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Current time: April 27, 2024, 11:43 am
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Any tips on reading the bible for an atheist?
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LastPoet
 Leader of the gang of jerkoffs(tm)  Religious Views: L'Uomo verrà portato dalla sua creazione 
If you're an Atheist I don't think you need any advice other than to read it objectively at face value.
And I'm pretty confident you'll put it down in disgust after reading it and never want to again.
If the hypothetical idea of an afterlife means more to you than the objectively true reality we all share, then you deserve no respect.
I don't recall who suggested it, but I think it would be very interesting to cut out each of the books out of the new testament. Then read each of the different stories together.
Meaning if they are talking about the sermon on the mount, read all 5 of the books at that period. When you do that, the discrepancies will become obvious.  (February 19, 2014 at 3:50 pm)rensou Wrote: Hi there. I've been trying to read the bible to see firsthand the inconsistencies and horrible stuff present in there. Well atleast that is what I'm trying to do. I'm currently stuck in Leviticus and it's boring me so much. I'm thinking about skipping it. So any suggestions and/or tips. Leviticus is pretty boring. I'd recommend starting in the new testament with one of the gospels like Matthew or John. Then the book of Acts, which gives a good description of the early church. Smooth was right in saying that there's a lot of bible studies on the internet or, if you can stand being around us christians, go to an organized bible study at a local church. Some churches are very open to "seekers" and have studies specifically for non-believers. But also, as Smooth said, go in with a neutural attitude.  (February 19, 2014 at 3:50 pm)rensou Wrote: Hi there. I've been trying to read the bible to see firsthand the inconsistencies and horrible stuff present in there. Well atleast that is what I'm trying to do. I'm currently stuck in Leviticus and it's boring me so much. I'm thinking about skipping it. So any suggestions and/or tips.The thing is, there really is very little in the Bible that is either inspiring or controversial for the non-believer. Even here, where there is a lot of debate over the contents of the Bible, the amount of content that is actually being discussed is a small fraction of the whole. There are a lot of very bland stretches in the Bible and very few "juicy tidbits." If you are reading it in order to get to the "good parts" then you're going to get bored out of your mind. There are a number of reasons that you only ever see a handful of Bible texts ever being used (not just here, pretty much anywhere). Primary among them, IMO, is that the Bible is just as compelling a read as any law journal would be for the layperson. Your best bet is to seek out sites that discuss the Bible and its contents and read those, then use any of the sites that have the text of the Bible to read those passages and the context. Reading the context can help you to see if the material you are reading is accurate or being manipulated for a specific agenda.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould 
Here's some advice/commentary from a fellow traveller:
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/...d-insipid/ 
I started a reread of the bible last October since the first (and only) time I read it was 12 years ago and I remember exactly nothing from it. The way I was doing it was on my lunch breaks at work. I had a choice: I could go running and reduce the amount of the bible I had to read that day or I could take the day off of running and spend a whole hour melting my brain. I ran every day until Christmas break. Then I took the book home and it hasn't made it back to work yet.
 I got through Leviticus and only skipped the pages and pages of begats (such a waste of time). So far in my reread the only part that I actually enjoyed was the story of Joseph and his brothers - but mostly because I wanted Joseph to enslave them for being assholes. Everything else has been pulling-teeth painful to get through. I should get back to it, but there are so many more interesting and better written things to read I find it very difficult to go back to that piece of crap. It'd certainly get me motivated to go running on my lunch breaks again. 
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
There's merit to be found in much literature. Take the Bible for instance! It was so... Well, there was that one part that...um...I'm certain it was...uh...
Never mind. There's no reason to start. It's not even good for toilet paper. ![[Image: 10314461_875206779161622_3907189760171701548_n.jpg]](https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10314461_875206779161622_3907189760171701548_n.jpg)
Read it.. but dont u believe it.......
I've read the bible plenty of times in my life (can't believe I put myself through that), and even as a Christian I got bored, confused and fed up at times. I even studied it. Whole lot of good it did me. Oh wait, it DID. It got me to realize the utter nonsense I was reading.
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