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The same one, two or a few people who call themselves Christians keep attacking atheists here, writing - in an angry and mean-spirited way - that atheists are angry, mean-spirited and in need of prayer. Atheism seems to threaten them somehow, to the point that, repeatedly, they make things up about people they don't even know.

The extremist Christians who post here do not represent the majority of Christians in Kearny, or across the country. On the other hand, their theology still holds sway far beyond its merits. In fact, mainstream Christian theology is so obviously false that it should be discarded altogether. You don't have to be an atheist if you're not a Christian, though atheism is a perfectly respectable intellectual position, as long as you're reasonable about it. The point here is that mainstream Christian theology is obviously wrong ethically, morally and factually.

The biblical passage held up by Christians most often as central to their Christianity is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

A mainstream interpretation of this is that all of humanity became corrupted by the fall from grace described in Genesis 3. As a result, say many Christians, humans are born into sin, and the One Way to be saved and attain life in paradise with God (heaven) is to receive the saving power of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. That interpretation runs into several fatal problems for any thinking person.

Let's just consider one. What about all the people who lived and died in the approximately 4,000 years after the supposed fall in the Garden of Eden and before the supposed Christ's supposed resurrection? If the mainstream Christian interpretation is true, they would have no way to be saved. The same would be true for all the people, across most of the world, who never heard about Jesus at any time in their lives, within the past 2,000. When Europeans encountered native peoples from all over the world, well into the 20th century, they found that they had never heard of Jesus. So they could hardly have believed in him. They never had a chance. So if you believe literally in Christian theology, God is arbitrary and unjust; and why would you want to believe in a god like that? You wouldn't be any safer than the atheist, because an unjust an arbitrary god could turn on you at any time, for little or no reason. You wouldn't be safe in heaven, contrary to what you might want to believe.

The usual answer to that is that God makes exceptions for people who have never heard of Christ. Well, that seems fair, if you look at only that part of it. But wait a minute. If God can make exceptions, and people who have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior can go to heaven, then the whole story collapses completely. You don't have to believe in Christ to be saved. So the whole big melodrama was never necessary in the first place. There's no way around this problem. Quite simply, the Christian story, as usually interpreted, is not true. Somebody made up a story, just like they did with all the other religions Christians don't spend a single second worrying about.

It's time we stopped offering the Bible for people to swear on. It's a collection of ancient writings, and that's all it is. It has some brilliant parts and some horrible parts. All in the all, the biblical god is arbitrary and stupid if you accept how the Bible describes him.

Why would anyone want to believe in a god who is arbitrary, vengeful, vindictive, impotent, stupid or some combination of those things?

I'm not trying to be mean in asking this question. It's just that it would be very nice if our religions could be about things that are real, and true and just.

Have a great day everyone. Remember to love today. Be generous to others and to yourself. And remember to think.

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The same one, two or a few people who call themselves Christians keep attacking atheists here, writing - in an angry and mean-spirited way - that atheists are angry, mean-spirited and in need of prayer. Atheism seems to threaten them somehow, to the point that, repeatedly, they make things up about people they don't even know.

The extremist Christians who post here do not represent the majority of Christians in Kearny, or across the country. On the other hand, their theology still holds sway far beyond its merits. In fact, mainstream Christian theology is so obviously false that it should be discarded altogether. You don't have to be an atheist if you're not a Christian, though atheism is a perfectly respectable intellectual position, as long as you're reasonable about it. The point here is that mainstream Christian theology is obviously wrong ethically, morally and factually.

The biblical passage held up by Christians most often as central to their Christianity is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

A mainstream interpretation of this is that all of humanity became corrupted by the fall from grace described in Genesis 3. As a result, say many Christians, humans are born into sin, and the One Way to be saved and attain life in paradise with God (heaven) is to receive the saving power of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. That interpretation runs into several fatal problems for any thinking person.

Let's just consider one. What about all the people who lived and died in the approximately 4,000 years after the supposed fall in the Garden of Eden and before the supposed Christ's supposed resurrection? If the mainstream Christian interpretation is true, they would have no way to be saved. The same would be true for all the people, across most of the world, who never heard about Jesus at any time in their lives, within the past 2,000. When Europeans encountered native peoples from all over the world, well into the 20th century, they found that they had never heard of Jesus. So they could hardly have believed in him. They never had a chance. So if you believe literally in Christian theology, God is arbitrary and unjust; and why would you want to believe in a god like that? You wouldn't be any safer than the atheist, because an unjust an arbitrary god could turn on you at any time, for little or no reason. You wouldn't be safe in heaven, contrary to what you might want to believe.

The usual answer to that is that God makes exceptions for people who have never heard of Christ. Well, that seems fair, if you look at only that part of it. But wait a minute. If God can make exceptions, and people who have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior can go to heaven, then the whole story collapses completely. You don't have to believe in Christ to be saved. So the whole big melodrama was never necessary in the first place. There's no way around this problem. Quite simply, the Christian story, as usually interpreted, is not true. Somebody made up a story, just like they did with all the other religions Christians don't spend a single second worrying about.

It's time we stopped offering the Bible for people to swear on. It's a collection of ancient writings, and that's all it is. It has some brilliant parts and some horrible parts. All in the all, the biblical god is arbitrary and stupid if you accept how the Bible describes him.

Why would anyone want to believe in a god who is arbitrary, vengeful, vindictive, impotent, stupid or some combination of those things?

I'm not trying to be mean in asking this question. It's just that it would be very nice if our religions could be about things that are real, and true and just.

Have a great day everyone. Remember to love today. Be generous to others and to yourself. And remember to think.

And besides, why would anyone want to believe in a god who condemns all humanity for the supposed sins of the first two people? Makes no sense.

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So why do people insist on believing in something that's obviously not true?

More accurately, why do people persist in saying they believe in something, when they know it's not true?

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  • 10 months later...

The same one, two or a few people who call themselves Christians keep attacking atheists here, writing - in an angry and mean-spirited way - that atheists are angry, mean-spirited and in need of prayer. Atheism seems to threaten them somehow, to the point that, repeatedly, they make things up about people they don't even know.

The extremist Christians who post here do not represent the majority of Christians in Kearny, or across the country. On the other hand, their theology still holds sway far beyond its merits. In fact, mainstream Christian theology is so obviously false that it should be discarded altogether. You don't have to be an atheist if you're not a Christian, though atheism is a perfectly respectable intellectual position, as long as you're reasonable about it. The point here is that mainstream Christian theology is obviously wrong ethically, morally and factually.

The biblical passage held up by Christians most often as central to their Christianity is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

A mainstream interpretation of this is that all of humanity became corrupted by the fall from grace described in Genesis 3. As a result, say many Christians, humans are born into sin, and the One Way to be saved and attain life in paradise with God (heaven) is to receive the saving power of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. That interpretation runs into several fatal problems for any thinking person.

Let's just consider one. What about all the people who lived and died in the approximately 4,000 years after the supposed fall in the Garden of Eden and before the supposed Christ's supposed resurrection? If the mainstream Christian interpretation is true, they would have no way to be saved. The same would be true for all the people, across most of the world, who never heard about Jesus at any time in their lives, within the past 2,000. When Europeans encountered native peoples from all over the world, well into the 20th century, they found that they had never heard of Jesus. So they could hardly have believed in him. They never had a chance. So if you believe literally in Christian theology, God is arbitrary and unjust; and why would you want to believe in a god like that? You wouldn't be any safer than the atheist, because an unjust an arbitrary god could turn on you at any time, for little or no reason. You wouldn't be safe in heaven, contrary to what you might want to believe.

The usual answer to that is that God makes exceptions for people who have never heard of Christ. Well, that seems fair, if you look at only that part of it. But wait a minute. If God can make exceptions, and people who have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior can go to heaven, then the whole story collapses completely. You don't have to believe in Christ to be saved. So the whole big melodrama was never necessary in the first place. There's no way around this problem. Quite simply, the Christian story, as usually interpreted, is not true. Somebody made up a story, just like they did with all the other religions Christians don't spend a single second worrying about.

It's time we stopped offering the Bible for people to swear on. It's a collection of ancient writings, and that's all it is. It has some brilliant parts and some horrible parts. All in the all, the biblical god is arbitrary and stupid if you accept how the Bible describes him.

Why would anyone want to believe in a god who is arbitrary, vengeful, vindictive, impotent, stupid or some combination of those things?

I'm not trying to be mean in asking this question. It's just that it would be very nice if our religions could be about things that are real, and true and just.

Have a great day everyone. Remember to love today. Be generous to others and to yourself. And remember to think.

Every word of this is true. And deep down, even the whiners know it. That's why not one of them responded to this.

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