Forum theists: when you have a moment, please...

[Athene]

There may very well be atheists here who have read and studied the Bible objectively. There are certainly several who have studied the book with bias towards it at some point...no shortage of ex-theists here. Why does understanding the Bible mean accepting it in its entirety as truth, in your eyes?

 I don't expect any atheist to accept the entire Bible, what I would expect is an honest look at what Christians say. I wanted to avoid this phrase but I guess in the end it's not possible, "cherry picking," is no way to try and understand the Bible, I've tried to avoid "cherry picking" scientific books and haven't used any such practice here. Most all the teachings in scripture cover more than one book and many cover both the OT and NT. Most atheist just get mad when accused of "cherry picking" instead of trying to understand the whole of the teaching through many verses and books. Would you use this practice in school studies, of coarse not, it's no way to learn.

GC

It's difficult to not "cherry pick" when something is presented as the inerrant and/or infallible Word of God. Can you really fault atheists for drawing attention to Biblical inaccuracies and inconsistencies when you consider the claim of it being The Absolute Truth? Even maintaining that the Bible is simply God's infallible word, written by fallible men presents a major plot hole, doesn't it?