Atheists: How much of the Bible have you read?

[WanderLust]

I've read every word of the Holy Bible three times and studied it extensively. I was raised in a Christian household with a Bible in every room. I know the book very well. And the only conclusion that it led me too is that it is one of the most amazing stories ever told. But that's all it is: A story. Why anyone would choose to make a religion around it is beyond my comprehension.

 

[Quiddity]

To the OP: Reading through the entire bible has nothing to do with comprehension.

 

[Splarnst]

I read the entire thing when I was a Christian.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I've read enough to figure out my time is better spent reading things that are more useful, entertaining, and/or insightful.

 

[Splarnst]

To the OP: Reading through the entire bible has nothing to do with comprehension.

Nothing? I think you meant to say that reading it is necessary but not sufficient. What you actually said is that the two are unrelated, which entails that one who has read it is no more likely to understand as one who hasn't read any of it. That can't be what you mean.

 

[Revoltingest]

I've read not one jot or tiddle.
This is willful ignorance.
I feel fine.'

But I do read spiritual works.
The latest is The Rotary Aero Engine by Andrew Nahum.
The darned thing led me to yet another book to find & read....Winged Victory by Victor Yeates (1934).
One could say he was a "Camel Jockey" without insult. (He flew a Camel airplane in WW1.)

 

[T-Dawg]

I read the entire Bible cover to cover (assuming we're talking a standard Bible, not including apocryphal and lost texts), although that was a few years ago. I know it well enough to where if I want to cite something, I can generally locate it, even though I don't have specific verses memorized.
I would say that I comprehend the Bible more effectively that the vast majority of Christians, as I am actually able to read the words and see God for what he is - an egomaniacal tyrant obsessed with being worshiped and willing to murder innocents to get that worship (see the plagues of Egypt, the genocide of Canaan, David's census, and the entire book of Revelation, as examples). But I wouldn't say that I comprehend 100% of the text.

 

[WanderLust]

I would say that I comprehend the Bible more effectively that the vast majority of Christians, as I am actually able to read the words and see God for what he is - an egomaniacal tyrant obsessed with being worshiped and willing to murder innocents to get that worship (see the plagues of Egypt, the genocide of Canaan, David's census, and the entire book of Revelation, as examples).

+1, who would ever want to worship God as depicted in the Bible?

 

[lunakilo]

+1, who would ever want to worship God as depicted in the Bible?

About one out of every three people apparently Religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

aka a little over 2 billion people.

 

[McBell]

About one out of every three people apparently Religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

aka a little over 2 billion people.

At least that is the claim.

I would be more interested in what the god of the Bible thinks of those two billion peoples gods...

 

[lunakilo]

At least that is the claim.

Good point.

I am not sure how they have counted the number of christians in the world.
I know that my own country usually shows up at christian in cases like this since about 80% of the population are members of the state church, but in reality less than 10% are actually christian. It is more about tradition than religion.
So how acurate is the estimate that 2 billion people are chistians really I wonder.

And how many of the people who call them selves christian really believe in the god of the bible? And whic of the gods in the bible? the angry vengeful guy in the old testament or the loving caring one from the new?

I would be more interested in what the god of the Bible thinks of those two billion peoples gods...

 

[NietzschesHammer]

I've read all of it. Before becoming an atheist I was about to take monastic vows, and become a Franciscan friar, so reading the scripture was a big thing for me back then.

 

[Penumbra]

I read the whole Bible as well as the entirety of a number of other religious texts. I've also read some books about the Bible and discussed it with numerous people.

The poll is problematic in that the percentage of the material read, and the amount of comprehension, are two different things. There are numerous interpretations, and I don't even think a person who has a PhD in history or anthropology or archeology with a specialization in Biblical development could honestly say they 100% comprehend the writings of dozens of ancient authors.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

The poll is problematic in that the percentage of the material read, and the amount of comprehension, are two different things. There are numerous interpretations, and I don't even think a person who has a PhD in history or anthropology or archeology with a specialization in Biblical development could honestly say they 100% comprehend the writings of dozens of ancient authors.

I agree.

I've heard from several people who left Christianity for atheism who said things like "I read the Bible many times as a Christian, but the first time I read it as an atheist, I saw things in it I never noticed before."

 

[Yerda]

I voted 25%. Almost all of that was as a child, at Catholic school. Since childhood I've read very little. Mostly OT.

 

[Sgloom]

I voted 25%. Almost all of that was as a child, at Catholic school. Since childhood I've read very little. Mostly OT.

same here, most of what i read was when i was a kid. i did pick it up a bit in my 20's just for something to read.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

I read it as a teenager from cover to cover just to see if I could do it like running a marathon I hate and I have never read anything so tedious. I would have rather run the marathon.

 

[InformedIgnorance]

Well I am ignostic... but I am atheistic about the abrahamic god, I have not voted in the poll because I do not know if that meets your criteria.

I have read (I believe) all of the bible, several sections repeatedly and have a quite indepth understanding of much of what I have read (more than most christians I have talked to - though that doesnt say much) I have not read any portion of the bible (other than the occasional verse) for several years and my main reasons for reading the bible since I left the catholic church was to identify certain christian positions and to clarify my reservations about some of the myths therein.

 

[The_Evelyonian]

I want to start making some statisticals for various groups on various subjects, and for Atheists I'm curious how much of the Bible have you read? Please vote and be heard!

Cover-to-cover, multiple versions, numerous times.

 

[Prodeism]

I have read the entire Bible twice, the NT at least four times, and comprehend it as well as anyone since no one I have met or listened to comprehends it. It is in fact incomprehensible since it is filled with contradictions and impossibilities (the sun moving back eight degrees in the sky is impossible even for an omnipotent being since it would disrupt the relativity of the galaxy if not the entire universe). Only a Christian could require 100% comprehension since they are not burdened by reality.

I am now a deist but was an atheist for the first four decades of my life. I have not, even for a nano-second, believed in Christianity and reading the Bible did nothing to alleviate my doubt but rather reinforced my skepticism.