Even if one does not believe in God, shouldn't there be a respect for the Bible?

Question

The Bible is called the "word of God" and so I would think that people would have respect for it, though they are not sure of God's presence. There is a verse in Proverbs 13:13 that states, "Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded."

So many in this forum, attempt to ridicule or show errors in the Bible. If God exists, and I believe He does, aren't you a little concerned if you have despised the Bible?

Answer 1

There is no god, therefor there is no word of god. You have a phony argument for the respect for the bible.

Answer 2

The title Perfect comes with a price. If the very book that depends on the humanity to have faith in do not have respect for the humanity which requires their faith from, how do you get respect in return? Respect is earned especially everyone is on the death row. Do u think a death sentence would make people happy? What comes around goes around. Its surpisingly in R/S, I have never seen other religious texts being examined more thoroughly than this.

I think 'why the bible would be your next better question'.

Answer 3

I am atheist and I believe the bible is not true but it is a great book of proverbs. How can anything that encourages you to do the right thing be bad? Just because I dont believe it doesnt mean I dont think it has some good points.

And Buddhist is right to say respect all religions, if we could all do this we could all live alot better.

Answer 4

Only insofar as we respect any other belief system.

My respect is upheld through the rationality of a literary work based in evidence (when claiming to speak truth or fact. Here I cannot respect the bible much at all.

Otherwise I can respect a book as a work of literary fiction, in which case I have to withold my perspective as I've not yet read it.

Otherwise, I can, and do, respect people's right to believe, but reserve the right to accord my respect of a persons beliefs based on merit.

Answer 5

oh fer sure!  and i also have a deep abiding respect for the Harry Potter books since they are the "Word of Dumbledore".

Answer 6

There should of course be respect for other beliefs and religions. But as an athiest I do not believe in god there for the bible is not the word of god and so deserves no more respect than any other book. I'm not disrespecting your beliefs I just don't share them.

Answer 7

If you're addressing somebody who doesn'tt believe in god or the Bible, how would citing a verse from Proverbs have any impact?

I don't despise the Bible. I just regard it as factually incorrect. I'm not really concerned with what the god you believe in thinks about this, because I don't think there's a god to show any sort of displeasure over the matter..

Answer 8

That was encroaching on Pascal.

Do you respect the Qu'ran?  the Bhagavad-Gita?  I respect some of it, there are some rotten books in there.

Answer 9

yes of course, there should be respect.

I'm not a christina but i respect the Bible and i know that

Answer 10

I don't respect the bible and the reasons are too numerable to list here.

Nobody automatically should get respect for anything. Least of all superstitious beliefs. Respect is earned.

Answer 11

Yes there should be respect.

There are people that like to be the rebel, like controversy, like to argue, like to be as crude and offensive as possible.

Answer 12

If a god exists- I doubt it would be the one of the Bible.  The Bible promotes slavery, blind acceptance, racism, sexism, child abuse, homophobia, war, paranoia, and in many cases- murder.  I do NOT and WILL NOT respect that.  I would never respect (much less follow) a deity like that, nor would I respect a religion that follows it.

That book needs to be filed with all the other ancient literature that has little or no bearing upon our much more advanced and civilized world.  I respect the Bible as a work of art- not some god's "written words".

Answer 13

No, not at all. I see the bible as a work of fiction and read it so. It's a good story, but it needs to be cleaned up a little.

I'm an Atheist and am not worried about it. I ry not to pick on the bible or the believers too much. To each his own. I just want god out of my government and out of my schools.

Answer 14

I respect it as an example of an early literary work, much as I respect the Illiad, the Icelandic Sagas, and Beowulf (although I consider these three to be far more entertaining).  I do NOT find the bible to be the product of any divine being, either through direct authorship or as a supernaturally inspired writing of men.

I point out inconsistencies and contradictions to those that consider it the irrefutable word of their "god"; using its pages to justify their bigotry and hatred of those that they consider to be different and therefore "ungodly".  The bible is an incredibly flawed tool of christian propagandists; it's pages doing little more than perpetuating an "us versus them" mentality in many that follow the christian faith.  I have been condemned to h**l on a regular enough basis (with biblical justification of such condemnation, I might add) to have lost any respect for those that would mindlessly follow such an obvious work of fiction.  On one occasion I was told I would burn in h**l by a man whose life I had just saved not 20 minutes earlier.

Answer 15

No more respect than any other bigoted fairytale. It is easily shown false (for anyone who is not brainwashed), an has nothing of value to offer.

Answer 16

Should you respect the Koran which despises your faith?

And I don't attempt to show errors in the Bible. You attempt to not see them. The errors are plain and numerous.

Answer 17

Why should you have to respect an intolerant, prejudice, sexist book that speaks of eternal damnation to all who don't follow? Sounds like a load of poo-poo to me.

Answer 18

repsect the Bible???? are you out of your mind? the Bible is sexist and racist, it's a repulsive book. I have more respect for Eragon (which is totally  c**p)

Answer 19

Why should anybody respect something as silly and self-contradictory as the Bible?!  Have you actually READ all of it?  Obviously you have not.

"If God exists, and I believe He does, aren't you a little concerned if you have despised the Bible?"

h**l no!  God should have done a better job on his manuscript.  I work in the publishing world and anything written like the Bible would get thrown in the round file after reading the first chapter.  Yikes.

Answer 20

No book deserves respect, especially that one.  It's really full of some vile instructions and degrades humans.

Answer 21

Why stop with the bible?  Why not be in fear of ignoring the written  words of Zeus or Quetzalcoatl or Odin?  

People live just fine without fear of damnation from those gods, just as we don't fear your God.  

Answer 22

No. You state this question as if the bible is the "word of God". You are very closed minded. I can state that about any other religion's texts.

Deist ( I don't need it, but i read it and I don't believe it)

Answer 23

As a Christian, I have to admit that I think your logic is flawed. And that's one of the main points of contention here on this forum.

If someone does not believe in the existence of God, then a book that "supposedly" contains God's message is fiction to the non-believer. If you didn't believe in God, why WOULD you be concerned.

That said, I don't think there's ever a reason to be disrespectful in general. However, you must admit that even Christians cannot all agree as to whether or not the Bible should be interpreted literally. There are contradictions in the Bible.

Finally, and respectfully, I have to say that quoting a book to Atheists, that is not considered true according to Atheists is pointless. Why would they worry about something they don't believe in?

Bottom line - it's a book. And word of God or not, God cannot be harmed by disrespect. And God loves all of us, whether we believe in Him or not. He doesn't require our belief in order to exist.  

Answer 24

As an atheist of course I have respect for the bible.

The same respect as I have for Harry Potter.

All books are sacred, they're just not prophesies.

peace

Answer 25

there should but they want you to respect their decision but they do not respect yours.

as a matter of fact the only reason they get up in the morning is to ridicule a person who believes in God.  

Answer 26

Why? Do you respect the texts and doctrines of other religions? Do you respect fictitious tales such as Harry Potter or Pride and Prejudice as religious texts?

Answer 27

If they don't believe in God, why would they have any reverence for his words?

If you know how they feel, why bother them about it? They've made their choice.

Answer 28

Why would we respect the "holy word" of a God we don't believe in?

That's like threatening us with a h**l we don't believe in. It's silly. To us the bible is a novel, though one with a rather negative influence.

Answer 29

No more than for any other book. On the whole, books are a good thing, but this is just one more book

You may think it's the word of god, but I don't - there's no such thing as a god.  In fact, there are some pretty nasty violent things in that book

So I don't see why I should have any more respect for it than I do for other books.  I won't burn it or destroy it, but I will criticise it when I think it's wrong.

Answer 30

yes we should have respect for every other religion.