My local grocery store has a stand where also-local businesses can put their brochures. Most of the brochures are professionally printed, large and colorful. Then, one day, I looked over and saw this small, bland brochure barely peeping over the rim of the shelf. All I could see is “If you died right now do you know…” I executed a perfect beeline over to the stand, because I knew exactly how that sentence was going to end, and I apparently nerd over this stuff.

If you can’t guess, the rest of the front-cover on this hand-folded ragged brochure was “… for sure that you would go to Heaven?” It’s the typical stuff, but sufficient for lunch break giggles.

As usual, the typical gibberish core of Christianity is asserted:

God loves you very much. He doesn’t want you to go to Hell. In fact, He loves you so much that He sent His son, Jesus, to die on the cross. Jesus actually lifted the sins from you and placed them upon Himself. When they nailed Jesus to the cross, the blood that came from him cleansed your sin. When He died on the cross, He paid your price for sin: death. They buried Jesus but He arose from the dead. He conquered death and He conquered sin.

He loves me very much… so why did he construct a Hell, and decide the rules are that if I’m not perfect, that I’m going to be tortured forever? I’d rather not be “loved” by him, thanks. He created everything, supposedly, so he also created the rules and requirements. He set it up such that the price of thought crimes is infinite torture.

And you know the rest. I’ve blathered on enough about this topic already.

The small brochure caused me to think about something specifically.

If you’re honest, you know that you have lied. That’s a sin. I’m a sinner. You’re a sinner. All of mankind are sinners. How did you become a sinner? What is the price for your sin?

I shouldn’t have to say this, but no, the price for lying isn’t death… you monster. There’s scenarios where lying may be the moral thing to do. This is indicative of my problem with the question “Are you a sinner?”

It’s a loaded question. Have you stopped socking your Senators (or extra-U.S. equivalents) in the face? If you answer “yes”, that means you were socking your Senators in the face. If you answer “no”, that means that you’re still socking your Senators in the face. Though, in America right now, neither scenario is particularly unlikely.

I’m uncomfortable even answering the question, because to do so is granting the question legitimacy… it’s conceding legitimacy to assumptions they’re making.

If you ask me, “Are you defying arbitrary rules as dictated by an infanticidal, genocidal lunatic whose morality is so warped that owning people isn’t against the rules, but murdering unruly children is mandated, and not thinking the right thoughts is worthy of infinite punishment?”

If I were asked that question, I’d enthusiastically answer “YES!”, and be proud of myself for standing up for morality and justice. Once we include the fact that we aren’t granting that this entity isn’t fictional, I stop caring. The importance is whether the individual cited rules are independently moral/just in reality.

… but that’s not what Christians mean when they ask, “Are you a sinner?” They believe they’re asking, “Are you a bad person?” That’s one question, with two vastly different interpretations. There’s often very little overlap between “sin” and immorality. If it wasn’t for obvious “sins”, such as murder, theft, etc, one could argue that being a “sinner” was synonymous with being a good person.

The problem is, the moment you answer “yes” or “no”, which they insist upon (sometimes the Atheist Experience tries to trap a caller this way, and I don’t agree with that), anything more you have to say is ignored. If you say no, you’ve lost credibility for denying the obvious. If you say yes, then their point is made, and the ears shut.

So what can you do, other than start your response with, “I have not done anything in my life that’s bad enough to warrant anything worse than a minor monetary fine“?