Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.

Asimov’s line argues that close, attentive engagement with the Bible—reading it as a text rather than treating it as an unquestioned authority—can undermine belief rather than reinforce it. The implication is that internal contradictions, historical anachronisms, moral difficulties, and the visible marks of human authorship become more apparent when the Bible is read “properly,” i.e., carefully and comprehensively. The quote also functions as a critique of selective or devotional reading practices that smooth over tensions. In Asimov’s broader rationalist outlook, the statement elevates critical literacy as a solvent of dogma: the more rigorously one reads, the less plausible supernatural claims may appear.