into fruit.

I would hope that you have spent some time reading on IIDB before posting. How could it be, having acquainted your self with the threads on this board, that you could doubt that the members here are familiar with the Bible?

The whole thing yes.

We appreciate your allowing us to participate.

Baal

Boro Nut

So why don't you provide a great explanation to Calilasseia which particular hard parts under Egypt are the flood strata? You've been asked often enough.

Boro Nut

apatura_iris

I have read the bible, studied extra biblical religious texts(gnostic etc), and was writing an annotated commentary to luke a few years ago but got sick and couldn't finish it. I've also studied talmud and read extensively in other jewish texts. I can read hebrew and greek, have searchable religious text databases on my hard drive... so the answer is yes!

One thing I like about atheists is that most care about religion in that they bother to study and investigate its claims. The people who drive me nuts are the ones who never give religion a second thought, don't study, don't question. In that respect atheists and agnostics tend to be much more passionate about religion than the average person.

Seeker630

Yes I read the entire thing, and a pretty fundy version of it at that. It took me nearly 2 years to slog through it piece by piece from page one to page last. It is probably one of the most revolting pieces of shit I have ever damaged my eyes with. I had to keep putting it down between bouts of revulsion and unbelievable boredom. Had my parents ever bothered to read any of it they probably would have yanked me out of Catholic school.

There are some good things in it, but not many. There are parts that are absolutely disgusting too. As literature it is strictly 3rd rate. It contains some accurate history, and a whole lot of pure fantasy. That there are so many different versions of it speaks to just how imprecise and imperfect it is. But then I have to balance all that against the fact that it was a product of ignorant, superstitious tribesmen who had no other way to explain their own existence, or the world around them.

Ratel

Yes, I've read the whole thing (honestly, probably more like 80% of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament- I skim through the Psalms and some of the more obscure prophets).

Anyway, the main thing I derived from it was that the version of Christianity I adhered to was rather different in serious ways from the practices espoused in the Bible.

Asha'man

I've done a cover-to-cover reading, but had to skim through some of the more boring or revolting stuff.

Personally, I was amazed at all the stuff that I'd never heard of before in Sunday School, stuff the teachers decided it was best to just ignore.

I seem to recall page after page talking about how to build an altar and a temple out of very expensive woods and precious metals, and how to kill animals on said altar, and I knew there was no chance at all that a real God would ask for such things. It was exactly the type of thing a greedy priest would demand, but utterly ridiculous for a God to want.