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I own copies of the Qur'an and the Book of Mormon. I have read them. I once seriously considered becoming a Muslim.
I have not read the Satanist's Bible.
I also highly doubt that you have read the religious texts of all other religions - there are too many for anyone but a religious studies major to do so.
Of course I haven't. I have no intentions of ever doing so. I have read the bible, but only because I was raised in a Christian household.
My point is that you were advocating everyone should read the people and research it for themselves. But if it isn't my faith, why should I read it? Again, there's no wisdom there that I can't find elsewhere or through the process of living. I dismiss the bible not because I am blind or deaf, but because it holds nothing for me. Again you confuse knowledge with faith. I can have knowledge of the bible and still opt not to worship the god it describes. I can even believe in that god and still opt not to worship it.
Of course I haven't. I have no intentions of ever doing so. I have read the bible, but only because I was raised in a Christian household.
My point is that you were advocating everyone should read the people and research it for themselves. But if it isn't my faith, why should I read it? Again, there's no wisdom there that I can't find elsewhere or through the process of living. I dismiss the bible not because I am blind or deaf, but because it holds nothing for me. Again you confuse knowledge with faith. I can have knowledge of the bible and still opt not to worship the god it describes. I can even believe in that god and still opt not to worship it.
Reading the Bible is a far cry from worshipping God. I responded to someone who seemed to think that people quoting the Bible do so with an expectation that people not investigate the Bible. I countered that claim - and I am not confusing faith with knowledge. One can read the Scriptures and reject them - but rejecting the Bible without reading it is willful ignorance - it is those individuals who I was addressing.
The same reason people quote newspaper articles, cable TV news, history books and other materials.
This makes no sense. Many Bible verses are based on faith. News and history aren't.
What I wonder is why Jehovah's Witnesses expect to be invited into your home. Isn't that a bit strange, to expect someone to invite strangers into their home? And I can't help noticing that the interpretations they give to Biblical passages don't relate at all to what is actually there in the Bible. It's like they can't read what's right in front of them.
Those sources are at least occasionally backed up with facts.
Bible verses, as most frequently used, are simply an appeal to authority. No factual support, just a verse carefully chosen to back up someone's personal opinion.
You actually believe that black people first came over here during slavery?
You actually believe that Chris Columbus discovered America?
You actually believe that Jesus was born on Dec. 25th?
You actually believe that terrorists with box cutters brought down two buildings in NYC and destroyed part of the Pentagon?
You actually believe bin Laden, a man with reported dire health problems, was murdered last May by American forces?
You actually believe Hitler and America didn't have a working relationship?
Those are just some of the many fairy tales purported by numerous trusted sources.
Reading the Bible is a far cry from worshipping God. I responded to someone who seemed to think that people quoting the Bible do so with an expectation that people not investigate the Bible. I countered that claim - and I am not confusing faith with knowledge. One can read the Scriptures and reject them - but rejecting the Bible without reading it is willful ignorance - it is those individuals who I was addressing.
But we choose to be willfully ignorant of many things that are not part of our lives. I am willfully ignorant of most religions because they are not a part of my life. I am willfully ignorant of the full details of other cultures that are not a part of my life. I'm betting you are the same.
This is basically saying that all Christians must read the full religious texts of all other religions before they can reject them and select Christianity as their belief system. I'm willing to bet there may have been a handful in the history of the religion that have accomplished this. So almost all Christians, including yourself by your own admittance, are guilty of this willful ignorance.
Reading the Bible is a far cry from worshipping God. I responded to someone who seemed to think that people quoting the Bible do so with an expectation that people not investigate the Bible. I countered that claim - and I am not confusing faith with knowledge. One can read the Scriptures and reject them - but rejecting the Bible without reading it is willful ignorance - it is those individuals who I was addressing.
Some of us have read the bible. I did my time in a baptist high school. 3 years of it before I begged my parents to get me out of there. I have also read the Koran, Buddhist texts, the apocrypha, the gnostic texts, Tao texts, Hindu texts, and many more.
Some of us have read the bible. I did my time in a baptist high school. 3 years of it before I begged my parents to get me out of there. I have also read the Koran, Buddhist texts, the apocrypha, the gnostic texts, Tao texts, Hindu texts, and many more.
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
Isaac Asimov
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