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Reposting my post from this repost on another subreddit

Free Thinking is good. Questioning is good. Inquiry and skepticism are good.

I think its healthy to question ones faith from time to time, even if you do not in the end become an atheist. In case you are/were looking for more information, here are some good sources and I'm sure others have more:

1. A video I found that explains the issue with faith as a whole
   
   
2. A good, albeit long, personal journey of a why a man became an atheist. He describes it very well from his own experience over several clips
   
   
3. A good book by Penn Jillette. Its written as a series of small stories that are entertaining to read moreso than informative, but they give a good idea about what makes an atheist still a good human being
   
   
4. The Science for Inquiry and Secular Student Alliance- Both groups aren't exclusively atheistic, however in the modern world that is primarily who they attract. Both institutes have outreach to opening groups and universities and colleges, you may want to investigate them and talk to a local group.
   
   
5. Hilarious George Carlin video that hits on a few good key points
   
   
6. Contradictions!
   
   I hope this helps. I have a lot more resources but I think those are some basic ones that will give you a lot of information. Feel free to also ask me, or anyone here, any questions you may have. I love giving information and having discussions.

The early books of the Tanakh, specifically the Torah, deal with the earlier history of the beginning of Judaism and, like the related Old Testament of the Bible, contain many references which show the historical transition from a polytheistic belief in the El God pantheon to the monolatry of the (initially subordinate) rain/fertility/warrior God Yahweh incorporating many of the transferred attributes from the El pantheon, and from there to monotheistic worship where Yahweh took the supreme position.

Some references:

Online

• Israelite Religion to Judaism: the Evolution of the Religion of Israel
  
• The Origins and Gradual Adoption of Monotheism Amongst the Ancient Israelites
  
• The evolution of God
  
• Ugarit and the Bible
  
  Other:
  
  
• The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel by Mark Smith
  
• The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts by Mark S. Smith
  
• A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong
  
• The Religion of Ancient Israel (Library of Ancient Israel) by Patrick D. Miller
  
• Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches by Ziony Zevit
  
  

go read this : Divine Misfortune

One of my favorite books, and takes this concept to a whole new level.

Start your education here.

I know I'm a bit late with this, but here's my source: http://www.amazon.com/Unprotected-Texts-Bibles-Surprising-Contradictions/dp/0061725390

Christians' hangups about sex today are very different from the hangups the bible authors had.

It's in my holy book, Preacher.

Except it's not a horse, it's just this.

Fear not, for we shall meet again on Riverworld!

> Those fundamentalist christians are wrong.
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>
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> Similarly, the muslims who believe the same thing about the quran are wrong.

you are missing the point - the canonical christian gospels fundamentally contradict - therefore only those who have not read them can think them to be perfect. In diametric opposition the koran is believed to be literally perfect. Therefore the two are fundamentally different. This explains why christians have progressed and still remain christian in essence but muslims have only progressed when and where they abandon the tenets of islam.

>That's a logical fallacy known as the no true scotsman

NTS does not apply here because mohamed himself defined what a muslim is and isn't (I assume here that you have read the koran, sirah and hadith). Furthermore, more than half of muslims globally interpret the koran as at least sanctioning violence (google islam pew research) therefore you are arguing that a minority view somehow proves that islam is not inherently violent. As I said before - in all cases this minority view exists solely because of kaffir influence. Remove the kaffir influence (leaving only koranic influence) and in all cases you get violence in support of islam.

>numerous English versions

>Once you start making copies, you start making copy errors

these statements are deeply disengenuous. mohamed ordered every muslim to learn arabic. whilst translations can differ in what they lose, the meaning of the original language text is constant and immortal. As for copy errors - I won't even dignify that other than to say you are scraping the bottom of the barrel in your quest for apologism.

>Now I am an atheist again. Since the religion is made up, the idea of being a muslim is also made up.

This view is impossible to reconcile with the lived reality of muslims, anywhere on earth. I'm embarrassed for you - without knowing - you have taken the Golden Rule from Western Enlightenment and grafted it on to islam (islam does not recognise the Golden Rule). Please educate yourself before commenting about this again. For the record - once you say you are muslim - you are muslim for life - no backsies. If you try to leave - you are an apostate and must be put to death. This is universally accepted within islam. This comment of yours really proves how much of your own unconscious Enlightenment beliefs you project upon islam. Please please please read about just how different islam really is.


>And I have to tell you - everything that you're saying about muslims is also true about christians.

I see now that you have suffered at the hands of christianity and that this has motivated your view that it too is bad. I have no love for any of the Abrahamics, but your negative experiences aside, objectively they are different. The culture that christianity promotes is not as closed and punitive and puritannical as that which islam promotes. As time goes on, the divergence between these two will only show: christianity will embrace the god of the gaps until it becomes unfeasible whilst islam will ... just remain islam.