I really hate argument with no apparent goal, it's such a waste of time. Still, your attitude in this post isn't rude at all, though I think it is less of an inquisitive heart you have than is required when you are seeking truth about matters pertaining to God. I think this is what we mean by having your eyes closed.
I've been more than willing to think about it, I was a Christian for 21 years. I believed in it at the time. I don't see any value in it now.
You know, value is truly subjective. As a child I had no concept of the value of money since I'd never really used it. As a young adult my life was fixed around money, since I didn't have much of it. As an older adult I never worry about money since there's nothing I need so much I can't afford. So money being one tangible asset has a subjective value depending on supply and demand. I think the same could be said about the Bible, if you were wanting to know the truth about God it would be quite valuable, but according to your current attitude toward God, the truth about God has no value to you. That's what I think anyway, perhaps you think you have a different reason for devaluing the Bible.
My first problem is that I see no reason to hold the Bible as any sort of authority on anything really. Who is to say that it's not just a book written by a bunch of guys who dreamt up a "God" and wrote about Him, making declarations on His behalf, and condemning their enemies and people they don't like? Seeing other religions pop up in the past few centuries who have done exactly that, I don't see why that would be unimaginable. We still hear from people who claim to speak for God, even some who have claimed to be the second coming. All of these people are dismissed. Why should I assume that the people who wrote the Bible are any different than all of these?
Well it's quite clearly the authority on YHWH, Jesus Christ, Israel and Christianity. You want to learn about another god, you need to find the source of information which that god has chosen to convey himself through. Some gods just use the mind for this, there's no written doctrine, it's all taught through spiritual communication.
It's an alternate problem (I'm allowed to have more than one), but still the same idea. If it was simply people exchanging ideas on what God could be, then this wouldn't be a problem. This problem lies in the fact that every theist, in every theist denomination, of every theist religion assumes that they possess special knowledge of the singular truth to what God actually is, and dismisses all others as false, and a lie. So if their "singular truth" disagrees with the "singular truth" of every other theist organization, why should I believe that any of them are true? It's not just that theists can't agree on the meaning behind the Bible, but that they can't even agree on which holy book is actually meaningful, or what God is, or what God wants.
I think you are missing a crucial piece of the puzzle that would put it in perspective, I'm not sure I can just explain it in a brief paragraph, but it all has to do with the existence of godly spirits who have eternal life, who all have an interest in humanity for one reason or another. The Holy Spirit is the one which Jesus received upon His baptism, and is the spirit that all His disciples receive upon their baptism. Other spirits don't require baptism to receive them, most of them just muscle their way in and take possession of the host even without the host realizing, but those who are spiritually aware can see it has happened.
So given that situation, would you really expect everyone who believes in something to support a spirit that they haven't chosen to trust? Some people do, and some spirits are even friends with each other and don't mind it if their victims share their beliefs with each other, even if they lose a belief they formerly held, the new belief will be just as effective a lie to prevent that one person coming to the truth, and the former belief is still there to fall back on should the new belief not work out one day.
I guess if you were to get serious you'd best look to understand the nature of the spirits before choosing which one you'd pledge your allegience to, and in case you're wondering what happens to those who don't pledge allegience to a spirit, such as an atheist? I really don't know the answer to that, it's not my decision to make what happens to each of us upon transcending earth. But I would suggest that if you have any fear of YHWH the father of Jesus, you might be very careful how friendly you get with that antichrist sprit, which you have indicated has caused you to doubt Jesus' authenticity.
If we take holy books out of the equation (as we would never agree on which one, if any, is true), why should I assume that you have knowledge of God which is superior to every Muslim, every Jew, every Hindu, every Mormon, every Scientologist, or every Christian that disagrees with you? More to the point, why should I assume that you have knowledge of God which is superior to mine?
That's a question I'm not sure how to answer because you've done something that causes an oxymoron - taking a holy book away which is the foundation for Christianity. So if I had not read that book and learned who Jesus is, I'd probably have no way to know what happened during Jesus' lifetime or what I must do, since it is passed as Chinese Whispers through generations of believers at best. That is not what has happened though, the records have been written and preserved as eye-witness accounts from the horses mouth (as far as New testament and some of the Old testament goes).
I think you need to ask those other religions where do they get their spiritual information from, whether they agree their gods are the same spirit that Jesus received from the hand of His father YHWH, which we refer to the Holy Spirit, and you could be surprised to find that there are some spirits who would deny it vehemently, while others would love to masquerade and impersonate the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of information in the Bible about spotting false witnesses, that is unholy spirits.
So what, precisely, do you assume I "blame" God (which I don't believe in) for?
I have assumed since your comment
"Again, I will point to the dizzying number of interpretations of the Bible, and suggest that no, the words in the Bible, and the words of Jesus are far from perfect."
That you think the problem of religious disagreements is due to God having not done well enough in His construction of the Bible. Is this correct? I'm still assuming it is, then maybe you ought to consider the spiritual aspect whereby those eternal god spirits that we listen to are not necessarily the Holy Spirit of YHWH, and when you can acknowledge that you might begin to see the reason why many churches and even self-professing non-Christians have a tendency take Bible passages and present them in a context that contradicts the nature of Jesus and His apostles, and thereby demonstrates that there is division amongst the church (when in actual fact these people have not received the Holy Spirit, they don't belong to the church of Jesus Christ but they like to think so)
Matthew 7:21
21 Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord! Lord! will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
Anyone holding a sign up to the world which says "God hates f*gs" is not demonstrating an ounce of Christendom, they have take a provocative verse which identifies a plank in someone's eye (a lot of people have this plank in their eye), and they go taking a scripture like this one "Whom the Lord loves He chastens. (Heb. 12:6,7)", turning it into their right to condemn people in public! Now, ask yourself even though you don't know the Holy Spirit personally, does this sound like an activity Jesus would tell you to do, or does it seem feasible that this church has a false teacher who has been convinced by a god being an enemy of Jesus to go out and make a mockery of His church? And if you had the spiritual capacity to identify this activity as being of an enemy spirit, what would you, as a Christian, actually do about it? Would you bomb their church as they bomb abortion clinics? I'm not sure what other Christians do about it, if anything, but the Holy Spirit grieves over these slaves to sin and would that any come to repentance. Sadly though, the Holy Spirit is not the most intrusive spirit in the world and He often gets shoved away when He comes to correct a person who has a hard heart. Then a verse like this becomes apparent: "2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesnt produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more." - no wonder these false teachers get more and more contradictory to the common sense application of the Bible - they have been cut off from the Holy Spirit! They aren't now teaching truth by the Holy Spirit whose intent is for everyone to come to the light, they are teaching lies from the enemy whose intent is to turn everyone away from Christianity. This is the parable of the sower, though many will hear the truth, will receive the word into their hearts, their hearts just aren't fertile enough to grow the seed into a productive vine (this is all metaphorical speech for getting the best set of personal values which will turn you into a person fit for God's kingdom). These false teachers are the ones with shallow soil, as soon as they are tempted they fall away.
Being Christian doesn't make you immune to the enemy, it makes you responsible for your decisions. What it does do is give you the confidence to stand before Jesus and say "Lord, save me from the justice I deserve, we both know how my heart has been purely focussed on being as Christian as you expect from me".
I really hope you can give some thought about your attitude toward Jesus Christ, who is the Messiah of the Christian faith, the one who YHWH Himself brought into this world to conquer sin that those who choose to trust Him will be kept safe from the evil vices of the unholy gods. I think at your stage though, you're more inclined to argue against all gods, I'm not sure whether this is due somehow to convenience or pride, it can't be due to the argument they don't exist, there's a good percentage of the world that claims they have had proof to the contrary. So you make your own decisions, it either brings security or doubt, and since none of us have experienced death yet it could be considered the ultimate riddle. I stick by Jesus though because He's a man who's gone a long way for what His God required, and I like the peace of mind He gives me when I am approached by those other gods attempting to sway me into doubt with the hope that I might eventually form an allegiance with them.
I hope you aren't offended that I offer a prayer after what I have speaken to you about these things. Even having knowledge of God's enemies can cause you to be sympathetic to them. Dear Father, almighty God, keep me strong in faith, and please bless brother JGG here as he lives with us all who share the world, the humans, the gods and the other creatures both known and unknown to us. I offer a prayer that you'll touch this man's life, give him the motivation to discover the one and only truth, that with your divine guidance he'll see the marvelous beauty of truth constructed in your Word in comparison to the world full of empty promises and idealogical concepts that are lies creating lies, that lies cannot sustain themselves forever and one day sooner or later the truth will prevail. Lord, we all seek the worldwide revelation of truth with hopes that it comes soon, but we respectfully acknowledge your supremacy and honor you for knowing the best time is the right time. So I pray for your hedge of protection around the lives of JGG and myself as we continue to roam the garden you have given us, looking for every opportunity we have to be the gardener you had envisaged us to be. I pray this solemnly to the God Most High in the name of Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Saviour, blessed forever, Amen.
Thank you JGG, I enjoyed speaking here, I certainly hope it doesn't fall on deaf ears and that you'll have something substantial to add to the discussion, which has now gone from a focus on "why are atheists considered dishonest" to "what is the true religion" - maybe a temporary excursion, but certainly one worth discussing as you could even see a Christian attitude toward non-Christians or false Christians has the same confrontational effect as a Christian attitude toward an atheist. And might I add just to balance the scales, there's plenty of the vice-versa contention toward Christians - how many times have I (a website programmer) been told that Christianity is illogical by someone who cannot comprehend Christianity. I deal with logic every day, all day, and when I see some of the arguments made by non-Christians there are serious flaws in their logic. But they cover it up with excuses, building a bigger and bigger pile of lies to maintain their desire to be right. And don't think this doesn't happen to Christians because it does, and it takes the utmost humility to accept that you were wrong and to go back on a statement you had made prior. That is a matter of truth regardless of a person's religion or belief.
Take it easy JGG, hope you've had a good start to the year.