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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Christianity's Irresolvable Problems and Lack of Basis

Why God Cannot Be All-Good and All-Powerful Yet Allow Evil, Suffering and Injustice


First, here is something inescapable. It is a valid and logical argument that Atheists and Anti-Christian writers (e.g. Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, Mark Twain, Bertrand Russell) have used throughout history that Christians and theists have never been able to debunk or explain away logically.

75 percent of the world’s population lives in poverty, hunger and suffering. This amounts to billions of people, most of whom are innocent, both now and throughout history. There are wars, famines, poverty, disease, hunger, greed, and evil, which kill people everyday. The world is mostly run by sociopaths, who are above the law and go largely unpunished. Most positions of power are attained by evil people rather than good people (since power attracts the evil and corruptible rather than the good). The world is unjust and life is unfair. Good people suffer and die young. Peacemakers with mass influence get taken out and assassinated (JFK, RFK, MLK, Lennon, etc.). The strong take advantage of the weak and oppress them, and the world is ruled by the "might is right" principle. Even animals have to kill each other for food. So how can the majority of the world continue to believe in a God who is all-good and all-powerful, yet allows all this to continue to be? That is odd. Yet most people don’t think about it. They simply believe, not because of proof or evidence, but because most people around them believe it, so they assume it must be true. However, it is logically impossible for there to be a God who is both all-powerful and all-good, as Christians claim, yet allows all this to be. There is no resolution or escape from this dilemma. No theologian or philosopher has ever solved it. It remains the eternal paradox. Therefore, we must question our assumptions about God, which may not be correct.

To put this in perspective:

  1. Most of the world’s population, billions of innocent people, are suffering in hunger and poverty, now and throughout history.
  2. Evil is allowed to exist, run rampant, go unpunished, and attain positions of power more often than not. The world is unjust and life is unfair. Good people suffer and die young. And animals have to kill each other for food.
  3. God is all-powerful and all-good, yet allows #1 and #2 to exist, both now and throughout history.

All three of the above CANNOT logically co-exist at the same time. The only logical possibilities are:

a)  God/the Creator is not all powerful and cannot stop evil and suffering. (if so, then how did he create the whole universe?)
b)  God/the Creator is evil, or not good, or doesn't care. Or he has an evil side as well as a good side, like we do.
c)  God doesn't exist.
d)  God/the Creator is nothing like what you think he is, or is something beyond your comprehension.
e)  God/the Creator lets suffering and evil exist for reasons beyond your comprehension, and/or does not have the same morals that you do. 


Excuses and Copouts


The standard Christian explanation for the above, which makes no sense at all and is a ridiculous cop-out, is:

"God allows evil and suffering to exist in the world because Man chose to Sin in the Garden of Eden. God gave Man freewill, and Mankind chose Sin. Hence death, pain, decay and evil entered into the world. God is 100 percent just and righteous, so all this is Mankind's fault, not God's. It says so in the Bible."

I'm sorry but these are mere words and just do not cut it. They make ZERO SENSE and the implications of it are 100 percent ridiculous too. Anyone who takes such an explanation seriously must either be completely insane and lost his marbles, or is completely brainwashed and mind-controlled, in order to accept something that makes zero sense as Gospel Truth.

What the standard Christian explanation implies is that:

"A good and all-knowing God allowed billions of people throughout history to suffer, die, and go to hell (if they died unsaved) simply because two naive people named Adam and Eve took a bite of the fruit of a forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. In other words, one little mistake (or bite) caused a lifetime and eternity of pain for billions of people, and deservedly so, which all-wise and all-good God allowed."

Um excuse me, but even if I were on crack, I wouldn't buy such an insane explanation. I'd sooner believe that Santa Claus visits every home in the world in one night on Christmas Eve than that! Come on now. Gimme a break. Get real! I mean, I know you don't have to be intelligent to be a Christian, but really... Anyhow, that's their version of reality, which they take seriously, believe it or not.

Not only is this explanation 1000 percent insane, but it is 1000 percent UNJUST as well. I mean, what kind of a parent would allow their children to suffer pain and death (not to mention damnation) as a consequence of taking a bite out of a fruit that you told them not to touch? It doesn't make any sense! Wouldn't such a parent be the most evil and sociopathic parent in the world? (Yet a God who is 100 percent perfect and righteous would do that?!) There is no escaping that. There is no way in hell (pardon the pun) that one little mistake could be worth a lifetime or eternity of pain. No way. No Christian in the world could justify that. It is completely unjustifiable, insane, nonsensical, and there is no logical reason to believe it either.

Yet Christians take this explanation seriously?! And they believe in a 100 percent righteous and just God too?! WTF?! This is nothing short of pure and total mind control. No question about it. 

Hard Questions and Common Sense


Besides, how do they know that God is 100 percent righteous and just? Because the Bible says so? And that alone makes it true?! Gee, what low standards. I mean, how do they know that Satan isn't the good guy and God the bad guy? They don't! All they can do is believe whatever someone TELLS them, and labels the rest as "lies of Satan". But life teaches us that things are not always what they seem, life teaches us. They simply take it on faith, that the Bible is all true because it is, and that's that. It's the weakest logic of all.

Also, why does Lucifer/Satan wanting a little freedom when he was an angel of God make him 100 percent evil? Teenagers naturally want some freedom from their parents too, but does that make them 100 percent evil and demonic? You see how nonsensical all of this is? Nothing in the Christian fundamentalist version of reality makes the slightest bit of sense...

Plus, if I were an all-knowing God and knew BEFORE I created the world that the majority of the people on Earth would suffer through life and end up in the eternal torment of hell afterward (since most people do not become Christians in their lifetime), I would certainly not create such a world. No sane person would create something knowing in advance that the bad that would come out of it would far exceed the good. No sane person would go through with that, let alone an all-wise God. Think about it: If you knew before setting up a business that you'd incur a loss of $75,000 and reap only $25,000 in profit (based on 1/4 of the world's population claiming to be Christians), would you go through with it? Get real.

So you see, nothing about the Christian version of reality makes any sense at all, in any way at all, once you look at it with a clear mind free of fear and mind control. There are way too many irresolvable problems with it.

In fact, many ex-Christians report in their deconversion testimonials that while they were believers, such logical impossibilities and unresolvable questions as the above, kept entering their minds from time to time. But since they could not be satisfactorily explained away, they had to be mentally filed away on a mental shelf labeled "Unresolvable". However, eventually, such unresolvable questions accumulated until they became too heavy to ignore and deny any longer. At some point, their "mental shelf" simply broke and they could no longer live in denial anymore. It was only then, that the mind control imposed on them by Christianity broke down, and they were finally set free from it.

(One great example of this is my friend Darryl Sloan, an aware skeptic, freethinker and author who described many such logical impossibilities in Christianity in his YouTube videos, which you can see at http://www.youtube.com/darrylsloan. And my own Christian deconversion story is at http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Christian_Story.htm)

Key Points to Christians


So why do Christians believe such extreme things then? If you ask them about it, their mind-controlled condition will become very apparent, as they say things like "Because God says so in his word, the Bible, which is his revelation to us" and "Because it's true, and truth is self-apparent once you've woken up to it" etc. However, the same could be said about any religion or belief system. So what makes theirs any truer than others? In short, they believe it only because they were TOLD TO BELIEVE IT, but they don't realize that. They simply think, "The truth is the truth, and that's that" so they do not question it (nor are they taught to) and do not think freely for themselves either. Their reasoning is 100 percent circular, and besides that, their beliefs do not even have a valid INITIAL FOUNDATIONAL BASIS either (which doesn't cross their mind).

Here are some simple key facts that devout mind-controlled Christians fail to realize, even though they are right under their noses:

- There is NO FOUNDATIONAL BASIS or logical reason for their belief that "The Bible is the infallible word of God and absolute literal truth. All men are sinners and the only way to God is through Jesus Christ. All who believe in Christ go to Heaven, while all who don't go to Hell". There is no good reason to believe such extreme things. And no basis for it at all. They were simply TOLD this "Gospel message", and somehow, it gave them a sense of purpose or brought meaning into their empty chaotic lives, or it was what they needed to hear at that time, or it was what they were taught by their Christian families. So they accepted it, and once they did, it became absolute authority in their minds, above all questioning and skeptical inquiry, thus forming a complete circular loop in their train of thought which filtered their sense of reality so that all incoming data that fit with it was accepted, while all that didn't was rejected. Once this circular loop formed in their minds, they forget that there was NO REAL initial basis for their extreme beliefs in the first place!

- Once the Christian believes that the Bible is infallible truth and authority, his/her mind becomes HIJACKED in that such a belief will place Christian teaching at the TOP of the hierarchy in their mind, with Truth becoming subservient to it. In other words, Truth must serve the Bible, not the other way around, so that all facts and data MUST conform to the Bible or be rejected. What this means it that the Bible and their beliefs can NEVER be questioned, even if it's false, because it has occupied the highest seat of power in their minds. However, if Christians were to place Truth at the top, above the Bible, then they could question and analyze the Bible and see the obvious errors, contradictions and irresolvable problems with it. But instead, they place Christianity above Truth, so that their beliefs can never be questioned no matter how absurd, thus creating a completely closed and circular loop. This is the epitome of "brainwashing". Thus, in a sense, the Gospel is like a "trojan horse" that offers the newly converted everything, at the expense of hijacking and imprisoning their own mind.

- Just because someone (a believer himself) tells you that Christian teaching is absolute truth does NOT make it so, any more than any other belief system must be true because someone says so, or any more than the email spam and scams you receive everyday must be true because it says so.

- Just because an ancient set of books written by ancient unknown authors says something does NOT mean that it must be true, any more than a random book I pull out from the library must be true. Text in ancient books is not proof of absolute inerrant truth, especially when it contains so many inherent contradictions, errors and far-fetched stories and claims. Besides, there are many ancient books from all throughout history, so why not believe that all of them are infallible divine truth too? 

- Think about this: If I pulled out a random book in the library and said, "This is absolute infallible truth and cannot be questioned because God wrote it", would that make it true? Or suppose I were to write this in a book: "The Gobblygook Monster created us. He is perfect, righteous and infallible, while we are all condemned sinners. He says that the only way to him is through his son, the Gobblygook Son, who died for your sins and rose from the dead. His disciples witnessed his resurrection and were willing to die for it, so it must be true. Your eternal destiny lies upon whether you accept this or not." Would that make it true?! Think man!

Or, to use a less extreme example, what if I pulled out a Koran and told you that, according to that book, if you don't convert to Islam, you will go to hell? Would that make it true? Why not?

- God did not physically appear to you in God-like form (i.e. as a pillar of fire to Moses) and tell you that the Bible and Christianity are the only literal and complete truth. PEOPLE told you that, and FALLIBLE people at that. No one is perfect. So why do you believe that imperfect humans who are no more perfect than you, wrote something that was perfect and infallible and never to be questioned?! Simply because someone told you so?! Are you that gullible and naive?!

- The Bible shows every indication of being written by fallible and imperfect human beings. There are thousands of contradictions between its 66 books, many unfulfilled prophecies, mistakes, misunderstandings by its authors as they referenced other books (i.e. New Testament interpretations of Old Testament books), different teachings (e.g. regarding salvation and theology in the Old and New Testaments), etc. The Bible is far from a set of unified beliefs of agreement in all its books. In fact, the Old Testament and New Testament teach different things regarding theology, salvation, morality, the messiah, the devil, hell, the afterlife, etc. (I have described many examples in my Debunking Christian Fundamentalism treatise) Sure the Bible contains some wisdom, great teachings and eloquent stories, but so do many other ancient books as well. But there is no logical reason to believe that every word in it is absolutely infallible, true and unquestionable, just because believers tell you so. Even if the Bible itself says so, it does not make it true, as explained earlier. (In fact, the Bible itself does really not claim to be infallible, only fundamentalist fanatics do. I've elaborated on this here.)

- The arguments used by Christian Apologists (e.g. Josh McDowell, C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel) such as the Fulfilled Prophecies argument, the Resurrection argument, the Trilemma argument, etc. all collapse under simple casual scrutiny. They are no more sensible than the loaded agenda-driven arguments used by advertisers in commercials. In fact, I have debunked all of them in my treatise.

- To Christians who say, "I believe the Bible not for logical or rational reasons, but because I feel its truth deep inside of me. God spoke to my heart through the Holy Spirit. That is how I know it is true." let me ask you this: I can find sincere believers of EVERY RELIGIOUS FAITH who say the same thing about why they believe too. For example, I have met many sincere Muslims, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses that have said that too. So why should I believe you and not them? They are just as sincere as you. What makes your belief right and theirs wrong? They have a right to "feel the truth of their religion in their hearts" too. So what's the difference between you and them? What makes them wrong? Simply because they don't share your beliefs, which are based on ancient books written by unknown people you never met?

- To Christians I ask this: How do you know God is all-good, all-righteous and perfect without blemish, fault or sin? How do you know whether God is good or whether Satan is evil? How do you know that the Bible is true and Satan is the Father of lies? Aren't you taking the Bible's word for it? What if it's not true? What if the Bible has deceived you? How do you really know?! YOU DON'T! You are taking it all on one-sided faith without a valid basis. Sheesh. No one and nothing is perfect. In fact, the Old Testament stories depicted God as angry, vengeful, jealous, etc. possessing all the traits that humans did, and making mistakes and regretting them as well. In fact, he was not always just, fair or even reasonable. In Exodus, he made the Israelites wander the desert aimlessly for 40 years under harsh conditions while expecting them to never complain about it. And numerous times, he killed innocent children to punish the sins of their fathers. (See list of verses here) No one can justify such things as "fair or just". Get real. Words in a book are NOT a valid basis for an infallible belief. Your reasoning process is completely foolish, no better than those who fall prey to obvious scams artists and hand over all their money to them.

- The Atheist has a valid argument and reason for his/her disbelief. (Not that I'm an Atheist) If God never physically shows himself to them, then one has a perfect right to doubt or disbelieve his existence, no matter what any book or person tells him about it. Moreover, their argument that an all-powerful, all-good God is logically incompatible with all the suffering and evil in the world, is a VALID argument for sure, and one which Christians have never been able to resolve logically, except with copout excuses like "God wants us to have free will otherwise we'd be robots". 

- Christianity is 100 percent anti-freedom and pro tyranny. It places no value on liberty, free choice, freethought, critical thinking or reason. Throughout the Bible, one message is consistent: "Obey God or die and be damned!" Obviously if you have to obey lest you be killed or damned, then you have no real freedom or free choice, for to be truly loyal to the Christian God means being completely obedient and NEVER disagreeing with him. It's total tyranny. There's no way around it. What this means is that if you are a "true Christian" then you are totally anti-freedom/liberty and pro-tyranny. Otherwise, you're a hypocrite. For more on this, see here: http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/DebunkingChristians/Page31.htm

- The Bible is full of utter hypocrisies. For example, one of the Ten Commandments is "Thou shalt not kill" yet the Christian God himself killed many people in the Bible, many of whom were innocent, and often for trivial reasons. See here: http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/DebunkingChristians/Page20.htm

So you see, there is no real basis to the Christian's beliefs or version of reality. They make no sense, are without foundation, and follow a completely circular reasoning loop - "It's true because God said so --> because the Bible says so --> because it's true..." ad nauseum. Furthermore, there was no INITIAL BASIS for their extreme beliefs in the first place, which they fail to realize once their reasoning became completely circular.

Now, devout Christians will usually respond to such arguments and facts that they can't explain away with something like this:

"You can think whatever you want. But God makes the rules. You either follow them or reap the consequences. Be careful what you choose to believe in. Your eternal fate may hang on it."

But again, we come back to the obvious points and facts outlined above. How do they know what "God's rules" are? Because of what the Bible says? Again, just because people create a religion around their interpretation of an ancient set of books does NOT mean it constitutes "God's rules", nor does it represent unquestionable divine truth. Get real. I could say that the book of Koran are "God's rules" too, but would that make it so? Wouldn't you be a heretic for not accepting the word of the Koran too? Again, just because someone tells you something doesn't mean it's true. And just because an ancient book says something doesn't mean it's true either. I'm sure you've gotten spam emails that make big promises or offer to wire you millions of dollars, if you just send a release fee of a few hundred dollars first... but does that mean it's true?
 

Message to Christians

  
To Christian readers:

So you see, your reasoning is completely circular but you don't realize it. Such is the effect of mind control. Your reason part is subdued due to an "infallible truth" placed at the top of your mind that can never be wrong and edits your reality.

But I can tell you this though: Within such a nonthinking loop (which you don't even see) your mind can never be truly free and clear. Your mind is imprisoned, but you don't even realize it. That's why it's so effective, until you break free of it that is, for only then do you realize what it was doing to your mind all along.

Many Christians will often utter this response to criticisms of their religion as well:

"Who are you to question God? He created the universe and you too. You have no right to question him or his word. He has every right to do whatever he wants with his creation. You ought to be thankful that he sent Jesus to die for you, so you could be saved and go to heaven. He could have chosen to not send a savior to us, let us all go to hell, and he'd be just as perfect and righteous. None of us deserve his mercy. Yet he chose to be merciful to us and offer us a way out of sin and damnation. You ought to appreciate that and accept his free gift of salvation through Christ, and stop rebelling against him."

To them I say this: Again, see the above points and links, which your mind has probably filtered out with cognitive dissonance. Your basic fallacy is that you assume that all these extreme beliefs you hold are true, when in fact there is no logical reason, or good reason, to believe that they are. You believe that your Christian beliefs are true simply because of a handful of unsupported assumptions which point to each other until it goes back to the original premise. It's a given, without any foundational basis. Thus, your mind is in a complete circular loop, and you don't even realize it. I know what that's like because I used to believe as you do, so I know what it's like to be inside such a closed circular loop that you don't even see.

When you are in such a closed black and white circular belief system, your reality and incoming data are EDITED. You experience extreme cognitive dissonance. All incoming data that agrees with your beliefs is accepted, while all data that doesn't is rejected. Your reality is filtered, to the point where you don't even see the closed loop itself (which those outside your loop can easily see).

Plus, to believe in a God or love him simply out of fear of the consequences of not doing so, is not a genuine or pure motive. It is nothing less than coercion. Doing something out of fear brings you in tune with a lower vibration. Why would an all-wise God want to bring people down to such a low and weak vibration?

Also, why am I automatically a guilty sinner with no worth just by being born on Earth? It's like I'm assigned automatic guilt for no reason, just like that, simply cause Adam and Eve ate the wrong fruit off the wrong tree?! Gimme a break...


Conclusion


So you see, these unexplainable questions and irresolvable problems with Christianity are endless and unresolvable. Plus there are too many valid arguments and reasons to doubt the claims of Christianity too. If you are a devout Christian and have gotten this far, then you are one of the few, since most Christians would have stopped reading this near the beginning. So I commend you for your open mindedness.

Now I'm not saying that Christianity has no value. I acknowledge that it has changed lives, produced miracles, answered prayers, etc. and that believers can and do have supernatural experiences. However, this is true of every religion. I have met Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists and Muslims who have had supernatural experiences, life changes, and seen miracles happen. But that doesn't mean that the "holy book" of their religion is all literally true, infallible and above questioning. Moreover, people with no religion have supernatural experiences as well. You don't even need a religion to experience such things, or even to have spiritual experiences. What this means is that there are many ways that man can tap into a "higher power" or come into contact with extra-dimensional forces. Religion is just one way. There are many others. The nature of such experiences is a subject of debate and not completely understood by logic or science. However, the point is that just cause they happen to believers of a certain religions does NOT make everything about that religion and its "holy scriptures" completely true and infallible.

On the other hand, in the theist's favor, I will say that believers in God have valid reasons for their belief as well. The argument that all of creation and the seeming design in it (aka "The Design Argument" implies a "Creator" is a VALID argument (despite what Atheists "religiously" claim against it and despite that it could lead to a "Who created the Creator then?" counter-argument as well). Add the fact that 1) there are numerous irresolvable problems with the Darwinian Evolution Theory, and that 2) studies show that human belief in God is innate rather than based on culture, learning or upbringing, and 3) the fact that some have met God during Near Death Experiences, and you do have some valid reasons for believing in God as well.

However, NONE of these valid reasons for believing in God or a Creator prove the "Christian God" of the Bible, nor do they support the belief that the Bible is God's word or that is it infallible inerrant divine literal truth either. These reasons DO NOT provide a basis for that at all. That is what Christians miss due to their mind-controlled absolutist beliefs.

Anyway, I do not claim to have all the answers here. Christians, Atheists, Buddhists and New Agers do not have all the answers either. You see, life is not about having answers to all the big questions handed to you. Truth is a continual lifetime search process of asking questions and questioning everything. To be a truth seeking, one has to learn to be happy to simply say, "I don't know" and embrace the uncertainty that comes with it.

One can choose between two paths: That of a truth-seeker who seeks to become more and more "aware" everyday, or that of a follower of a herd mentality who lives a "happy slave" life of ignorance and doesn't like to think too much. Some are happy being conformists and followers, while others aren't. You will have to decide which one you are.

All I know for sure is that reality is far more complex and vast than the confines of any one religion and its doctrines, whether it be Christianity or another faith. Thus, a truth seeker must venture beyond the rigid belief system of orthodox religions in order to learn more, expand his/her reality, and evolve in understanding.

If you want truth, you're going to have to know something. Truth does not come in a neat convenient package like a religion, where you don't have to think. That is known as "fast food theology". But truth doesn't work that way. Truth is mysterious. There are layers of truth, and the path to it is a lifelong process and journey, as you peel off each layer. At a certain point, it will be difficult to peel off more layers, for human comprehension has its limits, as there are some things beyond it. But don't try too hard. You gotta go with the flow and let you intuition guide you. Have fun, relax, open yourself up, and enjoy learning new things. Don't forget that everything should be in moderation.

To start on the path to truth, remember these things:

1)      Question everything. Don't take whatever you hear on faith, even from the alternative crowd.
2)      Stop caring what others think of you. If you don't, you will always be bound in fear. But if you do, you will free your mind, which is the first step to truth.
3)      Empty your mind. Follow your intuition and go with it, for it sees from a higher level than your conscious mind does.
4)      Discover who you really are. Remember, you are a spiritual being having a human experience.
5)      Clear your mind. Avoid highly toxic and stressful activities and environments. Pay attention to health and nutrition. Always remember, everything in moderation.
6)      Ask questions, seek answers, and you will find them.

To close, I’d like to share this important advice for the truth-seeker by Darryl Sloan from his book Reality Check:

"The most productive mindset you can have is simply this: always, always, always have a belief system that doesn’t resist change. Go wherever the information leads you, without fear, because surely the truth is never something to dread." - Darryl Sloan, Reality Check

Anyway, I hope I've given you a lot to think about. Thanks for reading, and best wishes to all of you.

Sincerely,
Winston Wu

See also:
Debunking Christian Arguments Treatise – Every argument by Christian Evangelists and Apologists refuted point-by-point. If you familiarize yourself with this treatise, you will be able to dumbfound them for sure.
My Christian Deconversion Story – Hailed by both Christians and non-Christians as a “very touching and amazing story”. A Must Read!

3 comments:

  1. The definition of a destructive religious cult is like alcoholism-if booze controls you instead of the other way around you are an alcoholic.
    The Watchtower society Jehovah's Witnesses as an example is not benevolent and won't let you leave their organization in peace.
    If they try to ruin your reputation and break up your family for trying to get out then they are a cult!
    Whenever you surrender your logic and reason to anyone who asks you to trust them because they know better and to please donate generously, it's a cult. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck....
    -
    Danny Haszard

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good point Danny. But Christianity itself fits all the criteria of a cult too. It's just that it's a cult with a billion followers or so. Most people are stupid and believe whatever they are told without evidence or reason. They don't question things but are totally programmed to believe ridiculous things that basic logic can easily debunk.

    Besides, Christianity, people also believe in nonsensical things like Amway, multi-level marketing, get rich schemes, democracy, wars, patriotism, the notion that fighting in a war is "serving your country", the institution of marriage, the necessity of school, etc. for no reason other than someone told them to believe in them. Yet basic logic easily debunks all these things. Go figure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that all this questions are eternal and are subjects to the endless discussion. There are various thoughts on this topic and people can choose the one they like. This reflections are so close for me that I even wrote my best essay about the reason why God cannot be all-Good and all-powerful.

    ReplyDelete

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