First I want to say that these are opinions Atheists have on the teachings of the Bible. I am a non religious spiritual person who only would like to further educate myself seeing both views of how atheists and christians think. If you are off a different belief system then please give your opinion also.

If this subject offends you then understand that my intentions are only for educational purposes and not to proove your religious belief is false or bad. If your faith works for you then I encourage you to continue it by all means. What is important is that you can wake up in the morning and enjoy the complete day with much happiness and joy.

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Some atheists believe that Jesus was a jerk!! Now read why they think this.

Most Christians have a warm, loving image of Jesus. Jesus is the "Prince of Peace" and the "Lamb of God" in their eyes. Jesus is a perfect, sinless being. But is this image accurate? If you had never heard of Jesus before, and you decided you wanted to learn about him by reading the Bible, what sort of person would you discover?

The dictionary defines a jerk as a "foolish, rude, or contemptible person" [ref]. Another dictionary throws in the word "fatuous" as well, and then defines fatuous as, "vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish". [ref]

Given these definitions, can we make the case that Jesus was a jerk? Let's see what we find when we look at God's word.

A person who is a hypocrite is certainly a jerk. No one likes a hypocrite, because hypocrites are smugly foolish. And Jesus seems to have a problem with hypocrisy. For example, one of Jesus' most famous lines is, "Love your enemies," as he says here in Matthew 5:43:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."

He reiterates the message in Luke 6:26:
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

That seems simple enough. And wouldn't you expect Jesus to love his enemies? Yes you would, unless he is a hypocrite. Therefore, what we find in Mark 16:15-16 is surprising. It shows us how Jesus treats his enemies:

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned [to hell].

This is "good" news? Jesus doesn't love his enemies at all. In fact, you don't even need to be an enemy -- even those who would rather not "believe in" Jesus are condemned to eternal torture in a lake of fire. This level of hypocrisy is the kind of thing you expect from a jerk. For further examples of hypocrisy and contradiction, try comparing Matthew 5:16 with Matthew 6:1, or John 14:27 with Matthew 10:34, or 2 Kings 2:11 with John 3:13, or Exodus 33:11 with John 1:18, or Mark 9:40 with Luke 11:23.

In the same way, a person who breaks his promises is a jerk. We can see that Jesus breaks promises by looking at Mark 11:24:

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

In John chapter 14, verses 12 through 14 we find the same thing:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
When a person says, "ask anything in my name, and I will do it," what does he mean? Presumably, Jesus means that if you ask for anything, he will do it. What else could he possibly mean, unless he is being dishonest? And Jesus does not say it once. He says the same thing over and over again.

In Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it will be given to you." In Matthew 17:20: "Nothing will be impossible for you." In Matthew 21:21: "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." You may have noticed, however, that Jesus is lying. You can pray for all sorts of things and nothing will happen. We all know that. A person who breaks his promises like this is clearly a jerk.

What if Jesus tells stories that are completely untrue? For example, take Matthew 4:8 as an example:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
The problem with this story is that the earth must be flat for it to work. From a tall mountain it is impossible to see "all the kingdoms." Even standing on Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain on earth, the farthest you could see is 250 miles to the horizon [ref]. Yet we know that at the time of Jesus, there were thriving kingdoms in China, India, South America, Europe, etc. So clearly this story could not have happened. People who are dishonest like this are jerks.

Another easy way to see that Jesus is a jerk is to recognize his bigotry. In Matthew 15:22-26 we find this telling conversation:

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

Jesus calls this woman a dog because she is not the right nationality. That is both ridiculous, and a clear indication that he is a jerk.
If you are a person who steals other people's stuff, you are a jerk. In Mark 11:1-3 we find this transaction:

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' "

How many times have you had some jerk say, "let me borrow this and I'll return it in a minute," never to see that person again? It is a common scam. And that's exactly what Jesus does. The disciples take the colt, but if you search the scriptures you find that they never bother to return it. Wow - what a jerk.

By the way, that is not the only place in the Bible where Jesus steals something. In Matthew 8:28-34 Jesus steals an entire herd of pigs and kills them all.

Have you noticed that in many cases Jesus is childish and emotional, rather than thoughtful? People who act like this are jerks. Here's an example from Matthew 18:7-9:

"Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

This statement is totally ridiculous on several different levels. First, something like a hand cannot "cause you to sin" -- your brain causes "sin." Every intelligent person knows that. Therefore, gouging your eye out or cutting your hand off is useless. If you have a problem with "sin" and you are going to amputate something to solve it, you would need to amputate your brain, since that is where all "sin" originates.

But if you think about it further, you realize that Jesus has completely missed the actual remedy. If you are having a problem with unproductive behaviors, what you need to do is either educate or rehabilitate yourself. You would do that by talking with a counselor or seeing a therapist. Amputation is an absurd prescription, as every intelligent person knows. Jesus is not only a jerk -- he is an idiot. He dispenses advice that is completely useless, and recklessly dangerous as well.

Here is another emotional outburst from Mark 11:15-16:

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

Is this a smart thing to do? Is this the kind of behavior you expect from a thoughtful, rational adult? No, it is the behavior of a child. Surely the all-powerful son of God could come up with a better plan than knocking over tables in a one-time outburst.

In Mark 11:12-14 we find another emotional reaction:

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

Later we learn that the tree is dead.

Let's see. The son of God is hungry. He approaches a fig tree. The tree is out of season and has no fruit. Jesus wants fruit. So he kills the tree. What a total jerk! Why didn't he wave his all-powerful hand and cause figs to appear? Or how about borrowing a raisin from someone and turning it into a 5,000 baskets of figs? Only a true jerk would kill something out of spite.

Here is one final example. Let's say that you want to really jerk people around. One way to do that would be to constantly contradict yourself. Therefore, we find Jesus saying this in Luke 14:26:

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

OK, so if we hate everything, we can be Jesus' disciple. That's a great message from someone who elsewhere says, "Love your enemy" and "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." And don't forget that one of the commandments is to honor your father and mother. So which is it Jesus? If we want to be your disciple, should we love our enemies, our neighbors and our parents, or should we hate them? Only a jerk would create a totally contradictory set of requirements like that.

What if you want eternal life? What do you need to do? Presumably you need to hate everyone and life itself. Then in Luke 10:25-28 we find another requirement:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

Is that true? If you do this, will you have eternal life? Actually it is not true. In Luke 18:18-22 Jesus says:
A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"

"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

The answers in Luke 10 and Luke 18 are totally different. This clearly means that Jesus is making this stuff up as he goes along. Which is something that a jerk would do.
Then in John 6:53-58 we find an additional requirement:

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

That sounds grotesque, doesn't it? And it totally contradicts what Jesus just told the two guys in Luke 10 and Luke 18. And what about Matthew 18:2-3:

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And [Jesus] said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

How, exactly, does one "become like little children?" For example, little children frequently believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and often will fight fiercely with their siblings. Are we, as adults, supposed to take on these qualities? Jesus does not really say, making this requirement totally nebulous.

But is it true? If you "become like little children", do you get to go to heaven? No, actually not. In reality you have to be "born again" in order to see the kingdom of God. In John 3:3-8 Jesus says:

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

That is about as clear as mud, isn't it? But that is what Jesus says, and it totally contradicts all the other stuff he said.
But let's ignore the contradiction for a moment. Is this true? If we become like little children... in fact, if we regress all the way to infants by being "born again" of water and the Spirit, do we get to go to heaven? No... Jesus is wrong again. Because in Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus says this:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

This is getting absurd, isn't it? Pharisees and scribes are adults, not children. And if you read the Bible, you know that the Pharisees were anal nut-jobs. But that is what Jesus says.

Forget the "born again" stuff and the children -- turn yourself into an anal nut-job instead. Our righteousness, and our adherence to the laws of the old testament, must exceed that of the Pharisees in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Which means we need to start killing a whole lot of people.
And then there is the famous verse, John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

So which is it??? What do you have to do to have eternal life and go to heaven??? There are probably 15 other stipulations scattered throughout the Bible. There is no way to know which is right, and they all contradict each other. Now that you have looked at all this stuff, one thing should be crystal clear: Jesus had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

The most amazing part of all this is that "eternal life" is a total fantasy. No one gets eternal life, because what Jesus is peddling is a scam. Every biologist will tell you with certainty that all of life is a chemical reaction. Therefore, the whole idea of a "soul" is a figment of human imagination.

When you add all of these examples up, the truth is completely obvious. Jesus wasn't "the son of God." He was neither perfect nor sinless. Jesus was a total jerk. He was a fatuous person if there ever was one. And he was a snake oil salesman besides. The fact that "Christians" cannot see this shows the depth of their delusion.

Do you think he is a jerk?

Now I personally think he was freaking intelligent to move so many people at the time and still keep his idealogy alive even if some of his practices contradict itself at times.

Haha I read that entire thing.

Yup, Jesus was a jerk. But hey, if believing in said jerk makes other people want to be better so they can chill with him in Heaven, that's fine by me. As long as they don't turn into radical idiots that is...

Atheism:

If the definition of an atheist is: someone who believes that there is NO God. Then we can ask 'how does he know?' In order to know that there is no God he must know all that there is to know. And therefore he would be God. But we know that an atheist is just like us, a man with imperfect knowledge. However in claiming to be an atheist he is setting himself up, instead of God, as a kind of mini-god, since he claims that there is no God but is making himself to be a god with all knowledge. This is unreasonable. However in practice there might be other emotional rather than logical reasons The emptiness of atheism there is a better way. It is the duty of each individual to seek after and hopefully find God should he exist, see the first verse I quoted above (Acts 17:27). To simply say that there is no God is both illogical and taking a huge gamble. Can you afford to gamble your eternity by lightly dismissing God's existence. If God exists then he should be knowable. In the second verse quoted above 'without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him', Heb 11:6, it makes a number of statement which are relevant for someone seeking after God. Firstly faith is required to please God and secondly a measure of faith is required in that someone seeking him must believe that he exists. Now clearly it is impossible to seek God if you do not believe that he exists or could exist. However God will honor our honesty if we say to him - 'OK God if you are there, then I want to find you'. The third point to be noted from Heb 11:6 is that He 'rewards those who earnestly seek him'. God is a God of rewards and he will reward those who diligently seek after him, finding God will require some effort i.e. diligence on our part and on God's part he promises to reward those who diligently seek him.

Faith:

Now what about faith? Faith is not some mysterious property only possessed by religious people, on the contrary it is used by each and every one of us each day. Let me illustrate faith using an experience I had when I booked a flight from London to Casablanca in Morocco. Now I booked with British Airways and I clearly believed that they had the ability to get me from London to Casablanca, you could say that I had faith in British Airways - On my part I had to get to the airport with my case and passport and ticket. If I had arrived without my case and passport I would have demonstrated that I lacked faith in their ability to get me to the destination. Now the plane took off and we were rewarded by a short stopover in Gibraltar which has a beautiful view of the Rock and a pleasant little lounge. Then we took off for Casablanca, but shortly before reaching the airport we were informed that the airport was closed due to fog and the plane was diverted to Tangiers. Now at this point I still believed that BA could get me to Casablanca - and so after a wait we were told to disembark the plane, they arranged a hotel that we could stay in. Basically all I needed to do was to listen for my instructions and obey them, so I dutifully boarded the coach to the hotel, got my room key and listened to find out the time of the coach that would take us to the airport the next day. The next day I boarded the coach and eventually the plane took off with all of us now in business class on the 30 minute trip to Casablanca. So from this example I think that we can see the requirements of faith; 1. Belief in BA to get me to my destination and 2. A willingness on my part to do my part to get to my destination by fulfilling BA's requirements.

Another common misunderstanding is that faith is blind faith - we have to suspend judgement or our intellect to exercise faith; this idea is nonsense. It is true that we exercise our faith in that which is invisible, but that does not mean that it does not exist. Faith must have substance to believe on, without substance it is wishful thinking. Since God created our intellect and tells us to love him with our mind it would be surprising if he requires that we suspend our intellect. The Christian faith is firmly based on historical fact and evidence. See Historical Evidence and the Claims of Christ
.

Hindrances to faith:

1. Do you believe that God can do this for you? (see Mat 9:28) God is willing are you?

2. An unwillingness to obey - only you can deal with this - if you want to obey but cannot, then cry out to God - unfortunately there does not seem to be a gift of obedience, grit your teeth and just do it. God will honor it. Look at the obedience of Jesus - our example - "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42) - obedience is never easy but it is an act of the will.

Rational reasons for believing in God:

Now if faith in God is not something mysterious and mystical then we can believe in God for a number of rational reasons, for example:

* The first cause argument - the universe had a beginning, who started it?
* The scientific laws and constants are such that they allow the universe to exist
* Because of design in nature which reveals a designer
* Because He revealed himself to me while I was ill
* Because I reached out to Him in time of trouble and he answered me
* Because He healed my daughter, wife etc.
* Because of God's historic revelation to people throughout history as recorded in the bible

Now to be sure these do not constitute proofs of God's existence, but for many they are sufficient in order to believe in God. God does not usually force himself on anyone. If you are looking for overwhelming proof it is unlikely that you will ever find it. God did not create us as robots. Love never works coercively, it only works persuasively.

Barriers to belief:

1. Hypocrisy in the Church - Firstly not everyone who claims that he is a Christian is one. The Crusades were carried out in the name of Christ but were clearly not Christian actions that could be backed by the bible. Christians are not immune from sin, that is Christians are tempted to sin and all to frequently fall into sin. The fact is that Christians are not yet perfect but are being made perfect, that is a lifelong process.

2. Offended by church life - there may be aspects of current church life that offend you, say for example the charismatic movement. Maybe the Charismatics are not for you, the Charismatics do not define the true church of God any more than other branches of Christianity. The church is based on those who accept Christ as their Lord and saviour of which the charismatic form a part. Orthodoxy does not depend on being charismatic. I know of one person who was a charismatic minister and is now a member of the Greek Orthodox church in America.

3. Fear of God - It is rational to fear God, He is the infinite, eternal, Holy One who has the power to cast both body and soul into hell, but there is more to say about God, however. He is also love and He is also merciful. The bible says 'But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love' (1 John 4:18). It is quite common to fear God as we come close to him, because the closer we come to God the more aware of our own sin and unworthiness. It is then that we need to know that God has solved our sin problem because Christ Jesus died for our sins upon the cross (1 Cor 15:3). Your fear is normal, and was experienced by many of the great saints, such as Luther, Bunyan, and Newton let it drive you to the arms of God who will relieve you of your fear. The slave Captain Newton who became a Christian says in a hymn "T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, t'was grace that fear relieved".

4. Personal tragedy - some of us blame God for the early and maybe unjust and painful death of a loved one. Its OK to get angry at God, he can take it. However we are responsible for how we deal with these crises, we must not allow them to make us bitter. If our loved one was murdered then we can sure that God will ultimately punish those responsible either in this age or the age to come. God will see that justice is done.

5. Problem of evil - this bound up with the problem of free will. If God gives us free will then the possibility of evil automatically arises if we choose not to obey God. It seems that God prizes our freely chosen love for him so much that it is worth the price of all the evil in the world. God does not want robots but those who choose to love and obey him. It seems to me that God treats us as responsible adults who are responsible for our own actions. God gives us dignity as well as responsibility. The ultimate answer to evil is that he will judge each of us and either reward or punish us for what we have done during our lives. Thus those who have done good will be rewarded and those who have done bad will be punished. Since the problem of evil seems to one of the main arguments for atheism, we have to ask what solution there is to the problem of evil. What should God do about it? This is not as simple as it may seem. Should God kill us as soon as we commit evil? Then no one would exist because we all commit evil of some kind. Perhaps he should zap us with pain when we commit evil so that we are in pain when we do an evil act. In fact God has given the responsibility to man to control evil in the world, in the end we have no one to blame for the problem of evil except man. The problem of evil or rather injustice rebounds on the atheist because in the end with atheism you have a system in which there is no ultimate justice - the wicked people get away with their wickedness. One only has to think of all the murderers, rapists, torturers out their enjoying life, including those men in India who throw acid into a girls face because she turned the man down. The police do nothing and the girls are disfigured for life with little prospect for marriage. With Christianity human dignity and responsibility are maintained and justice will be shown to be done on the day of judgement when we all stand before God to give an account of our actions. Atheism ultimately leads to a most hideously unjust system. It is usually easy for an atheist to live with this until something unjust occurs that impacts his life.

6. Problem of suffering - It seems that some people are very quick to blame God for all the suffering they see around them and yet a good deal of it is entirely man made. Wars, famines, torture, poverty and oppression are all entirely man's responsibility and result usually from man's greed and hatred. Religion is also blamed for wars, but on closer analysis it can be shown that it cannot be condoned as Christian (who are commanded to love their enemies - Mat 5:44) but is more usually associated with a form of tribalism. God has not ordered things in such a way as to minimize suffering. After all he could have dealt with the Devil the moment he sinned. He could have cast Adam and Eve into Hell the moment they sinned and started afresh. Had he done so he could have avoided the painful and unjust death of Jesus on the cross. The death of Jesus on the cross one of God's answers to suffering - My Son Jesus suffered on the cross so that I could forgive you of your sin and reconcile you to me. (Col 1:21-22, 1 Pet 3:18).

7. Personal pleasure - Some of us avoid seeking after God because it will mean that we will not be free to indulge in some of our pleasurable pastimes. This is only true of illegitimate pleasure. There are many legitimate pleasures that God has created for our enjoyment. God is interested in our ultimate pleasure which is to enjoy him forever in heaven. (Psa 16:11). While the consequences of our few sinful pleasures in this life result in eternal punishment in the next life. The bible contrasts the temporal sufferings of this life with the eternal weight of glory in the next life (2 Cor 4:17). Logic would tell us to consider the eternal benefit of our soul rather than just our immediate pleasure.

8. Past sin - some of us are well aware of our past sins, some of us may be tortured by the fact that we had an abortion or have led a very immoral life. How can a holy God accept me with all my very real sins - you ask. If your sins are of a sexual nature then read my essay Jesus attitude to sexual sinners. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus died to save sinners, his death on the cross allows God to forgive you of your sin and to accept you as though you had not sinned. He can deal with you as though you had never sinned. Sure repentance is required on your part - which requires that you acknowledge your wrong behaviour and to turn from it to God. Augustine struggled with sexual sin for years until one day when God released him and he became one of the greatest men of God in history.

9. Evolution - the problem with evolution lies not so much
as to whether it is true or not, but in so far as it gives people the excuse not to believe in God. Some people will say that the theory of evolution rationally explains our origins without the need for God and therefore I don't need to be accountable to God. I can do what I like because God does not exist. Even if evolution is proved to be a true account of our origins it does not give us a warrant to do what we like. Because people do not believe in God, it does not follow that they behave as bad people, we all know what is good or bad even if we fall short of our ideal. Science does not give an answer to the origin of the universe and the scientific laws which govern the universe and which are 'just right' to provide an environment in which intelligent humans can live. It is not sufficient to say that the universe just happened to explode into existence. There has to be a cause and an intelligent cause at that. One thing is clear and that is our origin cannot currently be explained by purely naturalistic mechanisms - the origin of living cells from matter (abiogenesis) is still a subject in which there is no evidence that it could occur through purely natural means. Without abiogenesis the rest of evolution has nothing to work on, because without living cells there can be no natural selection.

10. Pride - this is perhaps the greatest stumbling block to knowing God, especially in the world we live in. It is hard for a person to stop being the god of his own life. He will have to humble himself and acknowledge God to be his Creator and His Lord. Pride might stop you coming to Jesus to be forgiven of your sin. In order to be forgiven we have to admit that we have sinned, to some people this is a big problem. All Christians have had to admit their need of a saviour from sin and to humbly ask Jesus to forgive them. But having humbled us he picks us up and we find that we are sons of God and also kings and priests and heirs of eternal life.

11. Intellectualism - This is closely allied to pride, but I have separated them. If you are an intellectual then God can give you an abundant feast of stuff to be intellectual about, but you may have to admit that you were wrong about about much that you thought up to now. Jesus warns us 'I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' (Mark 10:15) Because God is infinite there is an infinite amount of depth to God that will satisfy you forever which is why there will be no boredom in heaven - God is infinite and has infinite treasures to satisfy your mind and soul. God wants us to love him with our body, soul and mind - you do not need to sacrifice your intellect in order to follow God. I think that C S Lewis is a good example of an intellectual who came to Christ.

12. I have lived a good life - this may be true and commendable but is it a perfect life? God's standard is perfection, anything less is sin. God's standard is that we loved him with all our heart, strength, soul and mind and that we love our neighbor as ourself (Luke 10:27). Another common misconception is that good deeds cancel out bad deeds, they do not. The standard required is 100% not 51%.

13. Seeking an experience: - I mention this because this can also be a barrier to seekers. Having been convinced from scripture about the validity of Christianity they seek a special feeling or experience from God, no doubt inspired by the latest Christian paper back etc. I mention this from my own experience, I went for years seeking that special experience from God that I needed. There are those whom God vividly reveals himself, these are the exception not the rule. Authentic Christianity is to walk by faith and not by sight. We should use the means of grace that are available to us: the scriptures, prayer, fellowship, the sacraments and for some a good Christian wife or husband.

14. Creating God in our own image: A common error is to create our own idea of what God should be like and when we perceive the world as it is or we look at the God depicted in the bible we throw up our hands in horror and conclude that 'if I were God I would have done things differently'. We can easily depict an all powerful, all present, all loving, all knowing and perhaps an eternal God, for God would have to be an eternal uncreated being in order to create the universe. If God were not eternal and uncreated then he would not be God because something must have created God and therefore God would not be God. It would also be wrong to say that God created himself because something cannot come out of nothing. Most of us fall short of defining God as holy or righteous or sovereign or even having free will because that gets us uncomfortable. If God has an absolute set of moral standards then we get uncomfortable because we realise that we fall short of those standards and we might not like those standards. In fact if God is truly God then there comes a point when we stop our armchair pontificating about what God should be like and have to consider what God is really like. We change from philosophers, little gods, to finite creatures searching to understand an infinite God. From that point humility is required which also makes us uncomfortable.

The atheism of evolution:

When it comes to the philosophy of evolution, which implicitly assumes that there is no God - we can ask the question why? Is it because of logic or emotion? We need to ask ourselves, and more importantly ask those who are at the forefront of such fields why do they insist on adopting a naturalistic explanation of origins. After all if God created the universe we need to know about it, and if naturalistic explanations are not sufficient to explain our origins again we need to know about it. When I refer to 'we' I mean the man in the street who has no scientific education. The truth of the matter is that those who hold scientific power do not have proof of our origins by natural means, certainly not when it comes to abiogenesis - in short it is understood by them that our origins came by purely naturalistic means by faith and not by fact. Now having said that, it does not necessarily mean that their faith is 'bad' faith, after all if they have good reason to believe that life occurred through naturalistic means we could say that while there is no proof that life arose naturally never the less it is reasonable to presume this. So let us examine this. One good reason is that life does actually exist and here we are examining the issues, this is a good reason, but only if we reject any alternative such as the (not to be mentioned in public God created us reason) provided we ignore this alternative then a naturalistic reason remains a good reason because it is the only reason (there is no alternative). If we let God in through the back door (any door will do) then our naturalistic assumptions crumble. Why do they crumble? Because life gives us abundant evidence of design. Any scientist who does research on the nature of the cell will encounter the fact that a cell has the appearance of being designed - given such an appearance we have to make our mind up - is it actually by design or did it come into being through a series of fortuitous accidents? Being the perverse person I am I will take the simpler route - if it Quacks like a Duck and looks like a Duck then it probably IS a Duck. Why do we try to obscure the obvious?

To be sure the physical sciences of physics and chemistry do not need to postulate a God in order to be valid. They are methodologically naturalistic rather than philosophically naturalistic. As a Christian I can do physics and chemistry without compromising my beliefs, my methodology may be naturalistic but my philosophy can be that God created the laws of science. In actual fact, in both physics and chemistry the philosophy is not even mentioned. There can be two people working at a laboratory bench - one thinks that he is studying the laws of science as God created them and the other thinks that he is studying the laws of nature. Essentially there is no conflict between the persons philosophy and the work that he is doing. My sister is a biochemist, she works in a hospital laboratory doing studies on DNA and inherited genetic defects. I asked her what she felt about evolution and creation - she commented that she had no opinion one way or the other. In other words, evolution had no effect on her work whatsoever.

An example of Methodological Naturalism in science today - Vital Dust: life as a cosmic imperative by Christian de Duve (1974 Nobel prize for biology) published 1995 by BasicBooks.

I quote from 'Vital Dust' not because it is exceptional but because it is typical of the implied atheism, that is methodological naturalism, used by scientists today. This does not say that de Duve is himself an atheist, but that in his science the possibility that God could have created life has been excluded.

"From the perspective of determinism and constrained contingency that pervades the history of life as I have reconstructed it, life and mind emerge not as the results of freakish accidents, but as natural manifestations of matter, written into the fabric of the universe. I view this universe not as a "cosmic joke," but as a meaningful entity -- made in such a way as to generate life and mind, bound to give birth to thinking beings able to discern truth, apprehend beauty, feel love, year after goodness, define evil, experience mystery. I make no explicit mention of God because this term is loaded with multiple interpretations linked to a variety of creeds. As a scientist, I have chosen to provide a summary of available evidence and to share my personal interpretation of this evidence, leaving it to readers to draw their own conclusions. Lest I be misunderstood, let me stress once more that the key word is chemistry, not some preconceived notion of how things ought to be."

"Foresight Excluded - In the making of a Boeing 747, all steps are intentional, designed and organized according to a detailed blueprint of the final objective. Things cannot have been the same in the making of the first living cell. Every step had to stand on its own and cannot be viewed as preparation for things to come. This kind of objectivity is difficult to sustain because we know the outcome and also because our whole thinking about life is permeated by intentionality. Cells are so obviously programmed to develop according to certain lines, organs adapted to perform certain functions, organisms suited to certain environments, that the word design almost unavoidably comes to mind. A whole school of thought has been inspired by these appearances of design, maintaining that living organisms are actuated by final causes, in the Aristotelian senses of the term. Called finalism, this doctrine is close to vitalism, the belief that living organisms are animated by a vital principle. Both views are now largely discredited. Design has given place to natural selection. The vital principle has joined ether and phlogiston in the cementary of discarded concepts. Life is increasingly explained strictly in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry. Its origin must be accounted for in similar terms."

"We need a pathway, a succession of chemical steps leading from the first building blocks of life to the RNA world. Chemistry, however, has so far failed to elucidate this pathway. At first sight, the kind of chemistry needed seems so unlikely to take place spontaneously that one might be tempted to invoke, as many have done and some still do, the intervention of some supernatural agency. Scientists, however, are condemned by their calling to look for natural explanations of even the most unnatural-looking events. They must even, in the present case, eschew the facile recourse to chance, as I hope to have made clear"

Answer to Jesus being a hypocrite:

Not a hypocrite this is why:

Matthew 5:43

43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.'
Matthew 5:44

44But I tell you: Love your enemies[a] and pray for those who persecute you,

Jesus is saying to love the neighbor as yourself always....and pray for those who persecute you.....This is because Jesus is all about love and forgiveness......If you say something nasty to me.....What would I do.....would I hurl insults at you smiles.....no I would pray you are given the vision and the ears to see the truth....

Answer for Luke 6:36

You don't even have the right scripture for Luke 6:26 is not
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

But is

Luke 6:26

26Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.


Answer to Mark 16:15-16
You have to read further and most important understand it. How many chances do you think Jesus should give people before they have to pay the price for their stuborness.....1 2 3. Chance after chance He gives.....and if you don't listen....then you pay the price He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." CHOICE

Throughout the bible God and Jesus give chances.....but it's rebellous man that "WONT LISTEN" So again put the blame where it belongs....Not on Jesus....But on man


I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

When a person says, "ask anything in my name, and I will do it," what does he mean? Presumably, Jesus means that if you ask for anything, he will do it. What else could he possibly mean, unless he is being dishonest? And Jesus does not say it once. He says the same thing over and over again.

Answer: He means what he says and says what he means....and I am living proof of this scripture.


In Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it will be given to you." In Matthew 17:20: "Nothing will be impossible for you." In Matthew 21:21: "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." You may have noticed, however, that Jesus is lying. You can pray for all sorts of things and nothing will happen. We all know that. A person who breaks his promises like this is clearly a jerk.

Answer: Without the faith and the deep seeded Love of God the Father and his only begotten son......YOU ARE RIGHT unless you are right in the eyes of God.....Nothing you ask for will be given......But I know again that I do and prayers are answered all the time....You can see time and time again right on jsh of my prayers being answered....

What if Jesus tells stories that are completely untrue? For example, take Matthew 4:8 as an example:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
The problem with this story is that the earth must be flat for it to work. From a tall mountain it is impossible to see "all the kingdoms." Even standing on Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain on earth, the farthest you could see is 250 miles to the horizon [ref]. Yet we know that at the time of Jesus, there were thriving kingdoms in China, India, South America, Europe, etc. So clearly this story could not have happened. People who are dishonest like this are jerks.

Answer: This is God your talking about.....if he is able to gift mortal human beings with gifts....you can't possibly believe that he can't see all....this one made me giggle...sorry.

Another easy way to see that Jesus is a jerk is to recognize his bigotry. In Matthew 15:22-26 we find this telling conversation:

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."


Answer: Oh how convenient that you leave out the best part........oh shame on you of little faith.

25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.

26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." SO OFF ON THIS PART

27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

READ IT, STUDY IT, UNDERSTAND IT.

You do not understand scripture and therefore I say to you.....read it....study it...know what is meant and then come back and do this with the knowledge of the Good news instead of Smiles interpretations of the word.

Ok - I'm prematurely posting becasue I only read to the point where some people believe Jesus is a jerk.

First of all, I couldn't possibly believe that because for one think I question the existence of the man Jesus per the historosity given. In other words I don't believe in god, gods or goddesses, therefore I don't believe a god was existed as a human in the name Jesus. Obviously anything attributed to a non-existant being can have no bearing of my determination that the being was a jerk.

We must always be aware of the subjective intepretation methods of an author. For the message is most probably heavily biased and includes presuppositional material that may or may not be known to the author themself.

Smiless

Feral your post was amusing too

Creative, you are right, of course

Thanks CS. Couldn't have stated it better myself.

Smiles... you wrote and I quote :

"...First I want to say that these are OPINIONS Atheists have on the teachings of the Bible. ..... If you are off a different belief system then please give your OPINIONS also...."

Smiles.... the scriptures quoted here are pulled OUT of CONTEXT.

And as mentioned before, one can't take scripture out of context.

One has to rightly divide the Word of God,
and look at the WHOLE picture, in order to derive the FULL meaning behind the scripture given.


But when scriptures are taken out of context, man can make the scriptures say any old thing he wants.
And the result will always be just a bunch of man's Opinions..nothing more.
None ever leading to truth.

Smiless.. a question for you....

Why seek just man's opinions?

Why not just seek the Whole Truth, Instead?

Your right Morningsong

well I wasn't looking for the amusing factor.....but whatever floats your boat.