Flawed Theology

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” -John 3:16 The details may vary among denominations, but the general consensus is that belief in Jesus Christ as the son of god is absolutely necessary and is step one on the road to heaven.  If you do not believe in Jesus, you cannot get into heaven (and you perish in hell, or are annihilated...details are fuzzy on that too).  This is also made very clear in John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. But why though? If you stop to think about it, "belief" is a very odd thing to require as a ticket to heaven.   Presumably, God wants to separate all people into two groups: those "worthy" of heaven, and those "deserving" hell.  He has designed a cosmic test to sort people into groups, in which there's only one question:  Do you believe (in Jesus?) Appare...

Imagine a world where everyone knows God exists.  "Belief" in God isn't applicable in this world, because God's existence is so obvious that belief isn't required.  God's existence would be as evident as the existence of rocks, or trees, or gravity, or other people. In this world, when people pray, an audible voice answers (which can be corroborated by others or by recordings).  God appears to people as a physical entity (again, corroborated as not being a hallucination).  God gives us knowledge of the universe we wouldn't or couldn't have obtained otherwise.  God grants real miracles, like re-growing limbs.  God engages us in actual conversation.  There would be an on-going Wikipedia entry for God with concrete facts (visitations, what he said, what he did, what he wants, what he's like...).  And this hypothetical world would feel normal to us.  After all, if God DID exist, why would it be weird for there to be evidence for it? Needless to s...

The Christian religion claims to embody all of Jesus's humanitarian teachings.  We should sell our possessions, feed the hungry, take care of the poor, and clothe the sick.  And that's all well and great.  That Jesus sure was a swell guy.  The problem is his dad. See, Yahweh is the polar opposite of his son.  Even though they are apparently the same entity -- simply different facets of it -- the characteristics of Yahweh are...a bit troubling.  Okay, terrifying . Here is a list  of six times God killed people in the Bible...but I'm going to highlight two incidents below.  Yahweh murders his chosen people because they ask for food Numbers 21 As the Israelites wander out of Egypt, they understandably get pretty hungry. They don't like what little food God has given them, and according to them, there isn't even any water.  The people get to grumbling.  I'm sure that was really annoying for God. The audacity of them! "Why have you led us up ...

Have you ever heard that you are wonderfully and miraculously made? That you are God's special creation?  I know I heard that a lot growing up, at church, in VBS, and from my family.  This is indeed a Biblical concept! Just look at the following verses. You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together inside my mother. I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this. (Psalm 139:13-14) We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.  (Isaiah 64:8) I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.  (Jeremiah 1:5) More verses here The Bible does unequivocally declare that each of us is deliberately made by God.  We are all miraculous works.  And so we praise God for our sons and daughters who are born with ten fingers and ten toes, and with all their parts in the right places.  Do we also blame God when our children turn out ...

Guest post by Don Alabaster Let’s talk about God’s name and how it gives us clues about the origins of the Abrahamic faiths. Or maybe we should say his lack of a name.    “God” isn’t a name, it's a job title. You don’t go to work and refer to your boss as “Boss” or “Team Leader”.  Your Mom probably isn’t actually named “Mom”, either. But God does have an actual name! The Hebrew God of the Old Testament is named “Yahweh”, but even then it's not so simple.  Yahweh has many names sprinkled throughout the Hebrew Bible: YHWH (Yahweh), Adonai, Ehyeh, El, Elohim, El Shaddai, and Tzevaot, among others.  Rabbinic Judaism says that many of these names of God are so holy that they should never be erased.  I feel like I would have a lot of questions for this guy at happy hour Why did the Israelites end up with all of these names in their holy book? Because the Israelites were Canaanites before they were Israelites. The ancient Canaanite religion had an entire pantheon ...

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...

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...

Matthew 27 describes a truly astonishing and moderately creepy event that took place right after Jesus died.  The temple curtain was torn in two, there was an earthquake, and THEN...the tombs opened and many saints who had been long dead were RAISED BACK TO LIFE.   The zombies then went into the holy city, wandered around, and appeared to many (Mt 27:52-53). Actual photo evidence of the zombie uprising This is quite a thing.  If this actually happened, it should go down as one of the most astounding and miraculous things that has ever happened on this planet in all of recordable time.   So here are my thoughts: Matthew is the only gospel account that includes the zombie anecdote.  If zombies were REALLY wandering around the city, doesn't it seem odd that only Matthew wrote about this?  Did Mark, Luke, and John not know about it, or not care to write about it?  Did they not think it was important to document that people came back to life? There a...

Ask these questions to a Christian and start some fun discussions.  But make it clear that the Christian is not allowed to answer the questions with any of the following cop-outs: God works in mysterious ways We cannot possibly understand God Suffering is necessary for free will You need more faith/Pray about it You're taking it out of context That's just your interpretation (without providing a satisfying interpretation themselves) The Bible is true because it says it's true (or any other circular reasoning) God has a plan, we just don't know what it is 27 Puzzling Questions about Christianity Is Satan omniscient and all-powerful? If not, why doesn't God just get rid of him? If suffering on earth cannot be eliminated because we need to have free will, then is there free will in heaven? Where did God come from? Why did God create humans with a biological need to eat, but then not provide enough food for us (9 million people die each year of hunger)?  Doesn't tha...

What would reality look like if God were real? Is this really where God chose to reveal himself? Let's make the following assumptions. The God in question is omnipotent, omnipresent, loving, merciful, and omniscient (the Christian God) The God in question designed and created the entire universe, including humans Which scenario looks more likely? Thanks to Ginna Baker and C.S. for your help with this post! 

Call to me and I will answer you.  -Jeremiah 33:3 (or, milk jug )   Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. -Matthew 7:7 (or milk jug, again ) How Does God Answer Prayers? There are many Christian sources  that say God always answers in one of three ways when he is asked for something via intercessory prayer. Yes No Wait Let's consider a hypothetical example of a woman who is actively looking for a job in the publishing field. She prays and prays, asking God to arrange this new position for her. The woman soon gets a job in her desired field.  GOD SAID YES. The woman fails to find a new job in her desired field, and moves on to focus on something else.   GOD SAID NO. The woman fails to immediately find a new job in her desired field, but she is persistent.  A few years later, she finds that publishing job.  GOD SAID WAIT. Do you see the problem with this? There is no other possible outc...

 

One of the common claims about the Bible is that it is inerrant --in other words, it is the divinely inspired word of God and every word of it is true.   This notion is false, and it's actually quite easy to disprove via the thousands of early biblical manuscripts in our possession today.   The ramifications of this are two-fold. If there are errors and mistakes in the Bible, then can we trust it? Would an omnipotent and omniscient God (who is SO powerful that he created the whole cosmos, millions of earth species and the entire human race) not bother to preserve the word that he divinely inspired? Especially if it were a matter of eternal life and death for his beloved children? The Bible was Copied by Hand In antiquity, there were no printing presses or copying machines.  Any material (not just the Bible) obviously had to be copied by hand by scribes.  Comparisons between manuscripts show that scribes made errors all the time--spelling errors, word swit...

The basic premise of the Christian religion is so ingrained in people (either through childhood indoctrination or cultural ubiquity) that we rarely stop to think about whether it actually makes sense.   Let's recap the core theology of mainstream Christianity: God made the universe, humans, heaven, and hell (creation). Though God supposedly made humans to be "perfect", they "fell" at the very first test.  As a result, humans are now so depraved that every human born thereafter deserves eternal suffering in hell. This is called "original sin". God needs continual blood sacrifice in order to forgive sins (usually animals though occasionally human).  In order to save humanity from hell, God sent Jesus to be the last sacrifice.  To achieve salvation, all a human must do is believe in God and Jesus. There are so many reasons why this does not make sense. We'll explore them below. If the creation story didn't happen, then there is no original sin and...