From The Freethought Zone:This article sums up much of what has been stated time and time again by atheists that xians either choose to dismiss in lieu of blind “faith” or never even bother to read:
At the core of the Christian belief system is the notion that “God gave his only begotten son” to save humans. The basic idea is that God was so angry with humans because of their sins that he would damn them all to hell. But God had a son. God decided to vent his anger by murdering his son (which was suicide according to the trinity dogma). Since God’s anger was properly relieved, he no longer felt the need to damn everybody; now the people who believe this story would no longer have to go to hell.
But since God is suppose to be omnipotent, he should be able to do anything, including forgiving people, without first demanding sacrifice. There is no reason why an omnipotent god would have to resort to the artifice of having his son murdered in order to avoid sending people to hell. This is why the notion that “God gave his only begotten son” is so absurd. Somehow Christians do not realize that their barbaric savior god story is absurd; they never seem to be able to ask themselves “Why did God have to sacrifice his son? Couldn’t he just forgive people?”.
Here are some points to ponder when thinking about Christianity:
* There are many savior god myths much older than Christianity. The supernatural aspects of Christianity are clearly nothing more than evolved myth (see Christianity and Other Mythologies).
* Christianity would not exist today if not for genocide. In the early part of the fourth century, the Roman emperor Constantine carried out “holy” wars against pagans; and in 356 CE, a law was passed officially declaring the practice of non-Christian religions to be a crime punishable by death. Before Constantine, Christianity was an insignificant little cult.
* Christianity, if taken seriously, would lead to the most perverse kind of moral relativism. The Bible is self-contradictory. People who attempt to base their morals solely on the Bible will have morals that depend on what parts of the Bible they choose to believe and what parts they choose to ignore. Fortunately, most Christians ignore the many Bible passages which glorify genocide.
* By placing emphasis on a mythical afterlife at the expense of real life, Christianity devalues human life. Many Christians claim that life would have no meaning without God and the hope for an eternal afterlife. This is equivalent to saying that they think that our life here on Earth is worthless. How very sad.
(Some “atheist proselytizing” here): If you are a Christian, there is hope for you. You don’t need God to save you from himself; you can take responsibility for your own life. All you need to do to start down the path of becoming a freethinker is to open your mind and think! If, like most Christians, you have never read the Bible, that would be a good place to start. Read it starting from Genesis and try to understand what it really says without twisting the meaning into some preconceived notion of what you think it should say. Most Christians would be shocked to learn what is really in their “holy” book.
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.” - Thomas Paine
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