A Former Atheist

[Theoretical Skeptic]

The most accurate and honest history of mankind ever produced. 

I truly hope you are being facetious.  Because if you are completely serious, then I cannot help but question what is going through your mind.  To claim to have been an atheist and then say that you now view the Bible as both 'accurate' and 'honest' is incredibly amusing to me.

It makes me wonder why you were ever 'atheist' to begin with.  What were your views and thoughts back then?  And how did those change because you read the Bible, which many people (even Christians) claim as not a true account?  From your words, I do not think you were very firm in your knowledge of religion.  So please, do tell.

I don't understand the confusion regarding my atheistic past. Its very simple. I didn't believe in nor worship any gods. If that isn't atheist then the confusion is on my part. Now I believe in Jehovah God of the Bible so I'm theist. Its fairly simple. 

I consider my knowledge of religion very basic. I have always considered myself more of a skeptic than religious, though in a sense I think we are all religious in that we all have beliefs which we strictly adhere to. 

A lot of theological terms that the atheist is knowledgeable in I may not be because my focus is on the Bible rather than religion itself.  So if you used a term like antinomian I would of had to look that up (which I did in order to provide this example) but if you described what that meant without using the term I could show you where the Bible doesn't support it. 

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The flood happened... right... erm, no. I mean, sure, many floods happened over the years, but none on the alleged scale.

You know, I've heard this unsupported claim by atheist and I'm not at all convinced. I don't expect science and the Bible to be in total agreement and I'm just not that impressed with science to doubt the Bible. 

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I didn't say I became a Christian, I said I became a believer. And yes, the Bibles I've read contain Leviticus. 

What exactly are your objections to the Bible quotes you gave?

Okay, so if you've read the bible, including Leviticus, then why did you challenge me on whether those passages are in there? You must have known, right?

And my objection to them is that they're heinously immoral, which I grant is not an argument against the bible's factual case- all the factual claims it makes that are completely untrue, like the flood, are that argument- but it is certainly an argument against becoming a christian based on reading the bible. Reading the bible should make one flee that religion as fast and as far as they can.

How could I have challenged you that they weren't there before you cited them? I simply asked if your socially conscious response to the Bible were serious. 

Your objection to the Bible as condoning slavery, for example, what point is there in that? I should dismiss the Bible, which was honest in it's position on slavery and then denounce democracy, even humanity, for doing the same? It seems to me short sighted and perhaps even hypocritical. An emotional fixation. Man, not God, invented slavery, the Mosaic law simply protected slaves. Also to think of slavery in those times as similar to our own country's more recent history is erroneous. To them our system of debt and imprisonment and racism would be far more immoral and inhumane. 

Your position on rape and genocide are similarly uninformed and not very well thought out. How could God, who created one race, that of the entire human race regardless of geological, governmental, or such mundane differences as skin color be considered genocidal when all along what he was doing was preserving mankind from their own destruction. What were the societal options for a rape victim and what were their protections? We can discuss these things in future threads. I look forward to it.