I detest this meme because I was that guy who read the Bible and was still an atheist. I was a fanatical atheist who just pushed it any time I could. I’ve since long grew out of that, but looking back, I was a pompous ass while I was an atheist because I went to an extreme.
Now, I’m a theist. The Bible isn’t why I believe though, and I don’t know many who believe simply because of the Bible. The Bible generally comes later.
My biggest issue with this sort of meme is that the idea simply is a false one. Reading the Bible doesn’t mean much. Going to Sunday school or church doesn’t mean much. It’s some weird sort of claim to authority.
The big problem with the idea is that reading the Bible doesn’t mean you understand it. I think I’ve shown that in the various scriptural memes I’ve discussed so far. There often is a lot more there than just a surface level reading. Part of that is that we often miss a historical context when reading the text, and that context can make a huge difference.
There are also a number of different literary tools in which various Biblical writers are using, and even the different genres they are writing in lends a lot to the work. Some of the most misunderstood works in the Bible are the Epistles of Paul. People often don’t understand that they are letters, and we only have one side of the correspondence. The letters Paul wrote were in response to letters and other correspondence that he received, so Paul is just answering questions that are coming up. He’s not out there developing theology or writing down everything he knows, but he’s answering questions.
If something like that isn’t understood, then reading the writings of Paul becomes convoluted and misunderstood.
