"The people who have the most problems with the Bible are those who've never read it." These are the words of my old pastor, and they have stuck with me ever since. Experience alone tells me they are true.
First, I have seen it play out in my own life. At the time he said those words, I had not read the Bible. If memory serves, I'd only reached 1 Samuel. I had many questions back then. But as I read on, a lot of those questions were answered. Every time I read the Bible, more and more questions get answered, and having read it several times now, all of my doubts are long dead.
But second, I see it play out all around me. Most people who object to Christianity make some of the most basic errors. The irony is, these errors tend to increase the more educated the unbeliever tends to be. Those who admit they know next to nothing ask the most intelligent questions. Those who claim to know more than even many Christians, by contrast, can't even get the basics right. Those who claim to have been raised in the faith, more often than not, don't seem to know what a Bible is.
One particular example springs to mind from my college days. He claimed to be well educated in the faith, but knew very little about it. For example, he claimed that the concept of Hell comes from Dante's Inferno, the first chapter of a 15th century poem entitled "Divine Comedy". Nevertheless, he was both intelligent and polite, even to the point where he would attempt to moderate discussions between me and his more vocal atheist friend, who would often interrupt me. And so I offered him a free Bible, which he gladly took. His first question? "What are these numbers for?" The Bible was so alien to this man, he didn't even know that it is divided into verses for ease of reference.
It isn't especially common to find an atheist who doesn't at least know how the Bible is typically structured, but it also seems uncommon to find one who knows much more than that. Now, I'm not saying "all unbelievers are idiots". What I am saying is that my pastor's words seem to be accurate. Rather than being based on an honest and in depth study of the Bible, most unbelievers base their knowledge of Christianity on what they have absorbed from the media, their culture, and their fellow atheists.
There are several basic errors that are especially common. Take, for example, the appearance of God. A common depiction of God is that He is an old man sitting on a cloud. This is how He is displayed in cartoons, and even in religious art. However, you will never find such a description of God in the Bible. Far from it, the Bible explicitly states that God is not a man (e.g. Numbers 23:19), that Christ alone has seen Him (e.g. John 1:18), that He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16), that He has to humble Himself just to see our universe (Psalm 113:6), and that even Moses, who spoke to Him "face to face", did not see Him in His full glory (Exodus 33:20). When a Christian talks about God, they aren't talking about an old man in the sky. How is it, then, that genuine idiots will mock Christians for our belief in a "sky daddy"?
With regard to the origins debate, nothing in the Bible necessitates the fixity of species. Living organisms are divided into "kinds", not species. There is nothing in the Bible that suggests change cannot occur within those kinds. In fact, the Bible itself explicitly describes such a phenomena. Jacob, for example, is noted to have bred sheep. Laban kept changing which lambs would belong to Jacob based on which variety were born, and as a result, God changed which variety would be born, ensuring Jacob would receive a fair wage for his work. Furthermore, the Bible describes a single origin of the human race, while noting that racial differences existed fairly early. Jacob and Esau, though twins, were very different, Esau being red and hairy, and Jacob being smooth, and presumably not red. Moses also married an Ethiopian woman, so was obviously aware that humans showed diversity.
Which brings us to common errors about Adam and Eve. We are often asked how the human race got started if Adam and Eve only had two sons. Yet the Bible does not say they only had two sons. It explicitly names three sons (Cain, Abel and Seth), while also containing the ambiguous claim that after Seth, Adam had other sons and daughters (Genesis 3:4). Though less authoritative, there is a Jewish tradition that Adam and Eve had 33 sons and 23 daughters. This is entirely feasible, given that Adam lived for 930 years, and even with our significantly reduced lifespan, at least one woman is known to have had 69 children. If we assume Eve lived just 777 years (the age of the youngest man to die recorded in Genesis 5), and had one child every 7 years (the average length between each child she is said to have had in the Book of Jubilees), that would give her time to have well over the 56 children she is traditionally believed to have had.
These are just three basic errors that even the most confident of atheists tend to make, and I could go on, but instead of doing so, I would like to focus on a specific one: Morality, and the path to Heaven. Most people are at least somewhat familiar with the 10 commandments. Some people can even list them. But what is their significance? I remember once debating a man who claimed to have been a well educated Christian for 20 years. That's longer than I've even been a Christian as I write this. Yet, according to him, the whole Christian law can be summed up in these 10 commandments.
This is an extremely common view. Some people even think that they're the only commandments that really matter. I've heard several people suggest that the Bible is flawed because the 10 commandments do not forbid rape or slavery, even though other places in the Bible compare rape to murder (Deuteronomy 22:25-26, meaning technically rape is covered by the 10 commandments) and commands death for kidnappers (Exodus 21:16). The truth is, not only are the 10 commandments not somehow more important than all others, but actually, any educated Christian knows that the whole Christian law hangs on two commandments: Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). How is it that an ex-Christian of 20 years does not know this, yet a Christian of a little over 10 years does?
This ties us in to both the most basic and major common error. How do we get to Heaven? In Christianity, there is only one answer, and it isn't "obey the 10 commandments" or "be a good person". The truth is, we've all disobeyed God, and so none of us actually deserves to go to Heaven. Except Jesus.
But Jesus, rather than get what He deserved, got what we deserve. He was beaten, stripped, and nailed to a cross. There, He took the full wrath of God for sin until He died. After that, He was laid in a tomb, where He remained for a mere 3 days. Then, He got up again, almost fully healed, leaving only the scars of the nails through His limbs, and the spear that was thrust through His side. We do not get to Heaven through obedience, because none of us are obedient, but Jesus was obedient. We do not get to Heaven by being good, because none of us are good, but Jesus is good. We get to Heaven through faith. If we believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord, then we get to Heaven. You can make a million mistakes when it comes to Christianity, but to be mistaken on the path to Heaven is literally fatal. Do not make it. Repent, and turn to Christ. Repent and be saved.