The Impossible Truth

The bulk of Christian teachings, not to mention the bulk of Christian history is a religion based on fear, through grisly depictions of the endless horrors and suffering we’ll be subjected to if we don’t live “good Christian lives”.  Christianity has been terrorizing adults and children alike for  2000 years and continues to this day. If the evidence were such that Christianity’s truth was immediately apparent to anyone who considered it, Christians—including those who wrote the Gospels—would feel no need to resort to the cheap tactic of using fear-inducing threats to inspire “belief.” Anyone can see that the majority of the Christian clergy have been more than willing to provide a lip service, plus the dollars and obedience that go with it, in place of genuine belief, there is a since of basic dishonesty in Christianity leaders today all the way back to the founders of the catholic church. I wonder how God would judge the cowards and hypocrites who advance Christianity into the false teaching that modern Christianity has become. In addition to the fears of “the devil and hell,” Christianity plays on another of humankind’s most basic fears: death. Perhaps Christianity’s strongest appeal is its promise of eternal life, most people are so terrified of death that they cling to this promise insisting, like frightened children, that it must be true. Christianity breeds arrogance, a chosen-people mentality. It’s only natural that those who believe that they have a direct line to the Almighty would feel superior to others. This is so obvious that it needs little elaboration. A brief look at religious terminology confirms it. Christians have often called themselves “God’s people,” “the chosen people,” “the elect,” “the righteous,” while nonbelievers have been labeled “heathens,” “infidels,” and “atheistic Communists”, as if atheism and Communism are intimately connected. This sets up a two-tiered division of humanity, in which “God’s people” feel superior to those who are not “God’s people.” Many competing religions with contradictory beliefs make the same claim but it seems not to matter at all to the members of the various sects that claim to be the only carriers of “the one true faith.”  Christianity breeds authoritarianism. Given that Christians claim to have the one true faith, to have a book that is the Word of God, and to receive guidance directly from God, they feel little or no compunction about using force and coercion to enforce “God’s Will” Given that they believe that they’re receiving orders from the Almighty  it’s little wonder that they feel no reluctance, and in fact are eager, to intrude into the most personal aspects of the lives of nonbelievers. ” It’s obvious in the area of education, with Christians attempting to force biology teachers to teach their creation myth ,but not those of Hindus, Native Americans, etc.,  in place of the theory of evolution. But the authoritarian tendencies of Christianity reach much further than this. Up until well into the 20th century in the United States and other Christian countries, Christian churches pressured governments into passing laws forbidding the sale and distribution of birth control devices, and they also managed to enact laws forbidding even the description of birth control devices. This assault on free speech was and still is a part of Christianity’s shameful history of attempting to suppress “indecent” and “subversive” materials. This anti-free speech stance of Christianity dates back centuries. Perhaps the most colorful example of this intrusive Christian tendency toward censorship is the Catholic Church’s Index of Prohibited Books, which dates from the 16th century and which was abandoned only in the latter part of the 20th century, not because the church recognized it as a crime against human freedom, but because it could no longer be enforced. Christianity is cruel. Throughout its history, cruelty—both to self and others—has been one of the most prominent features of Christianity. From its very start, Christianity, with its bleak view of life, its emphasis upon sexual sin, and its almost impossible-to-meet demands for sexual “purity,” encouraged guilt, penance, and self-torture. Today, this self-torture is primarily psychological, in the form of guilt arising from following one’s natural sexual desires.  Given that the Bible nowhere condemns torture and sometimes prescribes shockingly cruel penalties, such as burning alive, and that Christians so wholeheartedly approved of self-torture, it’s not surprising that they thought little of inflicting appallingly cruel treatment upon others. At the height of Christianity’s power and influence, hundreds of thousands of “witches” were brutally tortured and burned alive under, and the Inquisition visited similarly cruel treatment upon those accused of heresy.  While the torture and murder of heretics and “witches” is now largely a thing of the past, Christians can still be remarkably cruel, Its followers picket the funerals of victims of AIDS and gay bashings, brandishing signs reading, “God Hates Fags,” “AIDS Cures Fags,” and “Thank God for AIDS.”  Christianity is anti-intellectual, anti-scientific. For over a millennium Christianity arrested the development of science and scientific thinking. systematic investigation of the natural world was restricted to theological investigation—the interpretation of biblical passages, the gleaning of clues from the lives of the saints, etc.; there was no direct observation and interpretation of natural processes, because that was considered a useless pursuit, as all knowledge resided in scripture. The results of this are well known: scientific knowledge advanced hardly an inch in the over 1000 years from the rise of orthodox Christianity in the fourth century to the 1500s, believing in paranormal explanations for the most ordinary natural events. This ignorance had tragic results: it made people see witchcraft as an explanation for everything from illness to thunderstorms, and hundreds of thousands of women paid for that ignorance with their lives. One of the commonest charges against witches was that they had raised hailstorms or other weather disturbances to cause misfortune to their neighbors. Another result was that the fearful population remained very dependent upon Christianity and its “wise men” for protection against the supernatural evils which they believed surrounded and constantly menaced them. For men and women of the Middle Ages, the walls veritably crawled with demons and witches; and their only protection from those evils was the church. When scientific investigation into the natural world resumed in the Renaissance—organized Christianity did everything it could to stamp it out, Like when the Catholic Church banned the theory that the Earth revolves around the sun and banned Galileo from teaching it, it did not consider the evidence for that theory: it was enough that it contradicted scripture. More lately, the Catholic Church and the more liberal Protestant congregations have realized that fighting against science is a losing battle, and they’ve taken to claiming that there is no contradiction between science and religion. As long as Christian sects continue to claim the Bible as ,cover to cover, fact the conflict between science and religion will remain. Christianity has a morbid, unhealthy preoccupation with sex. For centuries, Christianity has had an exceptionally unhealthy fixation on sex, to the exclusion of almost everything else except power, money, and the infliction of cruelty. This stems from the numerous “thou shalt nots” relating to sex in the Bible. That the Ten Commandments contain a commandment forbidding the coveting of one’s neighbor’s wife, but do not even mention slavery, torture, or cruelty—which were abundantly common in the time the Commandments were written— speaks volumes about their writer’s preoccupation with sex and women as property. Christianity has an exceedingly narrow, legalistic view of morality. Christianity not only reduces the question of morality to that of sexual behavior, but by listing its prohibitions, it encourages an “everything not prohibited is permitted”. until the latter part of the 19th century Christians engaged in the slave trade, and Christian preachers defended it, citing biblical passages, from the pulpit. Today, with the exception of a relatively few liberal churchgoers, Christians ignore the very real evils plaguing our society—poverty; homelessness; hunger; militarism; a grossly unfair distribution of wealth and income, corporate greed; overpopulation; sexism; racism; homophobia; freedom-denying, invasive drug laws; an inadequate educational system; etc., etc. Christianity encourages acceptance of real evils while focusing on imaginary evils. Organized Christianity is a skillful apologist for the status quo and all the evils that go along with it. It diverts attention from real problems by focusing attention on sexual issues, and when confronted with social evils such as poverty they dismisses them with excuses such as, “The poor ye have always with you.” When confronted with the problems of militarism and war, most Christians shrug and say, “That’s human nature. It’s always been that way, and it always will.” One suspects that 200 years ago their forebears would have said exactly the same thing about slavery. Christianity is homophobic. Christianity from its beginnings has been markedly homophobic. The biblical basis for this homophobia lies in the story of Sodom in Genesis, and in Leviticus. This sounds remarkably harsh, yet Leviticus proscribes a great many other things, declares many of them “abominations,” and prescribes the death penalty for several other acts such as the eating of blood sausage; the eating of “unclean” hares and swine; Leviticus also declares shellfish “abominations”; the death penalty for cursing one’s father or mother; the death penalty for adultery; the penalty of being burnt alive for having a three-way with one’s wife and mother-in-law;  and many more.  The Bible, Christianity’s basic text, is riddled with contradictions. There are a number of glaring contradictions in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, and including some within the same books. A few examples:

“… God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” 

(James:1:13) 

“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.” 

(Genesis 22:1)

“… for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.” 

(Jeremiah 3:12) 

“Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever. Thus saith the Lord.” 

(Jeremiah 17:4)

“If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” 

(John 5:31, J.C. speaking) 

“I am one that bear witness of myself …” 

(John 8:18, J.C. speaking)

and last but not least:

“I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 

(Genesis 32:30) 

“No man hath seen God at any time.” 

(John 1:18) 

“And I [God] will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts …” 

(Exodus 33:23)

AND MANY, MANY MORE! 

Christianity borrowed its central myths and ceremonies from other ancient religions. The ancient world was rife with tales of virgin births, miracle-working saviors, tripartite gods, gods taking human form, gods arising from the dead, heavens and hells, and days of judgment. In addition to the myths, many of the ceremonies of ancient religions also match those of Christianity. These are but some of the major problems attending Christianity, and they provide overwhelming reasons for my conclusion that main stream Christianity is a false teaching. Even if you discount half, two-thirds, or even three-quarters of these arguments, the conclusion is still irresistible. I believe in the Christian God and his son Jesus, however the concept of the Bible being cover to cover true is laughable.