Why don't most Christians read the Bible?

[Jackalope]

Whoda thunk you'd find donkey porn in the bible?

[Gambit]

First we'd have to prove that most Christians don't read the bible, before we answer the question in the OP. I can honestly say that I do not know most Christians; I only know the vocal ones. They tend to either read the bible a lot or not at all, as it seems. Drich is a good example of one of those who reads the bible a lot. He is also a prime example of what happens to "true" Christians when they do. There are two choices: 1.) Close the book and get as far away as fucking possible from the depraved religion that is Christianity. Or, 2.) Perform mental gymnastics that would put most Olympians to shame, in order to justify the deeds of Yahweh and his cohorts.

[5thHorseman]

Why don't most Christians read the Bible?

If they could read, they wouldn't be Christians.

[FallentoReason]

A friend indirectly justified to me why he doesn't read it. We were discussing theology but not in an atheist vs theist type way. I was discussing it as if I were a Christian and he stopped me and said 'look, I don't need to understand these things. I already know God is real and that's all I need'. I was blown away by that because he has effectively put himself into an intellectually redundant box where, in my eyes, he's not a 'True Christian' (what Christian says they don't need to learn from the Bible?) and neither is he willing to learn a thing or two.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Well, I was Catholic and we were actively discouraged from reading the Bible lest we became confused and misunderstood.(really) So naturally ,I read it from cover and immediately understood their concerns; confused the fuck out of me,especially Revelations.

Perhaps many Christians do not have the same legalist approach as say the evangelicals.

The elephant in the room is the simple fact that millions of Christians (and others) are functionally illiterate.That means they are unable to reed an editorial of an ordinary newspaper. In parts of urban Australia, the functional illiteracy rate is in excess of 25%. The mind boggles what it must be in parts of the US and UK.

Lion may be typical of Lion's sect,but I think atypical of Christians generally.Taking him as a typical Christian would be like judging all Christian by our resident young earth creationist loons.



From Wiki

People lacking
functional literacy
skills
(% aged 16–65)
1994–2003 Notes
Italy 47.0
Mexico 43.2
Ireland 22.6
United Kingdom 21.8
United States 20.0
Belgium 18.4 Flanders only.
New Zealand 18.4
Australia 17.0
Switzerland 15.9
Canada 14.6
Germany 14.4
Netherlands 10.5
Finland 10.4
Denmark 9.6
Norway 7.9
Sweden 7.5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy

[Reforged]

Do you have to start at the beginning, work your way through to the end and then start over?

What a stupid question. If you read it completely why would you need to read it again except for a quick reference or a good laugh?
If we can make that effort then what excuse do you have?
Please think before you type in future.

[Napoléon]

Please think before you type in future.

I think it will be the rapture before that happens.

[Lion IRC]

And you want to school ME in logic?

Well, I was Catholic and we were actively discouraged from reading the Bible lest we became confused and misunderstood.(really) So naturally ,I read it from cover and immediately understood their concerns; confused the fuck out of me,especially Revelations.

Anecdotal Evidence fallacy.

...Perhaps many Christians do not have the same legalist approach as say the evangelicals.

Evangelicals are Christians. Yes/No? Composition/division error.

...The elephant in the room is the simple fact that millions of Christians (and others) are functionally illiterate.

The simple fact? Oversimplification fallacy.

...That means they are unable to reed an editorial of an ordinary newspaper. In parts of urban Australia, the functional illiteracy rate is in excess of 25%.

Logical Fallacy: Biased Sample
In some parts of Australia illiteracy is 99%
In other parts it's as low as 1%

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Evangelicals are Christians. Yes/No? Composition/division error.

Yes they are and no it is not. I made no truth claim,but merely stated proposition that 'perhaps many Christians--" Nor is it a fallacy to assert some Christians such as yourself,are more legalistic than others, relying heavily on pettyfogging biblical exegesis.

Anecdotal Evidence fallacy.

Specifically;agreed. In principle,it is a matter of historical record that the Catholic Church prevented the faithful from reading the Bible for centuries, forbidding translations into the vernacular.Thomas Tyndale, the first person to print part of the Bible in English was executed as a heretic for his trouble.

Logical Fallacy: Biased Sample
In some parts of Australia illiteracy is 99%
In other parts it's as low as 1%

No,it is not,please take the trouble to read the chart I provided; the mean in Australia is 12%. Looking at the overall stats, it's reasonable to asserts that millions of Christians are functionally illiterate. Your objection is disingenuous or simply ill considered.

EG Mexico has an approximate rate of 47% functional illiteracy. A Christian country of 112 million. IE about 50 million functionally illiterate nominal Christians.

Of course I can't count numbers in the favellas of Mexico, Central and South America or Tondo slums in Manilla too poor to buy a Bible.


I have nothing further to say to you on this topic.

---

Evangelicals are Christians. Yes/No? Composition/division error.

Yes they are and no it is not. I made no truth claim,but merely stated proposition that 'perhaps many Christians--" Nor is it a fallacy to assert some Christians such as yourself,are more legalistic than others, relying heavily on pettyfogging biblical exegesis.

Anecdotal Evidence fallacy.

Specifically;agreed. In principle,it is a matter of historical record that the Catholic Church prevented the faithful from reading the Bible for centuries, forbidding translations into the vernacular.Thomas Tyndale, the first person to print part of the Bible in English was executed as a heretic for his trouble.

Logical Fallacy: Biased Sample
In some parts of Australia illiteracy is 99%
In other parts it's as low as 1%

No,it is not,please take the trouble to read the chart I provided; the mean in Australia is 12%. Looking at the overall stats, it's reasonable to asserts that millions of Christians are functionally illiterate. Your objection is disingenuous or simply ill considered.

EG Mexico has an approximate rate of 47% functional illiteracy. A Christian country of 112 million. IE about 50 million functionally illiterate nominal Christians.

Of course I can't count numbers in the favellas of Mexico, Central and South America or Tondo slums in Manilla too poor to buy a Bible.


I have nothing further to say to you on this topic.

[Angrboda]

I find that people, on the whole, are intellectually lazy. Where you won't find this to be the case is at the extremes, where knowledge is critical to the person's lifestyle. This applies to both fundamentalist Christians and vocal atheists. Everybody else in the middle, whether the non-religious non-atheist or the liberal Christian, is happy to believe they are right without ever doing much to question what they've heard and were taught, nor the myths and memes which populate the popular culture.

It's a difference in motivation and priorities. One might argue that a religious person should know their religion in a deep, meaningful way, but most don't. Even myself as a Hindu, am not well versed on my particular Hindu tradition. Knowing those things is just not an important part of my life. I'm not going to try to persuade anybody of their truth, and while they matter to me, there are a lot of things that matter more. (Like my philosophy and cognitive science, and my atheist, humanist and philosophy book clubs. I wish I had time to read stuff about my Hinduism, even if not tackling the Vedas, but the simple fact is, in my life, doing so comes almost dead last. I'm neither a passionate, extreme or vocal Hindu, so spending time on it is very weakly motivated.) (And to be blunt, I am taking time to learn about Buddhism, but that is because it touches on issues in cognitive science that I do care about.)