Understanding the Christian: Intro

If you asked me "Why are you an atheist?," the best answer I could give you is that there is no empirical evidence supporting the existence for any God. It's the same reason why I don't believe in the existence of ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs, leprechauns, psychic powers, the flying spaghetti monster, etc. The list of things that could possibly exist but for which we have no empirical evidence is infinite.

I say this to point out that I'm not the kind of atheist that doesn't believe in God because I think the God of the Bible is a jerk. Not only do I think that's a poor argument to make (maybe God had really good reasons to do really crappy things to people), I've never actually read the Bible all the way through. Honestly I've hardly read any of it. So I couldn't make that argument from an educated position even if I wanted to.

Now, I'm personally comfortable with never having read the Bible. I think the lack of empirical evidence says enough about the existence of God that a book (I know the Bible is many books but just go with it for now) of hearsay won't change my mind. Still, anytime I have a conversation/debate/knife fight with a Christian the Bible inevitably comes up. When I admit I've never read it, it's either said directly or implied that if I did read it all the way through I would somehow have a different take on the Christian position. It's too easy to point out that plenty of other atheists have read the Bible thoroughly and are still not convinced. It's not just easy, it's lazy.

This became very apparent to me recently when I was having an online discussion with a Christian friend of mine (there are links to the discussion at the bottom of this post). After going back and forth for a while we both agreed to a partnered blog series. I'm going to read the Bible and post about my thoughts on this blog while he is going to read Richard Dawkins' "The Blind Watchmaker" and post his thoughts on his own blog in a series called Understanding the Skeptic.

My personal goal in all of this is first and foremost to finally be able to say, "Why yes, I have read the Bible. Boo-ya!" Well, at least finally be able to say it honestly. Secondly, I hope to gain some knowledge of exactly what the Bible says so I can speak from a personal position, rather than secondhand, when discussing its usefulness or lack thereof as a source of morals. And thirdly, I truly hope I can gain a better understanding of the Christian position. While I doubt that I will be converted by reading the Bible, as though there were some verse I had never heard before that'll suddenly make it all clear, I plan to approach this process with an open, albeit skeptical, mind. We probably can't all agree with each other on everything but it can never hurt to understand why someone believes what they do.

If it weren't obvious already, I have no intention of using the Bible to disprove the existence of God. The Bible can't disprove God anymore than it can prove him. I may occasionally point out what seem to be inconsistencies in God's behavior or things that don't make sense but I will do so only as a way of expressing my incredulity and confusion.

I hope you, the reader, will be kind enough to read both of these blogs and comment on them when you agree but especially when you disagree. I'd rather know I'm being accurate than liked.

-Nikko Elliott

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Understanding the Skeptic