# Why Do Atheists Interpret the Bible Hyper-Literally **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 24, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842 "2010-09-24T02:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/121 "2010-09-24T20:59:31Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > In short, the details of the OT which are contrary to modern conceptions of science are _details_ and _commentary_, appropriate perhaps to its Iron-age setting and audience, and lacking application today; the ‘whole of the Torah’ (or for Christians, the ‘whole of the Gospels’) does not lie in the fallible _details_, but in the _message_ - the elaboration of the Golden Rule (in the case of the Torah), or the Goldejn Rule plus redemption (in the case of Christianity). It doesn’t matter if the facts are wrong, because the message brought forth from those facts is right? That’s a big pile of s…and to build a house on. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/122 "2010-09-24T21:06:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@Malthus](#): > > > > In short, the details of the OT which are contrary to modern conceptions of science are _details_ and _commentary_, appropriate perhaps to its Iron-age setting and audience, and lacking application today; the ‘whole of the Torah’ (or for Christians, the ‘whole of the Gospels’) does not lie in the fallible _details_, but in the _message_ - the elaboration of the Golden Rule (in the case of the Torah), or the Goldejn Rule plus redemption (in the case of Christianity). > > It doesn’t matter if the facts are wrong, because the message brought forth from those facts is right? That’s a big pile of s…and to build a house on. Heh, the timeless religious and philosophical spirit of the Bible is not really affected by the “facts” described therein. Those are, if you will, merely local colour. How is the Golden Rule any more right or wrong, if the drafters of it had no knowledge of modern biology or physics? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/123 "2010-09-24T21:08:21Z")
(Anyone debating whether the Bible was written by God may safely ignore this post.) > [@Malthus](#): > > A New Testament example: the Gospels contain _different_ versions of the crucifiction of Jesus, which differ in significant detail. Other New Testament event depictions also differ significantly, e.g. the discovery of the Empty Tomb. I’m no Biblical scholar and won’t provide a cite, but I’ve read that _these discrepancies argue that the events are based on fact!_ Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable, while liars can agree on a common story. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/124 "2010-09-24T21:10:26Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > It doesn’t matter if the facts are wrong, because the message brought forth from those facts is right? That’s a big pile of s…and to build a house on. > > Heh, the timeless religious and philosophical spirit of the Bible is not really affected by the “facts” described therein. Those are, if you will, merely local colour. > > How is the Golden Rule any more right or wrong, if the drafters of it had no knowledge of modern biology or physics? A stopped clock is right twice a day too. Let’s use it as a guide in our daily lives. Am I alone in noticing that the bible is also rather…ambiguous about what its message is? You can cherry-pick damn near _anything_ out of it. How does one justify saying that its “timeless religious and philosophical spirit” is any one specific thing? ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/125 "2010-09-24T21:12:32Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > > > Well, yes. Haven’t you ever run into the sort who think that God wrote the Bible word for word, right down to it being in English and with red letters for the words of Jesus? > > No, I have not. I have. Living in Oklahoma, surrounded by Southern Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Primitive Baptists, various other flavors of Baptist, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, and assorted other sects - I have met many people that fall into the categories discussed above. I have had someone tell me (more than once, different people) that their version of the Bible has been compared to original documents and it matches “letter for letter, comma for comma”. Good trick, that. Many of these people are, in fact, discouraged from reading the Bible. They go to Bible Study, where they read the approved books discussing the approved parts of the Bible that their church wants them to know about. They do not know that there are different accounts of Creation in Genesis. They do not know that there are different accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection in the Gospels. They do not know that there are different versions of the Ten Commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy. They don’t explain these as metaphorical or anything - they flatly don’t know these contradictions exist. Many, many, many Christians are vastly ignorant of their own religion and holy book. And many of those (at least in my neck of the woods) do insist that they Bible is to be taken literally. Except when they don’t want to. But no one else is allowed to not take it literally, especially when they do want to. And that’s exactly why atheists sometimes become obnoxiously literal in reading the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/126 "2010-09-24T21:35:32Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > I have had someone tell me (more than once, different people) that their version of the Bible has been compared to original documents and it matches “letter for letter, comma for comma”. Good trick, that. ::whimper:: ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/127 "2010-09-24T21:40:12Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@redtail23](#): > > > > I have had someone tell me (more than once, different people) that their version of the Bible has been compared to original documents and it matches “letter for letter, comma for comma”. Good trick, that. > > ::whimper:: Yeah. The part I like is that they actually use those words. I don’t know where this is coming from, but somebody out there is teaching it to a bunch of people. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/128 "2010-09-24T22:03:11Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Again, I’m not a believer myself, so I may not be the right person to answer your challenge. > > But it does not appear to me to be all _that_ difficult a challenge to answer. > > A believer might well say that there is a divinity, who is attempting to influence humanity to the good - but who must work by inspiring human authors, who are situate in human cultures. Such authors are themselves fallible. Thus to extract the divine essence from the fallible dross requires the application of intelligent criticism of the text, based on attempting to find the spirit and not the merely letter of the laws. > > Rabbi Hillel was, around 100 AD I believe, tasked with attempting to summarize the whole of the Torah (a non-Jew asked him to state what the Torah was “about” while standing on one foot): > > > [@](#): > > > > "On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, “Make me a proselyte, on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.”[1] Thereupon he chased him away with the builder’s cubit that was in his hand.[2] When he came before Hillel, (he also asked Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot) Hillel replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah while the rest is commentary; go and learn it.” Your use of the word “believer” is quite correct. The way it actually seems to play out is that each believer accepts or rejects sections of the Bible based on belief - though the more rational of the set reject based on evidence also. Now if the answer is that there is no answer; that each person accepts or rejects parts of the Bible based on personal belief and that no one does it any better than anyone else, no problem. Of course that makes them the 10 Suggestions, doesn’t it, and asking anyone to obey any but the most obvious of rules is futile. I went to Hebrew School for 5 years and I’m well aware of the Hillel story, and it is cute, but it hardly explains the flood or the plagues. Much of the Torah is a very detailed guide to life, including a guide to things not built until centuries after it was supposedly written. In any case I doubt the Talmud would be quite so long if Hillel was correct. It is certainly possible, in fact plausible, that the words of the Bible are strongly dependent on the political and religious goals of the people who wrote it. But it is odd to base your life either on the desire of the priestly class to centralize spiritual power in Jerusalem, or from the word of the early Christians who were feeling their way to doctrine while trying to sell their movement to Romans and Jews. I fail to see anything you wrote that would make me not want to junk the whole thing and start from scratch. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/129 "2010-09-24T22:08:20Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > It doesn’t matter if the facts are wrong, because the message brought forth from those facts is right? That’s a big pile of s…and to build a house on. > > Heh, the timeless religious and philosophical spirit of the Bible is not really affected by the “facts” described therein. Those are, if you will, merely local colour. > > How is the Golden Rule any more right or wrong, if the drafters of it had no knowledge of modern biology or physics? So why give the Bible any more respect than the works of Plato or Kant or Spinoza? Why isn’t the Bible off on the philosophy shelf and read by sophomore philosophy students and a small coterie of fans? Clearly the answer is because many if not most in this country consider it divinely inspired and therefore worthy of special treatment. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/130 "2010-09-24T22:10:33Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > (Anyone debating whether the Bible was written by God may safely ignore this post.) > > > [@Malthus](#): > > > > A New Testament example: the Gospels contain _different_ versions of the crucifiction of Jesus, which differ in significant detail. > > Other New Testament event depictions also differ significantly, e.g. the discovery of the Empty Tomb. > > I’m no Biblical scholar and won’t provide a cite, but I’ve read that _these discrepancies argue that the events are based on fact!_ > > Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable, while liars can agree on a common story. Not liars living many years and hundreds of miles apart (without email) or, more accurately I suspect) people at the beginning and end of a game of telephone. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/131 "2010-09-24T22:17:18Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > I have had someone tell me (more than once, different people) that their version of the Bible has been compared to original documents and it matches “letter for letter, comma for comma”. Good trick, that. Very good trick, since punctuation was invented during the Middle Ages. ([Cite.](http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course/course/punc.htm)) They should take a peek at the Torah or any Hebrew prayer book some time - nary a comma to be found. I guess that goes along with God writing in English. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/132 "2010-09-24T22:23:07Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > > [@Malthus](#): > > > > Heh, the timeless religious and philosophical spirit of the Bible is not really affected by the “facts” described therein. Those are, if you will, merely local colour. > > > > How is the Golden Rule any more right or wrong, if the drafters of it had no knowledge of modern biology or physics? > > So why give the Bible any more respect than the works of Plato or \*\*Kant \*\*or Spinoza? Why isn’t the Bible off on the philosophy shelf and read by sophomore philosophy students and a small coterie of fans? Clearly the answer is because many if not most in this country consider it divinely inspired and therefore worthy of special treatment. I give the Bible much more respect than Kant. But that’s because of my blistering contempt for Immanuel. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/133 "2010-09-24T23:08:00Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > [@Voyager](#): > > > > So why give the Bible any more respect than the works of Plato or \*\*Kant \*\*or Spinoza? Why isn’t the Bible off on the philosophy shelf and read by sophomore philosophy students and a small coterie of fans? Clearly the answer is because many if not most in this country consider it divinely inspired and therefore worthy of special treatment. > > I give the Bible much more respect than Kant. But that’s because of my blistering contempt for Immanuel. I Kant help that, and figure he’s not getting his ideas across. We clearly need an Immanuel transmission. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/134 "2010-09-24T23:09:51Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I give the Bible much more respect than Kant. But that’s because of my blistering contempt for Immanuel. Immanuel Kant? A real pissant? Very rarely stable? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/135 "2010-09-24T23:10:29Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > I give the Bible much more respect than Kant. But that’s because of my blistering contempt for Immanuel. > > I Kant help that, and figure he’s not getting his ideas across. We clearly need an Immanuel transmission. I’m a little busy. I’m going to need you to unleash the mutant bees on yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/136 "2010-09-25T00:01:45Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I think that a lot of vocal atheists (not all of them, but a lot) have a lot better grounding in science than they do in classical literature, philosophy and religion, etc. (Admittedly, the same is true of many Christians—and often without the grounding in science.) Either they’re blind to the fact that the Bible is an anthology of different works in different genres, or they at least lack the background to tell how the original audience would have understood the various parts (what was intended as history, as parable, as poetry, etc.), and the critical faculties they bring to the text are those they’d bring to a work of science, or modern historical narrative, or something like that. You completely, utterly, miss the point. You couldn’t miss the point more. You set whole new records in point missing. I am not blind to the fact that the bible is a hodgepodge of allegorical stories made up by goat herders a few thousand years ago, and would have been understood as such at the time. On the contrary, _that’s the point that atheists - or at least this one - are making_. The bible _only_ makes sense as a hodgepodge of allegorical stories made up by goat herders a few thousand years ago. It does not make sense as anything else. The problems start when some Christians attempt to suggest their old book is some sort of clear guidance from a god. Taking this to its logical conclusion by attempting to obtain clear literal guidance from the book is _mockery_. It does not derive from a failure to understand that reading a hodgepodge of allegorical stories made up by goat herders a few thousand years ago literally is inappropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/137 "2010-09-25T02:24:32Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > > [@Sage Rat](#): > > > > There’s no particular evidence that the writers of the Bible didn’t mean exactly what they wrote. The simple-reading is, likely, the true reading. > > What exactly would you classify as “evidence” on this point. If you mean that no one today can channel the minds of the authors of the Bible and find out directly what they were thinking at the time, then it’s true there’s no such “evidence”, but then again no evidence of that sort is possible so your statement is meaningless. On the other hand, if by “evidence” you mean analysis of what those authors meant based on our best knowledge of their society and how they approached writing and communicating, then there is ample evidece that the authors of the Bible intended many stories and passages to be taken figuratively, and you’ve been presented with that evidence in other threads. Your evidence tends to be rather wacky, it should be noted. But let’s look at **CurtC** ’s example of talking animals. Sure, to modern day eyes, talking animals look ludicrous. But then you go and study Shinto or Native American religion and I’ll darned if it doesn’t seem pretty likely that they honestly believed that _some_ animals were spiritual and wise creatures who could talk to each other. Not all of them, perhaps, but some. > **[Keepers of the Animals](https://books.google.com/books?id=P9vF9jzTV4EC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=native%2Bamerican%2Banimals%2Bcan%2Btalk&source=bl&ots=nMA_zAUX_8&sig=akuRCXvFb5UGA8gR4cBUwOQzep4&hl=en&ei=kVqdTPq4F5KgsQPeztjVAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result)** > > These traditional Native American stories along with related activities show parents and teachers how to teach children the importance of wildlife in Native American traditions. As the stories unfold and the activities come to life, the importance of... > **[Ko-Shintō](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koshint%C5%8D)** > > Ko-Shintō (古神道) refers to the animistic religion of Jōmon period Japan, which is the alleged basis of modern Shinto. The search for traces of Koshintō began with the "Restoration Shinto" in the Edo period, which goal was to remove any foreign ideas and worldviews from Shinto (specifically referring to Buddhism). Some movements which claim to have discovered this primeval way of thought are Oomoto and Izumo-taishakyo. > The following is deduced from studying the language of the Kojiki and Nihon Sh... You have to remember that ancient peoples really did perform human sacrifices to placate the Big God living in the Volcano. That’s not just something someone made up to make fun of indigenous peoples. Committing murder to placate something that quite demonstrably has _less_ intelligence than an animal is rather decent evidence that ancient people believed _wacky shit_. Heck, modern day humans believe some really wacky shit. Ultimately, there’s no particular reason to think that the ancients didn’t believe what they were writing down. Meeting indigenous tribes, we’ve had plenty of experience of people taking that sorts of silly stuff as deathly serious. Why assume that a bunch of people who felt that it was entirely reasonable for the Creator of the Universe to _really_ care about how much flesh you had on your willy didn’t _also_ believe in something wacky like intelligent animals. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/138 "2010-09-25T03:41:58Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > I have had someone tell me (more than once, different people) that their version of the Bible has been compared to original documents and it matches “letter for letter, comma for comma”. Good trick, that. Hell of a good trick since there are no original documents. All we have are copies of copies of copies, none of which match. ---
**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:** [September 25, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/139 "2010-09-25T15:44:33Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > I give the Bible much more respect than Kant. But that’s because of my blistering contempt for Immanuel. > > Immanuel Kant? A real pissant? Very rarely stable? Immanuel Kant? I say, yes, he kan. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842/140 "2010-09-25T16:05:02Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > > > No, I have not. > > I have. > > Living in Oklahoma, surrounded by Southern Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Primitive Baptists, various other flavors of Baptist, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, and assorted other sects - I have met many people that fall into the categories discussed above. > > I have had someone tell me (more than once, different people) that their version of the Bible has been compared to original documents and it matches “letter for letter, comma for comma”. Good trick, that. > > Many of these people are, in fact, discouraged from reading the Bible. They go to Bible Study, where they read the approved books discussing the approved parts of the Bible that their church wants them to know about. > > They do not know that there are different accounts of Creation in Genesis. They do not know that there are different accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection in the Gospels. They do not know that there are different versions of the Ten Commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy. They don’t explain these as metaphorical or anything - they flatly don’t know these contradictions exist. > > Many, many, many Christians are vastly ignorant of their own religion and holy book. > > And many of those (at least in my neck of the woods) do insist that they Bible is to be taken literally. Except when they don’t want to. But no one else is allowed to not take it literally, especially when they do want to. > > And that’s exactly why atheists sometimes become obnoxiously literal in reading the Bible. Great post. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-interpret-the-bible-hyper-literally/554842.md?page=8)