To skip the introductory remarks and go straight to the list of reasons click the link below:

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By Michael Runyan

Most Christians fail to comprehend the implications of the belief system they embrace. Much of what they ‘ know’ about their religion is a highly sanitized version that is promoted by their priests and pastors. Few bother to read and understand what is written in the Bible or think critically about what Christian doctrine implies.

Each point listed below presents a claim for questioning the authenticity of Christianity. In total, they lay out a convincing case that Christianity is untrue. This is based on the premise that a true, factual religion guided by a supernatural god would be precise, flawless, authentic, transcendent, unmatched, unique, prescient, prophetic, revelatory, internally consistent, and scientifically accurate. In Christianity, we see none of these elements. This strongly implies that Christianity is a myth and possesses no intrinsic truth.

Gary Shadle is a theist who volunteered to construct a rebuttal to each of the listed reasons. His comments are posted under the page “REBUTTAL-GARY SHADLE.”

[This article may be shared, tweeted, linked, bookmarked, copied, emailed, or facebooked]

[The author is available to speak at conferences or other gatherings, to deliver a one-hour Powerpoint presentation discussing the top 60 or so points, for travel expenses only.]

[It is generally assumed herein that Jesus was a unique individual, although the author acknowledges that significant evidence suggests he is purely mythical or a composite of several 1st Century preachers]

There is a great website that complements this one that I recommend, The Church of Truth:

https://thechurchoftruth.wordpress.com/

This effort began on October 1, 2014. If there is something I have overlooked that you think should be on the list, please submit it and I will consider adding it.

(1) Jesus Seminar

The Jesus Seminar was a collaborative effort of approximately 200 professionally-trained specialists in the field of religion tasked with the goal to cut through the myth and expose the historical Jesus. Membership was limited to scholars with advanced academic degrees (Ph.D. or equivalent) in religious studies or related disciplines from accredited universities worldwide and to published authors who were recognized authorities in the field of religion (by special invitation only). The task force convened on and off from 1985 to 2006.

http://www.westarinstitute.org/projects/the-jesus-seminar/

The principal finding was that the quotes and deeds of Jesus as written in the Gospels are mostly mythical. In fact, only 18% of the sayings and 16% of the deeds attributed to Jesus were thought to be authentic. The scholars used cross-cultural anthropological studies to set the general background, narrowing in on the history and society of first-century Palestine, and used textural analysis along with anthropological, historical, and archaeological evidence.

Other findings of the group included:

Jesus of Nazareth was born during the reign of Herod the Great.

His mother’s name was Mary, and he had a human father whose name may not have been Joseph.

Jesus was born in Nazareth, not in Bethlehem.

Jesus was an itinerant sage who shared meals with social outcasts.

Jesus practiced faith healing without the use of ancient medicine or magic, relieving afflictions we now consider psychosomatic.

He did not walk on water, feed the multitude with loaves and fishes, change water into wine or raise Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus was arrested in Jerusalem and crucified by the Romans.

He was executed as a public nuisance, not for claiming to be the Son of God.

The empty tomb is a fiction – Jesus was not raised bodily from the dead.

Belief in the resurrection is based on the visionary experiences of Paul, Peter and Mary Magdalene.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Seminar

The significance of this effort is that it is the first time that Jesus’s life has been objectively analyzed by a team of highly qualified reviewers. As such, it remains the best effort to date to ascertain the true historical Jesus, stripped of the myths that have been attached to him over the centuries. Although many religious leaders objected to the findings, it must be acknowledged that the level of effort, the range of resources used, and the qualifications of the reviewers lend much weight to their conclusions.

(2) The Christian world versus the real world

The Bible speaks of a world that you can only experience by reading its books. Look for it not in your neighborhood, your city, your state, your country, or anywhere on planet Earth- it is a world gone with the wind, or much more likely, a world that never really existed.

The following quote is taken from John W. Loftus, at his website “Why I Am Not a Christian”:

The Bible is filled with superstitious beliefs that modern people rightly reject. It describes a world where a snake and a donkey communicated with human beings in a human language, where people could reach upward of 900 years old, where a woman instantaneously transformed into a pillar of salt, where a pillar of fire could lead people by night, and where the sun stopped moving across the sky or could even back up.

In this imaginary world an ax head could float on water, a star could point down to a specific home, people could instantly speak in unlearned foreign languages, and one’s shadow or handkerchief could heal people. It is a world where a flood can cover the whole earth, and a man can walk on water, calm a stormy sea, change water into wine, or be swallowed by a “great fish” and live to tell about it.

This world is populated by demons that can wreak havoc on Earth and make people very sick. It is a world of idol worship, where human and animal sacrifices please God. Visions, inspired dreams, prophetic utterances, miracle workers, magicians, diviners, and sorcerers also populate this world. It is a world where God lived in the sky (Heaven), and the dead “lived” on in the dark recesses of the Earth (Sheol).

This is a strange world when compared to our world, but Christians believe that this world was real in the past. My contention is not that ancient people were stupid, but that they were very superstitious. As Christopher Hitchens puts it: “One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge.”

http://infidels.org/library/modern/john_loftus/christianity.html#sci1

The Christian world is also one that was created in 6 days with Earth at its center, a world where Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and Homo habilis have no place in history, where dead people rose out of their graves, walked about the city and conversed with the living, a place where demons could enter pigs and cause them to run off a cliff and drown themselves, where two bears can maul and kill 42 children, a place where a woman can conceive and deliver while remaining a virgin, where the act of sending dead people to a place of eternal torture can be seen as a just punishment for living an ordinary human life, a place where angels interact with the local citizenry and make important proclamations, where slavery is held up as an honorable ‘enterprise,’ where women are a form of property, and where rebellious children, adulterers, and homosexuals are considered so evil that they deserve to be stoned to death.

And finally it is a world where God feels that he must kill his own son because he can find no other way to forgive people of their sins.

Yes, this seems like a very strange world to anyone alive today. It should take only a few moments of reflection to understand, to grasp, to figure this whole thing out, that the god of Christianity is to adults as Santa Claus is to children- an imaginary friend.

(3) Hell

Christianity’s invention of Hell is a gift to anyone seeking truth because it decisively reveals the man-made nature of the faith. Hell is not discussed in the Old Testament, but that didn’t stop Jesus from announcing it many times in the Gospels, mostly in a very threatening tone. He made sure to let us know that most people will be sentenced there to suffer unending physical pain. Here are three of the forty-five Gospel scriptures where Jesus mentions Hell:

Matthew 5:28-29:

“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

Matthew 13:41-42:

“The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Mark 9:45-46:

“And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

A belief in Hell is unavoidable if one is to believe in Jesus. If Hell doesn’t exist, then why would God have allowed it to be so prominently addressed in the Bible? This point cannot be overstated. If God is as most Christians claim, all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful, then he would not have allowed a concept so ultimate and absolute as Hell to be documented in the most important scriptures of the faith (the Gospels) if it was not a factual place of post-life punishment.

This elicits an unsettling comparison. Hitler dispatched Jews to the concentration camps and gas chambers for no reason other than their ethnic identity. This was a temporal punishment; it sometimes lasted only a few days. God, on the other hand, is prepared to send good, well-accomplished, and generous people to a place of everlasting punishment and torture for the ‘crime’ of not believing in something for which no credible evidence exists. The god of the Bible is, in effect, worse than Hitler.

This brings up another interesting point. Christians claim that the Bible is the backbone of the United States Constitution. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution states that “cruel and unusual punishments [shall not be] inflicted”. It should be obvious that placing a person in Hell is both cruel and unusual. Consequently, Christianity violates the United States Constitution.

Any person possessing critical thinking skills can understand that a magnificently powerful god would have no incentive, interest, or even the slightest inclination to inflict pain and suffering on dead people. Hell makes no sense and it represents an ill-fated and entirely avoidable error in the foundation of Christianity.

(4) Hitler/Murdered Jews and Ted Bundy/Andrew Carnegie

Related to the previous point, Christianity can be understood to endorse a spectacularly cruel and senseless outcome of how certain people are judged. All one has to assume is that Hitler, a Catholic by birth, understood the gravity of his sins and confessed them to Jesus before committing suicide. According to Christian doctrine, he was awarded entry into heaven with this simple act. On the other hand, the 6,000,000 Jews that he condemned to death, and who by default failed to accept Christ, were sent to Hell. The image of Anne Frank writhing in pain while Adolf enjoys a latte presents a stark visual that there is something seriously wrong with Christian doctrine.

Similarly, Ted Bundy, a convicted murderer of over 30 young women, confessed his sins before his execution and, according to Christian doctrine, was sent directly to heaven. On the other hand, Andrew Carnegie, an atheist and philanthropist who donated $350 million ($76 billion in current dollars) to charities, foundations, and universities, was sent to Hell. It is hard to imagine anything more unjust or immoral, but this absurdity is precisely in accord with conventional Christianity.

(5) The Evil Nature of God

Christians have consistently ignored the Old Testament portrayal of God’s murderous behavior. Often they claim that the New Testament overrides and replaces the Old Testament, based on the idea that Jesus supplied mankind with a new covenant. But what cannot be denied is that Jesus himself was a student of the Old Testament, firmly believed in it, and warned that it was not to be ignored or discarded.

Therefore, Christians must concede that God performed the evil deeds that are documented in the Bible. Otherwise Jesus would have corrected the scriptures and explained that God the Father (or he himself?) did not commit those atrocities. To repeat, according to Christians, Jesus was God, and he was physically on the earth teaching from the Old Testament. If the scriptures were wrong in their portrayal of God, Jesus would have emphatically proclaimed this fact to his followers and whoever else would listen.

The following is taken from http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2010/04/drunk-with-blood-gods-killings-in-bible.html, listing 158 killing events for which God was either directly or indirectly responsible. The complete list is shown below for effect, but one in particular deserves a focused look, I Samuel 15:3:

“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

There is no evidence that Jesus denounced this scripture, and apparently it was in keeping with his concept of God the Father. Any person who worships a god who gave this order is an accomplice after the fact.

According to the Bible, God killed or authorized the killings of up to 25 million people. This is the God of which Jesus was an integral part. That is to say: Jesus himself was an accessory to these murders and massacres. Therefore, Christianity must own them and admit that their god is in fact a serial, genocidal, infanticidal, filicidal, and pestilential murderer.

(6) Failure to Return

Biblical historians are quite clear on this matter- Early Christians, notably Jesus, Paul, the disciples, and other followers were all convinced that the end of times was near and that an earthly kingdom presided over by Jesus would be established within the lifetime of some people who were then currently alive. The Bible claims that Jesus made the following comment:

Matthew 16:28

“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Jesus also advised against going to court against someone who steals from you and also told people not to store up stocks or reserves for the future. Clearly, he thought the end was very near.

Likewise, Paul advised followers not to marry and that the end time was near. In this scripture he obviously believes that some of the people he is talking to will still be alive at the second coming.

I Thessalonians 4: 16-18

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

The obvious fact is that the second coming was not forthcoming at that time, or even close to being near. The nearly 2000-year delay is a strong piece of evidence that Christianity is a failed religion.

The following quote from Stephen L. Harris, Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University- Sacramento, completes this point with a devastating argument. Remember that Jesus was a Jew who had no intention to deviate from the Hebrew scriptures:

Jesus did not accomplish what Israel’s prophets said the Messiah was commissioned to do: He did not deliver the covenant people from their Gentile enemies, reassemble those scattered in the Diaspora, restore the Davidic kingdom, or establish universal peace (cf.Isa. 9:6–7; 11:7–12:16, etc.). Instead of freeing Jews from oppressors and thereby fulfilling God’s ancient promises—for land, nationhood, kingship, and blessing—Jesus died a “shameful” death, defeated by the very political powers the Messiah was prophesied to overcome. Indeed, the Hebrew prophets did not foresee that Israel’s savior would be executed as a common criminal by Gentiles, making Jesus’ crucifixion a “stumbling block” to scripturally literate Jews. (1 Cor.1:23)

The fact that Jesus was wrong about the end of the world is good news to all of us alive today because otherwise we would not have been born.

(7) Early Christians were uneducated and superstitious

No matter what Christianity has evolved into after 2000 years, it is instructive and illuminating to consider the types of people who became its first followers. This gives a clue as to the degree of credibility it possessed at a time when the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the chronological contemporaries of Jesus were still alive- that is, while the original history of the church was still fresh in peoples’ minds. It would be similar as looking today at the history of World War II through the lens of what people had heard from their deceased ancestors.

Unfortunately for Christianity, the early followers of the faith were almost exclusively from the lower classes, mostly uneducated, unskilled, and illiterate. The follow excerpt is taken from:

http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net/earlyxtian.html

The character of the early Christians would probably be most surprising to modern lay Christians. The bulk of the early converts were from the lower classes in the cities. As the great historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) summarized in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1788):

“the new sect of the Christians was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and mechanists, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves, the last of whom might sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble families to whom they belonged. These obscure teachers … are as mute in public as they are loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves into these minds whom their age, their sex, or their best education had the best disposed to receive the impression of superstitious errors.”

…. for now it is enough to note that by and large the early Christians were mainly illiterate, uncultured and incapable of critical thinking. Hence Christianity competed for these people, not with the Roman thinkers, but with the mystery religions. Both Christianity and the mystery religions have irrational elements which were of much appeal to such a group of people. The skeptic J.M. Robertson (1856-1933) summarizes their character such:

“Taken individually … an average Christians of the second century was likely to be unlettered townsman of the “lower middle” or poorer classes; either bitterly averse to “idols”, theaters, the circus, and the public baths, or persuaded that he ought to be; utterly credulous as to demons and miracles; incapable of criticism as to sacred books; readily emotional towards the crucified God and the sacred mystery in which were given the “body and blood”; devoid alike of aesthetic and of philosophic faculty; much given to his ritual; capable of fanatical hatred.”

It is also important to note that the great thinkers of the time rejected Christianity out of hand. From the same website:

It is therefore not surprising that the greatest thinkers of that age: philosophers such as Seneca (c5BC-AD65), Epictetus (c1st cent) and Marcus Aurelius (c121-180); statesmen such as Pliny the Elder (AD23-79), his adopted son Pliny the Younger (c62-114) ; historians such as Plutarch (c46-120) and Tacitus (c55-c117) and prominent physicians such as Galen (c2nd cent); who through their work and contemplation had “purified their mind from the prejudices of popular superstition”, either rejected outright or did not consider the nascent religion of Christianity.

The fallacies and deceptions surrounding Christianity were plainly evident in the first hundred years of its existence, allowing the learned class to summarily dismiss it as a fraudulent enterprise. It was only after a few centuries passed, followed by the adoption of Christianity as the Roman state religion, that it began to attract members of the landed and ruling class. However, even then it was often more for political purposes than an expression of genuine faith.

The recent history of Christianity, exhibited by the decline in the mainstream liberal churches and the rise of the conservative fundamentalist Pentecostal ones is, in effect, a return to early Christianity. Currently, most of the truly exuberant followers of the faith are poorly educated, scientifically illiterate people with poor critical thinking skills. Thus, if this trend continues, Christianity may well end up in a few centuries being perceived in a similar way as it was 2000 years ago.

(8) Borrowed Miraculous Elements

Most of the miracles discussed in the Gospels were common elements of pre-Christian pagan religions including:

miraculous foretelling of a deity

virgin birth

a guiding star

a nativity visit by royalty

the baby god threatened by a jealous ruler

manifesting extraordinary wisdom in childhood

turning water into wine

walking on water

enabling the lame to walk

healing the sick

raising up dead persons

restoring sight to the blind

allaying storms on the sea

casting out devils

communion with a holy meal representing the god’s body

being put to death

the sun becoming dark after the death

rising from the dead

talking to disciples after resurrecting

ascension into heaven

providing salvation for mankind.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biblianazar/esp_biblianazar_33.htm

The truth is that very few of the miracles discussed in the Bible are unique to Christianity. This is a strong piece of evidence that Christianity is a man-made, cobbled, and fundamentally plagiarized faith.

(9) Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments have been presented as the ultimate guide to human morality. But a close inspection reveals that only five have a meaningful impact- do not steal, do not perjure, do not kill, honor your parents, and don’t commit adultery. Just as revealing is what is not included:

No proscription of slavery

No proscription of child endangerment

No proscription of bigotry

No proscription of racism

No proscription of sexism

No proscription of classism

No proscription of blackmail or bribery

No proscription of discrimination against LGBTQ persons

No proscription of incest

No proscription of torture or terrorism

No proscription of rape

No proscription against the mistreatment, exploitation, and relocation of native populations

No command to treat animals humanely

No command to take care of the earth’s environment

No command to help others in need

No command to settle disputes peacefully

No command to distribute the earth’s resources fairly

It should be obvious that an all-knowing , all-wise, all- discerning, supernatural god would have devised a much better set of rules for mankind, a set that would have placed humanity on a more peaceful, loving, and kind trajectory that the one we have experienced.

Additionally, most Christians do not realize that there are two versions of the 10 Commandments, one in Exodus 20 and the other in Exodus 34. The second version bears little resemblance to the first, but they were the only ones referred to as the 10 Commandments. Christians use the first version, though it appears by reading Exodus that they were superseded by the second version after Moses allegedly smashed the original tablets.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

(10) Jesus baptized by John the Baptist

In the gospel of Matthew (3:11), Jesus presents himself to John the Baptist and is baptized. This presents several problems for Christianity. First, baptism is a ritual that claims to remove the stain of original sin, but according to Christian dogma, Jesus was sinless and therefore should not have required this rite.

Second, to present oneself for baptism is a subservient action, implying that the person performing the baptism is of a higher station, though, according to Christian theology, Jesus was certainly superior to John the Baptist.

Third, the scripture states that John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the promised savior, and yet, inexplicably, he does not become a follower of Jesus, but remains the leader of his own group of followers.

This is an embarrassment to the faith because if this event has any historical validity, it is apparent that Jesus considered himself a sinful mortal man needing baptism and was probably a disciple of John the Baptist. He likely followed him for awhile, and only became an independent religious leader after John’s arrest and execution. And this assumes the unproven assumption that Jesus was a real person.

(11) Delayed Documentation

The accounts of Jesus’s life in the gospels were written well after the events allegedly occurred. The crucifixion of Jesus is believed to have occurred around 29 AD. The best estimates date the gospels as follows:

Mark: AD 68-73

Matthew: AD 70-100

Luke: AD 80-100

John: AD 90-110

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel#Dating

The time lag between the events and the documentation was long enough for exaggeration and myths to contaminate the historical accounts. Almost every person who had direct contact with Jesus was dead by the time that the Gospels were written. It would be similar if a person today wrote a biography of Martin Luther King just by talking to people who heard something about him from their now-deceased ancestors.

(12) Jesus purposely confuses outsiders so they won’t be saved

The following scripture is from Mark 4:11-12:

And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

This is one of the surviving scriptures that reveal the real, historical Jesus. The reason that it is considered a genuine quote, or at least the general idea of what Jesus preached, is that it is contrary to the finished product of Christian theology- that all people can be saved. Some of what Jesus allegedly said after resurrecting (in scriptures that are likely forgeries), to go to all nations and preach the word, directly contradicts what is being said here.

What is revealed by this scripture is that Jesus’s ministry was targeted only to the Jews. That is why he preached only to the Jews and used language, idioms, and parables to confuse the non-Jews who might be overhearing his message. He had no intention to bring his message of salvation to the Gentiles, who, as revealed in other scriptures, he clearly disdained. Therefore, Christianity is a forgery of Jesus’s true mission.

(13) Evil spirits

In Biblical times, it was widely understood that many of the maladies that people were suffering were caused by evil spirits. This included many forms of mental illness and other organic diseases. Over time, scientific discoveries revealed the actual causes of these problems, and the concept of evil spirits was discarded. Unfortunately for Christianity, the ancient misguided beliefs remain ensconced in their scriptures.

Some examples:

Luke 11:14

One day Jesus cast out a demon from a man who couldn’t speak, and when the demon was gone, the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed,

Matthew 8: 18-34

When He arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met Him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region.

Luke 4:33-37

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

These are only a few examples of the references to demons and evil spirits in the Gospels. It should be noted that if Jesus was God, he would have known that the diseases he was ‘curing’ were not caused by evil spirits and would have informed his followers of the same. The fact that the Gospels align with the unscientific ideas of the times indicates that they were written by men without inspiration from a god.

(14) Polytheism and the Trinity

Christianity was born from a strictly monotheistic religion, Judaism, a faith that itself evolved from a polytheistic model, considering their god to be one of many [one of the 10 Commandments is to have no other gods before Yahweh, implying the existence of others], to a doctrine claiming their god to be the only one in existence. The belief in a single god is considered by religious historians to be an important maturation in sectarian theology.

A few decades after Jesus died, Christianity ran into a problem. The Apostle Paul as well as the Gospel of John made Jesus into a god himself and left congregants with the impression that there were two gods, the Father and the Son. Thus, Christianity was beginning to lose the mantle of being monotheistic and thereby risking the denigration of being compared to the polytheistic pagan religions.

The solution to a problem often creates an even bigger problem and that, it can be argued, is just what happened. Straining to find (or create) scripture to support a synthesis of the gods into a single entity, the idea of the trinity was born. Because the scriptures clearly defined Jesus and the Father as being separate beings, both in the image of human males, a ‘glue’ was needed to fuse them into a single consciousness. Thus the Holy Spirit was invented.

If you ask 100 Christians to define the Holy Spirit, you will get 100 answers because the scriptures provide no description. All Christians could do was to point to one scripture that hinted at this third divine being, Matthew 28:19, with Jesus saying:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

It is likely that this scripture was a later edit and was not part of the original text. There is a further mention of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13:14:

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

However, this provides little evidence that Jesus ever preached this theology. How could one-third of God be left out of the Old Testament and be so thinly mentioned in the New Testament?

So Christianity in struggling to regain the respect of being monotheistic actually became more polytheistic, going from two to three gods, and then mystifyingly trying to say that they were all the same being. This didn’t have to happen as there was no need for Christianity to make Jesus into a god. It was a fatal mistake to do so, and Christianity is paying for it today with the baffling and confounding idea that three gods are one.

(15) The Shroud of Turin scam and the implications of confirmation bias

There are many historians and pseudo scientists who have assumed that the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus, and are consistently searching for (or creating) evidence to support that conclusion. This is despite a definitive dating process that placed the age of the cloth between 1260 and 1390 CE, precisely during the time that it first appeared in history and concurrent with a time that thousands of fake holy relics, including over 40 other ‘authentic’ shrouds of Jesus, were being made and sold.

Some shroud apologists claim that the analyzed segment was a patch that was made during the 14th century, while entertaining the utterly unbelievable idea that the esteemed team of scientists who selected the portion of the cloth for examination could not identify the presence of a patch, either from the weave pattern or the stitches that would have been present on the back side. The Vatican gave the final approval for the selection, and, clearly hoping that the science would support the authenticity of the shroud, they would have been very concerned about picking a patched area that would have returned a date inconsistent with Jesus’s death.

Most of the patchwork was done after a fire damaged the shroud in 1532. If one of these patches was selected by mistake, the dating process would have identified the date in the 16th Century instead of the 14th Century.

To counter this evidence, shroud apologists are now claiming that the patch was invisible on both sides of the cloth, but they fail to explain why this highly-skilled patching technique was not used two centuries later after the fire.

The apologists also dismiss or are ignorant of the fact that the shroud does not comply with the Gospel scriptures in certain ways, but most notably in its overall shape and construction:

‘Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.’ [John 19:40]

‘So Peter… reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter… went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.’ [John 20:3-7]

‘Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves…’ [Luke 24:12]

The Shroud of Turin is a single rectangular piece of cloth, not made of strips of linen. The Gospel reference to linen strips for the body and a separate cloth for the head is consistent with Jewish burial rites of the First Century. Thus, to believe that the shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus is also to concede that the Gospel accounts are wrong.

The image on the cloth has the appearance of a photograph, but if the shroud was actually wrapped around Jesus at the time he resurrected, the image would have been distorted by the way it would have been curved around his body. For example his two ears would have been widely distorted in the horizontal direction. For the image to have been made as seen, the shroud would have had to have been stretched out flat above his body and then curved around to the back side. Obviously, the shroud would not have been in this orientation.

Additionally, no examples of the shroud linen’s complex herringbone twill weave date from the first century. However the weave was used in Europe in the Middle Ages, coincidentally when the shroud first appeared.

Other problems exist with the figure on the shroud. His front is two inches taller than his back and he exhibits elongated limbs indicating that he would have been afflicted with gigantism if he had been an actual person. Also, pigments and paints widely used in Italy during the Middle Ages have been found on the shroud, used to mimic dried blood.

Also, the figure on the shroud is 6 feet tall, while the average Jewish man of the 1st Century was only 5 feet tall. It is highly unlikely that Jesus was a foot taller than the average man of his time.

An objective and more complete analysis of the Shroud of Turin is available at this website:

http://www.sillybeliefs.com/shroud.html#heading-0b

And additionally, at this website:

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/11/29/pope-francis-endorses-the-fake-shroud-of-turin/

The following was taken from:

http://infidels.org/library/modern/joe_nickell/miracles.html

In fact, the shroud has no history prior to the mid-fourteenth century, at which time (according to a later bishop’s report) the forger who made it was discovered and he confessed to having “cunningly painted” the image. Obvious problems with the image include hair that hangs as for a standing rather than recumbent figure, “blood” flows that are unrealistically “picture-like” and suspiciously still red (unlike real blood that blackens over time), and the unnatural elongation of the figure (resembling those in gothic art). “Blind” microscopic analyses show significant traces of paint pigment on image areas, thus proving the pigment red ocher was a component of the image. The “blood” was actually tempera paint. In 1988 samples of the cloth were independently carbon-dated at three laboratories around the world. Using accelerator mass spectrometry, the labs obtained dates in close agreement: The cloth dated from about 1260-1390, and that time span was given enhanced credibility by correct dates obtained from samples of ancient cloths of known date.

As to the “impossible” image on the shroud likened to a photographic negative because its darks and lights are reversed skeptics have countered that the reversal is only partial and that similar quasi-negative images are automatically produced by an artistic rubbing technique. (Somewhat analogous to a gravestone rubbing, the cloth is first wet-molded to a bas-relief and, when it is dry, pigment is rubbed on with a dauber so as to darken the prominences and leave the recesses white. I proposed this solution in 1978.)

What is occurring with the Shroud of Turin is also happening with other relics, supposed miracles, and other matters that Christianity has promoted as fact, by consistently using confirmation bias (the act of placing the conclusion before the research) as the means of determining truth. This is why critical thinking skills are not promoted by religious leaders, because the exercise of them inevitably leads to the evaporation of their claims.

(16) God has an important message for mankind, but fails to clearly deliver it

So, after waiting 200,000 years after modern humans evolved, God decides to deliver an important message to mankind. You would think it is essential that all of the people on earth receive this vital message and that it is clear and unambiguous. Let’s see how that worked out:

Jesus is sent to the earth, but he only interacts with a small tribe of Jews in the Middle East, leaving Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, North America, and South America in the dark.

The message of Jesus doesn’t even reach all of these continents until 1500 years later.

Jesus did not write anything down so we can’t be sure of his real message.

Neither Jesus’s disciples nor anyone who directly witnessed Jesus’s mission wrote down anything (all of the apparent references to them are forgeries).

When someone finally started to document Jesus’s life, it is at least 40 years after he died and is based solely on hearsay, or what people seem to remember.

Even given that, we don’t have the originals of what these authors wrote, but only copies of copies of copies.

We have direct evidence that many errors were made in the copying process.

We have direct evidence that some stories were added to the originals, i.e. deliberate forgeries.

We have direct evidence that some of the translations from Hebrew to Greek to English were in error (this is how the Hebrew term for ‘young woman’ became a term in Greek implying a virgin)

We have multiple translations in English and other languages that over time modernized the terminology but also inserted subtle changes in meaning.

We have direct evidence that some of the most obviously fictional elements of the Bible were edited out in later editions, for example the reference to various monsters.

We have thousands of interpretations of scripture authored by holy men, religious experts, or lay persons, each with a different idea of the truth.

We have 40,000 denominations of Christianity, each with a different interpretation of the truth.

We have no external evidence of anything in the gospels, least of which the very existence of an actual preacher named Jesus.

We have no contemporaneous miracles to provide any evidence of the truth of Christianity.

We have an avalanche of scientific discoveries that refute many assertions and stories in the Bible.

But after all of this, God will judge us if we don’t believe his message, whatever the hell it is, and send us to a place of eternal torture. This is Christianity in a nutshell, and it is the nail in the coffin for its believability to any sane, objective, critically-thinking person.

(17) Animal rights

Christianity has an abysmal, pathetic, unsympathetic, and barbaric attitude regarding the rights of animals to be treated ethically and with compassion. Perhaps it all begins with a statement in Genesis 1:26:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Unlike the concept engendered by evolution, that the animals are our cousins and that we share the same ancestors, Christianity has presented the idea that God created animals strictly for the benefit and use of mankind, that they have no other purpose for their existence, and nor do they possess any rights in any sense.

Over the past 2000 years, Christian history is littered with case after case of callous and merciless cruelty to animals of all stripes. This has often taken the form of hunting animals into extinction, as occurred with the beaver in Britain, or using animals for sport, as in bear bating, bull bating, and badger baiting.

http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/gap_animals.htm

Bear baiting, where the bears were chained up and then attacked by vicious dogs, was so popular that it was enshrined in frescoes on churches and cathedrals. The Christians of this time saw nothing wrong with this spectacle. Indeed, it was a central tenant of the faith that only humans had souls or could have emotions, feelings, or sense pain.

Laws protecting animals began to appear in the 19th Century, but they were uniformly opposed by Christian leaders as an affront to the faith, claiming that God had given man total authority over animals and had no obligations as to their welfare.

The following is from the website noted above:

The Church deduced that because animals did not possess souls, they were akin to automatons. Like machines, they could feel neither emotion nor pain. They were disposable toys provided for mankind’s amusement. Activities in which animals were tortured for sport were recorded without any hint that there might be anything wrong with them. Christopher Columbus and his crew, on their transatlantic mission from God, were typical. They delighted in wounding and partially dismembering a newly discovered animal, then seeing if it would still fight. As animals were mere toys, one can imagine the glee of the Christian sailors who discovered that on Mauritius God had provided them with birds so trusting that they would walk up to their Christian visitors to be killed. Their meat was found to be unpalatable so the birds were clubbed to death by Christians just for fun. Within two hundred years dodos were extinct.

The following quote from a blogger on romanchristendom.blogspot.com sums up a typical Christian’s attitude to animal rights:

There is simply no teaching of the Church that confers rights upon animals and plenty that say the opposite. Animal rights is an entirely invented and modern concept that has no basis in Christian doctrine – or truth – whatsoever. Thus, to pretend that animals have rights is to be in disagreement with God, the Creator of all creation, including animals. If an animal had a “right” then it would have to have at least the potential ability to enforce that right – but it can never do so because animals are not rational creatures.

Remnants of Christianity’s callous sensibility to animals remain today and can be seen, for example, as the sneering attitude to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) or to vegetarianism, as being somehow unbiblical, or else the spawn of godless atheism.

But, by and large, times have changed and laws protecting animal rights are being strengthened throughout the world. However, the impetus for this movement has been largely fueled from the secular community, not from ecclesiastical sources. In fact, it has happened largely because religion has become a less pervasive influence on social ethics and morality, while science has expanded its importance in the public square. The concept of evolution tying humans to all animals and the research that has confirmed animal sensitivities to fear, pain, and suffering have played a large role in the expansion of animal rights legislation.

So the question must be asked- Are humans more compassionate, more ethical, more moral, more principled, more conscientious, and more humane than God? Wouldn’t God have known that animals felt pain and emotions similar to humans and have commanded his people to treat them with care and compassion? Wouldn’t God have known that eventually there would be laws in place to protect animals from unfair and unethical treatment? The fact that the Bible perpetuated the currently existing belief that animals existed only for human use is compelling evidence that it was written by men and not inspired by the creator of the universe.

(18) The irony of the ages

Jesus was raised to believe that the Jews were special, God’s chosen people, who would be exalted in this world and the world to come. His ministry was directed solely to the Jews, and to the deliberate exclusion of the Gentiles, to the extent that he purposely avoided them, disparaged them, and talked in an obfuscating manner to confuse them so they would not understand. Although he was not a stickler for the Jewish laws, he never talked about them being abolished, but actually commanded that they be observed to the end of time.

And then, something astonishing happened. A new religion, Christianity, was born, using him as the central figure, a religion that completely shed the Jewish laws. A religion that was ultimately rejected by the Jews, the very persons he was ministering and preaching to. A religion that Jesus himself would not have joined. So we have the irony of a Jewish preacher being posthumously hijacked to form a new religion that his own people rejected while being embraced by the people he disdained.

(19) Belief Versus Actions

Christianity credits what you believe far above what you do. This idea has caused much misery and suffering over the course of the past two millennia. The notion that what you believe can erase your bad deeds is a very attractive idea to someone who wants to take liberties with the lives and property of other people. If you believe that the threat of the death penalty is enough to dissuade people from breaking the law then you must acknowledge that the promise of unconditional forgiveness is enough to entice people to break the law. And this is exactly what happened during the scourges of the Inquisition and other atrocities committed by Christians.

The following is taken from:

http://new.exchristian.net/2011/09/14-problems-with-christianity-part-ii.html

As I explored this, I realised why there is so much hypocrisy amongst the so-called body of Christ. Christians have little to no motivation to try to be good because they already believe they are good in spite of what they may do simply because of what they believe. This explains why Christians (including the many that barge on into this site) are so pompous, insensitive and full of themselves. Their beliefs give them a false sense of entitlement and superiority where they believe they have a right to say what they want to whomever they want as long as the gospel is being preached. Some will even go as far as to actually tell lies to get their point across. With regard to the issue of faith over works, it is patently obvious why so many Christians fall on the side of faith; it offers the path of least resistance and allows them to indulge their worst traits, safe in the knowledge that unlike the rest of us “sinners”, they are not perfect, but forgiven.

Common sense alone should tell anyone that if the Christian god did exist, there is no way he could possibly favour faith over acts of love and still be considered loving or just. Now with more enlightened eyes, I can see that faith is stressed to the non-believer to make Christianity seem accessible (“All I have to do is believe a story, ask Jesus into my heart, and all my sins are wiped away – woo!”), and once they have taken the bait, then prohibitions are used to keep them under control with scare tactics employed to stop them from turning away. Christianity then, is a very well devised system of psychological domination designed to manipulate the wills of those under its thrall and keep them in their place, all masquerading as something worthy and good, which is perhaps the biggest “sin” of all.

How different would the world be if Christianity instead declared that your ultimate reward is based on your actions, what you do, how you conduct your life, how much you help others, etc. instead of offering this exceptionally generous “get out of jail free” card? What if it said all of the good you do is balanced against the bad, and based on that comparison, you will be judged?

(20) Infant Death

Most Christians believe that people who die at a young age are given a free pass to heaven. This is a comforting thought, but it makes for some peculiar considerations. It would seem to suggest that dying at a young age, before encountering the age of accountability, would be the best and safest way to leave the earth. This would guarantee a place in heaven without having to take a risk of living a potentially failed life in the sight of God. Some demented parents have exploited this idea as an excuse to murder their children.

(21) Beginning of Life

Many Christians believe that life begins at conception and an entire anti-abortion industry has been built around this concept. But it presents a quandary. Does a fertilized egg that fails to implant in the uterus go to heaven? This seems a bit absurd, but it is important to consider in the context of Christian dogma. If one assumes this is not the case, then it becomes very difficult to identify when a developing fetus becomes eternal in the eyes of God. Is it at the moment of birth, such that a baby that dies just before delivery is denied heaven? There is no non-arbitrary way to solve this dilemma.

Another point to consider is that well over half of conceptions end in spontaneous abortions. It might be trite to claim that God is the most prolific abortionist, but it’s illogical to think that God would go to the trouble of inserting a soul into a fertilized egg but then fail to protect the fetus to ensure a successful birth. But then if God delays the soul insertion until the moment of a live birth, it makes no sense that he would not protect the child’s life until adulthood. No matter how you look at it, a logical solution does not exist.

(22) Roman Bias

As mentioned, almost all of the eyewitnesses of Jesus’s ministry were dead by the time of the gospel writings, either of natural causes or as a result of the Jewish-Roman war that began in AD 66. The band of Jewish followers of Jesus, led by his brother James, no longer existed. The only Christians remaining were the Romans and other gentiles who were followers of Paul’s concept of Christianity. Consequently, the gospels are told in a manner consistent with Paul’s theology and also with an anti-Jewish, pro-Roman bias. One of the best examples of this bias is the exoneration of Pontius Pilate and the condemnation of the Jews for Jesus’s death (Matthew 27:24), a fabrication of the first order (and one that has had tragic consequences for Jewish people for the past two millennia). Another is the story of the Roman centurion who was allegedly commended by Jesus for having more faith than anybody else in Israel (Matthew 8:5-13).

(23) ‘Growing Fish’

The stories told in the gospels tended to become more impressive as each new gospel was written. In Mark, there is no account of a virgin birth or of a resurrected Jesus interacting with the disciples (other than the ending verses that were added much later), with Luke, the virgin birth is added, and with John, the raising of Lazarus is first presented, and Jesus is for the first time equated with God the Father. Another example is that the temptation of Jesus by the devil grows in significance and details from Mark to Luke to Matthew. These examples reflect a classic illustration of mythmaking, such that over time events are embellished to make for a more dramatic story.

Another example of the evolution of Christian writings is as follows:

Matthew 27:46, 50:

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” …Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.”

Luke 23:46:

“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, “Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:” and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

John 19:30:

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished:” and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

In Matthew, Jesus is expressing displeasure with God for allowing the crucifixion, but in the later gospels, Luke and John, there are no longer any hints of dissatisfaction. It suggests that the writers of the gospels made revisions to boost the image of Jesus and to make it appear that he viewed his crucifixion as an expected and necessary part of his earthy mission.

(24) The God equation of the Gospel of John

An extension to the previous point conclusively illustrates the myth of Christianity. In the gospels of Mark, and to a lesser extent, the later gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus talks very little about himself and is more focused on his Father and preparing the way for the coming Kingdom of God. He makes no inferences as to having a divine status. But in John, literally everything changes in Jesus’s doctrinal approach. He is principally focused on himself, who he is, and where he came from. He touts his status as being divine and equal to God himself. This is a dramatic departure from the earlier gospels as well as from the traditions of the Jewish faith.

Bible scholar Bart Ehrman discusses this point at the following website:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124572693

It is inconceivable that if Jesus referred to himself as being divine that this fact would not have been thoroughly documented in the earlier gospels, as this would have been by far the most important message of Jesus’s mission. Modern Christianity has fully incorporated the implications of the Gospel of John, precisely defining its doctrine thereby, but in so doing it has placed itself upon an extremely flimsy foundation.

(25) Bible Contradictions

If the scriptures were inspired by God and then accurately copied by scribes, we would expect to see a fairly rigorous consistency among the books. The best way to test this hypothesis is to examine the four gospels, as they all claim to describe the same events. What we see are numerous contradictions, including:

The genealogies of Joseph in Matthew and Luke disagree significantly

Luke has Mary and Joseph travelling from their home in Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea for the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:4). Matthew, in contradiction to Luke, says that it was only after the birth of Jesus that Mary and Joseph resided in Nazareth, and then only because they were afraid to return to Judea (Matthew 2:21-23).

All of the gospels disagree on who found the empty tomb. In Matthew, it is Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. In Luke, it is the women who had come with him out of Galilee, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, plus two others. In Mark, it is Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. In John, Mary Magdalene found the stone removed and ran back to get Peter and another disciple.

There are also major contradictions about what they saw at the tomb. In Mark, a man in a white robe was sitting in the tomb. In Luke, it was two men in dazzling apparel. In Matthew, an angel was standing on the stone that had been removed. In John, Mary and Peter and the other disciple initially find just an empty tomb. Peter and the other disciple enter the tomb and find only the wrappings. Then Peter and the other disciple leave and Mary looks in the tomb to find two angels in white. After a short conversation with the angels, Mary turns around to find Jesus.

The following table taken from this website lists 77 direct contradictions in the Bible:

http://infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/bible.html

Question Yes No 1. Did fowl (birds) come out of the water? Ge 1:20 (Out of the ground) Ge 2:19 2. Did two of each kind of fowl enter Noah’s ark? Ge 6:19-20 (It was seven of each.) Ge 7:3 3. Does Satan ever tell the truth? Ge 3:4-7,22 John 8:44 4. Did everyone speak the same language? Ge 11:1 Ge 10:5,20,31 5. Was Salah the son of Arphaxad? Ge 11:12 (His grandson) Lu 3:35-36 6. Will the earth last forever? Ps 37:29, 104:5; Dt 4:40; Ec 1:4 Mt 24:35; 2Pe 3:10-11; Lu 21:33; Heb 1:10-11; 1Jo 2:17; Re 1:1 7. Did Abraham have just one son (Isaac)? Heb 11:17 (Two) Ge 16:15; 1Ch 1:28; Ga 4:22. (Many) Ge 25:2; 1Ch 1:32 8. Was Keturah Abraham’s wife? Ge 25:1 (His concubine) 1Ch 1:32 9. Were the Israelites in bondage for 400 years? Ge 15:13; (It was 430 years.) Ex 12:40 10. Did Potiphar buy Joseph from Midianites? Ge 37:36 (From Ishmaelites) Ge 39:1 11. Did the Israelites go from Kadesh to Mt. Hor, where Aaron died, & then to Zalmonah? Nu 33:37-42 (They went from Beeroth to Mosera, where Aaron died, & then to Gudgodah.) Dt 10:6-7 12. Were Levites to begin to serve at age 30? Nu 4:30 (Age 25) Nu 8:24 13. Was David Jesse’s seventh son? 1Ch 2:15 (His eighth) 1Sa 16:10-11 14. Did David kill Goliath with a sling + a stone? 1Sa 17:50 (With a sword) 1Sa 17:51 15. Was Ahimelech the priest who gave David the bread? 1Sa 21:1,6, 22:20 (His son, Abiathar) Mk 2:25-26 16. Was it Saul who killed the Amalekites? 1Sa 15:7-8 (It was David.) 1Sa 27:8-9, 30:13-18 18. Did Saul enquire of God? 1Sa 28:6 1Ch 10:13-14 19. Did Saul die by his own hand? 1Sa 31:4-5 (By an Amalekite) 2Sa 1:4-10; (By Philistines) 2Sa 21:12; (By the Lord) 1Ch 10:14 20. Was it God who provoked David to number Israel? 2Sa 24:1 (It was Satan.) 1Ch 21:1 21. Did David take 700 horsemen from Hadadezer? 2Sa 8:4 (It was 7000.) 1Ch 18:4 22. Did David kill 700 Syrian charioteers? 2Sa 10:18 (It was 7000.) 1Ch 19:18 23. Were the 40,000 other victims horsemen? 2Sa 10:18 (They were footmen.) 1Ch 19:18 24. To build his altar, did David pay 50 shekels of silver to Araunah for his threshing floor and oxen? 2Sa 24:18,24-25 (He paid 600 shekels of gold to Ornan for the floor alone.) 1Ch 21:22,25-26 25. Did Israel have 640,000 more swordsmen than Judah? 1Ch 21:5 (Only 300,000 more) 2Sa 24:9 26. Were the pillars named Jachin & Boaz 18 cubits high? 1Ki 7:15,21 (35 cubits high) 2Ch 3:15,17 27. Did Solomon have 3300 foremen and 550 chief officials? 1Ki 5:16, 9:23 (3600 foremen and 250 chief officials) 2Ch 2:2,18, 8:10 28. Did he have 40,000 stalls for his horses? 1Ki 4:26 (Only 4000) 2Ch 9:25 29. Was the vol. of Hiram’s cauldron 2000 baths? 1Ki 7:26 (It was 3000 baths.) 2Ch 4:5 30. Did Jehoram begin to reign in the 2nd year? 2Ki 1:17 (It was the 5th year.) 2Ki 8:16 31. Did King Josiah die at Megiddo? 2Ki 23:29-30 (At Jerusalem) 2Ch 35:23-24 32. Was Jehoiachin age 8 when he began to reign? 2Ch 36:9 (He was 18.) 2Ki 24:8 33. Did Ahaziah become king in the 12th year of Joram? 2Ki 8:25 (It was the 11th year.) 2Ki 9:29 34. Was he then age 22? 2Ki 8:26 (Age 42) 2Ch 22:2 (in Hebrew sources) 35. Was Ahaz defeated by the kings of Israel and Syria? 2Ch 28:5 2Ki 16:5 36. Was it the seventh day that Nebuzaradan came? 2Ki 25:8 (The tenth day) Jer 52:12 37. Did 775 descendants of Arah return from exile? Ezra 2:5 (It was 652.) Ne 7:10 [Note: there are dozens of other discrepancies between the lists in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7. Yet it seems to be the very same census, since their totals agree (Ezra 2:64-65, Ne 7:66-67).] 38. Did Jesus descend from David through David’s son Solomon and grandson Roboam? Mt 1:1-7 (Through David’s son Nathan and grandson Mattatha) Lu 3:23,31 39. Was Joseph’s father Jacob? Mt 1:16 (It was Heli.) Lu 3:23 [There are many other discrepancies between the lists in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Some say that the list in Luke shows Mary’s genealogy, but the key expression in Lu 3:23 is clearly “son of Heli”, not “son-in-law of Heli”. The same word translated there as “son” was used throughout the entire list.] 40. Were Joseph and Mary natives of Nazareth? Lu 1:26, 2:4,39 (They only went there later.) Mt 2:23 41. Did they go to Egypt? Mt 2:14-15 (Directly to Nazareth) Lu 2:39 42. At Jesus’s baptism, did the voice address Jesus? Mk 1:11 (It addressed the crowd.) Mt 3:17 43. Did Jesus go to Cana soon after his baptism? John 1:29-36, 2:1-2 (To the wilderness for 40 days) Mt 3:13-17, 4:1-2; Mk 1:9-13 44. Was John the Baptist arrested after Jesus began his ministry? John 3:23-24 (It was before .) Mk 1:14 45. While in prison, did John know who Jesus was? John 1:25-36, 3:23-24 Mt 11:2-3 49. Did Simon & Andrew join Jesus after certain events took place? Mt 4:12-20; Mk 1:14-18; Lu. 3:19-20, 4:14-31, 5:1-10 (It was before they took place.) John 1:35-42, 4:1-54 50. Could the disciples have shoes and staves? Mk 6:8-9 Mt 10:10 51. Was it six days after his “there be some here” prophecy that Jesus took 3 disciples up a mountain? Mt 17:1; Mk 9:2 (It was about eightdays after, which is presumably 7, 8, or 9.) Lu 9:28 52. Did the centurion himself come to Jesus? Mt 8:5-6 (He sent others.) Lu 7:3,6 53. Did James and John ask a favor of Jesus? Mk 10:35-37 (It was their mother who asked it.) Mt 20:20-21 54. Did Jesus give signs other than that of Jonas? John 3:2, 20:30; Ac 2:22 Mt 12:39; Mk 8:12 55. Did Jesus encounter just one possessed man? Mk 5:1-20; Lu 8:26-39 (It was two.) Mt 8:28-34 56. Just one blind man? Mk 10:46-52; Lu 18:35-43 (Two) Mt 20:30-34 57. Did Jesus heal the leper before going to Peter’s house? Mt 8:1-3,14-15 (It was after.) Mk 1:29-31,40-42 58. Was it near the end of his ministry that Jesus cleansed the temple? Mt 21:10-12 (It was near thebeginning.) John 2:11-15 59. Did Jesus curse the fig tree after going to the temple? Mt 21:12 (It was before.) Mk 11:13-15 60. Did Judas reveal Jesus by by a kiss, and did the crowd then take Jesus? Mt 26:48-50; Mk 14:43-46 (Jesus revealed himself, and the crowd then fell back.) John 18:3-6 61. Was Jesus silent before Pontius Pilate? Mt 27:13-14 (He said much.) John 18:33-37, 19:11 62. Did the soldiers clothe Jesus in scarlet (the color of royalty)? Mt 27:28 (It was purple, the symbol of infamy.) Mk 15:17 63. Did Simon the Cyrenian bear Jesus’s cross? Mt 27:32; Mk 15:21; Lu. 23:26 John 19:16-17 64. Was Jesus offered wine mixed with myrrh to drink? Mk 15:23 (It was vinegar mixed with gall.) Mt 27:34 65. Was Jesus reviled by both thieves on the cross? Mt 27:44 (Only by one) Lu 23:39-43 66. Was the cross inscription a complete sentence? Mt 27:37; Lu 23:38 (Just 5 or 8 words) Mk 15:26; John 19:19 67. Did it mention Jesus? Mt 27:37; John 19:19 Mk 15:26; Lu 23:38 68. Was Jesus crucified at the third hour? Mk 15:25 (The sixth or ninthhour) John 19:14-16; Mk 15:34 69. Were his last words, “It is finished”? John 19:30 (They were “into your hands I commit my spirit.”) Lu 23:46 70. Will all 12 sit on thrones? Mt 19:28 (Not Judas.) Mk 14:18-21 71. Did Judas keep the money and buy the field? Ac 1:18 (He returned it and the priests bought the field.) Mt 27:3-7 72. Did Judas hang himself? Mt 27:5 (He fell & burst open.) Ac 1:18 73. Did Joseph of Arimathea alone bury Jesus’s body? Mk 15:45-46; Lu 23:50-53 (Nicodemus was with him.) John 19:38-42 74. Did Jesus want his apostles to baptize people? Mt 28:19 1Co 1:17 75. Will doers of the law be justified? Ro 2:13 Ro 3:20 76. Are people justified by faith alone? Ro 3:23-28; Eph. 2:8-9 James 2:24 77. Are there any righteous people? Ge 7:1; Job 1:1; Lu 1:6; Jas 5:16 Ro 3:10,23

The existence of these and other contradictions can be explained as either (1) the original authors were not divinely inspired and therefore didn’t write stories that aligned with each other, (2) scribes made errors in copying the scriptures, or (3) the writings were deliberately revised by scribes to meet their personal biases or beliefs. In any event, it is clear that God was not overseeing the Bible-building effort to ensure a perfect product. As such, the Bible cannot be viewed as a reliable portrayal of history.

(26) Correlation between intelligence and religious disbelief

A highly controversial topic is whether atheists tend to be more intelligent than theists. If so, what does this mean? A study conducted in 2013 used a meta-analysis of 63 scientific studies and found that 53 showed a reliable correlation between intelligence and a disbelief in supernatural beings. Only 10 showed a neutral or negative correlation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2395972/Atheists-higher-IQs-Their-intelligence-makes-likely-dismiss-religion-irrational-unscientific.html

A different way to look at this issue is to examine the beliefs of one of the most intelligent groups of people, The National Academy of Sciences. Approximately 93% of these scientists are either atheist or agnostic.

http://creationwiki.org/National_Academy_of_Sciences

A third way to examine this topic is to compare education levels with the degree of belief in the inerrancy of the Bible, as documented at:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/inerrant.htm

A poll taken in May, 2011 revealed the following:

30% believe that “The Bible is the actual word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word.”

49% believe that “The Bible is the inspired word of God, but not everything in it should be taken literally.”

17% believe that “The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man.”

4% were uncertain or didn’t answer.

Formal education had a significant effect on a person’s belief in Biblical inerrancy. 46% of persons with high school education or less believe that the Bible should be interpreted literally. This dropped to 22% for persons with some college education, and to 15% among college graduates.

The following graph shows a negative correlation between religiosity and the average intelligence of each country:

http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=619

This represents important evidence against Christianity (and other religions as well) because, in the history of mankind, any sea change in conventional wisdom is first promoted by the smartest and most educated members of society. This was true of the rejection of the earth-centered model of the solar system. It was also true of the change from a flat earth to a spherical earth, as well as the ongoing transition from a creationist explanation of life to an evolutionary one. Given those examples, it can be predicted that the intellectuals who have embraced atheism have once again identified the correct sense of reality.

(27) Raising of Lazarus and Woman Caught in Adultery

The stories of the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the woman caught in adultery are extremely important in the effort to define who Jesus was. One tells of his immense power, and the other tells of his divine wisdom. Both would have been told and retold throughout the region, spread virally, and held up as convincing evidence for having faith in Jesus.

However, curiously, neither of these events is documented in the first three gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke). Not until the gospel of John, written at least 70 years after the death of Jesus, is the raising of Lazarus documented in scripture. And the story of the woman caught in adultery is not found in the oldest manuscripts of the gospel of John, and only appears in manuscripts beginning in the fifth century. This casts considerable doubt on the historical truth of these events.

(28) Palm Sunday- Good Friday Conflict:

Jesus is adored and worshipped as a King as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He then proceeds to work miracles, heal the sick, and demonstrate his supreme wisdom, making him even more a figure for adulation. But five days later, without explanation, he is abruptly hated so much by his own people that, given a chance to have him released, they chose to free a common criminal instead. There is something seriously wrong with this story.

What most likely happened is that the account of these events was altered to absolve the Romans and place the blame for Jesus’s death on the Jews. This is because by the time the scriptures were written, the focus of Christian evangelism was on the gentiles throughout the Roman Empire, while the Jews, freshly defeated in their war with Rome, were viewed as detestable villains.

(29) Judas

The story of Judas, the traitor, is fraught with inconsistency. First and foremost, it should be obvious that what he allegedly did actually hastened the salvation of mankind, as defined by Christianity. Without Jesus’s capture and execution, everybody would still be subject to the condemnation of original sin as well as their personal sins. Second, Jesus was not in hiding during his time in Jerusalem. He was out and about, performing miracles, and routinely in plain view of the Roman authorities, making it unnecessary for anyone to rat him out for arrest. Third, if we are to believe Christian doctrine, Jesus knew that he was to be executed and that this was the principal point of his mission, so why would he call out Judas as a traitor both at the last supper and in the garden at the time of his arrest? Judas actually had performed a beneficial contribution to Jesus’s mission.

To make some sense of this story, one has to assume that it was changed to fit a new narrative that placed blame on the Jews for the crucifixion, and painting Judas as a traitor was a part of that effort. What probably happened, assuming that the story was not completely made up, was that Judas was sent by Jesus to entice the Roman soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus then expected that God would miraculously intervene to defeat the Romans and begin the reign of Jesus as the king of the restored Kingdom of Israel.

(30) Roman Census

The Gospel of Luke states that a Roman census was conducted during the time of Jesus’ birth (BC 4). There is no record of this in Roman history. According to the Roman’s meticulous records, the only census that took place during this time frame was in AD 6-7 and it did not include the areas of Nazareth and Bethlehem. According to Luke, the residents were required to travel to their cities of birth to be counted. This absurd requirement was never applied to any census that the Romans conducted throughout their empire. This would have involved cases where families would have been split apart going to different cities, and it would have devastated the region’s economy. Obviously, the Romans would want to know how many people were living currently in each area rather than how many were born in a certain city.

The reason for this artifice from the writer of this gospel is evident. Jesus was known by many to have been born and raised in Nazareth, but the scriptures said that the savior was to be born in Bethlehem. Therefore, some device was needed to convince followers that Jesus was not born in Nazareth as everyone had assumed, but rather that he had the appropriate credentials of the savior. Further, that device had to entail something of a compulsory nature to explain why a full-term pregnant woman was transported 90 miles on a donkey away from her home and her doulas and midwives.

As a side note, this deception by the author of Luke provides some evidence that Jesus was a true historical figure, given that a mythical person could just as easily have been invented who was born and raised in Bethlehem.

(31) Passover Prisoner Release

The four gospels state that the Roman governor over Judea, Pontius Pilate, was obligated during the Passover to commute one prisoner’s death sentence and to have him released based on the acclamation of those attending the ceremony. There are no Roman records suggesting that such a custom existed. Further, the implication of such a practice would be absurd. It would mean that the Jews could plan for someone to perform a heinous crime just before the Passover and then have that perpetrator released.

This fictional story was first added to Mark’s gospel and then copied by the writers of the subsequent gospels. The author of Mark used this tale, perhaps inspired by a similar story in Homer’s “The Odyssey,” to shift blame for the crucifixion away from the Romans and toward the Jews. It is likely that Barabbas (translated as “son of the father”), the name of the criminal allegedly chosen by the crowd for release, was actually a nickname used for Jesus. So, in effect, the crowd was actually demanding the release of Jesus, finding that his arrest was unwarranted. When the author of Mark was confronted with the folklore that the Jews were asking for the release of Barabbas, he simply made Barabbas into a separate individual and then concocted the myth of the prisoner release tradition.

(32) Jesus rejected in his hometown

Jesus was generally very popular everywhere he went except in his hometown of Nazareth:

Mark 6: 1-6:

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

This is a significant admission. If Jesus was a mythical figure created for some purpose, wouldn’t the authors have made him into being a hometown hero? The fact that this negative reaction was written into the Gospel of Mark and subsequent gospels is telling evidence that Jesus was probably both a real person and that he actually was rejected by the people who knew him best.

It must be acknowledged that if Jesus was indeed the son of God, then the people of Nazareth would have known that he was a person of unusually superior wisdom and power and would have considered him as a celebrity with pride and veneration, just as many people today take pride in their hometown luminaries. But if he was just a mortal human with all of the typical frailties, then being rejected by his neighbors for making lofty claims is exactly what would be expected.

(33) The forged ending to the Gospel of Mark

Mark was the first documented gospel, and it is notoriously silent on many points added to the subsequent gospels. It contains no account of a virgin birth, or any birth for that matter, and no mention of Joseph as Jesus’s father.

But the crux of this point is that the original version of this gospel contains no mention of Jesus appearing and talking to his disciples after the resurrection. A unanimous consensus of Biblical scholars agree that the earliest manuscripts of Mark end at verse 16: 6-8, which is as follows:

Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

The early Christians were not satisfied with this ending, so various versions of alternate endings were devised. One of these was selected for inclusion in the King James Bible and is now documented therein and in other translations as Mark 16:9-19:

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

The history of this matter is discussed further at the following website:

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/the-strange-ending-of-the-gospel-of-mark-and-why-it-makes-all-the-difference/

This creates many problems for Christianity. First, it brings into question the authenticity of the scriptures as a whole. This forgery was caught because we have an early manuscript of Mark, but, lacking the original, we do not know how many other forgeries were also added to that document. Second, it exposes the fact that the early Christians were not averse to adding to scripture tales and stories of questionable authenticity. In effect, it means that they had no problem making things up to embellish the accounts. Third, the forged ending portion of the Book of Mark contains demonstrably false statements. Many Christians have died handling serpents in this manner, many have died of poisoning, and many have died after being prayed for.

The fabricated scriptures at the end of Mark are a Rosetta Stone for recognizing the questionable historical accuracy of the scriptures. They are, in effect, telling the reader to be wary of everything written in the Bible.

(34) Resurrection Consequences

The Bible suggests that Jesus rose from the dead and made appearances to hundreds of people before ascending into heaven. It is unlikely that this would have escaped the notice of Herod and Pilate and the vast majority of the Roman occupiers, not to mention the Jews, who would have either directly witnessed this amazing phenomenon or heard about it from credible sources. This would have provided proof that Jesus was a divine being, prompting Herod and Pilate to convert along with the Romans and the Jews, with Christianity then becoming the official religion of Judea.

Obviously, this did not happen, and the fact that it didn’t suggests strongly that Jesus did not rise from the dead. One thing is certain: If Jesus actually rose from the dead, there would be no separation between Judaism and Christianity- they would be one and the same.

(35) Other Gospel Books

The selection of the gospels to be included in the Bible was made by a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. At this council, four gospels were selected from a total of approximately 60 that were in use at the time. Three of the four gospels selected are called the synoptic gospels, Mark, Luke, and Matthew. These were not independent efforts, but had many elements borrowed and shared among them. The fourth gospel, John, is very different from the other three and presents a somewhat contradictory theology.

The other 56 or so gospels that were discarded do not agree for the most part with the four that were selected. Examples are the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of the Nazarenes, the Gospel of the Ebionites, and the Gospel of the Hebrews.

It is likely that the truth of what happened lies buried amid the numerous tales told by all of these gospels, with various true and fictional elements scattered throughout. But, what should be troubling to a questioning believer is that the council undoubtedly preferentially selected the gospels that were favorable to the Romans (i.e., the ones that made them look good) and excluded whatever did not flatter them. It is certain that this process resulted in a whitewashed portrayal of history.

(36) Too Many Messiahs

Most Christians believe that Jesus was a unique figure in his time, a one-of-kind preacher who mesmerized followers with his wisdom and magical acts. This is not true. There were many messiahs at this time including Hezekiah the bandit, Simon of Peraea, Athronges the shepherd boy, and Judas the Galilean. In addition, there were many other preachers and prophets who were gathering followers and preaching a messianic message about the coming of the Kingdom of God. Some advocated a violent overthrow of the Roman occupiers as a prelude to the coming. Others stressed a less violent approach including repentance, prayers, and beseeching of God for deliverance. Added to this list is the most popular preacher of all, John the Baptist. Jesus was possibly a follower of John until John’s arrest and execution (as exemplified by the subservient act of submitting himself for baptism), and then he may have assumed leadership of John’s movement.

Jesus was just one of many itinerant preachers of his day, and there was nothing particularly unique about him, because all were preaching the same ideas, and almost all of them ended up being crucified for the crime of sedition against the Roman Empire. It is a historical fluke that Christians pray to Jesus instead of John or Simon or Hezekiah.

(37) Two Gospels

Unbeknownst to most Christians, the early Christian church had two distinct divisions or denominations. One was organized by the Jewish followers of Jesus, his disciples, and close associates. The other was headed by Paul and his mostly non-Jewish followers.

The Jewish followers of Jesus were led by Jesus’ brother James. This group did not view Jesus as being divine, which would be unquestionably contrary to the Jewish faith, but rather a prophet setting the stage for the coming of the new kingdom of Israel to be established on earth. As mentioned earlier, they viewed the empty tomb as evidence that God has resurrected Jesus into heaven. But before that, they were certainly disillusioned by the crucifixion because it was not an expected outcome of Jesus’s mission. After all, Jesus had just been defeated by the very forces he intended to overcome. It is also likely that Jesus himself did not expect to be put to death. His complaint to God for being abandoned as recorded in the gospel of Matthew (27:46) is probably one of the few Biblical statements by Jesus that can be assumed true because of its disparity with the main gospel message.

With the belief in a resurrection, Jesus’ closest follows were refocused to continue to follow his gospel, and to expect a quick fulfillment. They were based in Jerusalem and had some success in recruiting new followers for several decades after the crucifixion.

In contrast, Paul viewed Jesus as being both a human and the divine savior of all mankind. Instead of the Jewish concept of a human messiah reigning over a restored kingdom of Israel, Paul envisioned a heavenly kingdom that was open to all peoples with admittance predicated simply on accepting Jesus as a personal savior, and without any obligation to perform good works.

For obvious reasons, a conflict developed between Paul and the original apostles, which shows up the book of Acts and Galatians. When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were decimated. This eliminated the opposition to the gospel of Paul, which then became the template for the new religion of Christianity. The New Testament books were written by followers of Paul after the destruction of Jerusalem. They were fashioned to support this new gospel, including statements added to make it appear that Jesus saw himself in the role as envisioned by Paul.

In summary, Jesus was a failed prophet, as was ultimately well understood by the Jews. Paul reversed the Jewish theology by viewing Jesus as a god-man and viewing his death as a final sacrifice for the propitiation of sins, making unnecessary any further animal sacrifices that were standard rituals in the Jewish temples.

These events explain the historical irony of how a Jewish preacher became the cornerstone of a new religion that was rejected by the Jews themselves.

(38) Jesus divine theory

Christianity proposes that Jesus was both a man and a divine being, constituting 1/3 of a Godhead trinity. Setting aside this bewildering doctrine, most Christians simply claim that Jesus is God.

Where this goes terribly wrong, is as follows: Jesus was a Jew and was following Jewish custom and law without making any effort to depart ways and start a new religion. The Jewish faith would not allow for a man to be a god, for the Jews were unyieldingly monotheistic. The best description of this is a quote from Reza Aslin, author of the book “Zealot:”

“If you’re asking if whether Jesus expected to be seen as God made flesh, as the living embodiment, the incarnation of God, then the answer to that is absolutely no. Such a thing did not exist in Judaism. In the 5,000-year history of Jewish thought, the notion of a God-man is completely anathema to everything Judaism stands for. The idea that Jesus could’ve conceived of himself — or that even his followers could’ve conceived of him — as divine, contradicts everything that has ever been said about Judaism as a religion.”

The unmistakable conclusion is that Christianity concocted a fatal contradiction regarding its central figure of worship, painting him as being something he absolutely could not have been within the context of his life and mission. If Christianity wanted a god-man, they needed to find someone other than a Jewish preacher.

(39) Evolution Demarcation

For those Christians who believe in evolution, there is a noteworthy problem dealing with the starting point when humans first became bound for eternity in the eyes of God. Whenever this happened, there were undoubtedly a lot of people scattered over much of the world. To be clear, there has to be a starting point when God first awarded an eternal life to human beings. Without this demarcation, we would have single-celled animals living for eternity in heaven. Whenever this occurred, it would create a problem. It would mean that many people going to heaven would do so without the company of their parents, who would die and not be raised up, similar to all of the other animals. No matter where the cut was made, this problem was unavoidable.

(40) Tiny Drama/ Huge Stage

At the time the Bible was created, most people viewed the earth as the center of the universe and that the sun, stars, planets, and moon revolved around its flat surface. Christianity is based on this world view, placing an emphasis on humans as the ultimate reason that the universe was created in the first place. Not only is Christianity earth-centered, but it was also limited to a few hundred square miles in its beginning and did not reach all areas of the earth until about 1500 years later. Further, it is limited in its overall time scope to something less than 10,000 years.

What we have since learned about the age and size of the universe has spectacularly dwarfed the Christian world view. Instead of 10,000 years old, the universe is 13,700,000,000 years old. Instead of the earth and a few objects orbiting around it, we have the earth, 4,500,000,000 years old, orbiting the sun, which is just one of over 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which itself is only one of at least 200,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe.

The idea that all of this was created so that God could create and test human beings is absurd. If that was so, then:

– Why did God wait 9,200,000,000 years after creating the universe to construct the earth?

– Why did God wait 4,500,000,000 years after creating the earth to create human beings?

– Why did God wait 100,000 years after creating modern human beings before making any contact with them?

– Why did God allow 3,500 years to pass after the initial contact with humans was made before his word had spread world-wide?

These thoughts are best summed up by a quote from Richard Feynman:

“It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil – which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.”

(41) Chosen People

Christians are obligated to accept the fact that God first chose to minister and support only the Jews, and to ignore all others, and even to assist the Jews in plundering the neighboring gentile populations. At the time there were large civilizations in Asia, Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Australia. People living in these areas did not learn anything about Jesus until centuries later, some even until around 1500 years later. To consider this fact is sobering. Why would a god do this, ignore humans for tens of thousands of years only to present himself solely to a desert tribe on a tiny spot of land? A more reasonable explanation is that the Jewish people invented a god that favored them, just like every other culture that has existed.

(42) Ignored Scriptures

Some Christians are aware of the absurd laws that are described in the Old Testament, such as being sentenced to death if you work on the Sabbath, or for children to be killed for cursing their parents. They usually say that the Old Testament has been superseded by the New Testament and therefore no longer applies. This is despite the fact Jesus emphatically said the opposite. (Mathew 5:17-19: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”)

But to be generous, let’s look strictly at the New Testament. What we find are many scriptures even there that are completely ignored by Christians, such as the following examples:

Luke 6:29-30

“Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back”

Matthew 5:32

“But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

James 5:14

“Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”

Matthew 6:19

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.”

I Corinthians 14:34

“The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak.”

Luke 14:12-14

“Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

It goes without saying that a Christian has no authority to pick and choose which scriptures he will follow; they either all apply or else none of them apply.

(43) Jewish Fate

If God chose the Jews as his chosen people (a fact necessary for Christianity to be authentic), why did they suffer so many defeats and tribulations at the hands of their enemies? The outcome of many of these conflicts would make it appear that God had chosen the other side instead. This is best exemplified by the Jewish-Roman war of AD 66-73, where the Romans slaughtered the Jews all of the way from Jerusalem to the final stronghold of Masada. It makes no sense that the people backed by an all-powerful god would fall victim to its non-god-aided enemies, much less in such a brutal and convincing fashion.

(44) The Book of Revelation and the misinterpretation of scripture

Modern Christians consider the Book of Revelation to be about the end of the world. This is not the case. It was written by a Jew who may or may not have been named John, but definitely not one of Jesus’s disciples, while he was stationed on the Greek island of Patmos. It is likely that the author was a preacher.

The book is principally about what the author considered to be the end of his world, specifically the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in AD 70. At that time 60,000 Roman soldiers stormed Jerusalem, burned down the Temple, and killed countless Jews. It was end of the world for those Jews who had expected Jesus to return and restore the holy land to God’s chosen people. What happened was the exact opposite of these expectations.

The author was trying to rally the Jews and present his vision that God would return to destroy the Romans and restore the Kingdom of the Jews. The reference to an anti-Christ is a metaphor for the Roman Emperor, Nero, and the number 666 spells out Nero’s imperial name with the Jewish numerology system. The author did not feel safe at the time to actually spell out Nero’s name.

So, in essence, the Book of Revelation is a lamentation for the disaster at Jerusalem, a call to rally the Jews to a brighter future, and a screed against the ‘demonic’ Romans, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Elaine Pagels, one of the world’s leading biblical scholars did extensive research to untangle the mystical nature of this book.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/31/four-big-myths-about-the-book-of-revelation/

Modern Christians have used their misinterpretation of this book, which was one of many similar books but the only one that made it into the Bible, to define a whole host of religious dogma, including the appearance of an Antichrist, the Tribulation, and the Battle of Armageddon, all seen as future apocalyptic events. What this shows is that scripture is widely open to being misused and thus it becomes an unreliable guide to defining reality. The Christian failure to understand the Book of Revelation, its inclusion in the Bible, and the false doctrines that it spawned is solid evidence against the authenticity of Christianity.

(45) Prayer

Objective studies have revealed that prayers are not effective beyond any statistical measure of coincidence. Most notably, they do not work for amputees or paralyzed individuals. Prayers for terminally ill people almost always fail. Prayers for rain, to allay storms, and for fixing damaged property, among others are rarely attempted because the supplicants know they won’t be effective. But what do the scriptures say?

Matthew 17:20

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Mark 11:24

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

An objective person must realize that the promises described in these scriptures are not true. The fact that there is no discernible efficacy for prayers is a valid clue that there is no god listening and responding to them.

One of the most definitive examples of the failure of prayer involves the story of Eva Peron (Evita), Argentina’s adored first lady from 1946 to 1952. Eva became sick with ovarian cancer and asked the Argentinian people to pray for her health to be restored. The ensuing 10+ million people praying for her had no effect on the progression and ultimately fatal consequences of her disease.

The very structure of society speaks to the ineffectiveness of prayer. Otherwise why would we have hospitals, drug companies, health insurance, car insurance, or any kind of insurance if Jesus’s promise of prayer was genuine?

(46) Angels

The Gospels tell of many encounters with angels, mostly to announce warnings or instructions, or to offer aid in some manner. The following list of angel encounters is from this site:

http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/christian-ministries/angels/angels-in-the-gospels.html

An angel appeared to Joseph regarding Mary’s conception. (Matthew 1:18-25)

An angel appeared to Joseph a second time to warn him. (Matthew 2:13-15)

An angel appeared a third time to Joseph to instruct him to leave Egypt. (Matthew 2:19-21)

Angels came and ministered to Jesus after his temptation. (Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13)

An angel rolled away the stone to Jesus’ tomb and announced his resurrection. (Matthew 28:2)

An angel appe