Atheist Section

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 (please do not quote the bible - give us answers we can understand as non-believers) Have any other good questions we can add?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 does have decent stories - but....
The Bible is NOT the word of God
Past 'Gods" are nearly identical
Selective Reading
Current Miracles Not Occurring
Questions about free will
Evil Acts in the Bible
Suffering
"Personal Experience"
Selective Anti-science Belief
Bible Contradictions<br Christians of different faiths believe different things
Templeton Prayer Study
Prayer does not work or is even needed
Evolution
No evidence
Homosexuallity
Why kill so many people?
Proselytization.
Why does the Bible support immoral behavior?
Why can't we do the works of Jesus?


The Bible has some good stories, but ......
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 Buddhism and Confucianism for example. Why do Christians single out the good verses in the bible as being exclusive to Christianity? The majority of the Bible is full of murders and killing, especially in the old testament. Just take a look at Numbers 31. 32,000 Minanites are killed. Morality does not come from religion. Morality comes from humanity.

The Bible is NOT the word of God
The 3 books of Luke and Matthew and John were close copies of Mark's writings. Paul wrote only about the crucifixion, resurrection and assention and none of the other bible stories or miracles in 90AD. All the Gospel writings were 125-160AD. In 325AD, Eusebius, the pet bishop of Constantine, compiled and edited all the books in the first canon, or the first compilation of the Bible. Eusebius added verses and deleted entire books to better conform to the church's ideas of Christianity. There were over 200 books (gospels and letters) that were reviewed. During 325 - 395CE the bishops VOTED on the books to be included. In 396CE the vote count was 586 to 583!!! - that means over half the bishops 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? Search for '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 and that there was no crossover between their Gods and a human on earth. They worshiped the gods, but the mystical god-men were 'intermediaries' to relate to everyone 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 this evil parts? (see evilbible.com) Most Christians do not even know the unjust and horrendously cruel and evil verses are even present in the Bible. The Bible even says to read ALL of the Bible! 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. Do you eat shellfish? Why do Christians admit they 'cherry-pick' the parts of the Bible?

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? Would’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? see 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 affiliated 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? In reading Bible myself I find many more unjust and evil verses than good ones .

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 (or any other natural occurrence) 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 spaghetti 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!

"Personal Experience"
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 argument for Christians is that American society has less traditional 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 Anti-science 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? There are over 36000 Christian sects - Why do they deny or accept different pars of the Bible?

Bible Contradictions
There are more than 2500 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. One of the best books on this subject is 'The Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy' by McKinsley

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! Christians often explain that there is a 'hidden God' which is a very weak reason for explaining the omnipotent. NOBODY KNOWS if god is hidden!!

Prayer does not work and is not needed Prayer doesn't work. There have been 62 studies in the past 50 years and all but two show prayer has no effect and the two were inconclusive. But let's take a closer look at prayer.
If God is omniscient, then he already knows if we need anything in our lives. If HE is omniscient even knows BEFORE we know! So why pray if He already knows not only what we will need before we need it, but He knows that we will be praying for it before we do.

The silliest reason I think prayer is just wishful thinking is that if we are so infinitesimally small compared to the believer's God, how does anyone expect to chane His mind? Especially if He konws we will be asking Him before we do? we are a small spic of nothingness to Him. If he knows the outcome of all, who are we to chane the outcome? In fact, just the fact that believers clain that God need their help is an outright Denial that God exists, for if God exists, he has everything planned for the believer. No wishful thinking or prayer can change His mind. If God allows anything to happen on earth, it implies that HE has full knowledge of what will happen. Nor only He can stop bad things frm happening, he PLANNED them as well!

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" reasoning 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 their religious ideology - while scientists are rolling up their sleeves and working to discover the real truth about our natural world by exploring it.

Scientists who are 'literalists' who claim that the Bible is 100% accurate about mankind's beginnings,are in a very small minority. About 1-2%. 98% of scientists in the fiepaleontologyntology, geology and anthropology believe in evolution. Why are literalists so demanding that their view of the world is correct despite overwhelming evidence contraryntracry? If you think it is to support their faith, you are correct. They believe they MUST believe in every word no matter how silly it sounds because it's the only way to get into heaven. Do you seee this being beling a little selfish?? I do. Maybe a little easy to command the flock? Anti-free-thinkers? They setup an answer (the Bible) and then create all the evidence to support it - not exactly the scientific method.

Whay are National Academy of Scientists mostly atheists? 93% of scientists in this elite group have "no personal relationship" with God.. Why are smart people who dedicate their lives to discovering what’s most important about the natural world agnostic/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?

No evidence
Most people believe their god on faith. There is no evidence of the existence of a GOD. But if there was a God, he could easily make undeniable prove that he exists, but he does not.

Homosexuality Why do Christinas take the verse aout a man sleeping wiht another man as a woman so seriously and then completely ignore another verse only 3 verses away that says not to eat shelfish?

If the homosexual were as abhorrent to God as most fundamentalists imply, the homosexual wouldn't last a millisecond. Otherwise, God cannot be omnipotent. Why would an omnipotent God need someone else to persecute the homosexual for Him? If God is saying, "I'll let him live, but he's still abhorrent" it implies that God's behavior isn't consistent with what He wants. Why would God want something abhorrent to him to continue to exist?

Why kill so many people?
Why kill over 2.2 million people if they were going to end up in hell anyway? The Bible tells us that this natural world is nothing compared to eternity, so why make an example of those who do not follow all the strict guidelines of Christianity? Wouldn’t it be a much more credible religion if god and his followers never killed anyone? (see Janism)

Proselytization. There is a saying in Buddhism that where the student is ready, the teacher is provided. Such a concept certainly affirms the power of God to bring the word of God to the sincere seeker. Why then, does the fundamentalist almost always assume that God needs him to go out and spread God's word? If God is omnipotent, He doesn't need anyone to proselytize on His behalf. He's quite capable of steering the seeker in the direction of His word all by Himself.

Why does the Bible support immoral behavior?
There are hundreds of immoral verses in the Bible. Why, if God was responsible for dictating the book to man, did he create morals that would be thought of as totally immoral today?? Christians are proud that their book is supposedly inerrant - then why do they insist that only the verses THEY select should be upheld today and the rest are metaphors? Examples
Slavery - it is proper to harshly punish a slave as long as he does not die
Degradation to women (they were just above cattle and dogs in society)
A father can stone his son or daughter to death for insubordination
A rapist must marry the woman he raped and pay the father
and hundreds more at

http://www.religioustolerance.org/imm_bibl.htm

http://www.bigissueground.com/atheistground/ash-bibleshocking.shtml

(sexuality) http://t0llenz.blogspot.com/2007/05/sexual-immorality-in-bible.html


Why can't we do the works of Jesus?
Jesus said, "he who believes in Me...greater works than these he will do," in John 14:12. Obviously there has been no greater works (if you are a Christian) than Jesus. Why can't believers do greater works than Jesus?

Have answers to any of these questions? email us at "[email protected]