Atheists: Do you study the Bible simply to gain knowledge & data to disprove Christianity, abroad & on R&S ?

I was FORCED to study the Bible as a child. This ended up backfiring, though, because my knowledge of the what was in the Bible made it easier for me to question it and ORGANIZED RELIGION.

I read the Bible all the way through when I was a kid and loved being a Christian. I've studied parts of the Bible in my adulthood now that I'm finished with Christianity, mostly to try and understand what I had originally read but also to make a valid attempt at pointing out the harm in group-think to the believers who wish to discuss their religion with me. I personally think Christianity goes a long way to disprove itself if you're thinking rationally.

I own two Bibles - a KJV and an NIV.

The first time I read the Bible it was simply to read it, to understand it, and, I was hoping at the time, to believe it. It didn't work. The second time I read it I went through and fact-checked it. That convinced me it was written by primitive men with no outside revelation.

Then I did the same two-stage process for the Jewish Torah (which is translated differently than they are when translated for the Bible), the Islamic Qu'ran, the Hindu Rig Vedas, as well as numerous other religious texts, after 11 years of trying to find a factually accurate and logical faith, I gave up on belief and realized I was an agnostic atheist.

I don't read the Bible because I prefer my literature to be interesting... and I personally find nothing interesting about the Bible.

I knew an atheist that read the Bible just to challenge his belief. He decided he couldn't truly be an atheist without reading the entire book first. In the end, he was still an atheist. He doesn't use info from the Bible to disprove anyone.

However, what you're doing is smart. After all, you can't have a debate without knowing your opposing side. You sound like an extremely intelligent person.

Actually I first studied it when I was 15. Seriously I was trying to convince myself of this whole higher power thing and I rationalized that by reading and studying the bible would obviously lead me to understand how god works and how wonderful he was. Hmm what a silly assumption that was. The more I read the more I couldn't believe.

In all honesty I did not think I would be sitting here 20 years later having to explain to adults over and over again why I don't believe in their god.

Another silly assumption I had in my younger years was that grown adults could learn to accept each other for who they were.

I do study it time to time to refute things people say to me either here or in real life. I do base a lot of questions sometimes here directly with what is in the bible. Not really to ridicule but to try and gain some perspective of how the opposite interprets it.

It's funny because there are parts that I view as more of figurative yet they seem to view it as literal and the parts I view as literal either they see as figurative or flat out think doesn't apply to them. Like this question I asked last week.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AudOl...

I don't understand how some take portions of Leviticus as "the way" but not other parts.

I only own one KJV, large print.

I don't study, or even read the bible except to look something up usually when a book or verse is mentioned here.

I consider myself a Christian. I'm not convinced it all went down like we were taught, but I do believe Jesus was a man who truly believed he had a mission and carried out the mission.

I think anything you say would not surprise me, you seem to be a thinker and philosopher who is always ready to express your philosophies. That is not a bad trait.

I started studying the bible when I was a child and made to. And I own several including my family bible.

No.. I'm not really on here to take people's faith away from them.

I have a few bibles that were my own growing up and I know the bible quite well already.

No. I study it with pleasure and interest, just like I study Homer, Hesiod, the Vedas, the Eddas and much other sacred literature of humanity. It does form one of the pillars of western culture and it would diminish my appreciation of the much of the art and literature of Europe from the middle ages through the enlightenment if I didn't understand their biblical allusions. I own three translations.

I studied literature and research in college - the Bible was an excellent way to comfront the average Christians claims about the Bible (people in the pew mentality, I call it) and what is ACTUALLY in there

There's only a KJV and a Catholic one (American) in my house