They start on the Old Testament and give up after a certain point.
That’s my story. I mean, it really is boring stuff told in the most bland way possible.
but the problem is the Old Testament treats people terribly, where enemies of god are tortured and killed, compared to the new testament which preaches freedom, honesty, empathy, and generosity.
Erm… it preaches being “slaves for Christ”, with very few safeguards on what are good boundaries for leaders to have over you. I agree on the ideals, but the power dynamics also “treat people terribly”
Yeah I pretty much only got past Adam and Eve
What sucks is I’m actually really interested in the more like meta physical side of Christianity like biblically accurate angels and stuff but no body talks about the actually cool stuff
I am atheist tho, I’m just really interested in religion as a concept
Those kids would be very upset if they could read
Obviously. I am an atheist today because I went to Catholic school where I had to read the bible. Nothing makes better atheists than those who actually read the bible.
Isaac Asimov famously said “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”
They have a grifter to interpret it for them. They read curated selections. It is useful to know certain passages. For example, 1 Timothy 2:12 is useful for shutting down a female proselytizing.
Oh, it’s not so that they don’t read it. It’s rather that …
While I agree with your sentiment, the problem with the Bible is that it doesn’t contain democracy. It only really has examples of god ordained despots. So one can “follow the Bible” and have results that are wack.
Israel was supposed to still be loyal to King David even though he was a liar, murderer and adulterer. Jesus has the opportunity to tell people to reject Caesar but instead choose to more or less tell them to let Caesar be Caesar and keep whatever is God’s separate. It was tacit acknowledgment that sometimes you have to obey evil rulers. (St Paul carries this on in Romans)
So obviously that was necessary in first century Judea. The problem is that’s the only scenario the new testament deals with.
Add to that that all Jesus’ ethics are person based, without a single word of what a government should or shouldn’t do. Minus all the common sense tradition amalgamated in Europe over 1600 years, and you have the religious right of America.
