Flawed Theology

Many people often gush about how the Christian God has blessed their lives. He has provided food, shelter, medicine, and the joys of life.  People pray before meals, thanking God for his generosity and for the food on their plate. Everything good is from God. There are many Bible verses that back this up, too.   "And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8 "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!"  Luke 12:24 "So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’"  Matthew 6:31 "Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." Genesis 9:3 But have they ever stopped to think -- for just a moment -- about whether God...

I have been stewing over this post for awhile.  My usual method of addressing Christian arguments is by poking holes in them, by lining up logical fallacies that are undeniable, and by making cracks in the foundations until the argument starts to crumble. But this one's different. It's personal.   It can't be attacked head-on with a spear of logic. Instead, we as humans must gather up our senses of worth, identities, and individualities, and stand up to say,  I have value.  I am not disposable. OK, what am I talking about, you ask?   This all started when I began writing a post about all the killing that God does in the Bible.  In general, when I write a post, I research the Christian side of the argument -- to see if it has merit, and to see how best to refute it. I could not believe my eyes what I saw what one Christian wrote in defense of God.  According to John Piper: "It's right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases. God...

God killed way more people than Satan ever did.  According to John Piper, God is still pretty hands-on at killing people today. But virtually all Christian denominations claim that God is  morally perfect and without sin.   Therefore, any action performed by God are by definition moral, and are not a sin.  Meaning, it was theoretically moral for God to perform the following acts (and this list is not exhaustive): 1. God murders everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah, then turns a lady to salt (Genesis 18-19) Apparently everyone in the cities were evil, even the children and animals.  After God destroyed the cities, he turned Lot's wife to salt for the sin of...curiosity?  2. God kills all Egyptian firstborn sons during Passover ( Exodus 11-12) The final plague against the Pharaoh is the elimination of the firstborn son of every living thing--including cattle.   Presumably these firstborns didn't even have anything  to do with the conflict betwee...

A very common argument in favor of theism is that morality is objective and it must come from God.  For something to be objective, it must have a truth value independent of everything.  So objective morality depends on nothing--not the era, nor the place, nor the entity performing the action-- so by definition, it never changes.  If objective morality exists and it comes from God, then we should be able to see the unchanging nature of morality over time--both within the Bible itself, and when comparing the Bible to modern times. Let's see how this holds up! Old Testament Morality Slavery: In Biblical times, slavery was totally fine. This included not only indentured servitude, but children born into slavery, captives of war, and women sold into slavery against their will (as sex slaves).  This was all accepted.  See Exodus 21,  Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 15.  No matter how much Christians try to account for this, slavery is a huge issue in the Bible....

Let's create a deity and a religion associated with that deity.  For this exercise, it isn't really relevant whether we, as the creators of the deity, actually believe that the deity exists--we're just trying to see what it would take to build a religion around an imagined deity and convince people of it. Name of deity: Let's pick a name and apply an arbitrary gender.  How about... Regina Phalange, female.*  Our religion will be called Reginianity. Regina Phalange, friend to everyone Characteristics:  We want people to be impressed with Regina Phalange and not follow any other deities.  So let's make her all-powerful . She's so powerful she made the entire universe. We want people to love Regina.  Let's make her all-loving and benevolent ! We want people to trust Regina.  Let's make her very very wise. She's omniscient ! How to spread the news about Regina Phalange? Since Regina isn't about to go door-to-door introducing herself (she isn't r...

Many are familiar with the story of Jesus riding majestically into Jerusalem on a donkey during the Triumphal Entry. What you MAY not know is that in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus rides into town on TWO DONKEYS.   Count 'em: two.  A mother donkey and her colt. It's unclear how Jesus was able to physically ride on two donkeys at once, especially when they were two different sizes.  Maybe something like this:  The most plausible donkey configuration...another possibility is to ride them like water skis But this little bit of weirdness in Matthew's gospel is overwhelming evidence that the anonymous author of Matthew was INVENTING fiction in order to fulfill Old Testament prophecy--or at least, what he UNDERSTOOD to be OT prophecy. In order for fulfilled prophecy to be actually compelling, it has to be something like this: Prophecy is written down Events actually happen that fulfill the prophecy Documentation is written about the events If Step #2 does not occur, the...