Previous
Page
Back
to
Table of Contents
Next
Page
Debunking Christian Circular Arguments and Assumptions
Argument # 13: God
is holy and
righteous. We are all sinners and deserve to go to hell.
This argument
presupposes
that all non-Christians are evil and bad, just because the Bible says
so (which
is not a good or logical reason). Now I don’t have to tell
you this is a
potentially dangerous belief. It is also very black and white as well.
I could
name many wonderful, kind, honest, caring, moralistic non-Christians to
debunk
this, but as the circular reasoning of the related argument of Argument
# 10
demonstrated, they will simply rationalize it away and say that by
God’s
perfect standards, even the nicest, kindest people on Earth are
sinners, and
that’s that.
This doctrine is
also
inherently unfair. Why should everyone suffer just because Adam and Eve
decided
to eat a tempting fruit off the wrong tree? That’s silly. Yet
people take that
seriously. Imagine being born into this world, and then told that you
are a
sinner and evil in the eyes of God, and that you deserve to go to hell,
just
for being born, even if you did nothing wrong. That would be the most
F-ed up
thing in the world, yet that’s literally what these Christians
believe. It’s
insane.
Furthermore, the
evidence
does not suggest that God is righteous and fair. He lets countless
animals,
insects and plant life die every second. And he allows wars, famines,
poverty,
disease, hunger, greed, and evil to kill people everyday, and does
nothing to
stop it. He lets evil people prosper and good people die young. He
allows the
strong to take advantage of the weak, and the "might
is
right" principle to rule the world.
Why
would a good God allow injustices, tragedies, and peacemakers to be
shot and
taken out? Also, in the Bible are many stories where God and his
followers kill
innocent children, infants, pregnant women, carry out a mass execution
of
captives, etc. (See the Biblical
Atrocities section) If God himself has no morals,
what makes
humans so bad? It doesn’t make sense.
Christian
evangelists,
especially fire and brimstone preachers, are fond of telling us that we
are all
sinners. Though they would add that we all deserve to go to hell too,
they have
learned not to say that in front of non-believers because it tends to
turn them
off and lowers the chances of converting them. However, that is
what they
believe. They love quoting these famous verses to support this
doctrine of
original sin:
Romans
3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God.”
Romans
3:10 “There none righteous, no not one.”
Furthermore, they
like to
portray their God as holy and just. Therefore, since God is
righteous and
fair, eternal punishment for sinners and non-believers must be fair and
just as
well. They may not like this idea deep down, but since
that’s what God and
the Bible says, it must be so and no one can argue with it.
Anyone with common
sense
though, who isn’t blinded by fanaticism, knows that this just
isn’t so.
Rather, it’s the biggest oxymoron and contradiction in the
world
to try to
reconcile a just and fair God with endless torture and eternal
never-ending
punishment.
1) First of all,
no one deserves a
literal
eternal punishment without end. No killer or murderer could
ever
deserve
such a thing. Not even Adolf
Hitler.
Therefore, there are huge moral and philosophical problems with this
concept. But the Bible says that we deserve it not for
anything
we did,
but simply because the first humans, Adam and Eve, took a bite of the
wrong
fruit off the forbidden tree, thus infesting all humans throughout
history with
“original sin” which damns them by default. (Gee,
that sure
makes a lot of
sense doesn’t it?) As a result, all humans are born
spiritually dead in
depravity and destined for eternal damnation, whether they lead good or
bad
lives, since it makes no difference. It’s no
different than
damning
zebras for being born with stripes or damning turtles for being born
with
shells. It’s not only unjust and psychotic to do
such a
thing, but
completely nonsensical too. In fact, that one act of original
sin
brought
death, disease, and suffering into the world. How just and fair,
isn’t
it? (See the Imponderables
section for a
philosophical evaluation of this whole
concept.) In
a great book on fundamentalism: Fundamentalism:
Hazards and Heartbreaks, page
70-71, the authors raise a good point
on this
issue:
“It
is difficult to see the point and the morality of endlessly torturing
people. Pain is presumptively bad, and it is desirable only
when
the
infliction of it is necessary for a greater good, such as reforming
criminals
or deterring potential criminals from crime. Endless torture,
however, is
not designed to reform people, nor is the threat of it necessarily
effective at
deterring people from harming others. Torture, war,
corruption,
and murder
were rampant, for example, throughout the Middle Ages, when people were
filled
with the belief in, and fear of, Hell. Indeed, the belief in
Hell
has, in
itself, often yielded persecution, torture, and
murder...
Morally speaking,
almost any other treatment of the wicked is preferable to endless
torture, in
which finite crimes receive infinite punishment. Even the
annihilation of
the unsaved would be less morally objectionable than an endless
Hell.”
2) Second, a
loving, just God simply
wouldn’t do
such a thing as send people to an eternal damnation without
end. We all
know that deep in our hearts (though Christians deny it due to their
religious fanaticism). Furthermore, the Bible lists
many
incidences where God and his followers kill innocent children, infants,
pregnant women, carry out a mass execution of captives, etc. (See
the Biblical
Atrocities section) These
things are indefensible. Would
a
good God
do those kind of things? I don’t think
so.
Christians like to
respond to
these charges by iterating that we have no right to judge
God’s
morality or
reasons, since after all, God says “My thoughts are not your
thoughts, nor are
your ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Therefore, they
argue,
how can the
created judge the creator? Besides, they say, since those are
God’s
rules, and he is the creator and master of the universe, we have no
choice but
to abide by them. And since it’s better to be safe
than
sorry (especially
when it concerns your eternal destiny) it’s best to accept
Jesus
as your Lord
and Savior and become saved.
However, they
simply have no
basis, evidence, or good reasons to assume that, other than
“it’s just so”,
which isn’t good enough, not for the unbrainwashed.
The arguments I presented in this book more than prove that to be
the case.
Previous
Page
Back
to
Table of Contents
Next
Page