Christians have asked me, "If I presented you with evidence and convinced you that Yahweh exists, would you worship him?" My answer is always no.
My apostasy was based on 2 prongs;
1. Yahweh is unjust and immoral, as described in the Bible
2. There is no credible evidence that any deities exist
The first reason that I began to doubt the truth of the Bible was that the god of the Bible is not a just or moral character. You can quote scripture passages that say he is just and moral all day long, but saying a thing does not make it true. Writing it down and insisting that a good and just god who is incapable of lying told you to write it down doesn't make it true either.
There are horrible acts in the Old Testament attributed to Yahweh. The New Testament seems a bit better, but there are still bad things in the NT; for example the idea that homosexuals' innate attraction to people of the same sexual gender are immoral for acting on their to the same intimacy as heterosexuals, the institution of slavery is upheld as legitimate, and the concept of eternal torture is introduced (where was that concept in the OT by the way?). I don't see these as minor problems. The idea that two people who love each other and want to spend their lives together caring for each other is somehow on the same level as lying or murder, is wrong. The institution of slavery is immoral, and the fact that Jesus advises slaves to simply obey their masters, that Paul returns a runaway slave and doesn't even tell the Christian slave owner Philemon to free the slave is immoral. Paul asks Philemon not to beat the runaway slave when he returns, but he fails to say that beating slaves in general is wrong. There is nothing in the NT that revises the institution of slavery from it's OT law. It's ok to hold slaves and to beat them to within an inch of their lives (Exodus 21:20-21). The idea of eternal torture for any person is horrific and immoral. If you could prove to me there was a single who inspired the writing of the Bible, and who fit the description of Yahweh, I would find it disturbing and distressing because a being as corrupt and horrible should not have that kind of power.
So, what would it take for me to believe? If there was evidence that prayer to the Christian god made measurable and statistically significant impact on the real world, I would be persuaded that this god existed. It would also help is there was less confusion and mess when it comes to interpretation of what it means to be Christian, and if people in the churches had demonstrably better ethics, and personalities. It would help if I had some actual two way interaction with this being and also if I was offered some reasonable explanation as to how anything in the Bible makes sense. But that might be asking too much.
What kinds of evidence would convince you that your beliefs are wrong? That's an important question that we all need to consider.
Thanks for stopping by
Gavagai
My apostasy was based on 2 prongs;
1. Yahweh is unjust and immoral, as described in the Bible
2. There is no credible evidence that any deities exist
The first reason that I began to doubt the truth of the Bible was that the god of the Bible is not a just or moral character. You can quote scripture passages that say he is just and moral all day long, but saying a thing does not make it true. Writing it down and insisting that a good and just god who is incapable of lying told you to write it down doesn't make it true either.
There are horrible acts in the Old Testament attributed to Yahweh. The New Testament seems a bit better, but there are still bad things in the NT; for example the idea that homosexuals' innate attraction to people of the same sexual gender are immoral for acting on their to the same intimacy as heterosexuals, the institution of slavery is upheld as legitimate, and the concept of eternal torture is introduced (where was that concept in the OT by the way?). I don't see these as minor problems. The idea that two people who love each other and want to spend their lives together caring for each other is somehow on the same level as lying or murder, is wrong. The institution of slavery is immoral, and the fact that Jesus advises slaves to simply obey their masters, that Paul returns a runaway slave and doesn't even tell the Christian slave owner Philemon to free the slave is immoral. Paul asks Philemon not to beat the runaway slave when he returns, but he fails to say that beating slaves in general is wrong. There is nothing in the NT that revises the institution of slavery from it's OT law. It's ok to hold slaves and to beat them to within an inch of their lives (Exodus 21:20-21). The idea of eternal torture for any person is horrific and immoral. If you could prove to me there was a single who inspired the writing of the Bible, and who fit the description of Yahweh, I would find it disturbing and distressing because a being as corrupt and horrible should not have that kind of power. So, what would it take for me to believe? If there was evidence that prayer to the Christian god made measurable and statistically significant impact on the real world, I would be persuaded that this god existed. It would also help is there was less confusion and mess when it comes to interpretation of what it means to be Christian, and if people in the churches had demonstrably better ethics, and personalities. It would help if I had some actual two way interaction with this being and also if I was offered some reasonable explanation as to how anything in the Bible makes sense. But that might be asking too much.
What kinds of evidence would convince you that your beliefs are wrong? That's an important question that we all need to consider.
Thanks for stopping by
Gavagai
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