Backyard Skeptics

Questions for Christians

 

Have answers for these questions?  Email us! (please do not quote the bible - give us answers we can understand as non-believers)   Have any other good questions we can add?   email us!

 

The Bible has mostly good verses

Yes the bible does have decent stories of morality - but most of the stories that are in the bible come from other pagan stories which survived many generations - mostly from past pagan beliefs. There are many good and moral stories from the many other religions of the world.  From Budism and  Confusionism for example.  Why do Christians single our the bible for these good verses?  Take a look at Numbers 31.

 

The Bible is NOT the word of God

The 4 books of Luke and Mathew John were close copies of Mark's writings.  In 325AD, Eusebius, the pet bishop of Constantine, compiled and re-wrote all the books in the first canon, or the first compilation of the Bible.   Eusebius edited, added verses, and deleted entire books to better conform to the church's ideas of Christianity. Verses There were over 200 books (gospels and letter) that were reviewed.  During 325 - 395CE the bishops VOTED on the books to be included.  the vote count was 586 to 583 - that means over half the bishiops disagreed with what books were finally in the Bible!  Several bishops were so angry they killed each other!  I'm not making this up!! How can this by divinely inspired?  The Bible is NOT the word of a God but of man.  See more at www.jcnot4me.com   

 

Past 'Gods" are nearly identical

There were 8 popular gods before Jesus - Horus from Egypt (3000bc) Krishna from India, Mithra from Persia are several examples. All were born on Dec 25 by a virgin, many performed miracles, most were child teachers, nearly all had 12 brothers of 12 disciples, all had a cruel death and all were resurrected after 3 days and went to a 'heaven'. Why do Christians maintain that their Jesus is special aside from the fact that there were many similar gods before him that are very similar to Jesus? Visit 'truth about religion' on youtube and see how gods are invented with astronomy and astrology in mind.  A good book about this is "Sun of God" by Acharya.  Jesus was a myth just like the gods before him.  In 325CE Ecibius declared that Jesus was really a god-man, and the LITERAL interpretation of the Bible is law.  Before that time, most people knew that god-men were really myths.  They worshiped the gods, but the mystical god-men were 'intermediaries' to relate to here on earth.  

 

Selective Reading

Most Christians don't read the bible, and when they do, only the good verses. Why don't they read the evil parts?  If they do why don't they ask questions about thos evil parts?  (see evilbible.com)  Most Christians do not even know the unjust and horrendously cruel and evil verses are even there.  If you are a Christian, why don’t you read the parts in your holy book that you would certainly disagree with?  And if you disagree with ANY of the bible - are other sections also suspect?  Which verses do you live your life by? Even one of the commandment - "Though shall not work on the Sabath"  is clearly  not obeyed by modern society.

 

Current Miracles Not Occurring

Why did you have so many miracles 2000 years ago and none today that can be verified?  Why aren't large miracles witnessed by hundreds or thousands of people today? (Floods instantly receding, the sun standing still, snakes talking?   Wouldn’t of it been better to have Jesus born in today’s society where the miracles could have been documented for all to see on national or worldwide TV? Wouldn’t there me more Christian converts this way?  The argument against this is the 'hidden god' - but if god wanted us to convert - wouldn't he/she/it allow us to see the 'light' to be converted?   Also, who REALLY knows if god is hidden? - that seems to just be a weak excuse for miracles not occurring now.  Any why hasn't any amputees been healed in modern times?  se http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

Evil Acts in the Bible

Why is there so much incredibly unjust, cruelty and evil acts which God did and which God told others to do in the Bible? Over 371,000 people were killed directly by God and over 1,800,000 people were killed by other people commanded by God.  Daughters could be sold as sex slaves, men should castrate themselves to get to heaven quicker, and fathers should kill their family members if they did not believe in God.  I'm not making this up!  See evilbible.com (not owned with backyard skeptics) and be blown away with how many atrocities are committed in the holy book.  Many Christians try and rationalize these evil acts because of the good verses in the bible - but why judge the book from just the good sections?  Shouldn't we judge the book in it's entirety?

 

Questions about free will

Why did god give us free will and the curiosity to think atheistically if he wanted us all to be believers?  If God is omniscient  (knows all past, present and future) then there cannot be free will.  If there is free will, how can God be omniscient - because he does not know what we will do with our free will?

 

How can God have free will if HE knows everything in the future?  He can't have both.

 

If God gave all of mankind freewill, then it should negate any praying that any person will do if it involves the free will of others.  For example – if you pray for anyone to do something, change their mind, change their behavior, or basically do anything to change that person, the prayer should not work - why?  Because God cannot change a persons behavior simply because someone else is praying for the change, because every person has free will and decides on his own how he/she will behave.  Another example is of a Gangbanger, who has freewill, and is just about to shoot at someone on your street, missing his target, and the bullet will end up going through your house, possibly harming your family.  No one can pray to protect them from such an event, as that would eliminate any freewill that God has given the gangbanger.  A religious person CAN pray for any natural event such rain, no floods or no earthquakes, but that brings up another issue:

 

God controlling everything in our world and creating suffering

If any religious person believes God can change natural events because of prayer, that person also must accept absolutely that God causes all natural events including disasters to occur.  If this is the case, then God must be blamed for all natural disasters from the beginning of the world.  Where is the all-loving god if so many innocent people are killed?  This is a question that apologetics have wrestled for centuries.

 

Another example is rain.  .  Praying to a God that is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent for rain is an oxymoron because it is God who eliminated the rain in the first place and also knows that believers would be praying for it. Are the believers really trying to change God's mind?  If so, then this is another example of how said God cannot be omniscient.  If he changes his mind then he has changed the future, and since he supposedly knows the future ahead of time how can he change it?

 

Knowing and Loving your God

If you want to love another person, you have to get to know them.  How do you get to know god if you want him to love you? Does he speak to you through your mind?   If I told you I had a god called the FSM (flying spagatti monster) and my god spoke to me either through my mind or by an actual voice - what would you as a Christian think of me?  Delusional?   Exactly!

 

“Feeling” the spirit

Christians often say they know god and Jesus are real because they ‘feel’ their presence.  What makes these Christians think they are feeling anything that other religious people following a different deity? The brain is a huge drug factory, and a certain state-of-mind can induce the brain to produce a plethora of different chemicals to make the body feel many different things.

 

Morals

One argumnet for Christians is that Ameican society has less traditiona values than in the past.  This is a direct contradiction, especially to Christian,s because there are more Christians in America than ever before!  If there are more Christians and they say they have better morals than non-Christians, then why is there less traditional values?  Why are there more people in prison than ever before? 

 

Selective Belief

Why do Christians not believe in scientists that study paleontology (fossil records) but when they get sick and go to the hospital, they absolutely belief the science of medicine.  Why disbelieve one and not the other?  Doesn't both arrive at their discoveries through the same scientific method?  Is this 'selective' beliefs?  If the scientific hypothesis and the scientific process true for one thing, such as our microwave oven, wouldn't it be true for radio-carbon dating machines? If so why do Creationists believe in one machine and discount the other?

 

Christians of different faiths believe different things

Why is this?  Why is there different interpretations of the Bible?  If so – why didn’t God speak more clearly?  If they were all inspired by god wouldn't all the religions have the same morality and dogma?  Are the  many gods that speak to the authors of superstitious books all different?  If there was only one God, then shouldn't the bible be the same in other countries and other cultures? 

 

Bible Contradictions

There are hundreds if not thousands of clear contradictions in the Bible. (look for bible contradictions on google) Wouldn’t God-inspired authors get the same message from the almighty?   Many leaders of religion has rationalized these contradictions - how can they not?  They MUST explain these questions or people wouldn't have a reason to keep believing.

 

Templeton Prayer Study

Why doesn't prayer work?  If it really did work we'd be able to see clear evidence of it.  The Templeton Study was a $2,000,000 study which the Templeton Group in Phoenix, AZ hired professional scientists to study how prayer affected patients in hospitals.  They conclusion – the same as 49 previous studies during the past 52 years – that prayer had NO affect on the patients.  What’s curious – is that those patients who were told they were in the study and were prayed for actually did worse than the control group!  christian often explain that there is a 'hidden God'  which is a very weak reason for explaining the omnipotent.  NOBODY KNOWS if god is hidden!!

 

Evolution

Creationists believe that god has performed unimaginable feats of grandeur - making the earth - making man, that the earth is only 6000 years old and man walked beside the dinosaurs.  What really earks me about the creationists is that there reason of "God DId It' is an "end all" reason and then accordingly - we don’t have to look for the reason!  If this isn't a blow to scientific discovery, I do not know what is!  If god did it - why are we discovering new fossil evidence to fill in the gaps?  If "God Did It" how did he do it??  Creationists just leave these questions ambiguously answered by "God did it" that neatly fits within there religious ideology - while scientists are rolling up their sleeves and working to discover the real truth about our natural world by exploring it.

 

National Academy of Scientists are mostly atheists

93% of scientists in this elite group are atheists.  Why are smart people who dedicate their lives to discovering what’s most important about the natural world atheists?  It's because they can simply think for themselves.  One might think correctly that those who do most of the thinking in our society are unbelievers.  Do people that are easily swayed into believing because they do not think?  Probably not, but it's a fact that intelligent people are more likely to be atheistic than not.  Why do Christians feel demeaned by this statement??  If it is really true then would some Christians start asking more questions about their faith and even slip into the 'doubtfulness' of atheistic enlightenment?