A Former Atheist

[Theoretical Skeptic]

You also asked me to back up my claims, something you wouldn't need to do if you had prior knowledge of the verses relevant to the issues I'd listed. 

I've written lengthy articles about the passages you later cited, I was most certainly aware of them. I was in doubt of the social protestation so commonly given by atheists against the Bible. 

Humanity corrected its views on slavery, something the bible never did, even into the new testament. My point is that one should not read the bible, read those passages regarding slavery, and then worship the entity responsible for that, regardless of how convinced of his reality you end up being. The moral course of action, were one to read the bible and become convinced that that god exists, is to reject him outright, not to play into his hands. 

How could the Bible have corrected its reporting of the human interaction of slavery? You are not very well informed of the meaning of the Bible because you see it as a moral compass. The Bible is the history of mankind's imperfection by choice, and the possible alternative solution. To point at examples of moral failings from your position thousands of years later is, ironically, a bit premature and missing the point. All you really need to do is recognize a very simple Biblical truth, which is this: put simply. The first man was given the planet given that he keep in mind his creator's advice and protection were essential, much like that of a parent. He rejected this guidance and protection and everything we see around us is an alleged result of that. All the suffering, all of the injustice is a product of that which you continue to reject. Adam said, in a sense: I'm going to run this show, and God, in a sense, responded okay, fair enough, let's see how that goes. 



It seems strange to me that a god that doesn't exist gets the blame for our stupidity. 

It's not hypocritical: I don't worship any humans who advocate slavery any more than I worship gods who advocate slavery. Where is the hypocrisy, there? Humans changed, god did not.

What is your problem with slavery as presented in the Bible? That God did it? All the while not existing? Who created slavery, man or God? And, again, what is specifically your problem with slavery, not in general, but specifically as presented by the Bible? 

... Protected slaves by making it acceptable to beat them to death? By describing in detail how to trick temporary slaves into becoming permanent ones by holding their families to ransom? By allowing them to be raped? Seriously?  

Man also invented murder, by the way, but god had no issue abolishing that in his commandments, yet he remains curiously silent on the immorality of slavery, though equally curiously loquacious regarding the particulars of making it happen. It's a matter of priorities, you see; god places getting all the worship for himself above abolishing slavery, something you would, I assume, find to be a noble cause when humanity does it. Doesn't that seem odd, to you? 

What are you even talking about? What is morality? What is presented by people of a specific time and place as being right, correct? You need to be more specific about your objection to slavery as presented by the Bible like I asked above. Your moral judgement of the ancients is irrelevant. 

In what way were they different? I warn you, I'm well aware of the full details regarding the "you could let them go after seven years!" style of lazy apologetics, so maybe don't go there if you were intending to. 

First of all, to kidnap anyone for the purpose of selling them into slavery was punishable by death. A Jewish person could sell themselves into slavery in order to work off a debt, or pay for theft or property damage and then be released. A slave could have their own business, make their own money, live life as they choose and often were a trusted authority figure in the household or community. Joseph, for example, a slave in Egypt, was the second most powerful and wealthy man in Egypt. Slaves taken from the nations outside of Israel were prisoners of war, and were protected by the law. Intent to kill or the murder of ones slave was a capital offense. These are just a few things. 

I don't think I mentioned genocide, but he became genocidal around about the time he selected a race of people and demanded that they all be killed, because that's literally what a genocide is.

Again, you need to be more specific and logically you need to more carefully grasp the meaning of the Bible. In the case of claims of genocide, for example, who specifically are you referring to, what were the normal policies of warfare of the Israelite once Jehovah began to deal specifically with them? What was the purpose of the alleged genocide? Things like that. 

You don't think that god could have afforded rape victims a wider range of social options and protections by adding a few "be cool to rape victims" clauses into the bible? Possibly taking out that "she must marry her rapist," bit and just have the rapist fund her life in recompense without forcing her into close quarters with him for life? Or hey, just removing the social stigma on being unmarried and having sex, so that the issue never came up at all? I mean, given how utterly arbitrary the value on virginity actually is, that isn't a huge deal, right?

Again, you are giving vague examples based upon your uninformed interpretation and judging the moral fiber of a people that lived thousands of years ago by your current standards. So your case is weak even though your heart is in the right place. Even if you had a point it would be, unfortunately lost. 

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He doesn't resent them; he's saying its hard to believe the claim in the first place. It's a common tactic in these parts for theists to claim they used to be atheists.

Has anyone considered the possibility that those claiming to have been atheist who became believers are telling the truth? 

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This is just my take, but most people who've deconverted from a religion, did so by skeptical thinking, sometimes with much emotional trauma.   Most atheists who converted to a religion were raised without religion and converted mostly because of emotion.  All anecdotal, I know, but that's mostly what  I see.  I've yet to hear of anyone who really converted after reading the bible.

Additionally, we also get a number of pretenders who say I used to be atheist and then turn out to be a sock of a theist who's been here before.  

It just seems crazy to me. There is no doubt whatsoever when it is ever expressed, I can only assume, for anyone to have abandoned their beliefs for atheism and yet it is an all too common practice for us believers to infiltrate your forums just to make up claims about once having been atheist like its supposed to be a slap in your collective face?! What nonsense and xenophobic paranoia. Is that neurotic or something? 

My conversion was purely logical.