It Makes No Sense

My mother always encouraged me to ask questions —I remember it vividly in the context of adhering to a certain philosophy of religion. Certain beliefs about my church group at the time were beginning to lose their validity from my perspective. She made the point that, if the answers to these questions are not forthcoming, or logical, then — be suspicious of their truth.

That makes sense.

I’m assuming a few things:

Something that is True should ‘make sense’ to me, and most other normal people. Religions do not believe the same things about the nature of reality. Christianity is one of those religions. I was raised as a Christian, and delved deeper as an adult, then proceeded to ask questions and act upon my suspicions.

Over the years, thinking about Christianity, I now seem to recall so many times saying to myself, “It Makes No Sense.” This is a compendium of those thoughts. They are quite raw, and some of the harshest criticisms I’ve put on paper. Lets begin.

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Why should the ultimate truth about the world be surrounded in mystery? For those who defend the mystery, does that not seem like a very convenient excuse for not really knowing (i.e. a cop-out) ? Isn’t that excuse for a lack of explanatory-power suspiciously similar to so many other strategies which are utilized by dangerous cults and purveyors of bad-ideas in general?

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Jesus the Christ is supposedly the most important historical figure in the history of the world — why don’t we have any reliable eye-witness accounts of his existence?

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Christians constantly say things happen ‘for a reason’, and that ‘God is in control.’ So, He controls all of the unspeakable evil in the world? Or, do people do what they do without His control ? Or is it an amalgamation of the two?

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It was required for Jesus to die as a sacrifice so that the world could be reconciled to God…this was apparently His plan. So, why would you blame those who took part in this Plan, like those who put Him to death, betrayed Him, condemned Him, and sentenced Him? Are they not heroes? Are they not irreplaceable? Did they not perform the Most Important acts of human history?

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Is it possible to live a sinless life? If not, then why would anyone be blamed (and blamed with the threat of eternal separation from God) for being a sinner? It’s never clear where you are on the spectrum, Christian or not. Believing in the theory of ‘once-saved-I’m always-saved-no-matter-what’ seems to help reconcile this, though…but that itself has its own logical problems.

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Why would the entire human race be blamed for a supposedly sinful, initial couple who disobeyed God? A couple who possibly did not have the ability to be sinless in the first place?

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If Jesus supposedly died for the whole world, then what effect did that really have? Most Christians, when pressed, would actually answer that it has no direct results on anyone…it is always incumbent upon the person to somehow 1) connect with this sacrificial act (through baptism, faith, belief, acts of goodness, avoidance of sinful acts), and, most of the time, 2) stay connected (avoid “falling away”)…if one of these two requirements are not met, then people are Condemned. Forget the fact that “salvation” seems to imply a Savior doing all the work. But Christians like to analogize this and say ‘the drowning person needs to at least grab the life preserver’…and so on.

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If you lived back during Jesus’ life, would you have helped to kill Him? Remember, the entire world is relying on someone to do so, otherwise there is no sacrifice for the sins of the world, and no one is redeemed! Remember, this is supposedly killing a 100% innocent man/lamb.

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How could you know if God really supports helping people? Sounds crazy, but take one example, Emergency Rooms. Over the past 200 years, humanity has gained massive amounts of knowledge so that we can save people’s lives, as opposed to declaring them dead and gone. Does this mean that it is simply a coincidence that 1) we have better ability to save lives, and 2) God wills that people live longer these days…and only in first-world countries?

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The Bible is supposedly the most important set of writings in the history of the world — why don’t we know for sure who wrote these books? Why would we not have the original manuscripts preserved, so as to assuage the critics’ simple arguments against its reliability? Merely comparing its reliability with other ‘ancient texts’ seems to be not enough to set it apart as the ultimate Source of Truth.

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Is the Bible really without errors? If not, then how could you rely on it as an ultimate source of truth…do you consider multiple versions of the same general story as an error, or does it make sense to have 2 different sets of facts?

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Further, I would say that any religious person would take it as a fact that there are different versions of certain historical events included in the Bible, like the story of the Resurrection. How is it logical that an historical event could have a few different versions, with different facts? I can understand that different perspectives could teach different lessons, but when we speak of facts, I would think we have no such literary license anymore…

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Is it a coincidence that supposed miracles seemed to 1) happen quite often during the time of Jesus, 2) when there was relatively little scientific knowledge of the world and 3) no means to reliably prove these events? Versus these days, when all three are the opposite?

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If Jesus is supposedly the greatest historical figure of all-time, why is there not incontrovertible evidence of everything He supposedly said and did? That is, assuming God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of His truth?

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If questioning too much will ‘hurt your faith’, then why would a Christian want a Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu to question their own faith, whilst avoiding questioning their own?

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How much Greek and Hebrew should one know in order to know His place in Heaven is secure? Or should one just pray that he follows the right scholar with the correct interpretation of the non-original sources?

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When your prayers are “answered”, I always thought that meant essentially your wish was granted, in effect. However, now it seems “answered” could mean that God said “No”. This means that you asked for something, and it simply did not happen. Does anyone really consider this an answered prayer? Does this not seem like a perfect excuse for prayer not ‘working’ at all, and/or simply observing randomness?

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Does this world run on God’s will, or does it not, or just sometimes? Three answers:

Yes: then is there human will at all?

No: then God is not in control of anything, and you could argue that He does not care enough to act upon anything.

Sometimes: then does that not seem awfully like a world without God being involved at all? Or perhaps worse: God being more interested in some events over others — e.g. finding, for you, a good parking spot at the religious conference you attend, but ignoring the desperate pleas of His other child being abused in one of a thousand ways ?)

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