RE: Theists are Insecure
December 30, 2011 at 2:36 pm
(This post was last modified: December 30, 2011 at 2:41 pm by Voltair.)
There are many times where the Bible is quoted and at times ripped out of its context by atheists. Please keep in mind though that many people who have arrived at atheism do know their Bibles very well. I am not claiming to know the Bible backwards and forwards but I do have an okay background with it and there are others here who probably outclass me in their knowledge of it.
I don't know of any atheist that takes a couple of passages and then simply dismisses the Bible. There are some who don't really bother investigating it because it hasn't been proven to be reliable enough to them in order to look at. My own dismissal of the Bible comes from understanding some of the history behind it and more importantly a lot of other issues related to its history.
This would include lack of corroborating sources, the uncertainty in when certain things were written, the time gap between the events and the recording of those events. Also the possibility of legends developing over the course of the 30 year period or so (conservative dating estimate I believe) before the first gospel was written etc.
One thing that will help in your discussions here with people is to do some lurking around the older posts here. If you are here to learn from others I would encourage you to go to the back of the forum pages here and start reading through relevant threads. There has been a lot of different discussions/ideas shared here. You don't need to respond to these older threads either as that would necro them back but a lot of time/energy has been spent discussing this and is stored on the forum.
You may also notice that people around here are pretty abrasive about Christianity. A lot of people here have had a lot of experience/time devoted to discussing this issues and can get frustrated when they see people making the same points they have refuted in the past time and time again. This is also why it is a good idea to read the older threads in this forum.
I am not saying people are going to be rude no matter what but remember this is the atheist playground and you have come in to play in it :p
I don't know of any atheist that takes a couple of passages and then simply dismisses the Bible. There are some who don't really bother investigating it because it hasn't been proven to be reliable enough to them in order to look at. My own dismissal of the Bible comes from understanding some of the history behind it and more importantly a lot of other issues related to its history.
This would include lack of corroborating sources, the uncertainty in when certain things were written, the time gap between the events and the recording of those events. Also the possibility of legends developing over the course of the 30 year period or so (conservative dating estimate I believe) before the first gospel was written etc.
One thing that will help in your discussions here with people is to do some lurking around the older posts here. If you are here to learn from others I would encourage you to go to the back of the forum pages here and start reading through relevant threads. There has been a lot of different discussions/ideas shared here. You don't need to respond to these older threads either as that would necro them back but a lot of time/energy has been spent discussing this and is stored on the forum.
You may also notice that people around here are pretty abrasive about Christianity. A lot of people here have had a lot of experience/time devoted to discussing this issues and can get frustrated when they see people making the same points they have refuted in the past time and time again. This is also why it is a good idea to read the older threads in this forum.
I am not saying people are going to be rude no matter what but remember this is the atheist playground and you have come in to play in it :p
