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What does Christianity look like to an Atheist?
Although I know that there are many well intentioned
Christians who believe that in proselytizing one will be able to "save"
the other person, to an atheist it makes no sense
whatsoever. The problem virtually starts on page one.
Consider this scenario:
The Mysterious Engineer
Lets say there is a very
knowledgeable civil engineer who wishes to build a bridge connecting
two otherwise disjoint areas. This engineer willfully chooses to
build this bridge incapable of supporting any volume of vehicles even
though he knows how to build one that will support whatever
specifications he chooses. The bridge that is finally built, gets
its first vehicle to cross over and the bridge then, predictably falls
apart. The engineer gets angry and then blames the material for
not being able to support the weight.
Any rational
person would think that this engineer is either an idiot or insane,
first for knowing how to build a proper bridge in the first place and
secondly for blaming the material's inability to support the
weight. Although this seems like a ridiculous example, and I
agree that it is, many Christians nonetheless suspend the ability to
reason when it is brought to their attention that the "Fall of Mankind"
story in Genesis is exactly the same. God being the creator and all-knowing creates mankind,
mankind screws up and God blames the creation, not His inability to
create beings who obey. The Christian then claims that mankind
has free will. This introduces two issues. Why would God
create a being that He knows will choose to disobey and why is it not
possible to create Man who continually chooses to obey God. The
first issue is a fair question, because God ultimately avoids taking
responsibility for something foreseen unless of course God isn't all-knowing in which case God
has lied about His omniscience. The second issue is
trickier. If an all-knowing God creates flawed
Man (Man would have to be created flawed since an all-knowing God would know of a
better way to create Man that would continually choose Him) knowing the
outcome, then God had to have been forced (an all-knowing God can not choose a
sub par spec for Man unless God is insane or idiotic like the example
of the engineer) to create Man, in which case God isn't
supreme. So we are left with several unsavory possibilities, at
least to Christians, 1) God isn't all-knowing and doesn't know
how to create man, in which case how can the Christian console
themselves with the idea that God will somehow "get it right" the
second time at the end of the world. 2) God is a moron. 3) This
particular version of God doesn't exist. 4) God is all-knowing, but was
forced. Also, to console oneself with the idea that God will
answer all questions at judgment day or upon death is wishful
thinking. In other words why do you trust a God that can't get
His story straight? The Genesis is the most important story for
Christianity since "The Fall" is the reason Jesus Christ had to die in
the first place. If you don't
have a working premise the conclusion doesn't follow.
Christianity is a
strange religion in my opinion. All your answers and desires will
be met after death. It is kind of like an investment.
George Smith author of Atheism:
The Case against God says "One invests in this life, so to speak,
and collects interest in the next. Fortunately for Christianity,
the dead cannot return to demand a refund." If all you have is
hope that a fatal contradiction will be resolved upon death, then you
must realize how much reason has been suspended in your life.
You've essentially said, God will show me a married bachelor when I
die, till then I'm a Christian because I want to be on the safe side
because this supposedly loving God punishes eternally for
disobedience. Yeah, I'm the mistaken one right!