February 25th, 2010 | 
Author: Suppose a Christian apologist were to write a book of apologetics based strictly on the questions YOU asked them. What questions would make up the chapters of the book?
In another way, what are your biggest questions about Christianity that go unanswered, or aren’t answered satisfactorily?
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Sorry,I wouldn’t want a Theist to answer my biggest questions about religion in “ANOTHER” book.
I’ll pass…..they’ve already done enough damage with one book…..
1. Why don’t you listen to a word of reason or science?
2. Well, thats it…
1. Why do Christians deny evolution if most of the scientific community supports it with solid evidence? (Attempting to argue that science does not support evolution will only anger most atheists since it is simply untrue.)
2. Why does religion so often bring more compunction and pain than happiness and freedom?
3. Why do Christians always act as though they’re the ones being persecuted when atheists face FAR more discrimination? This ‘martyr’ archetype may have been true a couple thousand years ago, but today it’s just old.
4. Why do Christians contend that the conscience is the Holy Spirit working within them if they are more than willing to defy its convictions when it clashes with the Bible? Christians seem to believe they are morally superior to atheists, yet they openly discriminate against homosexuals, atheists, and pro-choice women. Their sorry lack of tolerance is disheartening for members of a ‘chosen race’, a ‘people set apart’. Doesn’t empathy exist in their hearts? It’s as though they’ve calloused themselves to others’ perspectives. Another example would be their willingness to believe that everyone who doesn’t believe in a Biblical figure deserves an ETERNITY roasting in the fiery depths of hell. The fact that this doesn’t cause them to question God’s goodness since he allegedly has power over all things and wishes for all to be saved is just plain scary. It’s almost as though God is the bad guy, yet they are completely blind to it.
5. Why do Christians fail to see that they’re really no different from other religious adherents that have had religious ideals drilled into them until they’ve become nearly indelible?
6. Why do Christians follow dated teachings of the Bible (e.g. men are superior to women – who, of course, caused the Fall of Man and now deserve to be second-class citizens; lust, premarital sex, and masturbation are as evil as committing adultery; homosexual love is evil; people with mental disorders are demon-possessed, etc.)?
7. Why do many Christians attribute excruciating mental illnesses to demons when scientists have found clear physiological reasons for them? I came across a website that claimed Multiple Personality Disorder, OCD, and other disorders were caused by demon possession. The owner of the site recommended that I attend an exorcism in Southern Michigan.
8. Why do Christians claim that love is the main message of Christianity when fear, condemnation, and guilt lace every facet of the religion? Christ’s love was only needed to save his people from the wrath of a God who despises his creation’s imperfections. What is unconditional about that brand of ‘love’?
9. Why do so many human beings seem morally superior to the tyrannical, spiteful, conceited God of the Old Testament?
10. Why do fundamentalist Christians keep seeking to keep the modern world in the Dark Ages (e.g. ban stem cell research, discouraging the teaching of evolution, etc.)?
11. Why do Christians claim that everything works together for the good of those who love God if it is clear that devastating and pointless things happen to Christians? Even if the Bible is referring to eventual salvation, it still doesn’t make sense to assert that everything on earth is working toward good. If it were, then wouldn’t everyone be saved?
12. Is it fair that Christianity places more emphasis on ‘faith’ vs. ‘lack of faith’ than actual ‘good’ vs. ‘evil’?
13. Why is it that Christians don’t have a problem with believing that every other person on earth who does not believe in Jesus – even those who have never heard Christ’s name – will be handed over to Satan in hell? Shouldn’t their heightened sense of good and evil cause they to feel agonizing remorse at the thought of most of the world’s population being eternally damned by their ‘loving’ God?
14. If Christians truly believe that those who have never been exposed to Christianity will go to hell, then why aren’t more people missionaries? Do they not care, or do they not fully believe the Biblical claim that ‘men are without excuse’?
15. Is it at all fair or reasonable that not everyone is granted the same level of exposure to Christianity and thereby not provided the same opportunity to be saved?
16. If the Bible is truly God’s word, then why isn’t everyone immediately transformed upon reading it? Why aren’t Christians in doubt always automatically reassured when they read its contents?
17. If the Bible is perfectly holy and true, then why did God make humans unable to comprehend its contents clearly? The fact that there are so many denominations attests to its ambiguity.
18. How can far-fetched stories about saints (e.g. angels communicating with Joan of Arc) be considered true?
This is one of Jaime H.’s other accounts. Here is more of my answer:
19. If Jesus did perform miracles, then why wasn’t there a multitude of writings concerning his supernatural works in the literature of other nations? I should think that if he really did perform all the miracles the New Testament attributes to him, the entirety of ancient Eurasia would have been in a frenzy over the ‘Son of God’.
20. Why do nuns, priests, and many devout Christians believe they are pleasing God by practicing extreme self-deprivation?
21. Why are Christians so quick to denounce books dealing with sorcery (e.g. Harry Potter) as evil and dangerous? Most people who read books like Harry Potter don’t begin to partake in occult practices. Most readers of Harry Potter reap positive messages about how good ultimately triumphs over evil and about how love is stronger than hate. Joanne Rowling herself believes in God and the afterlife … She used to work at a church, for goodness’ sake!
22. If there is a heightened spiritual presence in church, then why do so many parishioners find themselves bored out of their minds on Sundays? …Is this evil, too?
23. Why do some Christians denounce modern psychology as ‘a profession that hates God’ when religion alone can’t remedy many illnesses of the psyche, but therapy and medication very often provide relief?
24. Why aren’t Christians – people allegedly empowered by the Holy Spirit – always morally superior to atheists?
25. Why is a woman’s worth determined by her level of chastity? The fact that Jesus had to be born of a virgin supports this Christian view.
26. Why are infants considered evil and contaminated from conception if they are not developed enough to distinguish good from evil?
27. Why are there inconsistencies in the Bible (e.g. genealogies that don’t match up, a scientifically disputed Young Earth, etc.)?
28. How could two of every animal on earth have fit into Noah’s Arc in Genesis?
29. How do dinosaurs fit into the Biblical interpretation of the Earth’s history?
30. Why did the Old Testament God consider human life expendable?
31. Why are people in the Bible constantly being punished for events they had no control over, often for sins their ancestors had committed?
32. Why weren’t other ancient nations (e.g. the Babylonians, Assyrians, etc.) provided the chance to be part of God’s chosen race? Why weren’t they granted the opportunity to be saved?
33. What happened to all the faithful Jews who died before Christ came?
34. Why do Christians conveniently overlook the fact that God’s favourite kings had multiple wives and concubines? Beloved King David had at least 7 wives and several concubines. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and the only reason God disliked it was because his foreign wives encouraged people to worship gods other than Yahweh; it had nothing to do with the fact that literally hundreds of young women were being forced to his bedchamber to satiate his voracious sexual appetite. How reassuring this is from a religion that prizes virginity and monogamy so obsessively. Nowadays that behaviour would likely be considered perverted and morally reprehensible from a nation’s leader.
35. Why does the Bible endorse slavery? And how come when I’ve brought this up to people, they’ve said, ‘Oh, it was just the cultural norm of the times’ as though that justifies the Biblical treatment of this practice? (Usually when God is displeased with something, he lets his people know. But this apparently escaped his radar…)
36. Why was God pleased at the aroma of the blood of sacrificed animals, and why does he consider innocent blood necessary for forgiveness? Bloodlust in a supreme deity usually isn’t a good thing, in my opinion.
37. How does the pain and death of the innocent promote goodness and healing?
38. Why did God immediately strike Uzzah dead when he attempted to steady the Arc of the Covenant with his hand when the oxen tripped on the journey to Jerusalem? I am well aware of the simple answer: No ‘contaminated’ human can be in the presence of God, whose very being is too pure and holy for his creation. But my qualm lies within the way this logic portrays God – as a being so arrogant and apathetic toward his creation that he thinks nothing of slaughtering a man with good intentions. Who would want to worship such a tyrant, and how could anyone deem him loving, merciful, and perfectly ‘good’? If Yahweh were a mere literary character rather than a religious figure, this act would almost certainly have revealed villainous qualities.
39. If God is omniscient omnipotent, and good, then why would he set his creation up for failure and then blame them for their (inevitable) ‘sin’?
This is another one of Jaime H.’s accounts, only on this account I use my real name. Here is the final segment of my answer:
40. How could a good god allow less-than-perfect people – beings whom he has created – suffer inexorable woe in hell when he has the power to save them through a route that provides people with equal opportunities of being saved (as opposed to being saved through faith in Jesus, which not everyone has an equal chance of fostering due to non-religious/pagan upbringing and nationality)?
Because it’s getting late, I’m going to force myself to stop at 40. I hope these questions help you out.