(July 23, 2012 at 3:33 pm)liam Wrote: Haha, I like your take but I'm not agreeing with reviews, I'm writing one (to continue your rather unfitting analogy), thus I can't rely entirely on what others say.
Unfitting analogy? It's actually the perfect analogy. Lol.
BINGO! You hit a winner.
You can't rely entirely on what others say.
So why is it necessary to read what others have said (in the form of the bible) to affirm my position as an atheist?
Quote:I would feel a better atheist if I'd considered the actual religious views and found nothing believable in them than simply the ones I am culturally or socially acquainted with.
I'm still not seeing the need to read the actual book here. Overwhelming information about said religions can be found elsewhere, in a much more digestible format than what desert goat herders supposedly wrote thousands of years ago.
Quote:That's not what I'm saying at all, rather that if you hold the antithetic view to religion, as we do, it is best to know what you disagree with. Furthermore, its functionally important for arguing with christians, as the tor'ah and qur'an is with jews and muslims respectively, and all others beyond that.
I don't believe in religions because there isn't tangible evidence supporting them.
I don't simply disagree with them.
Therefore, reading it is still not a requirement for me to reject it with enough reason.