Questions that forced me to reject Christianity?

Hi there! I was born into a Christian family and left religion when I was 14 so it seems we are in a similar boat.

I will answer from what I think a religious person's point of view is, and then mine.

1. God wants to be TRULY loved. If he MADE us all love him, it would mean nothing, we'd be like robots. People choosing to love him means so much more. And also, his main goal may not be to be loved, this doesn't mean he doesn't exist.

This is similar with all religions. Nobody in the world is born loving a God, it is something we are taught through schools and education. Some people may not have ever heard of God, yet this God has not made an effort to expose himself to them has he? Therefore, he either doesn't care, or isn't there.

2. Some say the bible is unchanged. Most religious people will say that it is intact and unchanged.

The truth here is that the world is constantly changing and evolving. Languages evolve, belief systems evolve. It is impossible to say that ANYTHING involving interpretation has remained unchanged throughout so many years. Totally agree with your idea here.

3. Same with the first one - it is God's holy book but he lets you make your own interpretations of his words and only cares that he has a relationship with his followers who he loves and they love him back blah blah yada yada

I think that anyone who follows the bible literally is silly. I believe it is a big fat metaphorical philosophy lesson, written by extremely intelligent and perceptive people. I have read the bible - not all of it but A LOT of it, and it really is quite well written with all kinds of lessons to learn. I will not condemn those who choose to learn from these lessons, though I must point out that following it literally just makes people look outdated and crazy.

4. I really have got nothing on this one. Perhaps a religious person can refute this. I totally agree once again, since it was written by people, it is obviously from their own biased view, prophet or not. How much control did "God" really care to exercise over the writing of his word? If he wanted a flawless interpretation he probably would have written it himself which just confuses the matter. Also, I don't believe in magic, so the book is most likely a brilliant work of ancient fiction.

1a. if God exists and his goal is to be worshiped/loved/followed, the we would see monotheism all over the world

Logical non sequitur. The premise simply does not logically support the conclusion. That conclusion would only be true if God *made it apparent to each and every human individual* that monotheism was correct. God merely having that desire would - logically - NOT cause the entire World to be monotheistic.

1b - This suggests that either God's primary purpose is not to be worshiped, or that God doesnt exist.

Conclusion based on a faulty premise (the preceding conclusion).

2a. The Bible is horribly unreliable. This is a story passed down hundreds of generations before it was finally written

This statement shows that you don't actually know what the Bible is. It is not "a story". It is a collection of more than 60 separate documents, many of which do not conform to your description.

Perhaps you should ***read*** the Bible before making claims as to what it is and isn't? Because anyone who has read it would realize that your description is faulty.

2b - and then translated multiple times.

Irrelevant. No matter how many times you translate a document (or collection of documents, in this case), the source text remains unchanged by the translation. For example: I have three different English translations of "Around the World in 80 Days". All three are translated from the French. The French sources are still available, and if they weren't copies of the French sources are still available. A translation only causes a change in the meaning and wording of the product - NOT of the source.

2c - Not to mention that it was assembled in its final form by some monk who CHOSE what chapters to stay and go.

This statement shows a serious lack of knowledge regarding the history of the Bible and the history of the formation of Biblical canon. It is, quite simply, erroneous.

3a. The Bible is inconsistent.

Claim unsupported.

3b - If this REALLY is God's holy book then why can people pick and choose verses?

Non sequitur. Whether or not the Bible is God's holy book has no relevance to the human ability to "pick and choose verses" (which, by the way, is an extremely poor description of the concept you want to convey).

3c - Many people reject that wearing two cloths is an abomination, or that creation is literal, but if you can reject that, what is stopping you from rejecting everything else.

Immediate textual context.

4a. The Bible is suspiciously reflective of man's hatreds/values. I.e Women were made from men and sinned first, therefore are less important than men.

The Bible does NOT teach that women "are less important than men". As I mentioned: you should read the Bible.

4b - Homosexuals are evil. Sick, injured or disable people are unclean and have sinned.

According to the Bible, ALL (except Jesus) have sinned - not just the sick.

4c - Also "Our race is the chosen race" (both Jews and Arabs),

The Bible does not identify Arabs as "the chosen race".

4d - "Ours is the promised land", heathens must be cleansed,

"heathens must be cleansed" cannot be found in the Bible. You ***really*** should read it.

4e - the unknown is evil,

That concept *cannot* be found in the Bible.

4f - science is blasphemy

That concept **cannot** be found in the Bible.

4g - Hmm smells like human to me..

Indeed - it smells like you just decided to invent several reasons to reject the Bible. So: what is the REAL reason that you reject the Bible? Remember, I've read it - so you can't fool me into believing that it teaches things it does not teach.

Would have to be god lacks prophecy or that it would wait not just a hundred years, but puts off for thousands and thousands of years of throwing its creation, the devil, into a ditch. "I'll just let it go on for a few more thousand years" is what is gods mindset. The devil is committing crimes and even though there is a huge list of criminal record its still "i'll just let it carry on having its enjoyment".

But prophecy? Before satans creation, god lacked prophecy. As god planted the tree of knowledge, god lacked prophecy. As god saved Lot and his two daughters from Sodom and Ghmorrah, a sinful place, god lacked being all knowing and didn't know they would have sexual intercourse.

So god is not all knowing. God does not have prophet ability.

Knowing that Jesus didn't write his own scriptures was a major turning off point. Even Jews had managed to write down their own scriptures, Jesus was meant to of been studying Torah when he was younger. Yet he could not write down in pure accuracy his own scripture?

So then a dodgy religion called muslim had to be created after?? Because god lacks foresight so needed a new prophet just a small 600 years after. It's been 1400 years later after their creation.

1. His goal is to connect with those who choose the follow Him. Free will.

2. It's not a game of telephone. Give these people some more credit than that.

3. Same God. Different covenants.

4. Eve sinned first, but both were punished

Homosexuality is an abomination

ALL have sinned, not just the sick, injured, or disabled. But Leviticus was concerned with skin diseases, (not so much Hansen's disease)

What things "seem like" doesn't necessarily mean that they are.

I will tackle a couple of your points as time allows. Let's look at your first one.

1. if God exists and his goal is to be worshiped/loved/followed, the we would see monotheism all over the world, but we dont. This suggests that either God's primary purpose is not to be worshiped, or that God doesnt exist.

Prostitutes have many sexual partners, maybe in the hundreds or thousands depending. Contrast that with a faithful woman who has only one husband that is her only mate. How does that relate to God and his number of followers?

God is not going to change his standards to draw people to him. He wants only those who love him for who he is. He is not interested in quantity, but in quality.

You might counter, "Then why are there billions of Christians in 1000's of different sects?"

While God does not change his standards, clergy is willing to make any change to draw the crowds. That started back right after the last apostle died in the 1st century, and it blossomed fully with the foundation of the Catholic faith as the Roman empire placed it as the religion of the empire.

The Bible presents many times that God had preserved only a minority out of the population. The destruction of the Jewish nation by the Babylonians in the 6th century B.C. resulted in only a small remnant surviving and later returning to the land to rebuild. God would not change his standards that the Jews wanted to live by.

Your point that it appears that God "primary purpose is not to be worshiped" is correct. His purpose for creating the earth was to fill it with humans that loved him and each other, that would care for the earth and live by his standards.

There is a big difference between "worship" and "love". People will "worship" a god out of fear, as seen in many of the ancient religions. Even down to today, in many Asian cultures, the practice of worshiping their ancestors is to keep a "friendly" relationship with them, and to keep them from becoming a evil influence in the living's lives.

We see in Jesus' answer to the question of what was the greatest commandment. The questioner was trying to trap him so as to a point to discredit him.

(Matthew 22:34-40) 34 After the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together in one group. 35 And one of them, versed in the Law, tested him by asking: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”

From that answer, we see the purpose of God and what his will is for mankind and the earth.

That is why there is a minority among mankind that are God's worshipers. They live by his standards and do so out of love for him and their neighbors.

Without faith it is impossible to see God--spiritually speaking--all the arguments here has nothing to do with faith.

I think you have mentioned the tip of the iceberg.

It is very obvious to any intelligent reader that the bible is a bunch of stories, and is there to try to control ignorant people. And it works, so they continue the deception.

As long as you remember religion is about political power, and money, their desire is to rule you, not to save you. It is fear-tactics on steroids.

1-fail 2-fail 3-fail 4-fail, you need to read it all again, this time without an agenda