It teaches many things my friend. If interpreted literally the Old Testament God is not as benevolent as you may wish to believe. Other than that the writing of the bible gives atheists merit to question. There are no original manuscripts for the bible only translations from some odd 125-150 years after the writing should have occurred. This leads some to believe that the bible is actually a compilation of oral stories from biblical times. With that knowledge it is easy to see why those who are not taught at an early age do not easily convert. Also, on the point of weather or not one person understands the bible; if you believe you understand all that it teaches you are a heretic. No man may understand the will of God and the bible is his will in word. Therefore you cannot truly understand the bible. You may attempt to see his will and carry forth to accomplish the task but do not claim to know the truth of God as one cannot know until they see God. Now winding to the reply of the person you threw ignorance upon. His point seemed to be (forgive me if I am wrong) that it is not logical to follow a religion that has in the past been lead by such terrible people as to commit such atrocities. There is wisdom in this. The bible over these past couple of millennium has been translated many different times. And in the olden days that was done under the command of those in charge. So aside from any imminent mistakes, who is to say that those exact leaders didnt change something's to their own design. Ima walk away. Think about what you have done.