“Reading the Bible is the fast track to atheism. Reading the Bible means starting at "In the beginning…" and throwing it down with disgust at "… the grace of the lord Jesus be with all. Amen." I'm sure there are lots of religious people who've read the Bible from start to finish and kept their faith, but in my self-selected sample, all the people I know who have done that are atheists.”

“Ultimately I think the difference between reading the Bible and studying it is making the connections between who Jesus is and what he's done.”

“I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people. Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That's how you make atheists.”

“Some people like to read their bibles in the Hebrew; some like to read it in the Greek; I like to read it in the Holy Spirit”

“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”

“I've looked right through the Bible, start to finish, looking for the bit saying 'Jesus was the mind behind Ikea', then there's no evidence to suggest this at all.”

“Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”

“I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me—they’re cramming for their final exam.”

“Those who do succeed in reading the Bible from beginning to end will discover that at least it has a beginning and an end, and some traces of a total structure.”

“I've read the last page of the Bible, it's all going to turn out all right.”