Many if not most Christians have not read the "Good Book" despite the fact that it is the user's manual of their faith.
Often they merely take it to church and follow along as a priest or minister selects a passage or some verses and expounds on their meanings. Often the readings are taken out of context and the truth ends up distorted.
It is also necessary to understand that he Bible is translated from a different language or languages and the translators didn't always use the original meaning implied by the words. Mistakes in translation were made and in some cases there is good reason to suspect that the meaning was altered to fit the views of the times.
One obvious example is the King James" version of the Bible translates one of the Ten Commandments as "Thou shalt not kill." Many feel the correct translation is "Thou shalt not murder." There is a big difference between the meaning of the two words and Jewish law did not totally forbid killing in self defense or in warfare.
If you ever decide to read the Bible I suggest you get a good study guide that will aid you to understand the times and places involved and also will point out differences in translations in an unbiased fashion. I found the ESV study Bible to be very helpful.
Of course if you feel the Bible is the literal word of God, you might be wise to not read the Bible with a good study guide as if you do, you will discover that God needed a good editor and proof reader. There are numerous discrepancies in the Bible which are difficult to easily explain away.
For example, right off in Genesis, you will find two different stories of creation and the details differ. Many Christians simply combine the two stories to produce one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_creation_narrative
There is also two different versions of the Noah's Ark story and the number of animals that Noah takes on the Ark are different.
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/cflood.htm
= new reply since forum marked as read