Atheists don't believe in God??? then read the bible anyway....cool stories?

how do you think they found out about god?

derp

OK, I'm a historian. My thesis was on the expansion of Christianity into what we now call Russia and its effects on the language and culture.

I've read the Bible. In English, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Old Church Slavonic. Reading the Bible and knowing history has only strengthened my atheism.

But I do have a favorite Bible story: the destruction of Sodom. Because I understand it. Lot lives in a horrifically wicked city. Angels come and offer to save him and his family. Sodom gets destroyed, his wife gets stoned. Lot and his daughters camp out in a cave for a while. The daughters get their "just and righteous" father drunk, have sexual intercourse with him, and each conceives and bears a son (wouldn't you know it!). Neither Lot nor his daughters are criticized here or anywhere else in the Bible. It's just another wholesome family values Bible story. But here's the best part:

Genesis: 19:37-38 "And the first born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day."

The Moabites and Ammonites were two nations that were constantly at war with Israel. The entire story is a smear campaign against those peoples.. born from an incestuous, drunken affair and from a city so wicked that the Lord destroyed it utterly.

I already did. For every "cool story" there are a dozen that are simply ridiculous. It's chock full of violence and irrational dogma:

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.htm...

How about you? Have you bothered to read ANY of the books from the other religions of the world? The Koran? Tao Te Ching? The Upanishads? The Bhagavad Gita? The Satanic Bible? Dianetics? Zen Koan compilations? Wicca books? I've read all of these, and then some. Why haven't you done the same? It "couldn't hurt", right?

Studies have show than that atheists tend to know more about religion than Christians and Muslims do. Yes, really:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/...

http://www.theshorthorn.com/index.php?option=com_c...

http://www.granitefallsnews.com/lifestyle/x1106458...

I have read and studied the Bible in depth. The stories aren't all that cool. The Bible is nothing more than a collection of badly written fiction.

I don't consider the mauling of 42 children to death because they called someone "baldy" a "cool story." I don't consider the killing of pregnant women by the sword a "cool story." I don't consider Lot getting drunk and then having sex with his daughters a "cool story." I don't consider a king who says his queen will be the person who wins the sex contest (pleasures him the most) a "cool story."

The Bible is a horribly evil book.

Yeah. Cool stories like how Joshua committed genocide against seven nations more numerous than the Israelites. Would you recommend him as an example?

The bible started off in the oral tradition - passed down as wisdom from generation to generation. Some of that wisdom still remains, but it was queered by a healthy dollop of religious lunacy and fanaticism.

Most of the stories borrow heavily (or are blatantly plagiarized) from older pagan myths.

The 'Noah's Ark' story originated as a tale about a king who loaded his livestock onto a barge and floated them downstream during a severe rainstorm that caused *localized* flooding.

'Jesus' was far from the first 'son of god' to be 'born of a virgin', do 'miracles', be killed, and then 'resurrected' three days later.

I read it from cover to cover about a half dozen times BEFORE I became an atheist; the Bible is one of the main reasons I did.

Done. It was a fun faerie tale. But I find more truth in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Yeah the guy above me is kinda right.but we don't read the bible after we become atheists unless it's to point out flaws in it or something.

It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.