Here is an email I received in response to one of my essays.
I’ve had the opportunity to see your page on combating Christianity. I understand your points made and agree with many of your statements. However, you have painted Christianity with a very broad brush. Yes, some Christians do fit your profile, but you are also refering to things that are not part of true Christianity. If you were to compare these Christians with the teachings in the Bible you would find they do not fit the description of Christianity.
I’d have little argument with people who followed the teachings of Jesus, but most Christians don’t do that. They follow the Bible instead, which is full of hate and silliness.
The important thing that I wanted to express to you is that you can’t throw out God and his Word, the Bible, merely because of what you observe in human Christian behavior. True Christian teachings from the Bible stress that humans are not and will never be perfect; thus, you are going to run into many errant beliefs and teachings.
Consider Matthew 7:16. It applies to Christianity itself. Christianity has brought forth mostly corrupt fruit even if that was not Jesus’s intent. People would be wise to avoid the church and if they are interested in Jesus’s teachings, read them for themselves. I don’t throw out Jesus’s teachings. I throw out the nonsense in the Bible that passes for the word of God. To me it is clear the Bible could not possibly be God’s word simply because it is untrue.
When all is said and done you alone are going to be responsible for your own choices in life. Whether you base that on observation of other people’s behaviors and beliefs or on your own quest to find the truth for yourself is up to you. I, myself, wouldn’t hang my beliefs and eternal destiny on other people’s beliefs and actions.
Gravity and other scientific forces are fact and have always existed and been unchanged throughout human history despite our human interpretations of them over the ages. The same holds true with Truth. Truth exists apart from our interpretations and beliefs of it.
I encourage you to seek the Truth that lies beyond what other human beings interpret it to be. In fact, that really should be your own personal reason for existence to discover the Truth for yourself (major emphasis on yourself). We are all assigned that purpose, but few take on the challenge. Most people are content to be spoonfed someone else’s maligned truth (which always does more harm than good because it was designed to control the one who it’s being fed to). Others realize the maligned truth and reject it, as you have, but you need to go that step further to find the real Truth.
That’s what I have done. I can’t say I have found it, but I have surely found many bogus Truths
As I’ve revealed to you above, I am a Christian. That’s where I’ve found what I believe the Truth is. But don’t take my word on it, look for it yourself.
Matthew 7:16 does not refer to Christianity itself as you stated in your response. It refers to false prophets. Read it in context.Matthew 7:15-20 would be the passage to consider. In using that passage, my point is expressed quite clearly. People who claim to be Christians will be proven by their fruit. If they claim to be, but don’t display the fruit, they are not true Christians. What I was pointing out to you was that you are labeling the wrong people as Christians.
I don’t see why the same pragmatic criteria cannot be used to judge a religion. A good religion should have a salutary effect on its adherents. What good is theoretically perfect religion whose adherents tend to become bigots? You say the imperfect Christians are not true Christians, therefore Christianity is blameless, even though its effect is to make saint of a few and bigots of the majority it touches. I won’t let it off the hook that easily. You might successfully argue that bigots are attracted to Christianity, i.e. Christianity did not make them that way. However, I think that is naïve. The emphasis on petty sins teaches judgementalness, even if Christianity gives lip service to acceptance.
Secondly, you can not separate the Bible from Christ. They are one and the same. John 1:1-14 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
Read II Corinthians 4:1-6. I have nothing further to add to that. I hope you find the Truth someday.
I take it you have no trouble laughing at the Gods of every culture but your own. Does this not seem an incredible coincidence? There are thousands of gods and you lucked out being born into the only culture that teaches the one True God. To me, your god is just as improbable as Zeus, Wotan or The Green Man. You all sound equally ridiculous. Yet adherents of almost any religion are willing to kill others because they are so bloody sure their nonsense is the Utter Absolute Truth.
If you were born in Saudi Arabia you would be extolling the virtues of Islam, in Papua New Guinea, you would seriously be concerned with placating evil spirits. Everyone defends their religious beliefs with just as much vigour as you. To me this indicates that early training is what makes a religion attractive, not some inherent Truth or value. People will attach themselves like limpets to any arrant nonsense, so long as Mummy told them it was true when they were too young to defend themselves against poppycock.
You can see this is true, but only for religions you were not indoctrinated with. You are blind to your outrageous bias.
Everyone else’s religions look like childish fairy tales. Christianity, to me, is no different. If God exists, surely He is much much greater that the pathetic anthropomorphic projections depicted in the world scriptures, including the Bible. The Bible is a slander against God. It is humanity putting their petty ideas in God’s mouth. The poetry in the Qur’an in places does hint at a god worthy of the name. The closest the Bible comes is St. Pauls ode to love.
Jesus himself said to judge a tree by its fruit. Christians are the fruit of Christianity. If the tree is bringing forth corrupt fruit, it is time to root it out.
That’s up to you if you want to keep trying to come back with what you think are acceptable answers instead of truely considering what people write to you. I used to think I was smart and knew more than everyone else too. Then I actually started listening… I thought we could have a nice dialog, but you insist on being closed to such type of discussions. No need to reply.
Oddly that’s just how I feel about your response. It sounds totally off the wall and beside the point. You can’t argue the truth of the Bible by quoting it. That is circular reasoning. Such reasoning is only valid if you assume the Bible is the word of God — the very point in debate. I could counter your arguments with quotations from the Qur’an attesting to its supremacy. You would laugh at such circular arguments, yet you fail to see that your own are just as circular.
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