So, Are Atheists Actually Smarter Than Believers??

[Thomas]

It isn't really smarter, but more studied on Biblical and religious facts.

You really think that?

I think Biblically well-read and theologically-informed atheists are a rarity. In my experience, most atheists are totally ignorant when it comes to the issue.

It is just that MOST theists stop studying as they accept what they were told and didn't question.

MOST believers find what they're taught adequate for their beliefs – you don't have to be a theologian or an historian to be a believer.

But does that critique include Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc ... and what of the religious that aren't so forensically-focussed on the historical-critical reading of religious texts, and more open towards the sheer spiritual luminosity?

And MOST atheists never studied either, so they're in no real place to criticise.

I think the OP had a point, in that mosts atheists are agnostic, in that they've never really given the issue serious thought, let alone serious investigation.

+++

I do agree catechetics could be better, but when it's one source against the backdrop of the west, it's a hard task.

But then if one looks at the New Atheists – vilified by believers and atheists alike – their argument is a reflection of the shallow populism/borderline racism that is gaining traction in the West ... so my position on that is the quality of question and debate is generally, outside the ivory towers of academia, getting worse, not better.

+++

And again, the basic assumption being flawed, it is unnecessary to list some of the greatest minds of the last couple of centuries who happen to hold a religious conviction, be it in the fields of the humanities as well as analytical sciences.

+++

As St Thomas said in the Summa:
"Hence Sacred Scripture, since it has no science above itself, can dispute with one who denies its principles only if the opponent admits some at least of the truths obtained through divine revelation; thus we can argue with heretics from texts in Holy Writ, and against those who deny one article of faith, we can argue from another. If our opponent believes nothing of divine revelation, there is no longer any means of proving the articles of faith by reasoning, but only of answering his objections – if he has any – against faith. Since faith rests upon infallible truth, and since the contrary of a truth can never be demonstrated, it is clear that the arguments brought against faith cannot be demonstrations, but are difficulties that can be answered."

+++

My favourite atheist, by the way, is the philosopher John Gray.

+++

 

[wil]

U

You really think that?

As a generality sort of....? Do I believe that the dyed in the wool Bible thumping atheists (like Bart) the ones that were at seminary or headed to seminary or in graduate level uni classes on theology who became atheist after dedicated study to preach and prove the Bible to be true have more Biblical smarts than the vast majority of believers? Yeah Prolly?

In general I think Atheists got it easier....they don't have to prove the whole Bible or Quran wrong...just enough of it to satisfy themselves.

 

[Thomas]

In general I think Atheists got it easier....they don't have to prove the whole Bible or Quran wrong...just enough of it to satisfy themselves.

In general I'd say they don't even do that ... they just go with the flow ... and I actually think they

One can't actually prove the Bible or the Quran 'wrong'.

 

[TheLightWithin]

I have never met an atheist who ever read the Bible from cover to cover. I've been waiting for the moment for over 20 years. No such luck.

Bible scholars... not all of whom are atheists but some are or become that way.

UU ministers are sometimes non believers but studied "all 66" books in seminary.

I've known various people over the years who've read the bible and either became or remain non believers.

A saying I've heard many times is that people were believers UNTIL they read the bible.
It depends on what they were expecting vs what they see, how it lands with them, and what if any guidance or resources they have to help them understand it.

My mom read the bible cover to cover at least once. She didn't believe any of it. She sometimes said she was an atheist but she probably wasn't really accurate with that. Her interest was in other areas of spirituality generally speaking. She did say that she read the bible and said "It is one big beautiful story, but it is just a story. To go through all of that, and then 2000 years pass with no help? Come on! No..."

 

[TheLightWithin]

First thing it says it that he is an expert on the NT. I did have an atheist tell me that he had read the entire Bible. But then he backtracked and said he had only read the NT. I am willing to bet this guy is the same. I have known so many people who studied theology yet couldn't name 5 books in the Bible. So studying theology doesn't mean squat for him. I also notice that he talked about learning ancient Greek in order to understand the Bible. So I bet he never read the entire book. He read the NT. All of his literature is about the NT. If I ever meet the guy I'll ask him. I guarantee I'll be disappointed.

He's certainly at least READ the OT. He references it, and you can't really be an expert on the NT if you don't know the Hebrew bible context it is referring to. Also he grew up evangelical and was a deep believer early in his life. I'm pretty sure he went to bible college first, got a degree, then another college, got degrees, and then graduate school. I cannot recall if he went to seminary or what purely on the academic track. But his transition from evangelical fundamentalist to nonbeliever was slow over decades. He was a mainline Christian then a liberal Christian for awhile.

As you probably know, professional Bible scholars usually specialize in either one testament or the other, not both, and sometimes only specialize in one key area. That's because of the broad sweep of history covered, as well as the intricacies of text and the sheer volume of ancient documents they analyze from a given time period (sometimes old fragments of the bible, sometimes extrabiblical material for context)

I started a thread about bible scholars. I found a link to a video on Bart Ehrman's channel that talks about how he changed his mind about biblical inerrancy.

OK I posted it but it will not play in this site, you just have to follow it to YouTube.

Bible Scholars of Many Kinds

I want to discuss bible scholars. Bible scholars know A LOT. They are not always liberal or atheist, though many are or came to be through what they have learned. But many study deeply and remain deep believers. I really appreciate the late Dr Michael Heiser. He was an evangelical bible...

www.interfaith.org

 

[TheLightWithin]

MOST believers find what they're taught adequate for their beliefs – you don't have to be a theologian or an historian to be a believer.

I wonder though... if you couldn't say EVERYONE thought what they knew, about anything, was adequate for their beliefs.
They believe whatever it is based on what they know...
They probably think they've got it right or that they know as much as they need to
It takes a little extra reflection to say whoa, maybe I need more information to be sure
And extra gumption to actually acquire that information.
Broadly applicable to almost any field of endeavor, not just religion.

 

[moralorel]

He's certainly at least READ the OT. He references it, and you can't really be an expert on the NT if you don't know the Hebrew bible context it is referring to. Also he grew up evangelical and was a deep believer early in his life. I'm pretty sure he went to bible college first, got a degree, then another college, got degrees, and then graduate school. I cannot recall if he went to seminary or what purely on the academic track. But his transition from evangelical fundamentalist to nonbeliever was slow over decades. He was a mainline Christian then a liberal Christian for awhile.

As you probably know, professional Bible scholars usually specialize in either one testament or the other, not both, and sometimes only specialize in one key area. That's because of the broad sweep of history covered, as well as the intricacies of text and the sheer volume of ancient documents they analyze from a given time period (sometimes old fragments of the bible, sometimes extrabiblical material for context)

I started a thread about bible scholars. I found a link to a video on Bart Ehrman's channel that talks about how he changed his mind about biblical inerrancy.

OK I posted it but it will not play in this site, you just have to follow it to YouTube.

Bible Scholars of Many Kinds

I want to discuss bible scholars. Bible scholars know A LOT. They are not always liberal or atheist, though many are or came to be through what they have learned. But many study deeply and remain deep believers. I really appreciate the late Dr Michael Heiser. He was an evangelical bible...

www.interfaith.org

I have referenced the Quran. I never read the whole book.

The #1 way that I know he hasn't read the Bible is that he doesn't understand why God allows suffering. If he had read the OT he would know the answer to this. I have also personally met plenty of people who graduated from "bible college" who admit they didn't read the whole book.

Obviously I don't know they guy, but I'd wager that he did the following: He was raised with an opinion about God, no doubt from his religious upbringing. He attended college and realized there were holes in his beliefs. He tried to make scripture adhere to his opinion but couldn't do it. So little by little his faith eroded because even learning ancient Greek didn't help him fit scripture into his beliefs. Eventually he gave up and decided it was all a hoax, which it might just be one amazing hoax. He was raised believing everything his parents told him. He got to college and eventually believed what his professors told him.

I had a theology professor who gave us some topics we could write about for a composition. One of the topics was "How is the God of the OT different from Jesus?" I wrote a paper about how they were both the same. He gave me a D on my paper and told me I was "confused". I argued with him to no avail. Then I finally asked him if he had even read the OT. He didn't understand why that mattered. I took a bible literature class with a different professor. I showed him my paper with the big fat D on it. I asked him if he thought it deserved a D. He read it and said it was worthy of an A. This professor knew the OT quite well. The other one didn't. Both had been professors over 30 years. You would think 30 years would be enough time to read the OT.

 

[Ahanu]

I have referenced the Quran. I never read the whole book.

The #1 way that I know he hasn't read the Bible is that he doesn't understand why God allows suffering. If he had read the OT he would know the answer to this.

Is there one uniform answer to why God allows suffering according to the various books of the Bible?

 

[wil]

you can't really be an expert on the NT if you don't know the Hebrew bible context it is referring to.

There was some preacher along the way who liked to say, "Ya can't be a good Christian without first being a good Jew."

 

[moralorel]

Bible scholars... not all of whom are atheists but some are or become that way.

UU ministers are sometimes non believers but studied "all 66" books in seminary.

I've known various people over the years who've read the bible and either became or remain non believers.

A saying I've heard many times is that people were believers UNTIL they read the bible.
It depends on what they were expecting vs what they see, how it lands with them, and what if any guidance or resources they have to help them understand it.

My mom read the bible cover to cover at least once. She didn't believe any of it. She sometimes said she was an atheist but she probably wasn't really accurate with that. Her interest was in other areas of spirituality generally speaking. She did say that she read the bible and said "It is one big beautiful story, but it is just a story. To go through all of that, and then 2000 years pass with no help? Come on! No..."

I have not. I have met theology majors who read the entire Bible, but none were atheists. I have met plenty of atheists who claimed they had read the Bible. They even claimed to have studied the entire book in detail in college. But when I started asking them basic questions about the Bible, they couldn't answer them. For example: One coworker, an atheist who claimed he had read the Bible and went to seminary, was confused about why a Jewish coworker was taking off of work in the fall for religious reasons. My coworker had never heard of any of the fall holy days. He just knew about Passover, which is in the spring. When I pressed him on his ignorance of some very important holy days, he finally admitted that he had glossed over the OT but definitely studied the NT. Yet he was confused when I explained to him that these same feasts are also mentioned in the NT. He had read what he felt was important and skipped past anything he didn't want to read.

I'm not saying your experiences aren't true. But my experiences definitely differ from yours.

 

[moralorel]

Is there one uniform answer to why God allows suffering according to the various books of the Bible?

In a nutshell, humans keep choosing the wrong tree to eat from. They choose the king of lies, deception, murder, suffering, hate, pride, etc. Israel was the example. When they followed God, they didn't suffer. When they started ignoring God's laws and advice, they were in essence eating from the wrong tree. They suffered.

If you want to know more I'm sure you could either search for a thread on the subject on here or start your own.

 

[TheLightWithin]

One coworker, an atheist who claimed he had read the Bible and went to seminary, was confused about why a Jewish coworker was taking off of work in the fall for religious reasons. My coworker had never heard of any of the fall holy days. He just knew about Passover, which is in the spring.

Even if someone does read the OT or both Testaments, that doesn't mean they will properly remember the names and/or dates of modern observances of holidays or modern cultural conventions around them.

Now if they read a book about Introduction to Judaism...

One of the things that confused me about reading the Bible as a teenager was the lack of obvious dates and authorship like you would find in a modern book.

I'm not saying your experiences aren't true. But my experiences definitely differ from yours.

For sure.

Once upon a time, maybe 20 years ago or so, I was attending a UU Church that included many atheists.
There was a lecture series being held where people from a variety of denominations and faith traditions came and spoke to us.
It was pretty well attended.

The Evangelical speaker was a very young man, and I don't recall if he was a minister or a lay preacher - maybe from a denomination that doesn't use formal ministry. He gave a good talk and afterward when people approached him to ask him questions, there were a good number of people and he seemed nervous like he thought people were going to be mean to him or something. Well I guess the number of people clustering might have made him feel a little surrounded, but I think he might have been anticipating negativity or hostility or something? And then when people very pleasantly and politely asked him extremely knowledgeable questions about the bible he seemed gobsmacked.

Here are a couple of articles that address religious knowledge not as specific as bible knowledge in these particular articles but I included them because there are articles. When I googled "atheist knowledge about the bible" a lot came up such as YouTube clips and Quora and Reddit posts where people state repeatedly that they think atheists know more about the bible than people think, maybe more than believers, which is what I have heard stated very often. It's also a well worn phrase that people become atheists from reading the bible. Anecdotal, but often stated.

Who Knows What About Religion

The Pew Forum’s religious knowledge survey included 32 questions about various aspects of religion: the Bible, Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism, world

www.pewresearch.org

Atheists outpace evangelicals in knowledge of faith – Baptist News Global

To learn more about religion, just ask an atheist. That’s one takeaway from a recent Pew Research Center survey that asked Americans multiple-choice questions about religion.

baptistnews.com

And then there's is quite short YouTube video about "Atheists Know the Bible"

 

[moralorel]

Even if someone does read the OT or both Testaments, that doesn't mean they will properly remember the names and/or dates of modern observances of holidays or modern cultural conventions around them.

Now if they read a book about Introduction to Judaism...

One of the things that confused me about reading the Bible as a teenager was the lack of obvious dates and authorship like you would find in a modern book.



For sure.

Once upon a time, maybe 20 years ago or so, I was attending a UU Church that included many atheists.
There was a lecture series being held where people from a variety of denominations and faith traditions came and spoke to us.
It was pretty well attended.

The Evangelical speaker was a very young man, and I don't recall if he was a minister or a lay preacher - maybe from a denomination that doesn't use formal ministry. He gave a good talk and afterward when people approached him to ask him questions, there were a good number of people and he seemed nervous like he thought people were going to be mean to him or something. Well I guess the number of people clustering might have made him feel a little surrounded, but I think he might have been anticipating negativity or hostility or something? And then when people very pleasantly and politely asked him extremely knowledgeable questions about the bible he seemed gobsmacked.

Here are a couple of articles that address religious knowledge not as specific as bible knowledge in these particular articles but I included them because there are articles. When I googled "atheist knowledge about the bible" a lot came up such as YouTube clips and Quora and Reddit posts where people state repeatedly that they think atheists know more about the bible than people think, maybe more than believers, which is what I have heard stated very often. It's also a well worn phrase that people become atheists from reading the bible. Anecdotal, but often stated.

Who Knows What About Religion

The Pew Forum’s religious knowledge survey included 32 questions about various aspects of religion: the Bible, Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism, world

www.pewresearch.org

Atheists outpace evangelicals in knowledge of faith – Baptist News Global

To learn more about religion, just ask an atheist. That’s one takeaway from a recent Pew Research Center survey that asked Americans multiple-choice questions about religion.

baptistnews.com

And then there's is quite short YouTube video about "Atheists Know the Bible"

Sukkot a.k.a. "the Feast" is mentioned constantly in the Bible. So is Yom Kippur a.k.a. "the Fast".

Claiming that you read the Bible in its entirety, yet not being able to recall these 2 holy days? Really? That's like someone saying they watched all of the Star Wars movies but don't recall ever hearing about some thing called a "light saber". Even more odd is when these same people claim to know the history of Hannukah yet still don't know about the festival of Sukkot. It doesn't make any sense!

It's ironic that you bring up "20 years ago". I graduated college just over 20 years ago. In college I found that non-believers seemed more informed about the Bible than many Christians. But I assume that is in part because they were in college and were educated. Then I graduated and entered the real world. It was so different. Also a lot has changed in 20 years. But when atheists claim that reading the Bible made them into an atheist, that isn't what they mean. What they mean is that studying at the prestigious university of Google made them into atheists. They heard some criticisms of the Bible, verified them on a website they found through Google, and then they became convinced. Cherry-picking these verses and commentaries that they heard online strengthened their disbelief. Cherry-picking is a wicked two-way street.

They didn't read the Bible. They read something on Google.

 

[TheLightWithin]

Claiming that you read the Bible in its entirety, yet not being able to recall these 2 holy days? Really?

It's been years since I read it all the way through, and now I know more from reading about Judaism.
Also my grandfather used to observe various fasting days that were based on Jewish holidays.
But what I recall from going to college (35+ years ago now!!) and having Jewish roommates and classmates, is that I sort-of knew and understood things about their religion and sort-of was ignorant about it until items were explained.
Anyway I can't speak for anybody else, but when people wade through all of that material, hard to read as you acknowledge, and a lot of material without context or explanation or defining of terms or offering dates and authorship the way modern books provide, it is possible they got lost and yes, just didn't remember something that would have made more sense to them had they taken a class or used a study guide or something that would have helped them situation things.
I am not at all surprised that people might find understanding the bible hopeless without context.
Or maybe as you seem to be hypothesizing maybe they (whom? the person you referred to earlier I think) didn't read it or didn't read all of it.

It's ironic that you bring up "20 years ago".

That's just when the event occurred.
I didn't stay at the UU for too too long, I liked Unity church better.

But when atheists claim that reading the Bible made them into an atheist, that isn't what they mean.

How can you be sure? Are you speaking for all atheists?
I'm pretty sure I could find some atheists on YouTube that I've listened to before that would say otherwise. I'd just have to find the channels as I may not have listened to them in awhile. But some people do report being put off by the violence or things that seem unfair, unjust, or unrealistic.
They might really feel disillusioned by the material in the bible. Maybe? Is it possible?

They didn't read the Bible. They read something on Google.

Whom? Everbody who isn't a believer?

 

[TheLightWithin]

To reflect on the title of the thread, apparently the question about the relationship between religiosity and intelligence has been studied since the 1920s. Apparently over the years there seem to be results in favor seeing higher intelligence on average in non religious people.

However it's nuanced and it has a lot to do with what they were measuring and whether the results are as conclusive as they seem etc.

I found several articles from different perspectives that address the OP question about comparative intelligence of believers and non believers, and hypotheses and critiques around he topic, for anybody who is interested.

Are religious people really less smart, on average, than atheists? | BPS

Various studies have found that, on average, belief in God is associated with lower scores on IQ tests.

www.bps.org.uk

Frontiers | The Negative Relationship between Reasoning and Religiosity Is Underpinned by a Bias for Intuitive Responses Specifically When Intuition and Logic Are in Conflict

It is well established that religiosity correlates inversely with intelligence. A prominent hypothesis states that this correlation reflects behavioral biase...

www.frontiersin.org

Are Christians Less Intelligent than Atheists? Here’s What All Those Studies Really Say

Today I want to shed light on a nasty little “fact” that regularly makes the rounds … Are Christians Less Intelligent than Atheists? Here’s What All Those Studies Really Say Read More »

www.namb.net

Does it matter if atheists are smarter than believers?

News just in, guaranteed to stir smug nods from non-believers and incite irritation among the devout: intelligence correlates negatively with religious belief. You may have seen similar – or contra…

www.robbrooks.net

Don’t believe the news reports. Atheists are NOT more intelligent than religious people

Are religious people stupid, or do journalists just not do science? Heather Tomlinson takes a closer look at recent research

www.premierunbelievable.com

Religiosity and intelligence - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TheLightWithin]

But when atheists claim that reading the Bible made them into an atheist, that isn't what they mean. What they mean is that studying at the prestigious university of Google made them into atheists. They heard some criticisms of the Bible, verified them on a website they found through Google, and then they became convinced. Cherry-picking these verses and commentaries that they heard online strengthened their disbelief.

Personally I don't fully understand how reading the Bible, all by itself, can change someone from a believer to an atheist or an atheist to a believer.

Most of what we know about theology comes from other people.

I didn't get many theological ideas out of the bible and I couldn't figure out how people did. I still wonder. To me the style of writing in the bible just doesn't really explain things the way I need them explained to understand or be convinced of something. Some passages even raise more questions than answers in some cases.

I guess what I can see is how someone with no religious background can read the bible, or try to, and somehow come away from it either so intrigued or so troubled by it they feel they need more information and go searching. THAT I can see.

I can also see how someone who was raised to believe certain things, like how loving God is for example, or how their relatives or siblings are in heaven maybe, and how being good or not being good will affect them getting to heaven to join their loved ones maybe... and they have an image in their mind of that -- if they were taught those generalities without being given good catechism or just clear explanations of what those things meant and how the adults drew those conclusions from the bible -- I can see how someone who was taught those things then reads the bible for the first time on their own with no catechism, can get confused, lost, or seriously disillusioned about the theology they were taught, and become deeply skeptical of it.

But what I have a lot of trouble with is understanding how reading the bible, just by itself, with no other people or books or websites to give you context or persuasion or interpretation or whatever -- how just plain reading the bible could change someone who has no theories about the supernatural into a full on believer, or how it could change a full on believer into someone who abandons all ideas about the supernatural. I just don't see it, how a read through or two would wholly flip flop anyone's world view like that.

But we all have our own unique brain, our own history, our own way of processing information, and I guess for some people, there's something about the way some passages of the bible land for them, or ways in which their impressions of the bible as a whole land for them, that changes their perspective, and it can go in either direction, apparently.

For me, no, not by itself. I need context. And yes, the internet/ Google can be a great source for material that provides that.

Books too.

 

[TheLightWithin]

But what I have a lot of trouble with is understanding how reading the bible, just by itself, with no other people or books or websites to give you context or persuasion or interpretation or whatever -- how just plain reading the bible could change someone who has no theories about the supernatural into a full on believer, or how it could change a full on believer into someone who abandons all ideas about the supernatural. I just don't see it, how a read through or two would wholly flip flop anyone's world view like that.

I guess what must happen sometimes, for example to someone with no religious beliefs, they read the bible and probably do get the idea from someone that it is true and profound and not just a story, they read it and say, oh, is this true? Why haven't I heard this before? Better find out more! And then their search may lead them down the road to full or religious belief, or conversion, or their own heterodox theories, or.... who knows what. (or maybe to not much)

I guess what must happen sometimes, for example to someone brought up to firmly and fervently believe, is they read the bible, get confused, and say whoa, wait a minute. Is this all they that they are basing all those teachings on? NO WAY! This is all they have? Then feel misled.

Which may, or may not, lead to thorough permanent disillusionment.

I mean, now that I think about it, I recognize what occurs, I've talked to and read things about people with both experiences.

But I still have trouble getting my own head around trying to imagine actually experiencing such a thorough change in direction and mental content from a read through of the Bible.

 

[moralorel]

Personally I don't fully understand how reading the Bible, all by itself, can change someone from a believer to an atheist or an atheist to a believer.

Most of what we know about theology comes from other people.

I didn't get many theological ideas out of the bible and I couldn't figure out how people did. I still wonder. To me the style of writing in the bible just doesn't really explain things the way I need them explained to understand or be convinced of something. Some passages even raise more questions than answers in some cases.

I guess what I can see is how someone with no religious background can read the bible, or try to, and somehow come away from it either so intrigued or so troubled by it they feel they need more information and go searching. THAT I can see.

I can also see how someone who was raised to believe certain things, like how loving God is for example, or how their relatives or siblings are in heaven maybe, and how being good or not being good will affect them getting to heaven to join their loved ones maybe... and they have an image in their mind of that -- if they were taught those generalities without being given good catechism or just clear explanations of what those things meant and how the adults drew those conclusions from the bible -- I can see how someone who was taught those things then reads the bible for the first time on their own with no catechism, can get confused, lost, or seriously disillusioned about the theology they were taught, and become deeply skeptical of it.

But what I have a lot of trouble with is understanding how reading the bible, just by itself, with no other people or books or websites to give you context or persuasion or interpretation or whatever -- how just plain reading the bible could change someone who has no theories about the supernatural into a full on believer, or how it could change a full on believer into someone who abandons all ideas about the supernatural. I just don't see it, how a read through or two would wholly flip flop anyone's world view like that.

But we all have our own unique brain, our own history, our own way of processing information, and I guess for some people, there's something about the way some passages of the bible land for them, or ways in which their impressions of the bible as a whole land for them, that changes their perspective, and it can go in either direction, apparently.

For me, no, not by itself. I need context. And yes, the internet/ Google can be a great source for material that provides that.

Books too.

Very well said.

 

[moralorel]

It's been years since I read it all the way through, and now I know more from reading about Judaism.
Also my grandfather used to observe various fasting days that were based on Jewish holidays.
But what I recall from going to college (35+ years ago now!!) and having Jewish roommates and classmates, is that I sort-of knew and understood things about their religion and sort-of was ignorant about it until items were explained.
Anyway I can't speak for anybody else, but when people wade through all of that material, hard to read as you acknowledge, and a lot of material without context or explanation or defining of terms or offering dates and authorship the way modern books provide, it is possible they got lost and yes, just didn't remember something that would have made more sense to them had they taken a class or used a study guide or something that would have helped them situation things.
I am not at all surprised that people might find understanding the bible hopeless without context.
Or maybe as you seem to be hypothesizing maybe they (whom? the person you referred to earlier I think) didn't read it or didn't read all of it.

That's just when the event occurred.
I didn't stay at the UU for too too long, I liked Unity church better.

How can you be sure? Are you speaking for all atheists?
I'm pretty sure I could find some atheists on YouTube that I've listened to before that would say otherwise. I'd just have to find the channels as I may not have listened to them in awhile. But some people do report being put off by the violence or things that seem unfair, unjust, or unrealistic.
They might really feel disillusioned by the material in the bible. Maybe? Is it possible?

Whom? Everbody who isn't a believer?

I apologize. I should have said that "some" are just graduates of the school of Google. But it is becoming more and more common.

I would add that some get turned off by the logic used by God in the Bible. I've discussed the topic with some atheists who simply were turned off by the first few chapters of Genesis. Why? They said that God should've known better. That it's not the fault of Adam and Eve that they chose the other tree. So God is the bad guy, not the serpent. And yes, some are turned off by the violence. But I find it ironic that they are turned off by the violence depicted in the Bible and then they go play a violent video game or watch a violent movie and have no issue with that.

 

[wil]

I apologize. I should have said that "some" are just graduates of the school of Google. But it is becoming more and more common.

I would add that some get turned off by the logic used by God in the Bible. I've discussed the topic with some atheists who simply were turned off by the first few chapters of Genesis. Why? They said that God should've known better. That it's not the fault of Adam and Eve that they chose the other tree. So God is the bad guy, not the serpent. And yes, some are turned off by the violence. But I find it ironic that they are turned off by the violence depicted in the Bible and then they go play a violent video game or watch a violent movie and have no issue with that.

The logic of G!d in the Genesis?

That would might make sense if the atheist believed Genesis was literal...or was being proselytized to by a literalist.

What percentage of Christians today believe Genesis to be an inerrant historical fact?