Our local paper printed this article (which I was unable to find a link to online, hence my reproduction of it here) in its religion section of February 22, 2008.
OK, it's obvious I'd agree with the headline, and in fact I've said exactly that many times - but it's just dismissed as "Of course, you'd say that; you're an atheist and you just don't know about [Jesus, Allah, whatever deity the person believes in]." The majority of believers don't know their own religions, atheists usually know more about their religion than they do, and that's one of the primary reasons we're atheists! Note too that his definition of "spiritual illiteracy" has little to do with learning on a level beyond that of elementary school - that is, memorizing claims in an authoritarian text, matching characters to stories, and spitting back exactly what you are told without question or analysis of the validity of the claims or the reliability of the people making the claims, nor addressing any of the many contradictory claims and outright atrocities; no mention, for example, of Paul's prohibition of women teachers, nor his anti- adornment sentiments (no wearing makeup or jewelry, ladies!), nor of any of the times the "god" ordered the wholesale slaughter of innocents in the book. Atheists have said for decades that ignorance is the root of all belief. It's good to see that promoters of religion recognize it's true, at least to the limits of their comprehension. It might sound odd, but atheists often tell believers they should read their Bible, Torah, Koran, or other religious text - but it should be read and examined as one would any other text, not read under the assumption that it is true or the word of a deity.
Suppose I came to you and said I'd lived in the belly of a fish, or a whale, or any large creature, for three days. After you finished laughing, you would ask me what I had been smoking! Same thing if I told you I turned water into wine, or walked on water, or was dead for three days but rose again. So why do people accept these tales as fact? Because they are old? So what, tales of Zeus and Hercules and Hermes and dozens of others gods are older. Because it's in a book? Ditto. Because someone they know and trust told them they were true? Ah, now we're getting somewhere. Most people started believing their one set of chosen fairy tales at a young age, because their parents told them these stories are different. Why did the parents say that? Because their parents did, and on up the line, until we get to the First Gullible Ancestor. Yep, the one who bought into a particular tale like a mark buying into a con game - which, in fact, is what religion is, the world's oldest con game.
