Some questions about Christianity and other organized religions:
Organized religions all over the world:
Why did Jesus, Jehovah, Mohammed, other so called religious authorities not
contribute to a better, scientific understanding
of the Universe and the Laws that
describe it?
Why did not the Bible the Koran and all other religious scriptures do this?
Could not this knowledge have helped alleviate a lot of suffering
and pain over
the years?
Why did scientific development take so long when the All- Knowing
Gods could
have easily been able to initiate this development to help mankind?
The Greek atomists seem to know more about the world than Jesus, God, Allah;
or other gods of other religions. No information on DNA and the close relationship
of animals and man and evolution. This could have helped immensely in
understanding and alleviating human suffering using molecular biology (DNA).
The following has links to Bible verses.
Christianity (some applies to Judaism and Islam):
The Koran considers Jesus, Moses prophets.
Why did Jesus not return in his generation as he claimed he would?
Why eternal suffering
by any unbeliever (skeptic of the scriptures)?
Why emphasis on eternal damnation by Jesus.
The New Testament is worse than the Old Testament -- unbelievers (in
Christianity this means any person that does not believe Jesus is God) will suffer
in hellfire forever after they die -- in the Old Testament the punishment is only
death and that's it.
Why eternal bliss
for the perfect believer (he must not doubt too much -- he
must have complete faith -- must always come up with the RIGHT conclusion
if he does critically think about his faith)?
Why hatred of unbelievers and of enemies for a God of Love?
Believe or Be Damned.
Is this the kind of God that I would want
to be with or to consult with now and
for all eternity?
Why worship Jesus rather than God directly? 2 Gods? Trinity?
Jesus was not perfect, people are not perfect.
Why did Jesus not contribute to a better understanding of the Universe. e.g. Science
Why did Jesus not call people clearly to the "Light" or "Truth" by
divine power
instead of by ambiguous, controversial parables? Jesus' massage was often fuzzy
and contradicted his disciple's message later in the New testament.
Why is faith more important than
reason? Common sense less important than faith?
Why anti-intellectual? -- Is this a power trip?
Morality concerns behavior, not unquestionable acceptance.
Bible -- very controversial reading unless very strictly censored -- pessimistic,
guilt producing, contradictory and inhumane.
-- occultic, magical, mystical rather than free, sane, practical, ordinary goodness
and humanity.
(The censorship mentioned above probably applies to anyone, especially a believer
Ministers, other clergy, etc. tend to do a lot of censoring, not having their faithful
read
the Bible objectively, leaving out many parts of it, or in the order it is written.)
Drink his blood and eat his flesh -- cannibalistic?
Must one give up everything for God as stated in the New Testament?
e.g. human feelings, family, friends, and all
possessions.
Old Testament -- God of the Bible was angry, destructive, against equality
of races and sexes, segregationist, contradictory. e.g. Thou Shalt Not Murder,
but the Bible says God was behind the murder of Israel's enemies
and others
that work against God's varying desires.
This God is also very jealous and has many other evil traits not expected in a God.
In the New Testament it says that Jesus is
this God.
Was the Bible written to control people and keep them subordinate (slave mentality).
The Bible is not against slavery.
The Bible seems to be a book that could be used to justify and uphold any
ambitious person's actions.
Blood and suffering and dying a martyr seems important?
Pain, suffering, and misery are good? Slave mentality?
The Bible exhorts:
Obedience to authority no matter what?
Anyone with authority, no matter how corrupt, has it God-given?
Is this a good God -- this God of the Bible?-- slave
mentality?
Servants, obey your masters, without reservations.
Mass control of people for certain ends?
If the Bible religion is absolute truth, why must it be
defended by large organizations?
-- wars are fought over it? During the reformation battles were fought between
Christian groups.
Why do you need large institutions (or small ones) with clergy (experts), etc. to
promote and protect God and truth -- can't God and truth stand on their own?
Why do the peoples of the two "In the Name of Jesus" groups of the Balkan
states torture and
slaughter each other - Croats (Roman Catholic) and Serbs (Christian Orthodox)? In
the same
region - why do the "God is Great" people and the "In the Name of
Jesus" people torture and
slaughter each other - Muslims and Christians? This is yet another example to show
that
all organized religions are a menace and a danger to society.
To see the extent of religious hatred, read:
Holy Hatred, Religious Conflicts of the 90's
by James A Haught ISBN 0-87975-922-4
check Prometheus
Books.
Believers seem to have a Superiority feeling over others. They are the
Chosen People. Some even claim to be more
intimate with God than others
-- possibly possessing supernatural knowledge.
e.g. heads of religious groups, pope.
The good fruit that seems to come from Christianity seem to come in spite of
Christianity (and Church) . It is produced by people's innate humanity and their
ability to focus only on their positive interpretation of what they think Christianity
should be -- not what the Bible and Jesus actually say.
Often people interpret and look at only parts of their religion that agree with their
own philosophy. e.g. social reformers, REFormation leaders, especially ordinary
people.
God The Father -- Mary becomes the Mother of "God the Father",
since Jesus is God?
God converses directly with people readily during bible times.
Why not since then -- by T.V.,etc.?
Why has God allowed so much suffering
and pain of innocent (believers and
non-believers) men, women, children, animals in the past and present -- by
God created viruses, bacteria, genetic diseases, floods, earthquakes,
hurricanes, volcanoes, etc.?
Comment: I do not pretend to believe that
these pages will change society,
but they may help give personal freedom to 1 or 2 people.
Actually, indications are that traditional religious influence will become greater
in the future than it has been in the past. The potential for financial, social, and
political control of people by organized religious beliefs is too great to allow
this influence on people to decrease.
Difficulties with Christianity that is based on the Bible:
1. Some believe there is no Devil as described in the Bible.
If there is no Devil then there is no Hell. Therefore there is
nothing to save.
Most New Testament miracles are impossible even if one believes in the
supernatural because they have to do with evil spirits. There was therefore
no tempter in the Garden of Eden -- therefore the atonement is
unnecessary
-- therefore there is no gospel necessary. The
Christianity of the Bible
is not viable without the Devil.
2. A preacher can do more for a fellow here than God can after he dies.
If the preacher did not save him on earth he is condemned forever,
according to the Bible -- God cannot change this.
3. It is better to love our fellow men than to love God.
We can help our fellows, but we cannot help Him. Help others, not God.
God doesn't need help -- if he is all
powerful.
4. God of the Bible so loved the world that he is going to damn almost
everybody to everlasting hell -- the following are damned because they
did not believe Jesus was God or that the Bible was inspired by God
-- Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson; the author of the Declaration
of Independence; Thomas Edison; George Washington; Abe Lincoln;
Thomas Paine; Bill Gates; Wagner; Beethoven; Shakespeare; Shelley;
Goethe; Schiller; Robert Burns; Longfellow; Einstein and most other
Scientists and many, many others that contributed greatly to the well-being
of humanity.
5. You never hear of the people who had been healed or raised from the
dead after the event in the Bible -- why not?
Their life after the miracle would be most interesting.
Especially the people raised from the dead -- it would be interesting to know
how they approached their second and final death -- what did they experience
on the other side of the first death? -- nothing about any of this in the Bible!!
-- Why not??
6. How can a man believe unless the evidence is
overwhelming.
If someone tells me that God told him something, I have only his word.
He may have been deceived. If God wants to tell me something he ought to
tell me and not somebody who has been dead 1000's of years in
another language.
7. Evil spirits are now considered diseases (example: epileptic fits) or
conditions (example: deaf and dumb). But in the Bible Jesus talks
to
these evil spirits (devils). These epileptic fits, etc. even admitted Jesus was
God. And, did epileptic fits tempt Jesus, etc.?
Something is not quite right in the Bible.
8. Why do religions persist?
Tell a Protestant that Catholicism dies hard -- What does this prove?
-- the Protestant will say people are ignorant and priests are cunning.
Tell a Catholic that Protestantism dies hard -- What does this prove?
-- the Catholic will say people are superstitious and that preachers are stupid.
Tell a Muslim that Christianity dies hard -- What does this prove?
-- the Muslim will say all infidels will eventually see the Truth and be
converted to Islam, etc., etc.
9. There is nothing in the Bible about North America.
10. Till 1821, the infallible Catholic Church said Copernicus was wrong
-- the Catholic Church maintained that the Sun went around the Earth.
All churches accept new scientific discoveries only after many years
-- at first they always condemn these new discoveries.
If God of the Universe was involved in any church, why did
the church not
come up with these discoveries first instead of condemning them as
from the devil??
11. By painstaking measurements (by other people at first) and analysis (this
all took about 38 years) Kepler discovered the 3 Laws of Planetary Motion
-- really the key to the heavens. The infinite book of the heavens he discovered
was only 3 lines long. Since then the old Heaven of the Bible has died away
-- the heaven of the Bible was
completely wrong!
12. The Bible knows nothing about
evolution, geology, astronomy, physics, nature.
It knows very little about medicine -- nothing about the brain -- the Bible
knows only evil spirits in terms of medicine. The Bible cannot be relied
upon for important knowledge that can help people.
13. What bothers me -- who made everything??
Since God was supposed to have made everything -- did he
make psychopaths,
volcanoes, earthquakes, diseases such as cancer, hell
where
there is infinite
suffering -- infinite revenge by a good God?? And many other things that are
considered evil.
14. The Old Testament is better than the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, when God had a man dead, that was it -- the man was
no more. In the New Testament God of the Bible who says "Love your
enemies" wreaks his revenge forever and ever after a man dies.
New Testament is worse than the Old Testament as hell is worse than sleep.
15. In Heaven you can enjoy watching
the people in Hell, according to the Bible
-- one of the pastimes.
An example: A man that is murdered and does not believe Jesus goes straight to
Hell. -- his Murderer can repent just before he is hanged (or whatever) and
go straight to Heaven and watch the person he murdered suffer for all eternity in Hell.
16. If an almighty God wanted to communicate an urgent message to all people
using a book (Bible. Koran, etc.) why
didn't God have it written in a clear,
straight-forward way, unflawed, understandable by everyone, so that there
is no doubt about its meaning? You would
think it would have been given to
all of humanity right at the start of humanities existence, so that the message
would be clear and fair to all.
Questions:
1. How do you know the Bible is divine (God's Word)?
This can also be
asked of the Koran, Book of Mormon or any other book considered divine.
Some answers: -- you were told it was. -- it says so in the Bible. -- it read like it is divine. -- everybody else believes it.
Who wrote it?
2. How do you know Jesus is divine (God)? This can be asked about any personality.
Some answers: -- you were told he was. -- the Bible says so. -- he sounds divine. -- most other people believe he is.
3. Why is a given religion good for you??
Religious groups do not have any less criminal activity than non-religious groups
-- some studies even show there is less crime by non-religious
people than by
religious people. Morals or ethics seem natural, rather than
supernatural.
4. Just because a majority of people over a long period believe something
does not mean it is true. This has been amply shown by the beliefs people
had before the scientific era showed they were wrong. Talented people,
including eminent scientists can be fooled into believing without evidence.
A fraud can last a long time if there is no evidence to
disprove it.
5. Why does the Bible produce such a variety of beliefs??
Why is it so unclear?? Why is more than half the Bible
filled with obscene
stories of cruelty, killing, torture, executions, etc. --
a history of cruelty,
the opposite of a history of love that most people think it is.
6. 4 gospels -- not a history of Jesus -- just detached anecdotes of Jesus. Why??
7. God's creation -- Why does the Bible nowhere explain the
Universe the
way it really is? -- stars, microbes -- none in the Bible!
It would have impressed even the infidels much more.
The church rejected Science until recent times. Why??
8. (a) Revelation is to that person only. It is 2nd hand knowledge to anyone else
-- you are not obliged to believe it. You have only his word, it is not a
revelation to you.
(b) If someone describes someone else and that someone else wrote nothing,
then it is hearsay -- therefore it is not necessary to
believe it.
Examples: Jesus, Mary .
9. Why is the Bible a book of riddles and large organizations are needed to
uphold the Truth -- can the Truth not stand on its own?? -- You would
think
a God-inspired book would make rational sense -- was it produced for
the amusement and control of people??
10. Why is the Bible so bloody?
Sacrifices galore -- even God was supposed to be sacrificed!
Blood everywhere. "Blood of the Lamb".
It sounds like the Bible is based on savagery and not on
civilization.
Isn't nature cruel enough without all this?
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