Why I'm An Atheist

or

Why I'm Not A Christian

(because Christianity is the dominant religion in the USA, after all). I have received feedback from different people who basically say that my reasons for not believing Christianity are not the real reasons because they are based on false information. But it is only false to them because it goes against their faith. Might I suggest that Christianity itself is based on false information, a small bit of which is due to the Church cutting and pasting religious bits for the past 2000 years?

1. If Constantine hadn't of used Christianity it would have died in the catacombs.

2. Christianity steals a lot of elements from other religions, making it seem very unoriginal. Hmmmm...

3. The bible is contradictory.

4. Christianity has been used for hundreds of years and is still being used today as nothing but a means of control and power.

5. I have yet to be convinced that Jesus was nobody more than a man on which some wild stories were based (for fun and profit).

6. The Christian heaven is a concept that obviously originates from the fear of death.

7. The Christian hell is a concept that obviously originates from wanting to control people.

8. People can form their own off shoots of Christianity, make new rules, and still claim they can get into heaven.

9. Prayer is either auto-suggestion or worthless.

10. You can't prove that any gods or goddesses exist!

1. At the time that Constantine became the emperor of Rome, Christianity was losing the religion popularity contest. The story that Constantine suddenly saw that Christianity was the one true religion is lovely, but it's false. He adopted the new religion as the official religion of Rome to unite the empire - currently falling to pieces - and to control the people. If the Christian god is the real, omniscient and omnipotent deal, why did he have to use a weak and murdering pagan emperor to ressucitate his message?

Further Reading:
The Story Of Religious Controversy Chapter XVI

Christianity borrows many of its elements from other mythologies. A few of these elements include: The virgin birth of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus, eating bread as the body and drinking wine as the blood of Christ (cannibalistic in nature), and Christian holidays. If Christianity is the real deal, why does it sound like any other ancient religion?
I recently had a conversation with a born-again Christian who claimed that today's scholars have abandoned the idea that Christianity parallels past myths. You should have seen my jaw drop. This is complete nonsense, and I can't imagine why anyone would believe this, as most Christians I've talked to at least admit that Christmas and Easter come from the pagans. I told this person of a few instances in earlier mythologies where a virgin is impregnated by a divine male. Does this not sound like Christianity, I asked? No, this person claimed, it is only vague and does not count because the Christian god did not take the form of a bull or some other animal. !!!! I tried explaining that Christianity was based on past mythologies, it was not an exact copy and would seem illogical if that were true. This person was, sadly, unmoved, though I think he knew that it was true but didn't want to believe it.

3. In my experience, some Christians believe that atheists and other freethinkers are out to find contradictions in the bible, and will twist the words around to find them. This is not true. Christians do not see the mistakes because they want to believe. Atheists are neutral, and I don't think we really care whether or not the bible flows. Consider this: What if it did flow perfectly, agreed with itself and was completely cohesive the way many Christians claim it to be? Would we believe in it then? No. It remains a combination of historical fiction and mythology. But the problems within it certainly add to our skepticism.
The many people that wrote and rewrote the bible in different languages and over a long period of time didn't get their stories straight. Everyone had their own version, making the bible seem more like a drawn out game of "Telephone" than religious truth. Why should I base my life on a book of fables that can't agree with itself? Many Christians use the defense that we cannot possibly interpret things correctly considering the different (and often dead) languages the bible was written in. But if this is an omniscient and omnipotent god, why should his gospel message for all of mankind have to depend on modern language speakers having to learn those languages? And I also wonder why, if the bible is so perfectly understandable, are so many versions of Christianity able to exist and prove their beliefs within it's pages? No, I'm not saying that the Christian god should had written it according to my specifications. I don't believe in that god, period. What I am saying is that it's clear to me that the bible was written by man for man, not by god for man.

Further Reading:
A List of Biblical Contradictions

4. Traditionally, it also discourages any free thought. What are they trying to hide? If the Christian god is the only true god, the Church shouldn't have to persecute if my curiosity eventually leads me back to Christianity.

Further Reading:
The Awful Truth About Church History

5. There are no historical documents outside the bible that vouch for the actual existence of Jesus. Surely someone not involved with the bible must have seen or heard of some strange goings-ons since the birth, life, and death of Jesus was such a big deal. Then again, they had probably just heard it all before, since Jesus' birth, life and death wasn't much different than many previous gods'.

Further Reading:
The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ

6. Please refer to my personal analysis of death to see how inviting the concept of heaven is to the masses.

7. If you want people to follow you and believe what you say, what better way to do so than to threaten them some kind of punishment if they don't? Why would a supposedly loving god that permits free minds and other religions to exist turn around and send these people to hell? How rude.

8. Of course, each branch will say that the others are not real Christians. I wonder how they know that they're the ones interpreting th bible correctly. Surely an all-powerful god wouldn't create such a muddled piece of work that everyone has their own take on it. By the same reasoning, people can also pick and choose which aspects of Christianity they particularly like, discard the rest, and still get into heaven.

9. It's auto-suggestion if you keep telling yourself that god will heal you (you could also tell yourself that Kermit the Frog will heal you and you'll feel better). It's worthless if you pray for others (can you say the world is a better place because you pray for it to be?).

10. Remember, the burden of proof is on you.

Further Reading:
The Impossibility of God

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