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95.
Exodus 20:17
gives a list of property that belongs to your neighbor, which you're ordered not to covet. The list includes your neighbor's house, his servants, his ox, his donkey ... and his wife.
If you are a married Christian man, do you consider your wife to be your property? If your answer is "yes," does your wife know about your attitude?
Are you aware that many women are deeply offended that your God includes them in a property list along with domesticated animals
and servants ("servants" being humans that are owned as slaves, with God's blessing)? Doesn't this betray
God's crummy attitude toward women in general
(I Cor. 14:34,
I Tim. 2:12)
?
Some Christians want to display the Ten Commandments in public schools. Do you think it's a good idea for a modern-day third-grader to grow up thinking that one's wife is an item of property?
And speaking of God's attitude toward women ... did you know that he created Eve as an afterthought?
Take a look at
Genesis 2:18-22
(which may be one of my all-time favorite Bible passages):
God first
decides that man (Adam) should not be alone. God decides that Adam needs a "suitable helper." So what
God does next is to parade all the animals and birds before Adam, "But for Adam no suitable helper was
found." (Genesis 2:20b). THAT'S when God decides to create woman!
One pictures the Infinite Mind of Creation pondering, "Hmmm, let's see ... dog? ... ox? ... whooping crane? ... Latrodectus mactans? No, no, none of them seems quite right. What Adam needs is something with tits and a nice tight ... hey! All the OTHER creatures are represented by TWO sexes! Give me a minute ... I'm getting an idea here ..."
God ... with his infinite mind ... had to scan through all the animals, the dogs and the cats and the lizards and the duckbill platypuses ... before he figured out that a woman would "pair well" with a man.
And what if Eve had never been created? Hell, she was the first sinner! If God can see the future, he knew this, but he created Eve anyway!
96.
Do you believe that "God Hates Fags?"
97.
A real sacrifice is when you give up something you can't get back. Jesus laid down his life for us, but
he took it back again ... as he knew he would (see
John 10:17).
So what's the big deal about Jesus' sacrifice? The really scary thing about death is the permanence of it. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say that Jesus had a really bad weekend for our sins?
98. Romans 11:26 says that all Israel will be saved. How can this be, since they don't accept Jesus?
99.
Mark 16:9-20
appears in some Bibles (such as the KJV) but not in others. Do you believe that this
passage is in fact "inspired Scripture?" Why or why not?
When you engage in textual criticism to determine which "doubtful" passages should be included (such as the Pericope Adulterae,
John 7:53-8:11),
what specific criteria do you use?
100. Do you believe that the American pledge of allegiance to the flag should include the words "one nation under God?"
Are you aware that the original version of the pledge (which had been around for more than a half a century before the McCarthyites, in the 1950's, demanded the insertion of a reference to a deity) did NOT contain the expression "under God" ... that American school children recited The Pledge for more than 50 years without making any reference at all to a deity (and America seemed to get along just fine)?
Would you object if the pledge contained the expression "one nation under Allah" or "one nation under Isis?" Are you aware that America has no "official god?"
And are you aware that the world didn't start going to hell in a handbasket until after the "under God" language was inserted into the Pledge? The epidemic of teenage pregnancy, the rise in divorce, openly gay people marching in the streets, the Vietnam war, Watergate, Islamic extremism, George W. Bush being elected President, prayer "taken out of the public schools" ... all came about AFTER those two magic words were inserted into the Pledge?
101. Who wrote the biblical "book" known as "Hebrews?" If you believe it was Paul, why do you believe this? Are you aware that the writing style of Hebrews (remember that these "books" were written in Greek) is very different from the style of Paul's writings?
102. If God made an announcement tomorrow to the effect that hell had been abolished, that is, that there was no more everlasting punishment for sin, would you continue to live a moral life? Would it offend you in any way if God abolished hell, thereby letting the unrepentant "bad guys" get away with their sin?
Look deep into your heart. Honestly now ... doesn't it give you just a bit of a thrill when you imagine a sarcastic Bible-hating bastard like me screaming in pain as I roast in the flames of hell for eons and eons?
103.
Some Christians say that the earth is 6,000-10,000 years old. Yet there are stars that are many
thousands of light-years away from us; the fact that we can see them at all proves that their light has traveled
for more than 50,000 years.
How old do you believe the earth to be? [Hint: Real scientists think it's about
4.5 billion years old, and the universe is about 13.7 billion years old]
104. Which Bible translation is your favorite or, to put it another way, which one do you believe to be the most reliable (that is, the most accurate)? Why do you believe this? How much Hebrew and/or Greek do you know? If you aren't familiar with Hebrew or Greek, how can you make any assessment of the accuracy of any Bible translation?
And how do you know that all the translators (of all the English translations) haven't been lying to you all along? Haven't you made a pretty big leap of faith, considering that your eternal future is involved?
Isn't it true that what you REALLY have perfect faith in is (1) the manuscript-choosing/manuscript-rejecting people from the Fourth Century (maybe Seventh Century ... we're not sure) and (2) a bunch of translators, NONE of whom you know ANYTHING about ... not even their names?
Do you know even one word of Greek or Hebrew? ["agape" and "shalom" don't count]
105.
People have seen images of the Virgin Mary in tortillas, and in stains on the sides of buildings (to
name a couple of places). They've even seen Jesus' face on toilet paper and on an oyster shell. Do you
believe that any of these "sightings" are valid? Would you agree with me that a lot of people who call
themselves Christians are blithering idiots?
And can you explain to me how any sane person could believe that the Infinite Creator of the Universe would reveal Himself through an image on a tortilla? And if He did so ... what is He trying to SAY? Please translate into plain English the Message of the Holy Tortilla.
And how in the hell does anybody in the 21st Century know what the Virgin Mary looked like? Isn't it possible that the tortilla image is actually Good-Time Sarah, a First-Century whore?
106.
Do you believe that Catholics are saved (going to heaven after they die)? What about Mormons?
Jehovah's Witnesses?
Southern Baptists?
Pentecostals?
Presbyterians?
Episcopalians?
Assembly of God?
Church of Christ?
Why (or why not)?
And if your answer is, "Yes, Catholics are saved if they've really received Jesus and been born again," please describe in detail (for the benefit of our Catholic friends) the exact process whereby one receives Jesus and is born again. And please be very specific, because if even one tiny ingredient is left out or misstated, someone may needlessly end up in hell.
107. You're a Christian. If you committed suicide, would you go to heaven? If not, (a) why not, and (b) what is the scriptural basis [if any] for your answer?
Also: the penalty for adultery is death, according to your Bible. If I commit adultery, does God require me to kill myself [asking for a friend]?
108.
The events described in the book of Revelation take place on the earth.
What if we colonize the
moon (or Mars)? Do the colonists escape "judgment?" Will Christians living on the Mars colony be "raptured?"
109.
In Isaiah 7:14
we read a prophecy about a virgin having a baby, and she names it "Immanuel."
Matthew 1:23
tells us that this was a prophecy of Jesus.
But Jesus was named Jesus — not Immanuel.
How do you explain this? Was Isaiah a false prophet
(Deuteronomy 18:22)?
Or was Jesus a false Messiah?
110.
In
Matthew 17:1-5
we read the story of the "transfiguration" of Jesus. Moses and Elijah dropped in
(perhaps in spectral form, like Anikin Skywalker in Episode 6) and talked to Jesus. Peter
wanted to build shelters for Moses and Elijah, calling them by name.
How did Peter know who they were? From photographs?
111. Did you know that your Bible specifically commands you not to be a motherfucker (Leviticus 18:7) ?
Has your minister preached any sermons on this topic lately? (I imagine Rev. Jones standing behind his pulpit to begin his sermon, and he says, "There'a a motherfucking Bible verse I want us to read ...")
And are you aware that Silver RavenWolf, Raymond Buckland, Doreen Valiente, Margot Adler, and Stewart Farrar, in all their many Wiccan books, have never thought it necessary to instruct Wiccans not to fuck their own mothers? Why do you think your God needs to tell you not to do so?
And by the way ... are you still sure you want your child reading this filthy book?
112.
Matthew 1:16
says, "And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ."
Luke 3:23 says, "Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli."
You believe the Bible to be true. Based on your belief in the Bible, who was the father of Joseph — Jacob or Heli?
113.
Jesus said, "I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
(Matthew 5:28)
In other words, even if you don't commit adultery with your actual body, you've committed it just by lusting after someone.
"Thought crime," one might say.
Now suppose I see someone who needs some cash or a kind word, and I yearn in my heart to give it to
him, but don't. Does that mean I have "committed charity" in my heart? Will God give me any
brownie points? If not, why not, when (according to God) the intent is the same as the action itself?
114.
Hebrews 10:4
states unequivocally that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sin.
That being true, why did God give the Jews so many commandments and instructions about animal sacrifices
(see
Leviticus 9:2,
for instance)? Was he just playing a joke on them? Why didn't he tell them, way back in
the Old Testament days, that their animal sacrifices were useless?
115.
Satan is the father of lies
(John 8:44).
Satan can transform himself
(metaschmatizetai)
into an "angel of light"
(II Corinthians 11:14).
How can you be absolutely sure that the Bible isn't an elaborate deception created by Satan — containing
just enough "good stuff" to make it palatable and credible? Do you believe in the Bible just because you
were raised on it ... just because "everybody always told me it's the real thing?"
How is this different from a
little Muslim child who is 100% sure about the validity of his Koran just because he was raised on it?
116.
As you know, the Bible allows us to have more than one wife at a time; Moses had more than one
wife, and God never batted an eye. The Bible has references to multiple wives
(Genesis 4:23,
Genesis 28:9,
etc.) and even gives us some rules on polygamy
(Deuteronomy 21:15ff),
but never prohibits polygamy. Only bishops ("overseers") are prohibited from having multiple wives
(I Timothy 3:2).
Do you agree with this? If you and your husband (who isn't a bishop, let's assume) lived in a country where
polygamy was legal, do you realize that he could take multiple wives (he'd probably invite you to the
weddings, but not the honeymoons), and it wouldn't violate any Biblical commandments?
117. My friend Gordon, a Christian, gets upset when I use the expression "goddam" (the proper Texas pronunciation requires the accent on the second syllable: "Gaaaaah-DAMN!"). He doesn't get upset when I just say "damn."
I have told him that in using the full "goddam" version, I am acknowledging/suggesting that only God can damn; to say "damn" all by itself (without the GOD prefix) could be a suggestion that I am inviting some other deity to damn the object of the imprecation. In other words, as I patiently explained to him, I am in fact honoring his god, and acknowledging God's supremacy. What do you think?
118.
Imagine that there's a shipwreck, and ten survivors are washed ashore on a deserted island. All of
them have complete amnesia, except for one thing: They retain the ability to read and speak and write the English language. The only book they have is the Bible (let's say it's the New King James Version).
For the next five years, they study the Bible and use it as the basis for a religion they develop (which they call "Biblianity"). Remember that they have no access to any information about church history or traditions.
How similar would their doctrines (and worship services) be to what we'd find in your own church (next Sunday morning) among your Christian brothers and sisters?
Or, in the alternative, is it perhaps more likely that they'd spot the same contradictions, inconsistencies, and outright horrors that I did, and simply reject the Bible out of hand?
119. Do you believe that most people "come to Christ" and "receive Jesus" because they become convinced, at some point in their lives, of the validity of Christianity? Or does it seem that most people who "surrender to Christ" do so at a time of crisis and turmoil in their lives, and are simply grabbing an emotional life preserver?
Have you ever noticed that nobody "comes to Christ" on the afternoon before prom night? Nobody "repents" as he's walking into the Mustang Ranch after winning $8000 at the roulette wheel ... it's always after he's landed on death row, and all his appeals have been exhausted (like Karla Faye Tucker ... she COULD have "found Jesus" just before she grabbed the pickaxe).
Aren't you a little bit skeptical about the "jailhouse conversions?" Do you think Jesus is a bit disappointed about getting so much of the dregs of society ... no Donald Trumps or Bill Gateses?
And by the way ... why would any sane person believe that the answer to every problem on earth is the torture-murder of a nice guy like Jesus?
120.
In the Bible
(Genesis 30:37-39),
we read the story of animals mating while they look at speckled trees; the result is that the calves that are born are speckled.
Honestly, do you believe this story? What do you think would happen if we tried to replicate this event under controlled conditions? Same result?
121.
Do you believe that atheists and Wiccans and lesbians and Moslems and Buddhists have the same legal rights that you do? If your answer is "yes," have you taught this to your children?
122. After Noah's ark landed and the flood waters receded, what did the carnivores eat while the prey animals were repopulating?
And by the way ... did you notice that in Genesis 2, God is still busy creating everything, but only FOUR CHAPTERS LATER, in Genesis 6, he's decided to kill everything and everybody? Looks like his Genesis 1-2 plan was a failure.
God then flooded the earth and killed everybody because the world had become evil (Genesis 6:5), and he wanted to rid the world of evil. Well, it didn't work ... his Genesis 6 plan was also a failure. The evil just came back, stronger than ever.
So ... new plan (this is #3). The world was still wicked and evil, and now God sends his son to die for all the sins of the world. Next time you're in New York City or Kabul or Syria ... ask yourself how that worked out.
123. After Noah's ark landed and the flood waters receded, what did the pandas eat? There isn't any bamboo in the Middle East (and if there had been, it would have been soaking in salt water for the previous 40 days, and would have been inedible).
124. After Noah's ark landed and the flood waters receded, the two polar bears traveled all the way from Mt. Ararat (located, they say, in modern-day Turkey) to the Arctic Circle, leaving no population or offspring behind. If they had traveled at a constant speed of 2 mph, never stopping to sleep, eating while they were on the move, and didn't slow down even for mountains or oceans (this being, of course, impossible), the trip would have taken them three months.
(a) How did they do this?
(b) How did they survive the hot temperatures?
(c) What did they eat? An adult polar bear needs at least 90 pounds of food every day just to stay alive.
125. After Noah's ark landed and the flood waters receded, the two duckbill platypuses traveled all the way from the Middle East to Australia, swimming through thousands of miles of salt water (and leaving behind no offspring). How did they survive this trip?
And by the way ... when the flood waters "receded," where did they go? This was supposedly a
worldwide flood that covered the tallest mountains
("[A]ll the high hills under the whole heaven were covered" -
Genesis 7:19).
126. [Re: the Noah's ark flood] Why did only Noah and his family survive? Wouldn't there have been somebody else somewhere on earth who had a seaworthy boat that could stay afloat as long as the ark did? Wouldn't there have been lots of (human-occupied) boats floating around in the oceans and rivers at the time the rain started falling that would have simply "risen with the tide?"
If (a) Noah's flood really happened and (b) evolution is a false theory, how many Negroes and Japanese married into Noah's family, back before 2304 BCE?
And speaking of Noah and the flood ... God killed 99.9% of the world's population. There must have been a lot of pregnant women who drowned ... right along with their unborn fetuses (a mass abortion ... thousands and thousands of abortions, all on the same day, performed by the Lord God Almighty). Why would anybody claim that God is "pro-life?"
And speaking of Noah and the flood ... there are 350,000 species of beetles. How long did it take Noah to collect a pair from each species? How could he tell the difference between the males and the females? If he spent only ONE MINUTE collecting each pair — finding it, making sure it wasn't one of the other 349,999 species, putting the two specimens into a cage, checking it off his list — and he bagged one pair every minute and never stopped to eat or sleep, he would have spent EIGHT MONTHS just on the beetles!
I picture God talking to Noah. "Hey buddy! Are you finished with the marsupials and the cephalopods? Let's move on to the next phase, the one I call 'Meet the beetles!'"
And speaking of the flood ... Psalm 145:9 says that "The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made." Really???
127. Genesis 3:8-9 indicates that Adam and Eve successfully hid themselves from God. If he's all-knowing, how is this possible? And is there somewhere that I could hide from him so that he won't send me to his hell when I die?
128. You probably have at least one relative whom you know isn't "saved." How can you enjoy an eternity in heaven knowing that Cousin Eddie is screaming in pain in the unquenchable fires of hell, forever and ever and ever, until the end of time ... and beyond? Wouldn't (shouldn't) this spoil your eternal bliss? And if it didn't, aren't you a pretty hard-hearted person? Just as hard-hearted, I might add, as your God?
A standard answer to this question is: "I'll be transformed into a new creature when I get to heaven, and I'll know even as I am known, and I'll no longer see through a glass darkly, so that I'll have peace, no matter what." Tell me, how much "changing" can you undergo before you cease to be yourself? That is, before your personality is altered so much that it isn't YOU anymore — altered so much that you don't give a shit if half your family is being tortured?
129. Do you believe that an atheist is just as happy as you are? Do you believe that an atheist could be happier in life than you are as a Christian?
130. After Noah's flood, when the waters receded, wouldn't the rotting animal corpses have naturally ended up in all the lakes and rivers, in the low-lying areas of the world ... thus polluting all the drinking water?
And since the flood waters covered the entire earth, and most of the water already on the earth was salt water (the oceans), wouldn't the flood have contaminated all the fresh water in the world with salt? In other words, when the flood waters receded, wouldn't all the lakes and wells in the world be filled with salt water?
131. Imagine that you're walking out of church after the Sunday morning service with your son, who is six years old. As you're getting into the car, he says, "Piss! Ass! Foreskin! Whore! Dung! Breasts! Bastard! Concubine! Eunuch! Fornication! Shittim!"
Would you be offended? Would you punish him for using such language? Are you aware that each one of those words is in the King James Version of the Holy Bible ... the very book your son has tucked under his little arm? Are you okay with him "quoting the Bible?"
| "Piss" (pisseth) | I Sam. 25:22, I Kings 14:10 |
| "Ass" | Gen. 22:3, Gen. 42:26 |
| "Foreskin" | Gen. 17:14 |
| "Whore" | Lev. 19:29, Rev. 17:15 |
| "Dung" | Lev. 8:17, II Kings 18:27 |
| "Breasts" | Prov. 5:19 |
| "Bastard" | Deut 23:2, Heb. 12:8 |
| "Concubine" | Gen. 22:24, Judges 19:9, II Sam. 15:16 |
| "Eunuch" | Isa. 39:7, Jeremiah 41:16, Matt. 19:12 |
| "Fornication" | II Chron. 21:11, Isa. 23:17, Matt. 15:19 |
| "Shittim" | Ex. 37:10, Joel 3:18 |
132.
Every Sunday in church, millions of people pray The Lord's Prayer, which includes a request that
"thy [God's] will be done."
Exodus 31:15
tells us that the will of God is that people who work on the
Sabbath should be put to death.
Do you really want that? All the thousands of employees of Wal-Mart
and Kroger who work on Sunday ... do you want them to be executed? How? By lethal injection? Firing
squad?
133.
Isaiah 40:28
says that God doesn't grow tired or weary. If this is true, why did God
have to rest on the seventh day,
after he created everything?
134. Do you believe that church attendance is important? Why? Are you aware that there is only ONE Bible verse that even vaguely orders Christians to attend church services (it's Hebrews 10:25) but there are FOUR separate commandments in the New Testament that require you to kiss every person you meet (I Corinthians 16:20, II Corinthians 13:12, I Thessalonians 5:26, I Peter 5:14)? Which are you doing more of these days - going to church, or kissing people?
And in case you're wondering ... no, there's nothing in the Ten Commandments that requires church attendance. You "keep the Sabbath day holy" by not working, period. You can look it up (Exodus 20:8-10, Exodus 34:21).
And by the way ... the Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday. Do you work on Saturday? Are you arrogant enough to think that you have the right to change God's Sabbath from Saturday to a different day of the week?
Acts 20:7 states that the Christians got together on the first of the week (i.e., Sunday). They did it ONE TIME. There is NO indication that this was a regular weekly day of worship meetings for them.
Have you nullified the commandment of God for the sake of your church's tradition (Matthew 15:6)?
And in case you're wondering, no, there's nothing in the New Testament to indicate that the early Christians changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
135.
In
Luke 22:36,
Jesus specifically orders Christians to buy swords — even if they have to sell their
outer garments to get the money.
Do you own a sword? If you don't, when do you plan to buy one and
end your rebellion against the Lord's clear and unequivocal commandment?
136.
In
Matthew 19:12,
Jesus said that some people have castrated themselves for the sake of the kingdom
of heaven.
If your son told you that he wanted to follow Jesus' suggestion, what would you say?
137. In John 21:15-17, we read about an exchange between Jesus and Simon Peter. Jesus asks Simon three times, "Do you love me?"
As you probably know, when you read this passage in Greek, Jesus uses different (Greek) words for "love." Pastors adore this passage because it's a ready-made sermon.
There are a couple of problems, though: (1) Jesus didn't speak Greek when he talked to Simon, because Simon wouldn't have known what the hell he was saying, and (2) if you say this in Aramaic (the language that Jesus would have used), it just doesn't work, since Aramaic doesn't have as many words that are translated "love."
How do you explain this? Could this be a fake story?
138. Proverbs 22:15 clearly says that it is acceptable for me to hit my child with a stick. If you observed me in my back yard "being Biblical" by hitting my seven-year-old son with a stick, what (if anything) would you do? Would you bow your head and thank the Lord that you have such a godly neighbor?
139.
You believe that you're going to heaven after you die.
Do you like the idea that you've been created
for the sole purpose of worshipping your creator? That after you die, you're supposed to do this forever?
That the purpose of your existence is to be part of a cosmic cheering squad for a deity so vain and insecure
that he needs constant reassurance of his supremacy ... for billions and billions and billions of years?
140.
In these questions, I think I've shown that your "God" is in reality a hateful, twisted, nasty,
vicious, petty, vengeful, double-talking, self-contradictory, nit-picking, slave-mongering, dishonest, spiteful being of low moral character.
How do you know you're not really worshipping Satan?
I'm not asking you to hold God
accountable, or to judge him (he's opposed to that, of course); I'm just asking you if there is any minimum
standard of decency that you'd hold him to. Have you decided in advance to worship God no matter what
kind of a violent, twisted, sick son of a bitch he is shown to be (and admits to being) in his own book?
In other words ... the Bible contains instructions on how to avoid the eternal fires of hell. God (1) made the rules, (2) created an imperfect human race that he knew in advance would break his rules, (3) created a horrible place [hell] where the rule-breakers would be tortured forever, and then (4) provided them with information (albeit confusing and contradictory) on how to escape the hell that he himself created. Wouldn't it have been a lot simpler if this all-loving all-powerful God, by a snapping of his fingers, had just eliminated all of the problems we humans must endure ... instead of giving us this weird book and just hoping we could figure it out?
God is omniscient; he knows everything. This means that when he created the universe, he saw the suffering that humans would eventually endure (in hell) as a result of their sins. God actually heard, in advance, the screams of the damned. Surely he knew that it would have been better for those humans never to have been born (in fact, the Bible says this very thing about one particular sinner ... Mark 14:21), and surely an all-compassionate deity would have forgone the creation of a sinful human who was (a) destined to imperfection and therefore (b) predestined to suffer forever.
I contend that it is not logical that a perfectly compassionate God would create beings whom he knows are doomed to suffer forever and ever, and that this is the most obvious contradiction in your belief system (and the most shocking, obvious flaw in God's character). What do you think?
Imagine a newborn baby. The young mother, her hair wet with sweat, cradles him gently, as tears of happiness fill her eyes. And up in heaven, your God looks down on this tender scene, on this tiny infant, knowing that it will spend countless eons being tortured in hell, millions and millions of years screaming in agony. How does God feel right now? How do YOU feel about this?
On March 31, 2006, the Dallas Morning News reported that a man named Robert Stephenson had gotten angry at his ex-girlfriend. He went to her house, coerced her to get into his truck with him by threatening to burn down her house (with her children in it) if she didn't, and then took her to his house ... where he tied her up, hung her upside down, beat her, raped her, and burned her with a blowtorch. He then poured Drano into the burn wounds. After 19 days, she escaped. How is Robert Stephenson any different, morally, from your God (besides the fact that God wants to torture people for much longer than 19 days)?
141. Jesus was punished for sins that he didn't commit. Why would anyone call that "justice?" If our courts accepted the punishment of someone else in the place of the guilty criminal, we would not say that justice had been done, but that injustice had been added to injustice. Is the church teaching that two wrongs make a right?
Some people say that Jesus dying for our sins represents God's mercy. In fact, it represents the opposite of that. The substitutionary death of Jesus means that somebody PAID for your sins — God demanded payment — it does NOT mean that God was "merciful."
142. What is it about Biblegod that makes him a male god? Does he have a penis? Does he have a beard? XY chromosomes in his divine DNA rather than XX?
Imagine that someone were to go through the entire Bible and change every reference to God's gender so that he became a female ... a goddess. Every "he" or "him" would be changed to a "she" or "her." Jesus would be quoted as saying, "No one comes to the Mother except through me" (John 14:6). The Lord's [Lady's?] prayer would begin, "Our Mother, who art in heaven ..."
If we did "feminize" Biblegod, how would that change any theological [thealogical?] assertion found in the Bible? How would it make any difference at all ... other than the fact that it would be pretty unbelievable that a mother Goddess would perpetrate all the mass murder and genocide that Biblegod confesses to in his own Holy Book?
143.
In the Bible
(Matthew 18:19)
it says that if two Christians agree about anything, God will do it.
Could you get with one of your Christian buddies and ask God to give me a million dollars? Please? This
would be a VERY easy way for you to prove that your God exists, and that he tells the truth.
In fact ... right now, I want you to have a prayer meeting and ask your God to make me win the next lottery. Then
send me an email
telling me that you did this.
When I win the lottery, I will give you $100,000.00 and take down this website.
I promise. I swear to your god.
144.
In Genesis 4:26,
long before the time of Moses, we are told that men began to call on "the name of
the LORD
[יהוה]
."
In fact, at
Genesis 22:14
(again, long before the time of Moses), Abraham names a place "The LORD
[יהוה]
Will Provide."
And yet later on — later in time — in Exodus 6:3, God tells Moses that previously his name [יהוה] had been unknown to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How do you explain this clear contradiction?
145. Why was "demon possession" so common in Jesus' time, but is hardly mentioned at all in the Old Testament, and is non-existent today?
146. Why did God create so many species only to allow most of them to become extinct before man even existed (some scientists estimate that 99% of all the species that ever lived on earth are now extinct)? What was the point?
147. If every single copy of the Bible were destroyed (including the copies on personal computers and on the internet), everywhere in the entire universe, would your God still exist? How would you know?
And without a Bible, how would you be able to discern his attributes?
148. Genesis 4:15 records that God placed a mark on Cain — a distinctive identifying symbol. At the time, there were only three people in the entire world. Didn't they all know each other?
The book of Genesis also records that Cain killed his brother Abel. This raises a couple of questions:
1. How did Cain know how to kill somebody? This was "in the beginning," and nobody had ever killed anybody. In fact, at this point, nobody had ever died.
2. At this point in history, was it a sin to kill somebody? The Law had not been given ("Thou shalt not kill"), and apart from the law, sin is dead (Romans 7:8).
149.
Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself"
(Matthew 22:39).
And HOW did Jesus say that one should love himself? Jesus said we must hate ourselves in order to qualify to be his disciples [hate our
own lives]
(Luke 14:26).
If I'm a Christian, I am required to hate myself; and I am required to love my neighbor the same way. Therefore, I should hate my neighbor, right?
150. How would you prove that your god exists — without using arguments that someone from another religion could use to prove that his god exists, and without reference to the Bible?
151. If someone showed up tomorrow and claimed to be "the second coming of Christ," what would be your minimum requirement(s) for proof of his identity?
152.
Jeremiah 3:12
reads, "'For I am merciful,' says the Lord, 'I will not remain angry forever.'"
Fourteen chapters later (Jeremiah 17:4), God says, "You have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever."
How can God's anger burn forever if he doesn't remain angry forever?
153.
If a wicked person (an enemy of the faith) should suffer, what would be the appropriate reaction for a
Christian?
Psalm 58:10 says, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." But Proverbs 24:17 says, "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth."
So which is it? Okay to rejoice, or not okay to rejoice?
154.
In 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui was convicted (and sentenced to life in prison) for doing
nothing. The crime he committed was NOT stopping the September 11 attacks — not reporting the
conspiracy to authorities.
Didn't Biblegod commit exactly the same crime on September 11?
155. Can God make a burrito so spicy that he can't eat it?
156.
Hosea 8:4
[King James Version] quotes Biblegod as saying, "They have made princes, and I knew it not."
How can this be, since Biblegod is omniscient?
157. Imagine that you've decided to hire somebody to remodel your kitchen. You want an honest contractor, because you're going to be spending lots of money.
Contractor A is a Christian. All his workmen are Christians. His truck has the little fish logo on the side (with the word JESUS written inside it, for people who don't understand the reference). He has a good reputation in the community.
Contractor B is a Wiccan. All of his employees are Wiccan. He has a pentagram on the side of his truck. He also has a good reputation in the community.
As you know, if a Christian sins — screws up your kitchen, gets the measurements wrong, paints with the wrong colors, does the wiring backward, takes your money and doesn't complete the work — all he has to do (according to his religion) to make things right is to talk to his god (see I John 1:9). Kaboom, just like that, he's forgiven.
On the other hand, a Wiccan believes that he will have to pay for his "sins" — whatever trouble he causes you, he'll be hit with three times as much trouble.
Question: Which contractor do you trust to do your kitchen right?
158.
You believe that the nicest guy who ever lived was Jesus. Your God allowed Roman soldiers to
beat him and then murder him slowly and painfully (right after Jesus prayed to your God to
"let this cup pass, if it be possible").
Why do you "praise" this God? Why do you worship him? Is it because you're afraid not to?
159. From 1900 to 1940, every child in America celebrated Halloween in the usual way: dressing up as a witch or ghost (or monster), attending a Halloween party (it may have been sponsored by a church), watching a scary movie, telling (and/or listening to) ghost stories, and going out trick-or-treating. That generation of Americans grew up strong and moral, raised normal children, and defeated Hitler. Why is it that modern evangelicals are so worried about Halloween, claiming (without a shred of evidence) that it's some sort of gateway to Satanism?
Do modern Christians just enjoy finding new things to hate?
160. Numbers 23:19 says that God is not man nor is he the son of man. How then can you believe that Jesus (a man) is God?
161.
The Bible says that
(a) the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul (Psalm 19:7).
It also says that
(b) the law is powerless to save us (Romans 8:3); if any law could save us, then Jesus died for nothing (Galatians 2:21).
So which is it? Is the law (a) perfect, and able to convert one's soul, or is it (b) incapable of saving us?
Another way to ask this question might be: Did Jesus really have to die in order for God to forgive our sins?
162. Satan could not exist unless God had created him (John 1:3). Why would God create Satan? If you were the only being in existence, and you had all the power in the universe, would you create your own worst enemy?
163. Why doesn't your church use its Sunday School classes to refute the vast body of skeptical literature? In other words, why don't they teach you in Sunday School how to answer questions like the ones I'm asking?
Remember that I Peter 3:15 requires that you "always be ready to give a defense (apologian) to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you."
164.
Genesis 6:6
says that "the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart." God is perfect, and knows everything.
How could it be that God would do something that he would later regret? Did he not know what was going to happen?
165. Many Christians subscribe to the doctrine of sola scriptura ("only scripture"), which is the idea that the only source of Christian doctrine is the Bible. Did you know that the Bible itself states otherwise? Per I Timothy 3:15, the "pillar and ground of the truth" is THE CHURCH. Wouldn't it be fair to say that the Bible itself negates this concept of sola scriptura?
166. As you know, Satan used to be an angel, and he rebelled against God. God cast him out of heaven, and threw him down to earth (Luke 10:18; Ezekiel 28:17; Isaiah 14:12ff). Of all the planets in the universe, why did God throw Satan down to this one?
167. There is absolutely no doubt that the Bible requires one to adhere to a policy of intolerance of (and/or hostility to) other religions. If you were President of the United States, would you follow the clear requirements of your Bible in this area, or would you follow the First Amendment?
168. The Bible says that insects have four legs (Leviticus 11:20-23). What do YOU think? Do you really want your 8th grader to get into an argument with his Life Science teacher about this?
169.
Mark 1:2
purports to quote Isaiah; the verse Jesus is quoting is actually found in Malachi
(3:1).
How can the Bible be wrong about ... the Bible?
170.
Matthew 27:9-10
purports to quote Jeremiah, but the passage is really in Zechariah
(11:12-13).
Again ... how can the Bible be wrong about the Bible?
171. Jude (vv. 14-15) quotes from the book of Enoch (it's Enoch 1:9). Does your Bible contain the book of Enoch? Doesn't the book of Jude expressly endorse the book of Enoch as being scripture? Shouldn't Enoch therefore be in your Bible?
172. Have you ever wondered why the period when the church dominated the western world is universally referred to as the Dark Ages, while the period of breaking away from church dogma is called the Enlightenment?
173. Your Bible (KJV) has two separate references to satyrs and NINE separate references to unicorns. Not to mention a talking snake and a talking donkey. Seriously ... do you believe everything in this book?
174. The Amplified Bible ... is it really louder than the other Bibles?
175.
Harvey Weinstein is famous for being a sexual abuser. We hear story after story from women, and they're all the same: It was a relationship where he had authority over them, and he used it to his advantage to coerce them into having sex with him. He is the reason that the "Me Too" movement was founded.
Explain how his conduct is different from what God did with the Virgin Mary
(Luke 1:26ff).
God didn't ask her for her permission; he simply swooped down and got her pregnant. God took advantage of his position of authority.
He knew that Mary couldn't say "no." How is God any different from Harvey Weinstein?
And by the way ... what if Mary had said "no?" If she had resisted the "will of God" regarding getting knocked up, would that have been a sin?
Would God have sent her to hell for refusing to get pregnant? Disobeying God is a sin, right?
176. Can a person sin in heaven?
177. We are told that God is good. We are told that he loves us. God is love (I John 4:8).
And God can do anything. Absolutely anything. God asks, "Is there anything too hard for me?" (Jer. 32:27) The implied answer is "No."
God is able to feed hungry people.
He did it with Jesus' miracle of the loaves and fishes. God fed hungry people with a miracle.
He did it when the Israelites were wandering in the desert — he gave them manna. He fed hungry people with a miracle.
If you had the power to feed all the hungry people in the world by wiggling your left pinky, would you do it?
God has the power, right now, to feed all the hungry children in the world, but he isn't doing it. Is your God an asshole?
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Jesus told a story —
Matthew 25:31ff
— about two groups of people.
One group was generous, and gave food to hungry people; they gave clothing to people who didn't have clothes; and they visited people who were sick and in prison. They went to heaven — they were told, "Enter into the joy of your Lord." The second group was a bunch of assholes. They didn't give food to hungry people, or clothing to naked people. They went to hell — a fiery place that had been prepared for Satan and his angels. Your God has the power to give food to hungry people, and he doesn't do it. This means that God deserves to go to hell. |
178. Here on earth, we have murder and rape and evil and jealousy. Christians say that this is because of mankind having a free will.
This is the cause of suffering on earth.
Christians will also tell you that in heaven, people have free will. People do whatever they want to.
And they'll tell you that in heaven, there is no murder or rape or evil.
Why doesn't heaven have the same kind of suffering that we have on earth?
Why is "giving us a free will" the only way that God can give us a meaningful life? He's God; he can do anything. Why doesn't he just push a magic button that's labeled "Take Away Their Free Will and Fix Everything, But Humans Still Retain Purpose in Life"?
179. Imagine that a whole bunch of bad people — Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Hillary Clinton — had deathbed conversions, that is, they Became Christians ("received Jesus") minutes before they died. Like the thief on the cross — lives filled with evil, yet it's all wiped clean at the very last minute by the blood of Jesus (hallelujah).
We're assuming that these people still have their same personalities, and free will, after they're dead.
If this happened a million times, and heaven were populated with a bunch of these sorry motherfuckers, wouldn't it change the nature of heaven? If heaven were filled with sorry bastards, would you want to live there forever?
If Hitler "received Jesus" just before his death in May 1945, would he automatically lose his anti-Semitism (and his desire to conquer everything around him)?
180. The book of Hebrews (in the New Testament) is written in Greek. Is this false advertising?
181. What would it take to convince you that God doesn't exist? Unanswered prayer? Contradictions and absurdities in your Bible?
And if nothing could ever convince you, isn't your "faith" pretty meaningless? Isn't it, in fact, mere stubbornness ... which is of the flesh?
What if I'm not able to convince myself that God is real? I'm not rebelling. I'm not denying. I am simply not convinced that God exists. Is it fair for God to send me to hell? I don't have control over what I actually believe.
182.
It's funny: God can "magic up" anything he wants — healing, manna from heaven, loaves and fishes, walking on water, raising a dead guy — but to write a book, he uses humans with goose quills and ink pots.
Why couldn't he just "speak it into existence" — i.e., "and God said, 'Let there be a Bible,' and there was a Bible"?
183. Have you ever read the entire Bible, cover to cover? Why not? If you haven't read the whole thing, do you nevertheless claim to believe that everything in it is true (including the parts you've never read)?
184.
Did you know that Jesus contradicted himself ... in two statements that are recorded in the same book of the Bible?
(1) "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Even if I bear witness (marturw) of myself, my witness (marturia) IS TRUE.'" (John 8:14)
Marturw means "bear witness" (NAS) or "testify" (NIV, NRSV), and it's the same word used in John 5:31, where Jesus says,
(2) "If I bear witness (marturw) of myself, my witness (marturia) IS NOT TRUE."
Based on the statements of Jesus himself ... if he bears witness of himself, is it true, or not true?
185. This is what Mark 4:11-12 says:
"[Jesus] said to them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them."
Jesus says that he is telling secret things to this special group of people, and everybody else just hears parables which obscure the meaning of what is being said. He says that the "parables hearers" will never understand, and will never "turn" and be forgiven.
Jesus has picked out two groups of people. One group is given the "secret things," and the other group ("those on the outside") is given parables, which they won't understand.
Obviously, Jesus doesn't want the "parables hearers" to be forgiven. If he did, he would give them "the secret of the kingdom of God."
But in II Pet 3:9,
we are told that "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
So ... does Jesus want everybody to be saved? If he did, wouldn't he make damn sure that everybody was given "the secret of the kingdom of God?"
186.
Deuteronomy 25:5
orders you to marry your brother's wife.
So if your brother dies, leaving behind a widow, what does God want you to do?
187.
In the past two months, how many times has your pastor (in his sermons) made references to Marvel movie characters?
188.
Is a psychopath made in the image of God?
And if you're made in the image of God, wouldn't you be invisible?
189.
When Jesus ascended (bodily) into heaven
(Acts 1:9),
did he just keep going higher and higher? Did the air keep getting thinner and thinner, and did it get colder and colder as he was sailing past the planets on his way out of the solar system?
Does it concern you that a book that was supposedly written by the creator of the universe doesn't demonstrate even an elementary-school level of cosmological knowledge?
190.
But Luke tells a completely different story: after Jesus is born, his parents take him to Jerusalem, and then they go home to Nazareth
(Luke 2:21-39).
So ... where did Jesus' parents (well, his Mom and his stepfather) take him after he was born?
191.
How easy would it have been for God (an omniscient being) to have put just one chapter in his Bible that would show him unequivocally to be omniscient? Everything that's in the Bible indicates that it was written by pre-technological humans who had no knowledge of how the universe actually works.
192.
I used to be a Christian, and I'm working on losing my salvation. How many girls do I have to fuck (I'm already way up into the single digits)?
193.
In
Deut. 30:9-11,
God says, "The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach."
In other words, God's law — the Torah — is "not too difficult for you or beyond your reach."
But in
Acts 15:5-10,
there's a story about the Pharisees telling the First-Century Christians that
"the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses."
Peter responds to the Pharisees thus: "Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke [the Law] that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?"
What? They "couldn't bear it [the Law]"?
Which Bible verse do you believe? The one in Deuteronomy that says the Law is "not too difficult" or the verse in Acts that says it's a yoke that nobody can bear?
194.
But in
Matthew 19:26,
Jesus said, "With God all things are possible."
So Jesus thinks that there's something that might not be possible (the cup passing from him) ... but he also says that all things are possible.
Is Jesus perhaps double-minded
[diyucoV]
(James 1:8)?
195.
The answer is YES:
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
And read
Mark 2:5,
where a paralyzed man was brought to Jesus. Jesus flat-out told the man that his sins were forgiven ... yet Jesus hadn't been crucified yet!
The answer is NO:
"The Law says that almost everything must be sprinkled with blood, and no sins can be forgiven unless blood is offered."
So which do you believe? Can God forgive sin if there isn't blood dripping somewhere [as God clearly states in
II Chron. 7:14]?
In other words,
was it really necessary for Jesus to die?
196.
We are told that we're all born with "original sin"
(Psalm 51:5).
In Genesis 6, God killed everybody on earth (except eight people) in a huge flood. Those eight people — all of them — had "sinful natures." Why did God think that things would be any different when those eight people repopulated the planet?
197.
Matthew 5:6
says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."
It occurs to me that after a person is filled, he will no longer hunger and thirst. So I guess
198.
Imagine that time travel becomes possible, so that one can travel back into the past.
We know that Amy Grant "got saved" in 1974. She was 13.
She recorded a song about it.
Imagine that I could time travel back to 1973, when Amy was still unsaved, and I killed her. Would Amy Grant go to hell?
Close your eyes and try to picture Amy Grant in hell.
I'll bet
Jack T. Chick
could draw a tract about this (well, he could if he were still alive).
199.
What is the difference between religion and pseudoscience?
200.
In the Ten Commandments, God
orders me not to covet my neighbor's wife.
I have met all my of neighbors' wives, and I don't covet any of them. They're all nice gals, but ... I don't covet them.
However, when I drive to work, there's a college girl who stands at a certain bus stop each morning. On a scale of one to ten, she's about a 13. I'm afraid that when I look at her, I feel a surge of lust.
Is it okay to covet her? I'm absolutely certain that she isn't married to any of my neighbors.
201.
Jesus is a bastard. He was born to an unwed mother. His parents (Mary and God) were never married.
This means,
according to the Bible,
that he isn't allowed to enter a synagogue.
And yet the Bible records that he
did go into a synagogue
— in direct violation of the scriptural commandment!
Doesn't this mean that Jesus is a sinner?
202.
Job 38:22
says that God keeps snow and hail in storehouses. Do you believe this?
Could we maybe say that God doesn't know anything because he's a character in a story that was made up by men who didn't know anything?
203.
204.
Subsequently — only 14 verses later
(Exodus 9:20)
— when God threatens a hailstorm, we are told that "Some of Pharaoh's officials were afraid because of what the Lord had said. They quickly brought their servants and livestock in from the fields."
What livestock? All the livestock of Egypt had died [yes, it's the same Hebrew word for "livestock"
(מקנה)
in both verses].
205.
Everybody.
Yet in
Numbers 13:33
we read about giants — the Nephilim — being on the earth.
Where did they come from?
206.
And yet right there in the Bible, we have multiple accounts of people who were resurrected before Jesus ... and one of them was raised by Jesus himself!
• • •
I Kings 17:17-22
— Elijah raises a widow's son from the dead.
• • •
II Kings 4:31-35
— Elisha brings a dead child back to life.
• • •
II Kings 13:21
— a dead man comes into contact with Elisha's bones, and he is resurrected (the dead man, not Elisha).
• • •
Matthew 9:18-26
— Jesus raises a girl from the dead.
• • •
Matt. 27:51-53
— the "Night of the Living Dead" mass resurrection — it happened before the resurrection of Jesus.
• • •
John 11:38-44
— Jesus raises Lazarus.
So which do you believe? Was Jesus the very first to rise from the dead (as the Bible states), or did those other people get resurrected before he did (as the Bible also states)?
207.
Christians don't like transgenderism and crossdressing.
208.
In
Luke 6:20,
Jesus says, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."
But if I encounter a poor person and give him money, then he is no longer a poor person ... which makes him lose his Luke 6:20 blessing.
This means that I should be careful not to give money to the poor, right?
209.
Where in the New Testament does it say "You can ignore the first 74% of the Bible because now we're getting to the good part"?
210.
His traveling companions, we are told, heard a voice but didn't see anything.
In
Acts 22:6-9,
Saul (Paul) recounts this incident and says that his traveling companions saw a light but they didn't hear a voice.
So which is it? Paul's traveling companions — did they hear Jesus' voice or didn't they?
211.
Do you read the Bible the same way you read any other book?
If you owned a shop manual that was full of inconsistencies and contradictions, would you keep using it?
Are you more willing to forgive the errors and inaccuracies in the Bible than you would if it weren't a "holy book?"
Are you in fact making allowances for the imperfections of God?
Are you making special accommodations and excuses for this book, the same way you would for a mentally retarded child?
Isn't your Bible a kind of a weird, defective, antiquated thing that you tolerate only because you feel like you have to, because you're afraid of what might happen if you questioned it in a fair, reasonable, intelligent manner?
And isn't it true that fear is an integral part of your religion — not fear of evil spirits or of Satan, but fear of God himself —
Is the Bible something that is occasionally an embarrassment to you
(Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
?
In trying to come up with answers to the questions on this page,
do you find yourself having to stifle your normal common sense? Do you find yourself saying things like
(a) "God can do whatever he wants to, because he's God" or
(b) "God is holy, and can't allow any sin in his presence" (nobody has ever found an actual Bible verse that says this. In fact, in the first chapter of Job, we read that Satan himself was allowed to come into the presence of God) or
(c) "Things are different today than they were in Biblical times" or
(d) "There are a lot of things in the Bible we just don't understand" or
(e) "We just have to trust in God; we have to have faith" or
(f) "We can't always understand God; his ways are not our ways" [this is also true of Charles Manson] or
(g) "That Bible verse must have been taken out of contex ... I'll look it up sometime" or
(h) "That's just one of those difficult Bible passages" or
(i) "That was back in the Old Testament; it doesn't apply to us" or
(j) "I can't explain it, and I don't really understand it, but I still believe in the Bible, no matter what"
or
(k) "That's not in the original text. I think" or
(l) "That was Aramaic/Jewish hyperbole, and shouldn't be taken literally" [how can we determine
which Bible passages should be taken literally? What is your litmus test?] or
(m) "That's an example of linguistic extreme, or absoluteness being used to express a preference"
(translation: Any time the Bible says something ridiculous or disgusting or vicious, it means something else. Otherwise,
we'd have proof positive that Biblegod is a demented monster) or
(n) "That old canard? I've heard THAT question asked before" [this response beats the hell out of
actually answering the question] or
(o) "That's just an ancient expression of Oriental imprecation" [Really? Then don't tell me that the Bible
is relevant for modern times!] or
(p) "Behind much of the thought in the Bible lies a peculiarly Semitic idea of a unitive notion of human
personality" [words thrown together that mean absolutely nothing ... another Christian apologist trying to
sound intelligent ... can I have some Ranch dressing on that word salad?] or
(q) "There's a webpage at http://www.dammit_the_bible_is_true.com that answers that question."
Leviticus 20:21
prohibits you from marrying your brother's wife ("it is an unclean thing").
In Matthew's gospel, after Jesus is born, his parents take him to Egypt, and they stay there until after Herod dies
(Matt. 2:12-15).
Let's talk for a minute about the Old Testament law (the Torah).
But Deuteronomy says that the Law is "not too difficult."
In
Matthew 26:39,
Jesus prayed, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from me."
Can God forgive sin without blood being shed?
(II Chronicles 7:14).
No mention whatsoever of blood ... just forgiveness.
(Hebrews 9:22, CEV).
(a) I'll hunger and thirst, then
(b) I'll get filled, and after that
(c) I won't get the blessing any more?
In
Gen. 1:26-27,
God created Adam and Eve at the same time.
But in
Gen. 2:18ff,
God created Adam first, and later created Eve (he used one of Adam's ribs). Which of these two stories do you believe?
We read in
Exodus 9:6
that "All the livestock of Egypt died."
God flooded the entire earth, and everybody was drowned except Noah and his family.
Acts 26:23
says that Jesus Christ fulfilled a prophecy by being the first person to rise from the dead.
They refer you to that Bible verse that says "male and female he created them
(Gen. 1:27)."
And there's even a Bible verse that says a man should not dress up like a woman
(Deut. 22:5)
nor vice-versa.
And yet in
Galatians 3:28,
Paul says that in Christ there is neither male nor female.
So what should I say to my crossdressing friend?
In
Acts 9:1-7,
the Bible tells the dramatic story of Saul on the road to Damascus. He sees a blinding light and falls off his donkey, and Jesus talks to him.
Deuteronomy 6:13,
Joshua 24:14,
Psalm 2:11,
Ecclesiastes 12:13,
Isaiah 33:6,
II Corinthians 5:11?
In the common-sense part of your mind, do you suspect that the Bible is really a not-too-admirable invention of man - not "the word of God" at all?
Do you find that the more you study the Bible, the more you have to engage in "double-think?" Do you find that the more you try to defend the Bible, the more you have to engage in "double-talk?"
If this many legitimate questions existed about an airplane that you were about to board, would you go ahead and make the trip? Or would you wait for the next flight? If you had the courage to be absolutely, 100% honest, would you tell people that you really believe that the Bible is perfect and infallible? If we hooked you up to a polygraph when you made that statement ("Yes, I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, and it's 100% infallible"), how much would the needles wiggle?
We are told that the Bible was written by God, the all-knowing infinite supreme being. One would expect the Bible to be chock-full (cover to cover) of wisdom and insight. And yet if you open the Bible at random(ask a stranger to do this ... just flip the book open and put his finger down at random) and start reading, it's a bunch of meaningless nonsense.
An example: I just flipped (at random) to Nahum 2:3. Here's what the infinite mind of God wants me to know today: "The shields of his mighty men are made red, the valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots come with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the spears are brandished."
How could any impartial, unprejudiced, intelligent person believe that this book was written by a wise all-knowing infinite transcendent deity?
I challenge you, right now, to take the Random Bible Verse test. Seriously. Go get your Bible.
Would it be safe to say that you employ your critical faculties (i.e., your good common sense) in every aspect of your life other than this one (your religion)? You wouldn't invest your kids' college savings in a scheme run by a cheesy scam artist.
You don't buy the crap they advertise in the infomercials ("Wait! If you call in the next ten minutes ..."). But let somebody use the magic word "God" or show you some commandment or assertion in an old leather-bound KJV (an incomprehensible self-contradictory 17th-Century English translation of a ragtag collection of spurious copies [of copies of copies of copies] of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts that were collected over a period of thousands of
years, and selected from an even larger collection of manuscripts by people that you know nothing about) and, regardless of how patently absurd or preposterous the assertion is, you obey, no questions asked.
Does it ever occur to you that maybe you're allowing yourself to be controlled by the wrong thing?
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