Agnostic.com

14 4

I have a confession to make.

I have never read the bible.

It never interested me and never felt the need to refer to it when debating theists.

When at school and I asked questions about god the answers I was given just didn't make sense or weren't answered.

I am an atheist because I don't believe the claims made by theists. Bibles and other holy books are irrelevant to the claims without other historical evidence to corroborate them.

Any one else never bothered with it?

Uncorrugated 7 Feb 4
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

14 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

Read it, studied it, debated it and taught Sunday School classes from it.

Despite its illogical premise, it's responsible for modern civilisation. Whoa, you say - thats a big call. OK - here goes πŸ™‚
Mark Twain said "Religion is a great idea, and it should be tried sometime". Because the gentle, kind, forgiving messages in the New Testament are such a great moral inspiration.

The parables in the New Testament have inspired the caring, charitable, inquiring minds for thousands of years, when science was just a hodge podge of arguing alchemists, and doctors spread more infections than they actually cured. It inspired huge amounts of Art, Music, Architecture, and even Science and Medicine.

There have been countless individuals and small groups that took "Love thy neighbour as Thyself", and "Blessed are the Peacemakers" ( I would accept Cheesemakers here as well πŸ™‚ ), Forgive 70 times 70, The Good Samaritan story, guaranteed life after death etc etc. as their life goal, and civilisation has benefitted mightily by it.

Name another book that had the simple, inspiring vision that even the simple mindsof the past identified with.
You could reasonably credit the end of slavery, the American constitution, the development of free hospitals, charitable organisations, the vote, the democratic justice system and every other major moral advance to the influence of poor little souls forced to go to Sunday School and absorb these principles for most of their lives.Its no co-incidence that the top 10 modern countries have Christian based origins. The search for Truth and facts that give us the "scientific method" has its origins in the self righteous practicing Christian mentality.

Now, you can quote all the harm done by the misuse of the words, and the damage by fundamentalists etc, - but this pales into insignificance by the immense motivation provided to millions of gentle, caring souls, and the hard work of devoted people inspired by the principles.

Now that Science is able to paint a more accurate and sensible picture of the world, and we are able to ditch the really silly parts of the superstitions that arose from the morass of religious texts, we are in a unique position to appreciate and enjoy the benefits of the moral principles defined by the words from the past.

I think Its definitely worth a study to get an in-depth understanding of one of the major influences that have brought on the latest age of enlightenment.

I sort of agree with some of your assertions, but disagree with most. I disagree that it is responsible for modern civilisation. Huge parts of the world were pretty civilised long before christianity.

The first democracies were about 500bc, Slavery was not only endorsed by religion, but actively supported and many religious leaders and sects campaigned against the abolition of slavery. Good people who were religious and a shift in attitudes fought to abolish slavery.

Some art was inspired by religion and much was not. Religions founded many seats of learning and universities, but when their studies contradicted the church they were excommunicated and arrested.
I don't know how you relate the constitution to the bible as it specifically keeps religion and politics separate.
As for top 10 modern countries - China and Japan would contradict this assertion.

I agree that religion has had a significant influence on some modern societies, but that has been a result of how different cults have changed interpretations of the bible to their own ends - if the bible were true, there wouldn't be so many versions of what it means and so many versions of christianity.

@uncorrugated Some good points there indeed. It's such a complicated topic that it would take a small novel to cover all the pros and cons, of course.

Just a couple of comments on your points to consider -

  1. Civilization before the New testament.
    "Huge parts were civilised before .." , yes, indeed, but none had the freedom and justice of "modern civilization". Since the rise of Protestants, powered by the published Bible, the advances in civil liberties and scientific and technological advancement have eclipsed all civilisations before that. The Industrial Revolution alone changed the world to an unsurpassed degree, arising from the devout studies of Victorian England.

  2. New testament influence on Art. A huge proportion of the great Artistic advancements, perspective, mathematical positioning, the paint medium came about from the power of the Catholic sponsors in Italy, who invariably requested New Testament themes, to curry favour with the Catholic Church. Greeks did pretty well in the sculpture area of course, - based on their own local Gods. Music was profoundly influenced and advanced by the cathedrals and christian churches sponsorship of religious music.

  3. New Testament and US Constitution. You are totally right right the Church/State separation - this was after careful decision by the authors, based on history like the problems that Britain had.(the wars between Catholic and Protestant for example) - created by arguments over the New Testament !

But, the principles of the constitution, adhere strongly to the Protestant principles argued out over the previous 100 years. eg. "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights", "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,", "the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles them " . - are a few of the unashamedly Christian references within the Constitution. Of course, the officers of Government and the Justice system were "sworn with an oath", on the Bible. I think it is safe to say that despite the legal protection of the State from any one religion, the influence of the New Testament can be plainly seen in the overarching outlook of the legal framework,.

  1. Top ten Nations - Christianity influence, Bear in mind that Japans prominence owes a lot to its conquering power, the US - its contribution to rebuilding its industries and farming. This would be one of the relatively rare times when a conqueror turned around and established a former enemy as an economic power (Love thy Enemy ?). Bear in mind that China's power is built on the back of the trade with the US (and the industrial espionage) and copying of the US free market principles (equality) after many, many years languishing under various other political systems.

  2. " if the bible were true" - I'm sorry that I gave the impression that I thought the Bible was "true". No. I am ONLY noting its role in history, and the benefits to everyone from adopting JC's principles in the MORAL view of history. A lot of people draw attention to how JC's teachings follow Buddhist teachings, and conjecture that he may have been influenced by Eastern philosophy. While there isn't any historical evidence for that, his "revolutionary vision of "love thy enemy" certainly ties in with many eastern philosophies.

The BIG contribution of the New Testament is how it got to be a popular and fairly easy to comprehend set of principles for simple people of the era, and how pervasive the moral principles became to the working class. Without the New Testament influence over the last 2 thousand years, the modern concepts of fairness (kindness) and justice(love thy neighbour) and charity would have found it really hard to creep into the social fabric of the modern world, so I feel that acknowledging its contribution to our quality of life is an important part of understanding history.

1

I you haven't, my advice is "DON'T". I have read it cover to cover 3 times, not worth the effort. It is of no value unless you are doing bible studies, nothing to be gained, just avoid arguments and conversation based on the Bible, and seriously, they are best avoided.

2

I grew up Catholic. The church doesn't encourage bible-reading by the peasants -- instead they spoon-feed them "readings" at Mass. Never had any interest in reading on my own. I've read a lot of the analyses of how poorly written, violent, inconsistent, plagerized, etc it is. That's enough for me.

2

Use a children’s bible, it’s the Cliffs Notes of the holy world.

1

The Old Testament is interesting but extremely difficult to interpret without a lot background in biblical studies. Stories like those about Noah & Job say a lot if you can find the right key to interpret them.
I only like Jesus's actual quotes in the New Testament and I bypass the rest of it. I also like the works of Paul the apostle. Paul was a deep thinker, well worth the time invested in reading him.

cava Level 7 Feb 4, 2018
1

I thought I should, just to be able to discuss it more knowledgeably, but man by page 3, I was done. I don’t want to read that piece of shit. Time wasted. I’ll read excerpts if needed, but I have no interest in reading the thing.

2

Me! Me! Lol. I read all these things that tell me I need to read the Bible to be able to intelligently debate believers. Ugh. I have tried reading it and am so bored out of my mind. I don’t need to read it to know that it is all ridiculous. So nice to find someone who feels the same way.

2

Never read it. It always seemed like an epic waste of time

2

As a historian, I have - it's had quite a big influence on history for quite a lot of years, after all. For anyone else, I'd say have a flick through Revelations, which is fun, but don't bother with the rest. There are much more interesting things to do.

Jnei Level 8 Feb 4, 2018
1

I know what you mean. I've read parts of the bible but not the whole thing. Even as a kid, it seemed like reading "Alice in Wonderland" or some other fantasy, only not as interesting. For a while I ignored my trepidation, and then....well, I'm here now.

3

I am glad I've read the bible because of the cultural influence it has had on literature, art, and music to name a few. And when a bible thumper tries to misquote the bible to me I can set them straight darn fast. I wouldn't read it again, and I don't think it is necessary for anyone to read it. And I gotta tell you, I am positive most so called christians don't read it.

4

To quote Mark Twain yet again, "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

1

we have alot of problems today that need divine power,if God was that powerful,he would do it.So no need to refer to the books.

We have a lot of problems today that could be solved if only the "devine power" were eliminated.

1

only parts

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:21084
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.