ok that makes more sense to me. Evangelicals for instance haven't actually read their central text, they instead read sparknotes summaries and disconnected quotations. A lot of Americans are also Christian by default and haven't thought seriously about their religion, they just go to church on sunday and say they have faith.

I don't know if simply reading the Bible would be enough to make them atheists. I'd say it more like they're already very disconnected from maintaining a coherent spirituality and their ideology would buckle under the slightest scrutiny. Because their religious faith often boils down to no more than "God lets me do what I want." And how is any kind of ideology maintained if it doesn't inform actions?

If we're going with Marx's statement that religion is akin to medicine (opiate), then the faith that many Americans exhibit is more like a bandaid. Easily ripped off because it was never attached very strongly in the first place. What I'd say about that is a lot of white American Christianity is just dressed up white supremacy or imperialist ideology. It's standard conservative American values dressed up with Christianity as coat of paint to make it more palatable, or make it seem more serious.

otherwise I still respect people who are religious in despite of all of that. If they are inspired into acts of charity and connection through their faith, they know their text and feel comfortable, then that's kind of beautiful to me. Wish I could do that.