From time-to-time, I receive emails from Christians full of questions regarding my deconversion--my rejection of the Christian argument. I always respond to their questions thoroughly and then send my set of questions for them. I generated the list off-the-cuff about 2 years ago. As of late, no Christian has even attempted to answer these questions. They usually claim to be too busy despite the fact I just answered their questions. I'm hoping someone will respond now that I'm posting it as a blog.
Please try not to speculate or provide standard Christian arguments. I'm looking for well-thought out responses.
God
1) Define god.
2) Did your god create sin? Why or why not?
3) Why does your god allow suffering?
4) How and why does vicarious redemption atone for sin? Why is it necessary?
5) What is heaven?
6) What is hell?
7) Why did god not mention hell in the OT?
8) What scientific evidence do you have for the afterlife?
9) What makes your belief any different from a person who claims to have been abducted by a UFO?
10) If the Hebrew god is your moral arbiter and is your source for direction, how do you personally determine his will since he is unseen and mute?
11) If your god “fine-tuned” the universe for life, why is life irregular and chaotic?
12) Have you ever seen a person raised from the dead?
13) Have you seen your god regrow a limb or does he just “heal” things we can’t see?
14) How do you reconcile the inconsistencies among the thousands upon thousands of Biblical manuscripts?
15) If god came to you and told you to kill your child, would you? Please do not respond with "he won't". He did with Abraham. This is a serious question. Would you?
16) If he told you to blow up a public building, would you? He has demonstrated in the Bible that he would ask such a thing.
Biology
1) Show fossils that unmistakably support the creationist view.
2) Show me the alternative system of dating used by creationists.
3) Show me the creationist explanation for vestigial organs.
4) Show me the creationist explanation for fused genes in Chromosome 2 in humans.
5) Show me scientific evidence for the creation story.
6) Show me 10 reputable scientists who have published alternative views to evolution by natural selection.
7) Show me a gene that shows markings of having been created and not evolved.
8) Give me a valid scientific explanation why there are no human bones found in the same layer of earth and/or mingled with dinosaur bones.
Morality
1) If the Hebrew god is good, why did he have the Hebrews commit genocide and rape?
2) Are the Ten Commandments a good moral code?
3) Name them off the top of your head without cheating.
4) If the Hebrews did not have the Ten Commandments until they were wandering in the desert from whence came their morality beforehand?
How do you know what you claim to know in your answers above?
Will you accept documents in the Biblical cannon and other Christian writing as evidence? If so I will answer your questions, otherwise I am wasting my time!
ReplyDeleteI posted a link to your blog on Twitter, and 'fisher david' answered pretty much as above. He's yet to respond to my immediate reply, which was: "I'll accept bible as evidence when you demonstrate how it is more authentic than scriptures of all other religions" ....
ReplyDelete@fisher_david
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter if I accept the current Biblical canon or not, many of the questions don't deal with the Bible at all. for the sake of argument, no, I don't accept it, because it cannot be authenticated. Who wrote each book? Do we have the originals? Is each book verified by outside sources? And so on...
My challenge still stands. No Christian will attempt to answer these. WHY NOT?! If I were still a Christian, I would have at least tried.
I once took up a challenge like this that you posted on this blog. We went back and forth for 60 or so postings. You ended where you started, saying that I labor under a "misapprehension" and ignoring most of my arguments. Ultimately, you abandoned the discussion. Are you serious this time with your list? Do you really want answers to think about, or are you just waiting to make fun of people who respond?
ReplyDeleteOnce burned...twice shy.
Contact me at tdavidd1991@yahoo.com, and please provide a copy of the list of questions.
ReplyDeleteNone of these commenteers are serious or you would just post your answers in the reply section. Followers of deities hate facts. I bet most of them think christopher columbus was a hero.
ReplyDelete@Lyn
ReplyDeleteI just want honesty and I don't get it. Saying something is true, but not providing evidence is the same as lying or being ignorant. I recall our discussion. It continued on and on because you never supported your claims.
Sorry that you weren't serious with your post.
ReplyDeleteTo show good faith, I will supply some answers to get us started:
1. Defind god: As you write it, with a lower-case g, I would define "god" as the object of ones worship, adoration, and devotion.
2. Did your god create sin? Why or why not?: God created humans with a capactiry for sin, and humans then exercised that capacity to create sin. Why did God do that? I believe because God wanted God's creatures to have a free choice; with no capacity to sin, then obedience and love are worthless. Why did humans exercise that capacity? Because we are weak and sinful creatures who choose to give in to temptation.
3. Why does your god allow suffering: Why shouldn't God allow suffering? This question assumes the answer you want. You might as well ask why my God allows mosquitoes to bite or birds to sing or ice to melt. The answer is that there are things built into the world that are beyond our kin. I do not claim to have the blueprint from God for all God has done. I do believe we live in a fallen world (because of the second part of my answer to 2 above), and I believe that suffering is, by and large, a consequence of humanity's actions. That does not explain every tornado or cancer cell, I know, and I don't have a good explanation for all of them. But so what? I don't know why that is a major argument. My God allows be to deal with the suffering in the world and in my own life.
There, that's a start. You will say that I am not supporting my claims and will refuse to engage in this debate, I bet.
Lyn,
ReplyDeleteI just realized you responded. Thanks for responding.
1) We’ll have to go a bit further in defining god. Is it something real/actual/exists or is it something incorporeal and cannot be demonstrated as real? My definition for god would be a bit more multi-faceted, but for the sake of argument, let’s define god as immaterial and the supposed creator of all. The next question is does god exist? How can we demonstrate this? Once this is establish how do we define which god is the correct god? For me, “feeling” or supernaturally “knowing” isn’t enough. Can we establish any of this? How do you reconcile these questions?
2) The Creation of Sin. Gods can’t just be assumed to create physical things only. We must assume they create metaphysical and concepts. Let me put it another way—did your god create the concept of sin? He must have, because nothing existed before him or outside him, correct? If I take your premise, god did not create sin. Therefore, some things can exist outside your god. Further, your answers are rooted in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Correct? Without this, you wouldn’t have answers for these questions. For instance, without Scripture, how do you know humans have a choice? I dare to assume you wouldn’t be a Christian had no one told you about Jesus/God/etc. This means knowledge of the Christian god only comes from Scripture, which was written entirely by man and open to flaws—because we are weak, as you say. Is it possible one of the authors “gave into temptation” while writing Scripture and may have written something deceptive? That’s just food for thought. In my view, the Bible cannot be authenticated and is a human construction. No evidence of supernatural intervention whatsoever. How do you KNOW it’s true? What is your personal method for determining what is true?
3) This particular question assumes that your god is all-loving. If he is, why allow thousands of people to die in the tsunami? Why allow millions of Jews to be killed? It would appear he either doesn’t care or enjoys it. Your statement that “god allows this or that” is complete assumption. It’s not rooted in any sort of knowable fact. If we are working off mere assumption, I would assume he’s evil and hates the world based on what he allows. How one can assume he loves is bizarre to most rational people.