Do you mean the different translations and scholar's interpretations? — Lone Wolf

Translations and interpretation can certainly upset people. But the scholarship I am referencing is about the various strands of narrative, the age of the Biblical writings, the J, E, and P narratives, for instance, the differences in Hebrew that correlate with different time periods within one narrative (like Genesis).

This deep scholarship undermined the idea of one, divinely inspired, consistent narrative. It was shown that many narratives were woven together. The age of the scriptures was also challenged. I guess some people thought that the books of the Bible got written as the events occurred -- that the prophets' teachings were poured into texts as they were spoken.

The idea of divine inspiration took a direct hit too. Either God was careless -- inconsistencies, multiple strands, age-of-texts problems, and so on -- or God didn't inspire the Bible (at least in a simple straightforward manner).

Some of the scholarship is fairly corrosive. The Jesus Seminar, for instance attempted to sort out the various sayings and acts of Jesus into the "probably said them" and "probably didn't say them", "probably did them", "probably didn't do them". There's wasn't much left of Jesus by the time they got done.

So I do not think that atheism appeals entirely to reason, nor theism to emotion. — Lone Wolf

You're right it's not a clear cut case of reason vs emotion. We may be deeply moved by a good argument and rationality helps to navigate the emotional landscape.

One thing I'd like to point out is that all religions, at least the major ones, advocate love, promise happiness. Aren't these emotions? That's why I said religion is rooted in emotion.

Atheism, on the other hand, puts religion under the lens of cold logic. It brushes aside the emotional aspects of religion and what's left isn't that impressive, rationally speaking.

:o

?

? — Thorongil

Just uhh surprised I guess. Don't throw yourself off a tall building ya' hear.

It's true, if salvation is impossible, I see no reason to live. But that doesn't mean that if I deem it impossible I will commit suicide. It might mean I live on as a bitter, irrational hypocrite until I die of natural causes. Fortunately, I do think salvation is possible. I will add that it's paradoxically hard to write about the things you've spent the most time reading and thinking about, so in that post's case, you got a slightly discombobulated but highly distilled expression of the kind of pessimism to which I subscribe.