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I posted this on the other board a long time ago, but I thought I might post it here too. All of this was 100% written by me circa August 2009-
Many of you know that I attend a Christian University (Baylor). I had to take 6 hours of religion classes, and attend chapel every day freshman year under penalty of repetition. Through these tribulations, I have been pushed further away from Christianity than ever before... but mostly as a result of one single thing... I read through the entire bible.
Nothing will make you question Christianity and its "values" like a read through of the sacred text. It is amazing that people can even call themselves Christians having not studied the very foundations of their religion. Also, being a history major I have taken classes analyzing the effects of Christianity through the ages and how it has grown into what it is today. I have a list of points here that I do with people would comment on, and please, put aside your blind faith and respond cogently.
1. The Jews in Egypt.
No. We have a spectacular record of Egyptian history beginning from its routes as one of the 4 ancient river bed civilizations. We have no record of a man named Moses, a series of plagues, or much less a massive exodus of people to the desert. None. Not a single tangible speck of evidence, and it would seem like this would be significant enough to include in history. Some speculate that this occured under the short lived hyksos period, but there isnt even evidence to back this up.
There is also no evidence of a massive group of people wandering around in the desert. You would think that a group of thousands upon thousands of people in the desert would leave some evidence of their prescence, but nothing has EVER been discovered.
2. God as a loving God.
God killed more people than the devil in the bible. Many, many times more. He not only ordered the Diaspora to raze the city of Jericho and leave no living inhabitants, but also killed a huge portion of the jews. A portion of the people decided to cast a golden calf as an idol, so without hesitation god opened up the ground and killed thousand of people for a single sin. Pretty loving if you ask me.
3. Is god willing to prevent evil?
This is an age old argument. Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? (Epicurus)
4. According to the Catholic church, we are all going to hell ('cept the catholics).
Thats right, the Unam Sanctum issued in 1302 by Bonifice the 8th which is still valid establishes that the Catholic church (the most corrupt organization the earth has ever seen) requires membership to go the heaven. Well fuck, I guess most of the world is destined to burn?
5. Why do we need a "Savior"?
God is all powerful, why cant we just be good unto him and be "saved"? From what I can gather it goes something like this- God says, "Im going to create man and woman with original sin, then I am going to impregnate woman with myself as her child, so that I can be born. Once alive I will kill myself as a sacrifice to myself in order to save you from the sin I originally condemned you to." Doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me.
6. Religion has impeded progress.
Throughout the middle ages/Dark ages, the church dominated the political landscape. Kings constantly were at odds with the Vatican for control and to gain power. Here is a graph of how religion affected technological progress-
7. Picking and choosing.
The old testament (which Christians tend to ignore) tells us a number a things that god wished us to do. We are to stone insubordinate kids, kill those who work on the sabbath, not have long hair (although jesus did?), isolate women on their period, not eat pork, make offers to god via fire, anyone with a "flat nose, or any thing superfluous" must stay away from the altar of God, etc... but thanks to Paul the Apostle, we can ignore all that stuff?? Which segways into my next point-
8. Paul the apostle.
Sure you may know who he is. You may not know that he was a sentry named Saul who killed a ton of Christians. On his way kill or persecute some more, he had a revelation from Jesus Christ himself telling him to convert. He then took it upon himself to restructure Christianity. He wrote the epistles and basically rewrote the entire religion, telling us to ignore the old testament and its rules. Thats right, your beliefs are based on the credibility of some guy who formerly killed Christians. It was Paul and Paul alone who established that only faith in Jesus was enough to ensure salvation, and the Torah was a big chunk of baloney (Jesus NEVER aluded to this, which seems pretty damn significant).
I have many more points I can make, but have grown tired of typing. Maybe a few pics will suffice-
If I have offended you, I apologize, I am just looking for honest responses.
Many of you know that I attend a Christian University (Baylor). I had to take 6 hours of religion classes, and attend chapel every day freshman year under penalty of repetition. Through these tribulations, I have been pushed further away from Christianity than ever before... but mostly as a result of one single thing... I read through the entire bible.
Nothing will make you question Christianity and its "values" like a read through of the sacred text. It is amazing that people can even call themselves Christians having not studied the very foundations of their religion. Also, being a history major I have taken classes analyzing the effects of Christianity through the ages and how it has grown into what it is today. I have a list of points here that I do with people would comment on, and please, put aside your blind faith and respond cogently.
1. The Jews in Egypt.
No. We have a spectacular record of Egyptian history beginning from its routes as one of the 4 ancient river bed civilizations. We have no record of a man named Moses, a series of plagues, or much less a massive exodus of people to the desert. None. Not a single tangible speck of evidence, and it would seem like this would be significant enough to include in history. Some speculate that this occured under the short lived hyksos period, but there isnt even evidence to back this up.
There is also no evidence of a massive group of people wandering around in the desert. You would think that a group of thousands upon thousands of people in the desert would leave some evidence of their prescence, but nothing has EVER been discovered.
2. God as a loving God.
God killed more people than the devil in the bible. Many, many times more. He not only ordered the Diaspora to raze the city of Jericho and leave no living inhabitants, but also killed a huge portion of the jews. A portion of the people decided to cast a golden calf as an idol, so without hesitation god opened up the ground and killed thousand of people for a single sin. Pretty loving if you ask me.
3. Is god willing to prevent evil?
This is an age old argument. Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? (Epicurus)
4. According to the Catholic church, we are all going to hell ('cept the catholics).
Thats right, the Unam Sanctum issued in 1302 by Bonifice the 8th which is still valid establishes that the Catholic church (the most corrupt organization the earth has ever seen) requires membership to go the heaven. Well fuck, I guess most of the world is destined to burn?
5. Why do we need a "Savior"?
God is all powerful, why cant we just be good unto him and be "saved"? From what I can gather it goes something like this- God says, "Im going to create man and woman with original sin, then I am going to impregnate woman with myself as her child, so that I can be born. Once alive I will kill myself as a sacrifice to myself in order to save you from the sin I originally condemned you to." Doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me.
6. Religion has impeded progress.
Throughout the middle ages/Dark ages, the church dominated the political landscape. Kings constantly were at odds with the Vatican for control and to gain power. Here is a graph of how religion affected technological progress-
7. Picking and choosing.
The old testament (which Christians tend to ignore) tells us a number a things that god wished us to do. We are to stone insubordinate kids, kill those who work on the sabbath, not have long hair (although jesus did?), isolate women on their period, not eat pork, make offers to god via fire, anyone with a "flat nose, or any thing superfluous" must stay away from the altar of God, etc... but thanks to Paul the Apostle, we can ignore all that stuff?? Which segways into my next point-
8. Paul the apostle.
Sure you may know who he is. You may not know that he was a sentry named Saul who killed a ton of Christians. On his way kill or persecute some more, he had a revelation from Jesus Christ himself telling him to convert. He then took it upon himself to restructure Christianity. He wrote the epistles and basically rewrote the entire religion, telling us to ignore the old testament and its rules. Thats right, your beliefs are based on the credibility of some guy who formerly killed Christians. It was Paul and Paul alone who established that only faith in Jesus was enough to ensure salvation, and the Torah was a big chunk of baloney (Jesus NEVER aluded to this, which seems pretty damn significant).
I have many more points I can make, but have grown tired of typing. Maybe a few pics will suffice-
If I have offended you, I apologize, I am just looking for honest responses.
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