Greetings,

I'm an iTunes subscriber to most MN Atheists podcasts, and so I thought to come by the site first to get some advice.

I'd like to get some opinions about which version(s) of the bible is the best to study as an atheist. I come from a Mormon background and have the King James version already. I studied it almost every morning during my high school years in seminary. But I've become rusty between those days and now, seeing as I was a practicing pagan/wiccan and then a theoretical Satanist for a bit before finding the "light" of atheism.

Seeing as I want to soak up as much as I can about atheism, and going straight to the "source" since I've heard from numerous others that the best book to read in favor of atheism is, in fact, the bible. Any guidance will be much appreciated!

-Kyle from Seattle

The King James is a good translation, as is the American Standard (or so the scholars say).

I real insightful way to look at the Bible is to get some critical source material to read along side of it. Richard Friedman's Who Wrote the Bible is really. Afterwords, taken a look through the Bible again. It'll never look the same again. I grabbed a cheap King James from the dollar store and marked it up with colored pencils to identify the source material used to compile the Bible.

The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finklestein is another good book. It looks at the archeological evidence to help separate the historical from the mythological. Turns out, the more boring it is, the more likely it is to be historical