# Nonbelievers: Do You Read Religous Literature

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/61 "2010-11-01T15:46:59Z")

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I’ve read the entire Bible, cover to cover. I took an Eastern Religions course in college, and I’ve read some Bible commentaries. Someday I’m going to read the Book of Mormon to see if it is as bad as Mark Twain said. But life is too short to read more - I don’t read Star Trek or Star Wars novels either, nor long commentaries on Lord of the Rings.

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**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/62 "2010-11-01T17:43:02Z")

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I’m a UU/humanist/agnostic by conviction, but I’ve grown up among enough traditional Christians - and am conscious enough of evangelical Protestantism’s influence on our politics and culture - that I occasionally do read evangelical blogs and sermons.

Usually they have to do with topics I’m interested in, such as gender/masculinity, work ethics, and the proper role of authority. I have to admit that I seldom come away with anything really positive from writing/preaching of a strict evangelical flavor, but this may have to do with the topics I select, which tend to bring out the fiery Old Testament or Paulist rhetoric (Paul in particular was a thorough misogynist) rather than the love-of-Christ-for-all feeling.

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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-do-you-read-religous-literature/558721/63 "2010-11-01T22:07:13Z")

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> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#):
>
> I’m a UU/humanist/agnostic by conviction, but I’ve grown up among enough traditional Christians - and am conscious enough of evangelical Protestantism’s influence on our politics and culture - that I occasionally do read evangelical blogs and sermons.
> 
> Usually they have to do with topics I’m interested in, such as gender/masculinity, work ethics, and the proper role of authority. I have to admit that I seldom come away with anything really positive from writing/preaching of a strict evangelical flavor, but this may have to do with the topics I select, which tend to bring out the fiery Old Testament or Paulist rhetoric (Paul in particular was a thorough misogynist) rather than the love-of-Christ-for-all feeling.

Could you give some examples? And Paul and Jesus are internally consistent-one’s message supports the other and vice versa.

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