Your top 10 reasons for rejecting Christianity

[SLD]

So now that we can pray at school - sort of - I thought I’d make a hand out for high schoolers with the top 10 reasons for rejecting Christianity. I thought I’d start out like this:

You don’t have to believe Christianity. Just because your community is a majority of Christians doesn’t make it true and you shouldn’t believe anything because everyone is telling you it’s true. You should only believe in things after rational investigation into the facts. So here are 10 reasons (of many) not to believe in Christianity:

1) It’s been 2000 years, Jesus is obviously not coming back. He said he’d be back soon. He’s dead. Like everyone else from that time period.

2) There are many other similar myths of dying and rising savior gods from that time frame. Osiris, Asclepius, Dionysus, Tammuz and many others. Jesus is a myth just like they are.

3) The gospels contradict each other. John is completely different from the other three with different stories and completely different character. In Mark 10:18 Jesus explicitly denies being god. In John he says he at one with god. There are many others that you can find at skepticsannotatedbible.com.

4) The gospels were written decades after the events described and none are first hand accounts.

5) The epistles also contradict the gospels. See Corinthians description of the crucifixion and compare it to the gospels.

6) To save the entire world, Christ only appears to a few hundred people at most and reveals his risen self to even less. This makes no sense in a world population of several hundred million at that time. This makes no sense for a god to do this to the people of earth.

7) extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And there simply isn’t for the events described in the Bible. If there is a god and he is Christian he could have easily left sufficient and indisputable evidence for the resurrection. But he didn’t. We are forced to rely on ancient texts of dubious sources. We shouldn’t believe them anymore than many other myths out there in ancient texts.

8) Jesus made no significant prophecies that could undeniably prove he knew the future. He showed us no scientific advancement whatsoever that could have alleviated many from suffering over the last 2000 years.

9) There are many other gospels about Jesus that never made it into the Bible. The Bible has also changed. Some parts do not appear in earlier versions such as the story of the women taken in adultery. The earliest versions of Mark do not talk about the resurrrection, ending with the women running away from the apparently empty tomb.

10) Science doesn’t lie. The Bible just isn’t scientifically accurate. The earth is 4.6 billion years old. We evolved from other creatures over billions of years. Science has given us a modern technological world and has advanced medicine far more than prayer or religion ever dreamed. Religion has only given us wars and suppressed our freedoms.

If you don’t believe, know that you are not alone. There are many resources on the web for support. Iidb.org, the freedom from religion foundation and many others.

If you still believe great. But study. Read the Bible but don’t stop there. Read history, science, biblical criticism, and philosophy. At least you won’t be ignorant.


Ok. That’s it so far. Add others and I’ll probably change it. Maybe I’ll take the pamphlet to one of those rally at the flag events or onto the football field right after the game and start to distribute it to all those praying. Hopefully I won’t be killed.

 

[skepticalbip]

It isn't just Christianity. And I can only think of one reason not to believe the magical claims of any religion as I have seen no evidence that would make me believe in magic. Plus I don't accept arbitrary authority as a valid logical reason to accept, as truth, what someone claims to be true.

OK, that was two reasons.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Underlying Christianity is the claim God exists . No God, no Christianity. Now we have the problems of Biblical claims about God and various contradictions and problems. God predestines all. Why then moral evil? God foreknows the future as per Bible. And creates all. Then God must have created all moral evils. The problem of theological fatalism. And free will. Does God createthe metaphysical necessities as per Descartes? Logic and math? Why then allow moral evil? God cannot do the illogical as per Aquinas? Where does that underlying logic come from even God must obey it? Maybe that underlying reality is all there is and God does not exist. The existence of God is very questionable and incoherent. So then is any religion based on that God concept. And so is the Bible that makes the claims that are not coherent or meaningful.

 

[Ford]

My answer has to do with the way I was raised. If someone asks me why I don't believe in God, I say "because nobody ever told me I had to believe."

My parents didn't go to church, and they didn't make us go to church (with the exception of the one time for baptism so that the aunts and uncles could be "godparents"), and we were fine without being raised Christian. When we got old enough to start asking questions, they sat us down and told us that if we wanted to explore religion, that was our choice, and they'd support us to the best of their ability.

My younger sister took them up on it, and decided to try out being a Lutheran like some family members. My mom gave her the family Bible, they drove her to church every Sunday, and sat in the pew next to her. It lasted a few weeks. My older brother followed my dad into the religion of fishing (the only reason to get up early on a Sunday), and I got a telescope and a stack of astronomy books.

We all managed to grow up to be productive members of society, and we didn't need Christianity to get there. It isn't even really a matter of "rejecting" Christianity. You simply don't need it. Millions of people are able to live decent, moral lives, raise children and contribute positive things to society without ever having to crack open a Bible, pray, or set foot in a church for any other reason than to admire the architecture.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

It isn't just Christianity. And I can only think of one reason not to believe the magical claims of any religion as I have seen no evidence that would make me believe in magic. Plus I don't accept arbitrary authority as a valid logical reason to accept, as truth, what someone claims to be true.

OK, that was two reasons.

Yes.

1. Do you think a man really came back to life and really flew around in the sky like Superman 2000 years ago?

2. How many different versions of christianity can you name?

3. Do you know what it means to be superstitious?

4. Do you know what is meant by "Critical Thinking?"

5. Are there more christians or non-christians on the planet?

6. Have you read the bible in its entirety?

7. How did the Mormon religion get started?

8. How many different creation myths do you know about?

9. Name ten different religions and their basic claims.

10. Do you practice the same religion as your parents?

These questions apply to christianity and are meant to stimulate thought about the religious experience generally. Why just talk about one of the world's great superstitions when there are lots?

 

[excreationist]

Some more reasons:

3862 Reasons Why Christianity is not True | 3862 Reasons Christianity is False

 

[Jarhyn]

I would say there is an effective series of lectures which could answer religion and deprogram teens, but it takes a lot more than 10 tweets.

I'm not sure it can happen at all, even, without specific existential crises being navigated I particular ways.

This at best pushes those already moving towards doubt.

 

[Politesse]

Why just talk about one of the world's great superstitions when there are lots?

I have found that very few people in the US have more than an elementary-level knowledge about religions other than Protestant Christianity, unless they happen to belong to one. Even open-minded folks have seldom had an opportunity to learn much about Islam or Hinduism, especially if they haven't been to college.

 

[SLD]

Underlying Christianity is the claim God exists . No God, no Christianity. Now we have the problems of Biblical claims about God and various contradictions and problems. God predestines all. Why then moral evil? God foreknows the future as per Bible. And creates all. Then God must have created all moral evils. The problem of theological fatalism. And free will. Does God createthe metaphysical necessities as per Descartes? Logic and math? Why then allow moral evil? God cannot do the illogical as per Aquinas? Where does that underlying logic come from even God must obey it? Maybe that underlying reality is all there is and God does not exist. The existence of God is very questionable and incoherent. So then is any religion based on that God concept. And so is the Bible that makes the claims that are not coherent or meaningful.

Correct. But one step at a time. First corrupt their belief in Christianity. Maybe they become deists. Fine. At least they aren’t fundamentalist assholes.

 

[Jarhyn]

I think honestly, the first step of this path lies far away from rejection of the church but rather in teaching rejection of Argument by Authority.

The fact someone said something does not make what they said true.

There is, instead, a large body of work that establishes the truth of any given claim, in which their are implications of the former that may be confirmed in simple ways, such as that when I push the button on a laser pointer, a beam with all it's photons travelling in one direction pops out, and it wouldn't have happened if any of a large number of our understandings of the universe had been inaccurate.

We can know the universe is old by the fact that the ruby amplifier works, and that it sees photons that are in that band happening with shifting of their spectrum so to match the emission patterns of hydrogen but in the microwave scale, and that the same equations that told us how the ruby amplification device could be made by stimulating microwave and radio waves tell us that if the speed of light had ever changed the universe would have some major problems.

As such science proves it's yields through reliable engineering based upon it's observations.

Authority does not.

As such, any trust in an authority must eventually, and hopefully sooner than later, be validated; and authorities, if they wish to stay as such, must submit to this indignity!

This needs to be the first lesson, that respect must be EARNED, and not merely once but continually, and this should be expected of anyone!

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

One other topic I'd inject into such a discussion is scientific observations of our brains, how they work, how regions dominate, what areas do what, how it evolved, how it determines personality, preferences, how brains differ wrt mental illnesses., etc. It's not that the subject is just one of my favorite hobby horses, but knowing how the brains differ and how they work, and appreciating how those differences account for behavioral differences is important to understanding human behavior generally and individual behavior specifically.

 

[Hermit]

1. Until there is testable and reproducible evidence for a Christian god I lack a belief in the existence of one. Should such evidence be forthcoming my belief would of course be provisional, as is the case with all beliefs based on empirical evidence.

2. - 10. See above.

 

[couch_sloth]

1. Until there is testable and reproducible evidence for a Christian god I lack a belief in the existence of one. Should such evidence be forthcoming my belief would of course be provisional, as is the case with all beliefs based on empirical evidence. …

This is pretty much what I believe.

I was raised an Episcopalian and became a born again type Christian when I was 17.
The number 1 thing that eventually led me to reject Christianity was the realization that religious faith was a horrible method for: determining what is-or-isn’t real, and for determining what are the best course of actions to take (e.g. Acting on leaps of faith is a terrible way to go.)

 

[bilby]

1. Christianity is self-evidently nonsensical and internally contradictory horseshit.

2. Er

3. That’s it.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. Seriously, that’s it.

 

[SLD]

1. Christianity is self-evidently nonsensical and internally contradictory horseshit.

2. Er

3. That’s it.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. Seriously, that’s it.

Well yeah. But here’s the problem. Try talking to a teenager in Alabama. He’s been told all his life by his parents, his school friends and their parents, his preacher every Sunday, about how there is a god and Jesus is god in the flesh and he’s up there watching every thing you do. Hell, he’s mortified by the fact that he can’t stop jerking off and he’s concerned that Jesus is watching. You can’t just say it’s horseshit. It is but you need to show them it is. What makes it horseshit specifically? What about it is internally inconsistent?

 

[bilby]

1. Christianity is self-evidently nonsensical and internally contradictory horseshit.

2. Er

3. That’s it.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. Seriously, that’s it.

Well yeah. But here’s the problem. Try talking to a teenager in Alabama. He’s been told all his life by his parents, his school friends and their parents, his preacher every Sunday, about how there is a god and Jesus is god in the flesh and he’s up there watching every thing you do. Hell, he’s mortified by the fact that he can’t stop jerking off and he’s concerned that Jesus is watching. You can’t just say it’s horseshit. It is but you need to show them it is. What makes it horseshit specifically? What about it is internally inconsistent?

Someone who has been brainwashed so thoroughly is likely beyond help. They can get out only if they have the innate ability to do so, because the brainwashing process has been honed over 1,500 years to defend against external threats to its operation.

Such individuals are like the B-52 crew in Dr Strangelove. They have their orders, and one of those orders is to not only disregard unauthorised communications, but to configure their communications system so that such communications aren’t even received. The only ways to stop them from trying to carry out their mission are for them to be told to stand down by the people they acknowledge as authorities, or to decide for themselves that they ought not to do it, or to be killed.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

For me? Miracles seemed to stop occurring once we were able to track them. Christianity is founded on miracles. I'm told that I need to believe that the miracles they said occurred back in the day, but am not allowed to ask for contemporary evidence or proof via any miracles. Sounds like a fraud to me.

 

[Jarhyn]

For me? Miracles seemed to stop occurring once we were able to track them. Christianity is founded on miracles. I'm told that I need to believe that the miracles they said occurred back in the day, but am not allowed to ask for contemporary evidence or proof via any miracles. Sounds like a fraud to me.

It's like... So on the other forums I post on, some summer child logged in and submitted a discussion on magic for unpowered human flight. Of course, when everyone was like "video proof?" They were like "lol, I can't, I've had my powers suddenly stripped from me".

Sure...

People pull the same shit today, on much shorter timescales of evidence.

Granted with the power of deep fakes, maybe we'll see another explosion of "miracles" in the near future.

I wonder that we may need a mandatory regular class in education about "critical thinking" where this sort of thing is inoculated for.

 

[SIB]

I have one reason.

In our life time we will see billions of people die and not one come back. There is no reason for me to go any further.

What scares me is when we raise a dead person, and I believe we will, people will soon forget that we couldn't do it and will use it as proof that it could have happened.

 

[SLD]

1. Christianity is self-evidently nonsensical and internally contradictory horseshit.

2. Er

3. That’s it.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. Seriously, that’s it.

Well yeah. But here’s the problem. Try talking to a teenager in Alabama. He’s been told all his life by his parents, his school friends and their parents, his preacher every Sunday, about how there is a god and Jesus is god in the flesh and he’s up there watching every thing you do. Hell, he’s mortified by the fact that he can’t stop jerking off and he’s concerned that Jesus is watching. You can’t just say it’s horseshit. It is but you need to show them it is. What makes it horseshit specifically? What about it is internally inconsistent?

Someone who has been brainwashed so thoroughly is likely beyond help. They can get out only if they have the innate ability to do so, because the brainwashing process has been honed over 1,500 years to defend against external threats to its operation.

Such individuals are like the B-52 crew in Dr Strangelove. They have their orders, and one of those orders is to not only disregard unauthorised communications, but to configure their communications system so that such communications aren’t even received. The only ways to stop them from trying to carry out their mission are for them to be told to stand down by the people they acknowledge as authorities, or to decide for themselves that they ought not to do it, or to be killed.

No. That’s not right. These people change their minds all the time. They’re not stupid. Many privately do have doubts. Others have had doubts implanted to them and changed over a long period of time. Indeed sometimes the most fundamentalist out there are amongst the easiest to convert. But it’s a journey. Read the stories on these boards. Often times it starts with a single seed and their whole world unravels. Read about Bart Ehrman’s journey or Dan Barker. They were fundamentalists for years before they just couldn’t resolve the conflicts further.