Yea right! Is that a mantra you heard once and parroted without critical thinking? Have you read the Bible?
I have read the Bible unlike some Christians who read their favorite verse over 10,000 times and then claim they ‘read the Bible’. A Pew research study here even confirms atheists and agnostics know more about religion and the Bible than the religious do. Believers have a hard time fathoming that one can rationally conclude to be an atheist and attempt to project their own faith based belief by saying something such as, “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.” The believers who have read the Bible fully however, I can understand why they won’t necessarily be atheist because of it-justifications have to be made for every questionable verse in particular and they end up relying on apologetics to help in said justifications. It’s a lot of work having to justify and practice mental gymnastics when it comes to atrocious actions by God in the Old Testament.
Among religious ‘nones,’ atheists and agnostics know the most about religion
But yes, all it took for me to be an atheist is to read the actual Bible. Christians have told me I didn’t read it correctly to which I respond back to them with, “How do we know you didn’t read it correctly instead? Given that you have to put in all this work justifying very questionable aspects of scripture.”
An example is everyone else being born in sin due to someone else’s mistake-Eve with the apple to Adam not watching her closely enough..take your pick. Anyways, the response I get is that it’s a lot like my parents having done certain things during my upbringing which has lasting effects. This is a weak argument. If my father murdered someone, that does not mean I too will automatically be the same as him. To say that we are all born in sin because it just carried over like genetics do, is an insult to everyone’s intelligence. It’s akin to saying, “You are too dumb and broken to think for yourself”.