Haven't read a reply, answering thread title. Atheists do this because they've not much else in their lives, they have to read the bible to construct and reconstruct their own arguments. Much like a vegetarian believes they know all the negative dietary info on animal based products.
Atheists seem to me to want (Allah would know this about them: if they believed and let Him into their hearts) have the knower aware of the Definitions for meaning of the Known. The centre of the universe could be such a known for their evidence for these phenomena, but I guess the evidence is at this point of God. God could be first regarded without definition , and the knower could be searching for whatever fits any definition that makes the essential connection for this truth. One believes and everything comes together. In fact, a believer is capable of tracing his faith for utter re-creating of the scriptures. So why should the atheists compete with the bible to find out that their own versions of extrinsic creators and their definition are just as bad, or much worse? Believing belongs to the knower, but the knower has no tap this way upon the known.
why do some christians read the bahagavad gita? why do some hindus read the koran? this is a silly question. wise and thoughtful people of all backgrounds read what they bloody well feel like. and why not?
whether or not you believe it to be true, you'd have to be a fucking idiot not to acknowledge that it's one of the most significant and influential texts in world history. Reading something does not mean that you believe in it.
I'm athiest and I think religions texts are fascinating, my favorite is the Bhagavad Gita, which I learned so much from. The bible compared to other texts is pretty childish in its explenations (or lack of) I find vedic scriptures much more thorough and interesting.
I tried to read the Bible a few times in full. I got through Genesis with pages written of questions to its nonsense ( obviously) then my Christian friends told me you don't read the Bible front to back like other books ( yeah I get it but it's still nonsense) and then they said don't read the old test. read the new test. ugh.... and they tried to justify how someone could be 600- 900 year old blah blah. whatever. Biggest, best selling fairy tail ever written. I cannot read this whole book. But I think it's cool others can.
http://cms.intervarsity.org/studentsoul/item/start-reading-bible I linked that because I couldn't explain it as well as this <---- and it's late and I'm tired haha.
Maybe it reads better when you don't convict in advance. Depends on the person I guess. What if someone is interested in easter or christmas or the life of Jesus? Would you really recommend and emphasize to them to start with Genesis? Same if someone might be looking for the psalms, the significance of Abraham or Moses or king David, or the revelations etc. etc. etc.
ok so lets forget the bible for just a second. lets pretend we are talking about star wars for just a couple sentences now...would you really tell someone to skip to episode three if they said they liked lightsaber fights. or only watch episode one and four and part of six if they liked space battles? no you tell them that there is lightsaber and space battles in the movies now watch them from the beginning to see a great story with all kinds of action. sorry your advice is a bit of a fail although applesparks link did at least give good reasons to skip around.
Just because the bible books are chronological does not mean it is one story (unlike Star Wars). It is a collection of different stories and books and if one is interested in the life of Jesus they should not have to start with Genesis. Doesn't that make sense?
makes perfect sense. just wondering why they put it together in the order they did vs. the order it is best read in.
Are you really serious? Or just nitpicking/playing? It makes sense to order it chronological, but since it is a collection of books it is not necessarily the best/useful for everyone to read it from start to finish. There is no absolute best way to read it, except if you want to take notice of the bible as a whole, then it makes sense to just start with the beginning. If a person does not feel like taking notion of the whole bible but a particular part or subject (like the psalms or the NT) it makes sense to skip other stuff. Hope you are just doing some kind of trolling because otherwise I guess I overestimated your intelligence before
It is for the same reasons I have read the Quran, the Book of Mormon, the Confucian holy books, the Hindu holy books, and the Eddas of Norse paganism—and, to a lesser extent, the Satanic Bible. I find religion and mythology interesting. I like to learn about what people believe and what people used to believe. Holy books can be very amusing at times. For example, the last time I read the Book of Mormon I could not help but laugh every other page. I also think they can be beautiful in places and thought provoking at times. The main reason, though, is out of curiosity.
The Bible is the most controversial piece of writing in human history. All educated people should have a basic knowledge of it. Now, that being said, I do NOT consider it to be the "Word Of God" but it is still important in it's (often negative) influence in society and history. As such, it is worth reading just for that sake.