Depends on how you define "most"

yes and no it depend on the person the atheist may know more about bible but the christian can understand and feel what bible says

an educated atheist isnt even interested in the Bible. An educated atheist doesnt have time to read another novel. why would an atheist even be interested in the Bible. the only atheists interested in the bible are christian atheists. atheists who believe the theo in atheist is related to the Christian God. An Atheist doesnt believe in any supreme being. Christian Atheists are still stuck with the Christian God. They think they dont believe in a supreme being, yet they feel that they need to defend their beliefs with christians who "attack" them. it makes no sense to me.

Yes, I do. I find many Athiests to be far more outspoken against Christianity than most Christians are about defending it. Just a personal observation, but those who intend to debate usually come armed.

It's very possible.

Well, there are two kinds of atheists, the kind who are angry and militant and who think all theists are stupid (whether they make this position obvious or not depends on the person), and the kind who couldn't give a shit. If there is a middle ground, it's hard to see it. Now, I am the former, a virulant anti-theist, and I would say that many of the atheists in this group know more about the Bible than "most Christians" (although I don't pretend to know that much myself, I'm pretty confident). Actually, the only Christians I am aware of who know more are the Westboro Baptist church congregation. They know the Bible, and if other Christians knew it like they did, all Christians would be just like them.

I find it interesting that someone who considers themselves educated would spend time studying something they don't believe. but to answer your question I do agree, because "most Christians" spend their time being told what to believe, not figuring it out for themselves, just believing what others tell them about the bible. The ones that have read it, believe what they choose to believe, regardless of the exact text.

I think generalities are generally dangerous, but, speaking generally, I feel you are correct.

Not all atheists are, but you will find that alot of atheists in the western world, are ex-christians. I think that's why we know so much, we were indoctrinated by the religion, and then questioned our way to freedom. We have come to understand the bible better because we don't just see the good stuff. We also see all the evil god has perpitrated on people. Things like the floods are mass murder, no matter the reason for it. Jobs 7 children were killed to prove a lesson to satan. And how did god repay Job? Here have more kids. When you really read the bible, you see all kinds of things that theists will try not to think about.

Dunno about 'most'. 'Many', maybe. I know I fell into an argument with a christian only recently who had no idea who Job was...

Often is the case. But the statement itself is too concrete for me to get behind. I will say that it is common, but I won't say for sure that it's "most."

Absolutely! One only needs to look in the religion section here and see the questions looking for certain passages in the Bible, 9 times out of 10 it's an Atheist that has to reply because the pious can't do it. Well, in all fairness, they probably can't read it. Sad, ain't it?

I'll tell you when I meet one. (Okay, okay...don't crucify me, atheists. It was supposed to be FUNNY.) In my experience, atheists do exactly the same thing as many Christians -- pick out a few verses and misuse or misinterpret them out of context. They don't seem to know more about the Bible, but they do have a handful of "contradicting facts" or whatever that they got off an atheist blog somewhere and have memorized for argumentative purposes. That's hardly "knowing the Bible".

Mabey. A lot of christian don't study the bible anymore. They just go to church, listen to the preacher(or sleep) and go about there lives. While, many "educated athiests" study the bible for historical study.

Yep. It's a proven fact and, boy, does that piss 'em off...he he

Since the Bible is discerned spiritually, I am forced to say No.

Loaded question alert: To a certain extent, this to me seems like an unfair question, because you aren't asking whether athiests know more about the Bible than Christians, you are asking whether "educated" athiests know more about the Bible than most Christians, excluding the large number of athiests who aren't educated. If you are going to stack the odds in favor of athiests in the question itself, don't be surprised when the athiests win in the answer.... If you want to compare fairly, between all athiests and all Christians, I would say no, not in my personal experience. Some of them are competitive...but more? Please....

No, atheists have a very distinct idea of God in detail which they reject out-of-hand, with little knowledge of the Bible or any other religious writings. But show them a different aspect of God that they have thought of and they tend to get angry and insist that that cannot be what God is because they've already rejected God and they might like that particular thing. It's closed, circular reaosning.

Yes,that's probably why they're non-theists.

You don't gain salvation by being a biblical scholar, it's not required. The fact they may have read it means nothing without understanding and historical background to explain it. I could read a scientists thesis but would I understand it? Without either the education or the scientist or someone who does understand it to help me I would be at best forming the wrong assumptions about what is being said. So your question means nothing, an I vehemently disagree with your innuendo.

That has been my observation. Many atheists are ex-Christians and did not come to their decision lightly - many got themselves informed and studied the Bible in depth and without preconceptions, so it's not surprising that by the time they become atheists they know their stuff very well.

yes agree, it takes only faith to be a christian. one must be informed to be an atheist.+3

Yes and no. An educated Athiest may know more facts about the Bible than most Christians. But Atheists miss the entire truth of the Bible which is to teach us about God and His (or Her) love for us. With love in Christ.

In the sense that some understand that it is not the "word of God" and is just some old book written by men trying to control the masses, yes.

An Atheist does not go blindly into their decision. They do study the bible and its history. It is only then that they make an informed decision. They can usually read AND understand what a scientist or scholar or clergy person is saying. From that they make up their own minds. Simple. I am an Agnostic. I believe that 'something' has to be behind life. I just don't believe in your idea of a god, per se, but certainly a 'superior power.' I can't believe in your god, your jesus, your bible as The Word . . that belongs to you. AND I respect your wish to believe your way. I hope you respect my wish to believe or not believe in my way. :-)

It depends on the kind of Atheists. Combative Atheists, who are living in a traditionally Christian environment, and who attack every statement with a Christian basis, are often very well informed about the things that they criticize. This means also that they are probably better informed than the average Christian; this includes their knowledge of the Bible. On the other hand, the great majority of "passive" Atheists are not particularly well informed about the Bible or any other religious text. They don't participate in any theological discussion and just leave the place or close the door.

I don't think "knows more about" has any significant bearing. It's very obvious not NO atheist understands the Bible, for if they did they would no longer be an atheist.

Yes, I also believe than an educated Atheist knows more than an educated Christian

No I don't.

Not necessarily, I think the two groups are just about equally educated about the Bible, just from different perspectives. Many Christians spend hours reading and studying the Bible, often daily, but they look at it from a religious perspective and treat it as sacred writing. On the contrary, many atheists are undeniably well-versed in the Bible as well, but they read and understand it from a critical, liberal, or literary point of view. In short, both groups "know" about the same amount about the Bible, they just know different things.

No, most only know how to argue, not about being right or wrong, which is why atheists make good lawyers but poor judges

Isn't it ODD that these christians pretend to know more about Atheism than the Atheists themselves? An Atheist will say "I feel that . . ." and a christian will say "THEY feel that. . ." Why is that? Comments?

yes , alot of christians dont read the bible . they have already accepted to be programed and told what to do , and what to beleive . if they read and reasearched for themselves , they would leave . there are no christian leaders --- they are all followers. ;-)

Depends if they know more intellectually or know more from what God has told them. As they do not believe in God, then do not know about the latter. Jesus Christ said He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. He did not say science, or evidence, or reason, or seeing things visible was the way to truth. Faith is such a personal thing. For those that have none they need evidence, they need to be able to touch and see, as Thomas did. For some they do not need evidence, and just believe.

Well the key qualifier in that statement is "educated". To me, "being educated" in the West includes a solid grounding in both the Bible and Christian theology -- Both are rather foundational to Western Civilization. I have, however, rarely met an Atheist who this applied to. A 1993 survey of American college professors discovered that about half of them weren't aware the Bible had two testaments. A similar percentage had never heard of the book of Job. My own experience among academics confirms this. Atheism and agnosticism run hand-in-hand with Biblical illiteracy among our university elites -- and it's even worse in the Media. . (Mort Saul told the story that Mike Wallace once rounded on him in an interview with the absurd charge, "I think you're trying to become a modern day Messiah." Mort being Mort responded, "Well I don't know about that Mike. History shows that being a Messiah can be hazardous to your health." Taken aback, Wallace "thought" for a moment, and then with a flash of inspiration said, "Oh yes, you mean Jim Jones." Hearing that one, Eugene McCarthy told a similar story of Chris Wallace: back in '83 Chris was berating McCarthy saying "You liberals are so unrealistic: you can't ever win. You have so few followers." To which McCarthy said, "Well Jesus only had 12 followers -- and one of them proved unreliable." Chris scrunched up his face trying to think, and then asked, "Which one was that?") I also have yet to find an apologist for Atheism who knew anywhere near as much about the Bible as he thought he did. Though most have made a cursory read of the KJV, none I've read had evidently ever read a single Biblical commentary or an article on Biblical studies, exegesis, or hermeneutics in any academic journal. Nor had they studied a single book on theology. It's about all one can hope for is that they've skimmed the first 2 chapters of C.S.Lewis' "Mere Christianity." Typically, what I find is some crank who claims to know more about the Bible, when what he really knows is his own long debunked interpretation of a mistranslation in the KJV - like the one that "The Bible classifies bats as birds and is therefore crap!" Actually, the Hebrew word translated "birds" means "wing-armed flying things" (quite literally in fact), which certainly includes bats, and that's before we get into the manifest absurdity and arrogance of thinking that any other society should employ the same taxonomical categories as we do. (E.g., in Thai, they make no distinction between monkeys and apes: both are simply "ling".) The Atheist complaint is like Eskimos dismissing modern meteorology because it calls wet snow and dry powder "snow". That most Christians were unaware of the bats-are-birds statement in the first place is due to the fact that most don't make a habit of reading Leviticus in the King James for obscure trivia that can be perverted into ammunition against the faith of other rank-and-file Christians. Find me an Atheist apologist who can speak intelligently on any of the Johanine discourses, or even the Sermon on the Mount, and I'll be amazed. As for Christians, there are nearly a billion-and-a-half self-identified Christians in this world, half of them in countries where Bibles are far from plentiful, and many of them where it's a crime to own or read one. So it should be no surprise that "most Christians" don't know the Bible well. But if you want to confine the comment to the US, it's a claim that can be made about anything and any issue: the educated and scholarly of any side will almost always know more about their opposition then the mass of the rank-and-file of the opposition do. That's because the mass of people don't study books and make life-decisions on them, but they do choose sides based on personal experience and personal relationships, and then tend to identify with a set. This applies to religion, economics, politics, and just about every societal issue there is. . That being said, while undoubtedly most rank-and-file self-identified Christians don't know their Bible well, the percentage of those who do is very high compared with how well the rank-and-file of any other religions, movements, causes, parties, etc. know their own core/foundational books, documents, or the like, the sole exception being probably orthodox Jews. After all, what percentage of Democrats have ever read a DNC platform or checked their candidates voting record? What percentage of self-proclaimed believers in evolution have made a study of the scientific evidence and arguments for it? What percentage of Communist Party members in France have ever read Das Kapital? What percentage of skinhead Neo-Nazis have read Mein Kampf? What percentage of "free market capitalists" have read Wealth of Nations or anything from the Chicago or Austrian schools of Economics?

Most Christians know relatively little about the Bible and most atheists know and understand even less.

90% of Christians dont even follow all the teachings of the bible. They just say that some of these were okay for that day and age and not ookay to do anymore. Then they have the nerve to say that you should go to hell while they are hypocrites. The worst are women. In the Bible they should be quiet when amongst men and look at all the women who are politicians and call themselves christian. Or what about the teachers. Most Christians bend the bible to sute their life style and stille expect to reap the rewards. Illogical if you ask me.

Not necessarily. However if the atheist is an ex-Christian, they usually are more familiar with the Bible. Most Christians tend to cherry-pick the Bible and sometimes aren't even aware it contains certain bits.

Yes, I think atheists from Christian-dominated nations tend to know the Christian bible better that most Christians. Christianity permeate European culture (same as US culture), and it is unlikely that anyone can get through childhood without learning about it. When the children then decide to be Atheist many well meaning Christians try to talk them out of it, so they pretty much have to study the subject, just to hold their own. I am certain that India have 'Hinduism flavored atheists' who similarly know a lot about hinduism. and China have 'Taoist flavored atheists', etc, etc. We just do not see them much as they have little reason to come to AB and talk to people who barely know what Hinduism or Taoism is. regards JakobA

Yes, and usually they are not demeaning or confrontational in their analysis of a religious question or issue as are many uninformed Christians.

Not really. An atheist wouldnt care whats in the Bible to even read it unless he was a former priest or minister or something.