Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis

[The Grand Nudger]

My purpose is not to convert you as only God can do that. All I can try to do & be is found in 1 Peter 3:15 “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”

Welcome aboard.  If I were a christian..I would take that to heart, and in light of that, seek only to mount a defense of the defensible, rather than the indefensible..because, certainly, whatever is true of christianity..simply is true, and needs no argument against contrary fact to establish.

For example, a person can establish the unimpeachable veracity of the principle of reciprocity...without any requirement that the story in which that principle was uniquely elucidated for a specific audience that we now call "christian".. is factually true. To borrow from someone I don't particularly like..myths are "truer than the truth". There is no defensible room for biblical literalism. Literalism is a wholly manufactured dissonance between connotation and denotation in mythemical literature. OTOH, there are countless unspoiled acres of land for the defense of connotation, regardless of whether the fenced in borders of denotation are far to narrow to house anything of substance.

In short, did the demigod literally say x y and z? Well...no...but he meant to, because a demigod would have. If there were demigods, and they ever said anything. Which there aren't, and they don't...then the obligations of their positions as they refer to pronouncements would still be as real as the hands in front of our faces. This..in a nutshell..is why "do unto others" is good advice whether it let fall from the lips of a god, or just some random guy named Joe you met in a bar (who may or may not, in the mythemical literature...be God Himself, lol).