If you want to, you can consider my 15 issues with Christianity. It's ok if you don't want to. Thank you. I am not trying to get you to leave Christianity or cause you suffering or offend you. I respect all of the Human Rights of all humans. One of these rights is to have any religion or no religion. So, please don't feel that I am trying to make you an agnostic compassionist humanist like me.
1. Why didn't God make Adam, Eve, all the angels, all the animals and plants equally omniscient and omnipotent as Himself? If He had done that then there would have been a perfect fellowship of true equals and no suffering and no injustice as it is impossible to victimise omniscient and omnipotent beings.
2. Jesus prophesied the end of the world in the Bible but he was wrong: What the Bible says about The End of the World
3. 99.99% of all species to ever exist on Earth are already extinct because life is so harsh and unjust. Humans have also caused the extinction of some species but most were extinct long before humans evolved. How can a loving and just God make such a world? I would prefer it if there were an omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent God but I am not convinced that such a being exists given all the suffering life consists of. Please consider: Top 20 Evil Bible Stories
4. Why is God's treatment of women so unjust? What the Bible says about Women's Rights God punished Eve and all girls/women with painful childbirth. Many women and babies have suffered and died because of the narrow birth canal and all the complications caused by that. I think men made up the story to blame women who are actually the victims of biology.
5. Why is God's treatment of homosexuals so unjust? The Bible and homosexuality
6. How is predestination by God ethical? Predestination
7. I think culpability is proportional to ability, so, with omnipotence comes omniculpability . Given God's alleged omnipotence, it makes Him omniculpable for all suffering and inustice . Why isn't God being punished by God for all eternity?
8. Jesus behaves in the Bible in ways cult leaders have done. Please see: 50 reasons to be ashamed (and not a fan) of Jesus Cult leaders tend to try to get their followers to put the leader above family and friends and do whatever the leaders want.
9. “The genomes of complex creatures reveal a lack of any intelligence or foresight. Your DNA consists of millions of defunct copies of parasitic DNA. The inescapable conclusion is that if life was designed, the designer was lazy, stupid and cruel.� – Michael Le Page,‘New Scientist', vol 198 No 2652, 19 April 2008, page 26. I agree with him. What do you think?
10. I think it is impossible for any sentient being to have free will unless that sentient being is omniscient and omnipotent. Biological beings such as humans are not free from causality, they are prisoners of causality. We are the way we are because of genes, environments, nutrients and experiences. If I or Daniel or our dog or a virus had your genes, environments, nutrients and experiences, then we would be you, reading these words right where and when you are reading these words. We would be identical to you down to all your sub-atomic particles and we would have made all the choices you have made. This is true for all biological beings. All choices arise from the interaction of awareness, values and abilities. If you want to alter your or someone else's choices, all you need to do is alter your or their awareness and/or values and/or abilities. Inevitably, our awareness, values and abilities are determined by our genes, environments, nutrients and experiences. The bottom line is that all our choices are inevitable choices. Of course, we still need to lock up people who kill others, rape others, etc. - not because they are guilty, but because they pose a danger to others. Given this reality, how is it ethical for any God or Gods of any religion to punish and reward people with hell or heaven? Some may say that we are given immortal souls or spirits by God which are somehow free from causality and can make free choices which are not determined by genes, environments, nutrients and experiences. There is no evidence that such immortal souls or spirits exist and that they can make choices free from the effects of genes, environments, nutrients and experiences. Of course, I respect everyone's right to disagree with me, even though I am convinced that what I have said is true.
11. Assuming that the Bible is true (that's a huge assumption, I really don't think it can be true because of numerous contradictions and inaccuracies), how is it ethical of God to punish all humans and all other living things just because Adam and Eve disobeyed God? If the story is true, and if Adam and Eve had free will (I don't think they did), there is a partial justification for punishing Adam and Eve for their error but to punish all humans and all other living things for billions of years is totally disproportionate and completely wrong. Also, both Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, but only Eve and all human females were punished with painful childbirth and being subjugated by men. Why wasn't Adam punished equally? Of course, I am convinced that the whole story is made up by men, to blame women for things which are not their fault at all and to subjugate women.
12. It is claimed that Jesus did not have a human father. Why didn't Jesus or His followers keep some locks of his hair so we could examine his half-divine DNA for evidence which confirms the claim? Since God is both omniscient and omnipotent, He could still do it by materialising locks of hair from Jesus in genetics lab right now but He doesn't do that. Why not? I think it's because God is imaginary and the claim is false.
13. Many miracles were allegedly performed by Jesus e.g. raising the Dead. "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." - John 14:12, The Bible (New International Version). Why don't Christians raise the dead by the billions given what Jesus said? I have prayed for the resurrection of many good people e.g. Princess Diana, John Lennon, Mohondas Gandhi, etc. but none of them was resurrected.
14. I statistically analysed prayer. No prayers for miracles were ever answered e.g. resurrection of famous good people, regrowing of amputated limbs, ending all floods, cyclones, earthquakes, etc. The prayers that were apparently answered, e.g. praying for parking space in the car park at 7 am were always answered regardless of whether I prayed to God or Zeus or Thor, etc. In fact, there were spaces in the car park 100% of the time at 7 am even when I didn't pray for space. It shows that God is either lying in the Bible or God is imaginary.
15. The Bible says that Jesus was crucified and resurrected. There is no evidence for this. Roman records don't show it. There are some contradictory stories about it in the Bible but these are just stories - not incontrovertible evidence. Tacitus and Josephus did not witness the virgin conception of Jesus, His birth, the miracles of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. Surely, an omniscient and omnipotent God who allegedly created everything and can resurrect the dead can prove to us that He is real and good, not imaginary or evil? There is no convincing evidence for the virgin birth, words, actions, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. All we have are contradictory stories in the Bible which were written by anonymous writers many years after the alleged events took place. The four canonical gospels, like the rest of the New Testament, were written in Greek, Mark probably c. AD 66–70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions, all four are anonymous, and none were written by eyewitnesses. Jesus was allegedly crucified and resurrected in AD 30. I think the reason the Gospels were written so many years after the alleged events is because the writers didn’t want any actual witnesses to be still alive to challenge the lies being passed off as the truth. Why didn't Jesus write the Bible?
15 issues with Christianity
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Re: 15 issues with Christianity
Post #41[Replying to post 1 by Compassionist]
I think the question here stems from the idea one is victimised by not being omniscient and omnipotent which then leads to the conclusion that an omniscient and omnipotent being is the victimizer.
This perception certainly does come through when regarding the Abrahamic ideas of GOD through those organised religions and the stories therein.
The question: "Why didn't God make Adam, Eve, all the angels, all the animals and plants equally omniscient and omnipotent as Himself?" and the statement you tag on the end of this "If He had done that then there would have been a perfect fellowship of true equals and no suffering and no injustice as it is impossible to victimise omniscient and omnipotent beings.".
I am trying to think how an omniscient and omnipotent plant might behave. There are places where such experiences can be had according to people who have OOBEs & NDEs where they speak of being in a situation where there exist 'other' things but they experience all these other things as aspects of themselves.
Often they equate this as 'GOD' or 'being one with GOD'
Also there are places where the experience is the opposite and they feel totally isolated and alone and disconnected with everything around them and they feel absolute horror in relation to that.
In our physical reality we tend to see 'other' as separate from 'self' but not to the extreme of feeling completely isolated and disconnected.
As a panentheist I understand all these realities as expressions of GOD and in relation to this reality we are experiencing, I see it natural that Abrahamic religions (and indeed all theology) developed in an effort to explain the situation in relation to a creator GOD, and in that - the idea of being victims became part of that as the realization that we do not have the GODs abilities, helps evolve the explanations as to why we do not, and this equates to a kind of self-loathing ... we are then victims of our own sinful natures, because if we didn't have sinful natures, we wouldn't be in this circumstance to begin with.
A Panenthist doesn't think like that, and so is able to think of GOD in more encompassing ways - ways in which Abrahamic ideals have forced such believers of such ideas to have to argue that anyone with different ideas of GOD is a tool of the devil and the penalty for that is a wide range of variables depending on where one is situated and what the local rules are.
For me, it is a matter of not becoming a victim of circumstance whilst being able to acknowledge equality with GOD. not in terms of position or power, but as an aspect of GOD-consciousness liberated from the confines of the oppressive ideals of religiosity and culture and politics and scientism. I am an eternal being having this particular experience within a constrictive construct. No need for me to cry 'foul' on account of that, all call GOD or myself or anyone else, 'evil'.
1. Why didn't God make Adam, Eve, all the angels, all the animals and plants equally omniscient and omnipotent as Himself? If He had done that then there would have been a perfect fellowship of true equals and no suffering and no injustice as it is impossible to victimise omniscient and omnipotent beings.
I think the question here stems from the idea one is victimised by not being omniscient and omnipotent which then leads to the conclusion that an omniscient and omnipotent being is the victimizer.
This perception certainly does come through when regarding the Abrahamic ideas of GOD through those organised religions and the stories therein.
The question: "Why didn't God make Adam, Eve, all the angels, all the animals and plants equally omniscient and omnipotent as Himself?" and the statement you tag on the end of this "If He had done that then there would have been a perfect fellowship of true equals and no suffering and no injustice as it is impossible to victimise omniscient and omnipotent beings.".
I am trying to think how an omniscient and omnipotent plant might behave. There are places where such experiences can be had according to people who have OOBEs & NDEs where they speak of being in a situation where there exist 'other' things but they experience all these other things as aspects of themselves.
Often they equate this as 'GOD' or 'being one with GOD'
Also there are places where the experience is the opposite and they feel totally isolated and alone and disconnected with everything around them and they feel absolute horror in relation to that.
In our physical reality we tend to see 'other' as separate from 'self' but not to the extreme of feeling completely isolated and disconnected.
As a panentheist I understand all these realities as expressions of GOD and in relation to this reality we are experiencing, I see it natural that Abrahamic religions (and indeed all theology) developed in an effort to explain the situation in relation to a creator GOD, and in that - the idea of being victims became part of that as the realization that we do not have the GODs abilities, helps evolve the explanations as to why we do not, and this equates to a kind of self-loathing ... we are then victims of our own sinful natures, because if we didn't have sinful natures, we wouldn't be in this circumstance to begin with.
A Panenthist doesn't think like that, and so is able to think of GOD in more encompassing ways - ways in which Abrahamic ideals have forced such believers of such ideas to have to argue that anyone with different ideas of GOD is a tool of the devil and the penalty for that is a wide range of variables depending on where one is situated and what the local rules are.
For me, it is a matter of not becoming a victim of circumstance whilst being able to acknowledge equality with GOD. not in terms of position or power, but as an aspect of GOD-consciousness liberated from the confines of the oppressive ideals of religiosity and culture and politics and scientism. I am an eternal being having this particular experience within a constrictive construct. No need for me to cry 'foul' on account of that, all call GOD or myself or anyone else, 'evil'.
