I've read the Bible all the way through. Mind you, it wasn't an easy thing to do - it's not the easiest reading I've ever done. It's often unpleasant, often just plain confusing. Any Christian will tell you that they think it's something that bears much studying, and that's the point I want to explore here. The vast majority of people I've encountered in my life, both in the real world and on the net, have read very little of the material it contains. They form their opinion about the Bible based on the little they read for themselves (some times less than 10% of the entire thing - this would be quite an interesting subject for a study) and what they are told when attending church.
In the process of reading the Bible, I found some quite stunning things - stunning to me in the sense that it was certainly NOT the sort of thing that I had expected. All my life - including during my childhood - I had heard the Bible referred to with reverence. It was a book of goodness, and it was to be respected. Even my parents, who were atheists, never said anything very bad about it. They hadn't read it much (so far as I know), but they always told me it had a lot of good moral teachings and some interesting history and poetry. I accepted these statements while I was a child. Later, when I became a Christian, I naturally came to accept the Bible as a book of holy scripture, to be prized and respected above all things. As a matter of fact, in those first years, I enthusiastically dove into it, reading the entire New Testament. I found much that was puzzling, quite a few things that I found odd, but acceptable, and still more things that I felt I would have a difficult time accepting - but at least I was willing to try to accept and believe, as was my duty as a follower of Jesus. The main point was that I felt obliged to view the Bible as the Word of God, and therefore of the highest authority. All other things in my view of the world were to be bent around it.
The problems started when I began reading the Old Testament. It was boring, to my teenage mind. I gave up on it after getting to the end of the familiar sections of Genesis and Exodus. After that, I sort of settled down to learning the passages being presented in the sermons and Bible studies at church. I felt I was on safe ground in accepting the Bible without "reading the fine print."
Of course, now that I have read the fine print, I learned to my chagrin that I was giving my carte blanche to an awful lot of material that I think any normal, civilized person would find horrific in any other setting. I'm talking about barbarisms such as those found in Numbers, chapter 31, where Moses ordered all males captured in a battle to be murdered (including the children) as well as the non-virginal females; the virginal females (of all ages) were to be kept for the pleasure of the victors. The most interesting thing about this atrocity is that the Bible says that God participated in it by ordering the distribution of the human loot.
The thing that bothers me the most concerning the stupid, evil and weird things I have found in the Bible is not how the average Christian can accept such things. I've experienced first-hand the way the modern Christian has been kept from seeing the book for what it truly is. This method has been developed over the centuries since the Gutenburg Bible was created and the birth of the Protestant movement. I can understand why the Catholic clergy were so adamantly opposed to the concept of translating the Bible into the vernacular languages and allowing the average person to have access to it. Ever since that concept was abandoned, it was necessary to develop a way to hide the unsavory side of the Bible, and I think the methods used were fairly effective.
No, the thing that I take exception to most is when I meet a person who has read the entire Bible, and refuses to admit that it is complete hogwash. I could understand it if the evil and stupid things I've found were few and far between. However, they aren't. Of the 66 books of the Bible, only 4 have not had any material I found to be worthy of comment. Often, there were several passages in each chapter. The last time I counted, I had over 1200 references that give ample evidence that the Bible is far from being a "Good Book."
And this leads me to the subject of the clergy. These people are "professionals," and spend years training for the task of leading Christian churches. I look at the process from the outside now, and I have to shake my head. Not only are they required to be completely familiar with the entire Bible (though I often wonder about some I've met), but in order to be truly prepared for the task of advancing the cause of Christianity, they need to be aware of all the major problems people have with the religion. This includes the problems people might have with the very passages I have collected. In other words, I feel safe in thinking that every person who has studied the Bible in a serious manner is completely conscious of the problems it has. If they aren't, their study can't have been very extensive or serious.
And what do they do with the knowledge that they have? They spend all their time defending and perpetuating the existence of this religion. Of course, it's a natural thing for clergy members to do - the religion is what keeps food on their tables and cars (sometimes rather obscenely large ones) in their driveways. Still, I feel that these people, of all the people involved in the Christian religion (as is the case with all religions), are in the best position to see and understand the dangerous nature of what they're doing. I know many people who think of religion as a positive thing, and in most people, it does lead to good results. however, it has a dangerous component that can't be denied, one that many leaders use to their advantage.
Religious leaders have no excuse, in my book. They have every opportunity and reason to see what is plain to any thinking individual who cares to do even as little serious investigating as I have. They are like the owners and operators of the tobacco industry, only worse. For thousands of years, the evidence of the mythological nature and harmful effects of all religions have been available for anyone to see. Hundreds of famous philosophers, scientists, and even some clergy have written to that effect. Instead of honestly admitting that they were involved in the operation of an evil, harmful con game, shutting down operations and finding better ways to proceed with doing good, they do little or nothing to purge the dangerous parts of their religion.
This is why I do not revere any priest (minister, preacher, call them what you will) any more than other people. I most certainly will not call any of them "Father" or "Reverend." Instead of telling their followers the truth (that there is no secret, and the meaning of each person's life is up to him or her), far too many of them string them along, encouraging them to trust in the religion, and wait until after they die to have a good time.