| Here is an interesting questionnaire that you should ask if someone is intent upon converting you....Personalize and print it off!This document (c) 1997 by the Heirophant. It may be reproduced in any non-profit form without permission by the author; however, for-profit reproduction requires *written* permission. Personalized by me. |
The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire
Presented to: ________________________
By: __________________________________
The questions follow. Under no circumstances will "The LORD works in mysterious ways" or other arguments in that vein be acceptable. If a question does not apply to your particular denomination, explain why.
Thank you!
0. If necessary, explain any unique beliefs you have about the nature of your God, Heaven, Hell, the Bible, the Holy Spirit/Ghost, Satan, etc.
1. Explain why your God's only son had to be sacrificed so we can go to magic happy land when we die.
2. Did everyone who died before Jesus died go to Hell? Justify your answer.
3. If a Catholic, justify the Inquisition and other persecutions of "heretics" throughout the centuries, concentrating on why the Pelagianists, the Priscillianists, and the Manichaeans were persecuted; if a Protestant, justify the witch trials and the way that Protestants constantly hunted down native Americans until there were so few that the government could simply take their land; if a member of an Eastern Orthodox church, justify the persecutions of the Old Believers after the reforms of the seventeenth century.
4. Explain why I should believe that your God is all-good when the only real information we have about him is the Bible, which clearly describes Him as both good and evil. (See Isaiah 30:27-33, Luke 14:26, Numbers31:17-18, Matthew 10:34, Amos 3:6, Deuteronomy 20:16,Exodus 20:5, Exodus 32:27, Isaiah 45:7, Psalms 52:5, Luke 22:36, and Jeremiah18:11 for a small sample of Biblical passages which describe God as having an evil morality at times).
5. Explain why, when racism is clearly wrong, Jesus was clearly a racist (see Matthew 15:21-28).
NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe the idea that racism is morally acceptable.
6. Explain why, when discrimination against women is clearly wrong, the Bible clearly supports the oppression of women. Answering this question entails refuting 1 Cor 11 and 1 Tim 2:11-15. NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe that discrimination against women solely on the basis of sex is morally acceptable.
7. Explain why, when slavery is clearly wrong, the Bible clearly supports slavery. Answering this question entails refuting 1 Peter2:18. NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe that slavery is an acceptable way to run a society.
8. Explain why, if your god loves us all, more than half of us are going to Hell after we die. Specifically, refute or explain the following words of Christ, as presented in the New Testament: "Many are called but few arechosen," and "Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto salvation, and few there be that find it." If your god loves all of us, couldn't he find a better way?
9. Explain what type of offense could possibly justify eternal, unbearable torture in Hell; if you do not believe in Hell,then refute every passage in the Old and New Testaments which describes Hell (such as 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 and Revelation 20:15).
10. Explain how your god can be both just and merciful,when these terms apparently contradict each other.
11. Explain why possession by demons and/or other evil spirits was common during the time of Jesus, but hardly mentioned in the Old Testament, and apparently has been explained completely away today by things such as epilepsy and schizophrenia.
12. If Heaven is a place where everyone is perfectly happy, then explain how I could be happy in Heaven if I had loved ones in Hell.
13. What is Heaven like?
14. What is Hell like?
15. Explain why original sin exists. Why should I be eternally tortured for something that a pair of naked fruit-munching simpletons did in a garden over six thousand years ago? If you believe that children are born stained because they were conceived sexually, explain why I would be punished for something my parents did by your merciful and just God. If this does not apply to you, explain why.
16. Explain why getting dunked in or sprinkled with water will prevent me from being eternally tortured for the actions of the nakedfruit-munching simpletons mentioned in #15.
17a. If your God did not want Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, why did he put the tree in the garden of Eden (and at the center, no less)? Was it for shade? If the purpose of the tree was to tempt Adam and Eve, explain why the temptation was necessary. If God knows all, then He already knew they would not be able to resist the temptation. So what was the point?
17b. Explain why your God created humans as imperfect, then set his standards so high that no one could possibly live up to them, then punishes us for not living up to his standards.
18. Explain why sex, potentially one of the most wonderful, beautiful things in human nature, is considered "bad" by your particular denomination. If your denomination does not consider sex to be "bad,"then refute Matthew 19:12, 1 Corinthians 7 (particularly verses 1 and 9),Galatians 5:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, James 1:14-15, Matthew 5:27-31, Luke17:27, and Revelation 14:4.
19. Explain why, if Jesus was perfect, he thought that the end of the world was coming soon, when it has clearly not come yet. See Matthew 16:27-28.
20. Explain why some people (James, Peter, Paul, Thomas,etc.) should get convincing physical
proof of miracles, while the rest of us are supposed to take these happenings on faith.
21. Why are the stories of the resurrection inconsistent?
22. If you are a Protestant or a member of an Eastern Orthodox church, explain why you are still
using the Catholic Bible, which was formalized by a vote among (supposedly divinely inspired)
cardinals and bishops in the fourth century CE, when you disagree with the idea that the Pope,
who is higher in the Catholic hierarchy, is divinely inspired; if a Catholic, explain why your
church accepts the canonical Bible while rejecting the Apocrypha (do not use the "divinely
inspired" argument:Because I am not religious, I will not be able to accept it).
23. If your God wants us to worship him through our own free will, why does he threaten us with Hell? If you have someone threatening you with a punishment, it isn't free will.
24. Why would your God deliberately cause sinners to sin (cf. Romans 9:15-23 and numerous parts of the book of Exodus where God says, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart."). Are these sinners still responsible for the sins which your god forces them, against their will, to commit? Justify your answer.
25. Why should we accept the words of the gospel writers as truth when they are known to be liars? (See Romans 3:7).
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