If God wasn't real, then...
- Why are true Christians so loving? Why do they strive to show their love to others no matter how they are treated?
"True" Christians are loving? Do you mean those wonderful, down-home, folksy-type Christians who shoot doctors and bomb abortion clinics, wounding and killing innocent people in the process? Do you mean those compassionate, loving, godly folk who want to see liberals and scientists imprisoned, Jews, Muslims, Roman Catholics and others forcefully converted and atheists deported or even executed? Are you referring to those kindhearted, saintly types who think that gays, lesbians, and transgendered people are an abomination before their god and should be put to death by a variety of horrific and barbaric ways? Those "true" Christians?
- Why would there even be a prayer language? This is truly a gift from God. The anointing can flow through someone instantly by another simply speaking through Jesus' name!
I take it you mean "speaking in tongues" (a.k.a. glossolalia). Why would your god make people speak a "language" that has no structure, no terms, no syntax, no grammar or even any identifiable words or phrases? How can you possibly expect an honest and/or correct translation of such gibberish? What happens when no translation comes - which I've seen many times? Is that "quenching the spirit" or was someone just babbling? Why not have someone speak a REAL language which is completely and utterly foreign to them and have a native speaker in the congregation translate and maybe another confirm? I'd be a lot more impressed if some 90 year old Scottish lady suddenly began speaking perfect, idiomatic Cantonese, !Kung!, or Icelandic and get that translated into "god's message" than some polished preacher speaking nonsensical gobbledygook.
- Why do Christians have that shine in their eyes like nobody else does? This is a big one that I've noticed... nonbelievers or non-Christians don't have that kind, gentle shine in their eyes like Christians do. Simply because they don't have the light of God!
Is that the "light of god" or just a state or euphoric, religious ecstasy brought on by self persuasion and group psychology? I doubt very much, Sara, that if I handed you fifty random snapshots of people that you could tell me who was Christian and who wasn't. You've simply persuaded yourself you can (funny, you don't look Jewish...)
- Why is there a Bible? The Bible was written thousands of years ago, and think about it... back then, people weren't exactly as deceiving as they are now. These people didn't just write it and simply hope that someone would believe it. The Bible is the LIVING Word of God!
People weren't as deceiving as the are now? Isn't that a major theme running through your "thousands of years" old Bible? Doesn't it speak of liars, thieves, adulterers and murderers ad nauseum? And why is it so chock full of historical errors, contradictions, absurdities, scientific boners, and atrocities if it's supposed to be the divinely inspired "Word" of the Supreme Being? Can't he/she/it at least get their facts straight? I'm not trying to be facetious here, Sara. And why is it so few of you believers know what's really in the bible while I, a former believer and now atheist, know more? The bible is a book, Sara, a book.
- Why is the earth so differently made? I read online on a fact-based website that every last one of the chemicals is perfectly balanced, and there is a perfect amount of oxygen. The earth is the perfect distance from the sun for there to be the needed amount of precipitation and cold and heat. How else could this have happened with just science?
"Every last one of the chemicals is perfectly balanced"? Says who and by what criteria? Oxygen, chemically speaking in and of itself, is a highly reactive, corrosive, and toxic substance that's as poisonous to some lifeforms here on our planet as cyanide gas would be to us. And as for Earth being at the "perfect distance" from the Sun for the proper amount of cold and heat and precip so is Mars and it would probably be just as livable as Earth if it had had a more massive and active planetary core that generated an active magnetosphere and prevented it's atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind. Distance is relative.
- Why are scientists constantly trying to prove that God isn't real? If God wasn't real, then the scientists would not be trying to prove what's already true as false. Far too many scientists are being used by Satan as living TOOLS of trying to lead someone into deception.
Sigh. This old chestnut. "Scientists are out to kill god!!!" Do you honestly believe that that is all we do? Sit around in labcoats trying to think of ways to piss believers off? Wait. Scratch that. Of course you do. Look, Sara, science, and I'm talking about basic scientific research here not technology or engineering or applied science, is about one thing - nature. It's about finding out how the Universe actually IS, what it's MADE OF, how it WORKS, how it got to BE this way, and what MIGHT happen to it. The cosmos is out there; it's all around us and we're in it. We're a part of it. What we believe about it or how it got here doesn't matter because the Universe is external to all that. It simply IS. Creationism, or it's twin sister in a dollar store labcoat, Intelligent Design, is a religious idea that tries to mould, shape, and repackage facts to fit a religious doctrine which is seen as sacrosanct and inviolate. ID refuses to take evidence or scientific methodology honestly but instead cherry picks facts, distorts them, or ignores them altogether if they contradict scripture.
- Why are so many drug addicts and depressed individuals instantly set free by the power of God when they are saved?
Set free? Hon, I was a born again, evangelical, "spirit filled", fundamentalist christian for some twenty years and I always had to deal with depression and still do today. Depression is a medical disorder, a disease as real as diabetes or cystic fibrosis and for some folks it's chronic and a life-long burden. Having experienced religious euphoria many times when I was younger I say the "set free" aspect is one of self persuasion and the influence of others around you> Most people repond to seemingly positive messages since all of us can identify with life's challenges, disappointments, and difficulties. And the group dynamic is a powerful influence too. Let me ask you one: why do you never see amputees miraculously healed?
- Why would there even be priests and pastors that existed to preach the gospel if God wasn't real? These people aren't just making it all up!
Why are there cults? What's the difference between your religion and a cult? Really? Why do people accept bizarre conspiracy theories? Why do twelve year old girls scream for boy bands? Because this is what humans often do. To quote the Roman philosopher, Seneca: "Religion is seen by the common man as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful."
