Why do non believers with wicked mines read the bible?

I've been interested in religious beliefs, mythology, and related matters since I was a child. I'm now in my 60s and still have that interest. And I don't have a wicked mind...

The Bible is a collection of myths and legends – not all related - derived from neighbouring peoples from the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. Examples include the Sumerian creation epic Enuma Elish from which the Genesis Creation Story was probably derived, probably via the Canaanites, and the Noah story is almost identical to the story of Utnapishtim in the epic of Gilgamesh.

The command to worship one God in one way only, to the exclusion of all others, denies freedom of religion and seems originally to have been a way of uniting a people within their social structure and engendering enmity against other peoples who might compete for, or already possess, desired land and resources, and ‘justification’ for their genocide related in several places in the Bible such as Numbers 31:17-18.

In the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, genocide and regicide are shown as commands from God, who is clearly a god of war in those books. The Bible contains massive violence, pornography (such as Ezekiel 23:19-20), inequality of gender, genocide and mass murder, and of course horror stories like the lake of fire, all condoned as being the will of God.

Are we to be banned from reading books? I read the Bible in my teens when I was a believer. I quickly became a disbeliever.

Any reading of the story of David and Jonathan would tell you that their relationship was homosexual. They did not necessarily have sex with each other, that is not what being gay is about, but they were certainly committed to each other in a way many gay couples are. What is so wrong with that?

As an atheist i look for facts so before i became an atheist i read the Bible, the Qu'ran, the Torah, the Talmud and great many more books on both science and religion.

After 4 years of research i became an atheist.

Reading the bible is how most ex-Christians came to be unbelievers. It's full of crazy crap.

According to the bible, God is a trigger-happy tyrant who supports slavery, misogyny and genocides, and murders innocent Egyptian firstborns for no reason. Why would people follow such an evil entity? It's like worshiping Voldemort! How can Christians do it, haven't they read the bible?

To know thine enemy. I find it funny that some atheists know The Bible better than Christians do.

I read the bible so I could learn more about Christianity's views. However, it only strengthened my non belief.

We read it when we need a good laugh, or when we want to see where the crazy fundies are getting their material.

Because Christians keep telling us to to convert.

I still haven't (converted).

Wicked mines.

>BOOM!!< >BOOM!!< >BOOM!!< >BOOM!!<

Just FI. I have an upsy-daisium mine for sale too.