Posted by ato on 4/13/2009, 3:39 pm
41.212.203.109
1. Explain why your god's only son had to die so we can go to
magic happy land when we croak.
2. Did everyone who died before Jesus died go to Hell? Justify
your answer.
3. If a Catholic, justify the Inquisition and other persecutions of
"heretics" throughout the centuries, concentrating on why the
Pelagianists, the Priscillianists, and the Manichaeans were
persecuted; if a Protestant, justify the witch trials and the way that
Protestants constantly hunted down native Americans until there
were so few that the government could simply take their land; if a
member of an Eastern Orthodox church, justify the persecutions of
the Old Believers after the reforms of the seventeenth century.
4. Explain why your sect (whether Catholic, Protestant, or Eastern
Orthodox) pursued, tortured, and killed people who were not
Christian.
5. Explain why your sect (whether Catholic, Protestant, or Eastern
Orthodox) pursued, tortured, and killed people who were not
members of your particular sect.
6. Explain why I should believe that your god is all-good when the
only real information we have about him is the Bible, which clearly
describes him as both good and evil. (See Isaiah 30:32, Luke
14:26, Numbers 31:17-18, Matthew 10:34, Amos 3:6,
Deuteronomy 18:8, Deuteronomy 20:16, Exodus 20:5, Exodus
32:27, Isaiah 45:7, Psalms 52:5, Luke 22:36, and Jeremiah 18:11
for a small sample of Biblical passages which describe Jehovah as
having an evil morality at times).
7. Explain why, when racism is clearly wrong, Jesus was clearly a
racist (see Mark 7:25-29). NOTE: under no circumstances will I
believe the idea that racism is morally acceptable.
8. Explain why, when discrimination against women is clearly
wrong, the Bible clearly supports the oppression of women.
Answering this question entails refuting 1 Cor 11 and 1 Tim
2:11-15. NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe that
discrimination against women solely on the basis of sex is morally
acceptable.
9. Explain why, when slavery is clearly wrong, the Bible clearly
supports slavery. Answering this question entails refuting 1 Peter
2:18. NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe that slavery is
an acceptable way to run a society.
10. Explain why children should submit to their parents' decisions
even when those decisions are clearly evil. Answering this question
entails refuting Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Proverbs 13:24, and
Hebrews 12:7-8.
11. Explain why, if your god loves us all, more than half of us are
going to Hell after we die. Specifically, refute or explain the
following words of Christ, as presented in the New Testament:
"Many are called but few are chosen," and "Straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way that leadeth unto salvation, and few there be
that find it." If your god loves all of us, couldn't he find a better
way?
12. Explain what type of offense could possibly justify eternal,
unbearable torture in Hell; if your sect does not believe in Hell, then
refute every passage in the Old and New Testaments which
describes Hell (such as 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 and Revelation
20:15). Do not exceed 100 words.
13. Explain how your god can be both just and merciful, when
these terms apparently contradict each other.
14. Explain why possession by demons and/or other evil spirits
was common during the time of Jesus, but hardly mentioned in the
Old Testament, and apparently has been explained completely
away today by things such as epilepsy and schizophrenia.
15. Explain why, if the personality resides in the soul, things like
drugs and brain damage can affect someone's personality.
16. If heaven is a place where everyone is perfectly happy, then
explain how I could be happy in heaven if I had loved ones in Hell.
17. What is Heaven like?
18. What is Hell like?
19. Explain why original sin exists. Why should I be eternally
tortured for something that a pair of naked fruit-munching
simpletons did in a garden over six thousand years ago? If you
believe that children are born stained because they were conceived
sexually, explain why I would be punished for something my
parents did by your merciful and just god. If this does not apply to
your sect, explain why.
20. Explain why getting dunked in or sprinkled with water will
prevent me from being eternally tortured for the actions of the
naked fruit-munching simpletons mentioned in #19.
21. If your god did not want Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree
of Knowledge of Good and Evil, why did he put the tree in the
garden of Eden (and at the center, no less)? Was it for shade? If
so, why use something so dangerous as a shade tree? If the
purpose of the tree was to tempt Adam and Eve, explain why it's
OK for your god to engage in a practice that our modern-day
courts of law refer to as "entrapment."
22. Explain why sex, potentially one of the most wonderful,
beautiful things in human nature, is considered "bad" by your
particular sect. If your sect does not consider sex to be "bad," then
refute Matthew 19:12, 1 Corinthians 7 (particularly verses 1 and
9), Galatians 5:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, James 1:14-15, Matthew
24:38, Luke 17:27, and Revelation 14:4.
23. Explain why, if Jesus was perfect, he thought that the end of
the world was coming soon, when it has clearly not come yet. See
Matthew 16:27-28.
24. Explain why some people (James, Peter, Paul, Thomas, etc.)
should get convincing physical proof of miracles, while the rest of
us are supposed to take these happenings on faith.
25. Why are the stories of the resurrection inconsistent?
26. If you are a Protestant or a member of an Eastern Orthodox
church, explain why you are still using the Catholic Bible, which
was formalized by a vote among (supposedly divinely inspired)
cardinals and bishops in the fourth century CE, when you disagree
with the idea that the Pope, who is higher in the Catholic hierarchy,
is divinely inspired; if a Catholic, explain why your church accepts
the canonical Bible while rejecting the Apocrypha (do not use the
"divinely inspired" argument: Because I am not religious, I will not
be able to accept it).
27. If your god is kind and gentle, why do some animals have to
eat meat?
28. If your god is kind and gentle, why did he create parasites?
29. If your god wants us to worship him through our own free will,
why does he threaten us with Hell? If you have someone
threatening you with a punishment, it isn't free will.
30. Why would your god deliberately cause sinners to sin (cf.
Romans 9:15-23 and numerous parts of the book of Exodus
where Jehovah says, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart."). Are these
sinners still responsible for the sins which your god forces them,
against their will, to commit? Justify your answer.
31. If Jesus did have to die, why did someone (specifically, Judas)
have to be damned in order accomplish the death and resurrection
of Jesus? Jesus was at least a volunteer for the cross; I doubt that
your god asked Judas if he was willing to go to Hell so that the
resurrection could be accomplished.
32. If Judas was willing to go to Hell for humanity (see #31), didn't
he make more of a sacrifice than Jesus, who spent only three hours
in pain? Shouldn't we then be worshipping Judas?
33. Why should we accept the words of the gospel writers as truth
when they are known to be liars? (See Romans 3:7).
34. Do you believe that your god is anti-homosexual? If so, explain
why he would create homosexuals in the first place. If not, refute or
explain away Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1:26-27.
35. Explain why prayer is OK, but spell casting is not, when both
amount to the same thing: requesting that a superior supernatural
force to intercede in a way that would be impossible according to
the normally accepted laws of physics.
36. According to the Gospels, from the Christian standpoint, Jesus
was the most important person to ever live. From the Roman
standpoint, Jesus was a huge pain in the ass because of his political
activities. Explain why nothing was written about his life for over
thirty years after his death, and nothing except the Gospels was
written until the third century CE.
37. Explain why you believe a person whose life is so poorly
documented (see #36) was even ever born.
38. Define the word "Christ," including references to the pagan
origins and meaning of the word.
39. Explain why Jesus, who was anti-Gentile (see Mark 7:25-29)
and anti-sex (see Luke 14:26 and Matthew 19:12), would want to
be anointed with oil in a pagan sexual rite after his death (see your
definition for #38).
40. In light of Matthew 10:34, explain why Jesus is called the
Prince of Peace.
41. The name "Jesus" has been anglicized. What was the original
(Hebrew) name of Jesus? Where did you get this information? This
is a bonus question.
42. Why is it that the life of Jesus was so similar to the lives of
pagan Christs, particularly Herakles, Dionysios, and Asklepios?
43. If your god requires that people believe in him and follow his
orders through their own free will, why do Christians push their
views on public policy?
44. Explain why being a good Christian requires you to push your
beliefs on others. If you do not believe that you have to push your
views on others (no matter how much this annoys them), explain
why you do not believe this despite the fact that the New
Testament seems to suggest that you must do this to get to Heaven
(for instance, in Matthew 28:19-20).
45. Explain why spreading the "truth of Christ" requires you to
spread lies about other religions, such as the idea that Wiccans
(so-called "white witches") worship the Christian devil.
(Incidentally, they don't, and this rumor has been persistently
spread by Christians since the second century CE).
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