Any atheists on here who love learning about religion?

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Religion is one of my biggest interests and I find it fun to read and learn about religion. Most of the books I own are about religion. I find the Abrahamic religions to be the most fascinating and I've even went to various places of worship like Mosques, Hindu temples, Churches, Synagogues etc.

The more I learn about religion, the less respect I have for it.

I have a moderate desire to learn about it. It's not a passion, but it's also not something I ignore either.

I share this with you. I think I would be interested in Biblical exegesis even if I was an atheist.

I was very interested in my late teens & twenties and read the bible and held numerous conversations with religious people, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists and studied those religions and attended various churches. I also studied sciences too. It was very important to me to know which was correct: evolution or creation and to understand the nature of life and the universe. After years of study evolution was a clear winner and I went on to study sciences at university. Not picked a bible up in thirty years now. To me it was interesting, but I now view it as a mixture of philosophy, legends and fables as with other organised religions.

Private religion is fine. Organized religion, on balance, has been a plague and a pox on mankind.

ruveyn

I would not underestimate the role religion played in our evolution. So i dont think, that its random, that nearly every culture who made it until nowaday, is based on a religion which is concentrating on rules to live together as an society. (At least with people of the same religion.) While religion who have violence deep within its core died out among with the people believing in it.

So however, we seem to have profited from "social religions". I also find it interesting to match how society changed in their evolution. So there is a sentence in the old testament, from which many people think it is supporting violence. In english i think it will ne "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." From our todays view this seems to invite people to be aggressive and you are whondering how these sentence fits to christian teachings. But the original context was not: "If someones hurts your eye you shall hurt his eye too." but "If someone hurts your eye, and you want revenge, than take revenge on the eye of the offender. Not on the eye of a relative of the offender, do not hurt his kids in some way to get revenge, nore shall you take revenge on a clan member of his..." and so on. So it was not an invitation vor violence, but it was meant as a guarding social rule, to prevent, that one violation of an innocent does not lead to another violation of an innocent, until you have a swirl of violation which gets more and more agressive.

So 3000 years seem to be nothing in evolution, but from the existence of such rules, still you can see how much we have changed in social ways. Because i think nowadays most of people would know or feel instinctive that it is wrong to take revenge on a person who wasnt involved with the violent act, just to hurt the person who was violent. So there are maybe people who still do such things, but most of us do not longer need a written rule based on a religion who tells you, that you will suffer, if you dont respect this holy rule.

For me i see it as a sign of hope, whenever there are poeple telling us "That there will always be war on earth, and that this was in our blood and ever will be..." and so on. So maybe it seems impossible for us nowadays, that there could be a time, when we really are able to live together peacefully. So i personally hope, that people in 3000 years will be whondering of our rules against our nowadays "normal" violation as much, as we do because of an 3000 year old rule against "normal" revenge on innocent clan- and familymembers.

So i do respect most religions, because they had their part on our evolution, to become the people we are nowadays. Yes, many stories may not be true, like all the old greek sagas. But still all these sagas give us a broad insight in the living and social evolution of long gone people, how they acted, how they felt, why they felt they felt and so on... When Homer, an old greek poet, tells us by the way that Odysseus, who is introduced to us as an great hero, did rob some beachvillages which was nearby on his journey as if talking about the weather, and dont even explains why he did that, it tells us, that acting in this way seemed to be completely normal to people in ancient time and doesnt disturb the "Hero"-nimbus in any way. So he had a ship, he had some soldiers, and there were some villages nearby, which didnt belong to their clans/relatives. So its total normal, that you rob those if you have opportunity, no it is not even evil but it is good, because it shows how much he cared for his men and clan. Nowadays this would freak us, i mean imagine a tale of the Hero Captain America who journeys through adventures, while murdering, robbing and raping at every opportunity as long as no US-citizens or villages are involved. O_o

So from a social and hisorical view i respect most religions. I also do respect people who live their religious traditions because most religions are based to build a functioning social community as long as you focus on the social parts. What i do not respect in no way, are hypocrath, extremists and so on... When people excuse their wish to go to war with their "love of christian tradition" i´d like to puke. So the human Jesus was for me a normal human with a great vision, who tried to change many things in a good way. So if you believe in him as a godson like hercules or you just see him as a normal but to admired person like Ghandi, mother Theresa (who also has my greatest respect) and so on, if you wann refer to christian tradition to know what to do is pretty simple: What would Jesus do. I cant remember the part in the bible when Jesus live was threatened by the romans and he told his followers, that they should arm themself and go to war to defend him. In the opposite, the missing of such testifies are one of the causes, why i think you can see him as an idol, either way if you think, that he is the halfbrother of hercules. ^^

I spend countless hours studying the religions of the world. Though I may not share their beliefs, I can still acknowledge that religion plays an integral role in many cultures.

I love learning about religion and faith. I think it fascinates me in part because I have never, not once, had the capacity for religious faith. Plus, it's just very interesting, sociologically, psychologically, culturally, etc.

A true atheist should be.

This is the first step.

To what?

That is just about the only sane reason for an atheist to study the religions of others. They have an insight into both the history and the ongoing operation of society. Whether atheists like it or not, a good portion of Mankind is genetically wired to believe in Something Greater Than Themselves.

Example: Isaac Newton who invented mathematically based physics (we are still carrying out the enterprise he invented) was a God Phreak and an Alchemist. He believed the Bible was a hidden code to the Wisdom of the Ancients.

ruveyn

To this:

Uh, no. Not for my first 45 years, at least, and it doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon, which I'm fine with.

Again, I find it interesting from a social perspective and for its influence on human nature, but I don't really want to be in that number. It's like wondering what it's like to have blue eyes (mine are brown).

I also think it's interesting to study genocide, but I don't expect to pick up a machete any time soon.

I have a significant interest in Islam (as several of my posts in PPR demonstrate).

I'm also interested in Judaism, although I haven't gotten around to start reading the copy of the Tanakh staring at me from the living room table. And even though I want to read the Talmud as well, I think that is going to be a long term project having a full time job on the side.

I wanted to read up on Hinduism as well, but AFAIK this religion does not have a central text, so I have a hard time deciding what to focus on.