# Nonbelievers: Do You Read Religous Literature **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721 "2010-10-29T00:45:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/21 "2010-10-29T04:01:36Z")
I’m not a non-believer, but I’m a non-Christian and I read the entire Left Behind series last year for fun. I actually had a really good time with it. It was fascinating to see the belief system translated into real life references like that. The UN Secretary-General is the Antichrist? You don’t have to believe in the theological underpinnings to be interested by what they did with it. The writing itself was really bad, but as long as the grammar and spelling are correct, I have a high tolerance for that kind of stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/22 "2010-10-29T05:38:37Z")
I’ve read a lot of various scriptures and theological works. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/23 "2010-10-29T06:01:07Z")
I own a Gideons new Testament and have been looking up stuff in my grandpa’s KJV bible ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/24 "2010-10-29T07:04:38Z")
I was spending a lot of time in hotels and thought it would be a great idea to read the Bible front to back. I got bogged down in all the genealogy stuff early on though (Derek begat Bruce who begat Nigel who begat Ethel etc.) I have been thinking lately that it would be good to have a really nice copy of the bible. Leather bound, nice font and that sort of stuff. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/25 "2010-10-29T07:05:48Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > A lot of Christians think that unbelievers are not familiar with religious works. This is false. Most unbelievers in the US have been raised as Christians or Jews. Simply telling us about the “good news” isn’t going to make believers out of us. This is a realization I came to a while back. I try to teach it to every Christian I know so they won’t go around shooting themselves in the foot all the time. Treating the people you are trying to convince like they are idiots rarely changes their mind. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/26 "2010-10-29T07:11:13Z")
I read a lot so I’m sure I’ve scanned plenty and read a few religious tracts, but in general religion bores me and is totally irrelevant to my life, and there’s so much **good** stuff to read. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/27 "2010-10-29T07:26:33Z")
If I can call “Lesbian nuns: breaking silence” (Rosemary Curb, 1985) a religious book, then yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/28 "2010-10-29T07:52:52Z")
Yes, I have a minor in Theology (from a Southern Baptist college.) I own several bibles in several iterations - King James, New American Standard, New King James, etc. - a Thompson Chain, some of the major apologetics, and have read them all. I own (and have read) a Qu’ran (two English translations and Arabic transliteration in the same book). I own a book discussing the difference between Sunni and Sh’ia hadiths. I’ve just started reading a book about Sh’ia Twelevers, which is fascinating. I’ve read quite a bit of Jewish literature, and the Talmud. I’m familiar with the some of the non-Abrahamic religions, and did a bit of reading of the Bhagavad Gita, and some reading about other non-western religions (Ba’hai, Buddhism, etc.) I’m an ex-evangelical Christian. Reading is what convinced me I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/29 "2010-10-29T08:40:52Z")
I have a policy of accepting any ‘free’ religious material offered me and reading it. Back in the USA I had quite a collection of Gideon Bibles I had 5 out of the 9 different colour types. I tossed most of it when I moved. As for reading KJ Bible about 5 times Book of Mormon twice The Glorious Qur’an to be read next time I get bored Bhagavad Gita once. Most of that was I was younger though. I don’t have the energy anymore when I do read something that touches religion nowadays it’s usually debunking books or cruise The Skeptics Annotated Bible online with rare forays into Answers in Genesis . The thing that amazes me is how many people that call themselves religious that HAVEN’T read anything other then what they read in church (if they even go regularly at all). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/30 "2010-10-29T09:07:50Z")
Yes I own and have read many different religious texts. I am a deist and theya re all equally valid in my eyes [though I think several of the satanist and new age pagan ones are total twaddle, but if you want to believe in them, knock yourself out.] ---
**Author:** ![J.D.G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@J.D.G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J.D.G)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/31 "2010-10-29T10:05:08Z")
I used to own a Bible. Got rid of in in a garage sale due to moving. Kind of regret it now. The only time I’d use it was, and still is, when someone tries to shove God down my throat. I’d have a pre-prepared list of passages and arguments to completely debunk whatever it was they were saying and undermine the foundations for their belief. I know it sounds horrible but I only ever did it when someone was accusing me of being completely lacking in morals, tool of Satan, etc, etc. I try to “live and let live” normally. These are the exceptions. I did read Revelations. I enjoyed that. I do mean to read other holy texts at some point as well. I’d prefer to be a little less Christian-centric in my religious knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/32 "2010-10-29T10:16:00Z")
I keep a copy of the Bible on the shelf with the other mythology books. I was brought up Anglican and went to church and Sunday School until I was about 13. I also had religious assembly at school and RE (religious education, from an exclusively christian viewpoint) until I was 16. I was fascinated by myths from an early age (I thought the stories were so much more interesting than bible stories!) and started reading about comparitive religion in my teens. I first realised that I didn’t believe in the biblical god any more than I believed in any other god around the age of 8 and “came out” as an athiest at 13 when I stopped going to church. What a relief it was. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/33 "2010-10-29T10:52:18Z")
I’ve read the Old and New Testaments, parts of the Koran (as it was spelled in English at the time), and several books about religion (especially Buddhism, Zen, Greek and Roman mythology, and the Reformation). I went to a Quaker boarding high school and took Quakerism classes every year. More recently I got interested in Islam, as written about by Muslims and infidels. I also have read multiple books by Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris, and have been starting to read bits and pieces of Hitchens’ atheist reader and source book. Primarily my interest is the major thread these things describe which runs through so much human thought and activity. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/34 "2010-10-29T11:25:27Z")
Yes. An acquaintance with the Authorised Version should be part of every Englishman’s well-rounded education. How else are you going to catch the wealth of allusions to it in daily life, musical, poetical, political, literary, philosophical? In the literature of the past it constantly comes up. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/35 "2010-10-29T11:39:04Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Yes. An acquaintance with the Authorised Version should be part of every Englishman’s well-rounded education. Yes. Not just Englishmen, of course, but any English-speaker who aspires to literacy. ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/36 "2010-10-29T11:50:56Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Do you nonbelievers read religious literature be it Scripture (Bible, Koran, etc.) or just literature (ie theology books)? Do you own any books of that type? Urrgh. Books about black holes and time-travel (such as Kip Thorne’s) blow my mind and “spirit” far, far greatly than this religious bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/37 "2010-10-29T12:25:26Z")
I’m atheist. I’ve read bits of the Bible and Koran, but found them both boring. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/38 "2010-10-29T14:51:54Z")
I had twice-weekly religious school till I was 15; I’ve read some pretty fair chunks of the Old Testament, a bit of Talmud, and, like most Jews, I’ve read directly from a scroll-Torah once in my life. I own a book-Torah and the High Holy days prayerbook, plus a couple different Passover Hagaddahs. I’m really don’t have a lot of first-hand exposure to the New Testament or the Koran. I’ve read a bit about Buddhism, the Greek & Roman pantheon, and Afro-catholic religions, like Voodoo & Santeria, and own books along those lines. I’m agnostic in the sense that I don’t believe there is any way the question of deity can be answered at this time, but, in the words of the magic 8 ball: “all signs point to no.” It should be noted that Jews of my sect don’t regard atheism as an obstacle to practicing Judaism. I do practice, but to a fairly indifferent degree comparable to “Christmas & Easter Christians.” ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/39 "2010-10-29T15:05:58Z")
Not since I became a non-believer. There are too many real books to read. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/40 "2010-10-29T15:13:36Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Do you nonbelievers read religious literature be it Scripture (Bible, Koran, etc.) or just literature (ie theology books)? Do you own any books of that type? To paraphrase Penn Jillette, we need more atheists and nothing will get you there faster than reading the Bible. Worked in my case. On my shelf at home, I have about six translations of the Christian \*Bible \*(some with the Deuterocanonicals, some without), what I’m told is a rather bad translation of the _Quran_, a couple of Hebrew prayerbooks and a Passover _Haggadah_, at least two translations of the \*Tao Te Ching \*that I recall, a pretty old edition of the _Guru Granth Sahib_, and three editions of _The Golden Bough_. I’ve studied them all (though I’ll admit I’m a little shaky on the Masoretic books of history, and I’ve never made it all the way through the _Quran_) and the result has been one of the most hardened atheists you’ll ever find. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721.md?page=3)