I’ve had this conversation a shitload of times with a ton of Christians.

I’ll say that one of the major problems I have with their religion is that they think I’m a sinner headed to hell. This statement is met with a couple responses. First, they’ll say it’s not up to them; it’s up to God. I’ve responded to that previously — I’m tired of Christians hiding behind a God they made up to distance themselves from their atrocious beliefs. Quit passing the buck. Own it.

The second is that they’re sinners, too, just like me. But, unlike me, they are saved, because Christ made it that way due to their belief in His sacrifice (which, if you’re a Calvinist, happened strictly because of His sovereign will).

Some Christians think that they made the choice to belief in Christ, others think that God’s irresistible grace was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit, and still others seem to think something in between. What I’m going to say about this business of Christians being saved and non-Christians remaining unsaved should apply to all these positions.

First, the fact that you think we’re all supposedly sinners does not make your worldview better in my mind; it makes it worse, because now you’re making a statement about other people besides me, people who I think deserve respect, and saying that they are sinners, too. If you were insulting just me, that would be bad enough. But insulting everybody — that is truly atrocious.

Second, if you think the way we are saved is through belief in Christ’s sacrifice (regardless of who instills that belief), or something similar, then you really have a major flaw in your thinking — you’re saying that the entire decision as to whether people deserve to be in heaven or in hell is dependent on one belief — the belief that a godman who was born of a virgin died for each and every one of our sins. That is truly disturbing. It seems better to judge people by their actions, as opposed to whether or not they believe the outrageous claim that a godman rose from the dead for everything bad a group of people ever did.

Third, you’re still saying that you’re better than me. Because if you’re a sinner, why wouldn’t you go to the same hell I’m going to? The answer, according to most Christians I’ve heard from, is either that Jesus takes their place or took their sins away (or some combination of both).

But usually Christians will ALSO say that Jesus doesn’t take my place or take my sins away because I don’t believe that the son of Old Testament God came through a virgin’s vagina to perform a shitload of miracles before being post-death buried in a tomb that he waltzed out of just before floating up to a heaven no one’s ever seen. And because the Christian does believe this, Jesus supposedly takes their place, or takes their sins away, or however they fit the fact that I’m going into hell and they’re going into heaven into their theology. Somehow, they think that Christ will or does make them better than me — otherwise, they’d say they’re going to the hell I’m going to.

So, because of those three branches of reasons, the logic “I’m not better than you — Christ makes me better than you” doesn’t really seem to follow for me. It actually makes things worse, not only because it makes a negative judgment on all of the mankind I love, but also because it states that we are not valued based on our actions — rather, it claims our value is based on a rather outrageous belief. The entirety of who we are is bound up in whether or not we believe ridiculous things about a guy who died 2000 years (if he ever even existed).

Furthermore, when Christians say this, they should realize that we as atheists see this as just them saying it. We don’t believe in God — so their statements often sound as if they’re looking for a way to make our nonbelief deserving of eternal hellfire, and their belief deserving of eternity in heaven. And if you look at the strict logic of the setup…this seems to be the case.

Thanks for reading.

Note: Whenever I talk about theological matters, someone is bound to say, “But not all Christians believe that”! I think I covered dominant Christian belief fairly well, but if you want a standard response to that reaction, click here.