There is also the problem within Western society, even among a few atheists within, never letting go of the Christian claim that the Bible is both factual and the basis of religion. Merely applying the most basic of critical thinking methods show this cannot be.
The Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament were composed around the time of the Babylonian exile by Jews in an attempt to preserve our religious culture. This means that the religion of the Hebrews had already existed for quite some time before the Tanakh (the Jewish word for the "Old Testament") was developed. The Hebrew Bible was not written to prove to Jews or anyone else that there was a God.
In other words, a religion has to come first before it can compose its own religious texts. Watchtower publications did not come first and then get discovered by Russell and Rutherford, and then a religion came forth. That would be silly to think that. But many Westerners, even those who are not theist, still think of the Bible in similar terms: a basis for religion.
Not only does this cause a person to read it with preconceived notions and expectations that will never be met, it also is the cause of the conclusions both Christians and some (not all) atheists who come from a Christian background make about the Old Testament.
There is also the problem few discuss, namely that the problems of misunderstanding occur mainly because of not leaving Jesus of Nazareth out of the picture. In order for Jesus to be the Messiah, Christians hold that the testimony of the written gospel accounts must be fact. Since Christians hold their texts as fact, they must attempt the same with the Tanakh. Why?
If the Tanakh is not meant to be read as factual then the claims of the New Testament fall apart. Jesus of Nazareth is only the Messiah because he supposedly fulfills prophetic forecasts of Jesus written in the Tanakh. But if these texts aren't really forecasting anything, then there are no prophecies about Jesus in Hebrew Scripture. No prophecies, no Jesus Christ. No Jesus Christ, no Christianity.
Therefore the Jewish take on the Tanakh gets ignored by Western society at large. Being exposed to such information occurs almost never due to influence from a dominant Christian population that would rather not have such things discussed. Thus some who leave Christianity to become atheists get labeled as "narrow atheists" by other non-theists due to limited exposure to philology caused by Christianity.
Not that atheists need to become religious or accept the Bible. Jews find atheism a very good and intellectual life choice. Even many practicing Jews are atheist.
But the problem remains that many, religious and non-religious, have an inaccurate view of Hebrew religious texts due to the lack of exposure to the Jews' own understanding of their own book. Some are made so thick with ignorance by Christianity that one woman told me: "Why would I listen to what you have to say? What do Jews know about the Bible?"
