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July 20th, 2013
10:00 PM ET
Reza Aslan: Why I write about JesusOpinion by Reza Aslan, special to CNN (CNN) - When I was 15 years old, I found Jesus. I spent the summer of my sophomore year at an evangelical youth camp in Northern California, a place of timbered fields and boundless blue skies, where, given enough time and stillness and soft-spoken encouragement, one could not help but hear the voice of God. Amid the man-made lakes and majestic pines my friends and I sang songs, played games and swapped secrets, rollicking in our freedom from the pressures of home and school. In the evenings, we gathered in a fire-lit assembly hall at the center of the camp. It was there that I heard a remarkable story that would change my life forever.
Through his words and miraculous deeds, he challenged the Jews who thought they were the chosen of God, and in return he was nailed to a cross. Though Jesus could have saved himself from that gruesome death, he freely chose to die. Indeed, his death was the point of it all, for his sacrifice freed us all from the burden of our sins. But the story did not end there, because three days later, he rose again, exalted and divine, so that now, all who believe in him and accept him into their hearts will also never die, but have eternal life. For a kid raised in a motley family of lukewarm Muslims and exuberant atheists, this was truly the greatest story ever told. Never before had I felt so intimately the pull of God. In Iran, the place of my birth, I was Muslim in much the way I was Persian. My religion and my ethnicity were mutual and linked. Like most people born into a religious tradition, my faith was as familiar to me as my skin, and just as disregardable. After the Iranian revolution forced my family to flee our home, religion in general, and Islam in particular, became taboo in our household. Islam was shorthand for everything we had lost to the mullahs who now ruled Iran. My mother still prayed when no one was looking, and you could still find a stray Quran or two hidden in a closet or a drawer somewhere. But, for the most part, our lives were scrubbed of all trace of God. That was just fine with me. After all, in the America of the 1980s, being Muslim was like being from Mars. My faith was a bruise, the most obvious symbol of my otherness; it needed to be concealed. Jesus, on the other hand, was America. He was the central figure in America’s national drama. Accepting him into my heart was as close as I could get to feeling truly American. I do not mean to say that mine was a conversion of convenience. On the contrary, I burned with absolute devotion to my newfound faith. I was presented with a Jesus who was less “Lord and Savior” than he was a best friend, someone with whom I could have a deep and personal relationship. As a teenager trying to make sense of an indeterminate world I had only just become aware of, this was an invitation I could not refuse. The moment I returned home from camp, I began eagerly to share the good news of Jesus Christ with my friends and family, my neighbors and classmates, with people I’d just met and with strangers on the street: those who heard it gladly, and those who threw it back in my face. Yet something unexpected happened in my quest to save the souls of the world. The more I probed the Bible to arm myself against the doubts of unbelievers, the more distance I discovered between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of history – between Jesus the Christ and Jesus of Nazareth. In college, where I began my formal study of the history of religions, that initial discomfort soon ballooned into full-blown doubts. The bedrock of evangelical Christianity, at least as it was taught to me, is the unconditional belief that every word of the Bible is God-breathed and true, literal and inerrant. The sudden realization that this belief is patently and irrefutably false, that the Bible is replete with the most blatant and obvious errors and contradictions — just as one would expect from a document written by hundreds of different hands across thousands of years — left me confused and spiritually unmoored. And so, like many people in my situation, I angrily discarded my faith as if it were a costly forgery I had been duped into buying. I began to rethink the faith and culture of my forefathers, finding in them a deeper, more intimate familiarity than I ever had as a child, the kind that comes from reconnecting with an old friend after many years apart. Meanwhile, I continued my academic work in religious studies, delving back into the Bible not as an unquestioning believer but as an inquisitive scholar. No longer chained to the assumption that the stories I read were literally true, I became aware of a more meaningful truth in the text. Ironically, the more I learned about the life of the historical Jesus, the turbulent world in which he lived, and the brutality of the Roman occupation that he defied, the more I was drawn to him. The Jewish peasant and revolutionary who challenged the rule of the most powerful empire the world had ever known became so much more real to me than the detached, unearthly being I had been introduced to in church. Today, I can confidently say that two decades of rigorous academic research into the origins of Christianity has made me a more genuinely committed disciple of Jesus of Nazareth than I ever was of Jesus Christ. I have modeled my life not after the celestial spirit whom many Christians believe sacrificed himself for our sins, but rather after the illiterate, marginal Jew who gave his life fighting an unwinnable battle against the religious and political powers of his day on behalf of the poor and the dispossessed – those his society deemed unworthy of saving. I wrote my newest book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" in order to spread the good news of the Jesus of history with the same fervor that I once applied to spreading the story of the Christ. Because I am convinced that one can be a devoted follower of Jesus without being a Christian, just as I know that one can be a Christian without being a follower of Jesus. Reza Aslan is a bestselling author and a scholar of religion. This article was adapted from his newest book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth." The views expressed in this column are Aslan's alone. |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I think the study of Jesus is interesting. When the zealots start calling him son of god is where they lose reality.
Please see my reply from Susan. You can also read John 15. We either believe all things concerning Christ or you don't believe. There is no in between. He said you cannot be lukewarm.
Susan, if that is true, was Jesus family from Nazareth or Bethlehem?
He called himself God. That claim, alone, is enough to call him a lunatic and dismiss everything else he said as the ranting of a madman, if it's not true.
Feel free to test him like I did.
Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. BURNED with FAITH, but now it's gone.
Top Ten Signs You're a Christian
10 – You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
9 – You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.8 – You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.7 – Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!6 – You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.5 – You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.4 – You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs – though excluding those in all rival sects – will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."3 – While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.2 – You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.1 – You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history – but still call yourself a Christian.
Couldn't be said better. Perfect.
One sing of atheism, 'complete ignorance"
Who sings of atheism?
Church is a misnomer, but then again, it is for christians as welll, since all churches are really to the god Mithra, since that is when the word church originates.
The church you speak of is just a gathering of atheists, similar to the fellowship offered in other churches. Whatever word they use is really moot.
The person who claims that atheists are completely ignorant, clearly is just violating the 9th commandment.
Robert-When John Wesley, the dutch printer, translated the bible he used the word "congregation" and the only major change to that translation in creating the KJV was to make it read "church."
You shouldn't use words you don't understand, my unlettered friend.
20 years ago, I also became a big Jesus believer, and stopped calling myself "Christian".
Christians have a total misunderstanding of Jesus' purpose.
Christianity is based on the teachings of Paul, not Jesus.
Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus, sworn enemy of Jesus) orders Christians to worship the death of Jesus.
As I said, Christians got it wrong. It was not the death of Jesus that defined Jesus. It was the life of Jesus that defined Jesus.
Rock
Your jeebus did not exist Rockhead, so you are just wasting your time.
You shall have no other gods before me. Not even the son of God.
So why are so many things named after other gods?
The names of the days, the names of the planets, the names of cars and towns, etc., etc.
Evertime a christian mentions any of these things, they violate the first commandment, by mentioning a god that is not theirs.
So there I was, in Jupiter Florida, sitting in my Mercury, on Saturday eating a Mars bar, while trying to tie my Nike's, violating the first commandment five times at once.
Just think about it. We are literally apart of the creator so even if we wanted to, we couldn't truly put any other Gods before "Him ". But christianity has humanized Him so badly to the point where they make our creator out to like a jealous, angry, selfish king. Madness.
What do you mean "we are literally part of the creator"?
What creator? Where is the evidence of this creator?
You should answer those questions and then look up the word literally...for something to be literal, it must be based in something that is true, which you will be unable to show.
Can i ask religious and atheist alike if they really understand what was Jesus message or what he really wanted to teach us?
His message or those who wrote about him decades after his death (if he ever did exist) said what his message was?
Well, according to the Bible (I say this because none of it was actually penned by Jesus) the general message is to love one another and help those less fortunate. An excellent philosophy to take.
The message of the New Testament, however, written after Jesus's death, is that the ONLY way to heaven is to accept Jesus as your lord and savior. LORD. meaning, it's very much a religion, again, by definition.
Partly true! he also said that there is life beyond this material world created by the mind, live that is the real life, eternal life! and to reach it we must be reborn again!
That is why his own disciples asked him " and how can we get back to our mother's womb? and he replied, " Ye has not understood my words!.
This is the kind of understanding I am talking about, that religious and atheist alike lack!
@Elena – "...understanding...that religious and atheist alike lack!"
And yet this is understanding that you claim to possess? Isn't that more than a bit arrogant, even, perhaps, delusional?
Ah, reasonable discourse at last, nice!
I have to state again that I believe the philosophy of Jesus as savior and the only way to heaven to be utterly impossible, if for no other reason then simply because of the untold millions of people who have died without ever hearing a single thing about Jesus- most of them actively worshiping other gods, the only gods they've ever known, simply because they were born in the wrong corner of the world.
Elena, I'm still having a hard time understanding what your exact perspective is. What, exactly, do you believe as truth? I promise not to trash you for it, but I'd be grateful if you'd elaborate.
Never understood why a god or a son of a god would speak in riddles all the time. Seems he/she/it/they were always trying to trip people up.
Really-O? no it is not!
Jesus speaks in riddles because he didn't really write the bible – so the people that did wrote in riddles – so you have to basically take what they are saying as a way to describe what they know about whatever they are talking about – which could have been an alien baby – who knows
on the other hand – jesus was said to have traveled to india and learned spiritual teachings there – which teach more about god's life force within the human body through their teachings and practices – so perhaps his being the son of god is a reference to the teachings of india and their beliefs in the possibility and practices of enlightened monks, etc.
His message is that try as we might, our hearts aren't right. Jesus said if you believe in God, believe in Jesus too. He came to fix our hearts and give us eternal life. He was the sinless, perfect sacrifice on the cross, and if we believe that God sent Him, we will be saved and have eternal life with God when we die. Nobody's current situation without Jesus works. God loved us enough to punish His Son instead of us which allows us to live forever. Every 1/1 persons will die.
I have one simple rule when it comes to discussing the Bible. When someone can tell me which John wrote the book of Revelations, then there can be a conversation about it being The Word of God. Until then, it is nothing more than a book that people choose to blindly believe. The book itself is an insult to God. God is all powerful, God is all knowing, God can do all things, God cannot be contained. This written word controls the power of God. To say God can and cannot do something is to deny the power of God. I am a follower of Jesus Christ but I am not naive enough or arrogant enough to claim that any man made book is The Word of God.
The word "CHRISTIAN" means to be Christ-like this word is showing the character of Jesus in a persons life that has accepted Christ as there personal Savior. A person that accepts Christ as their Savior must be born again to be saved from a lost an dying world headed to an eternal judgment, so to have Christ in your heart as your personal savior means that you are not what you use to be and that is a sinner headed to Hell. You are now saved from that and you are heavenly bound. (CHRISTIAN)
Most Christians do not study the historical Jesus. It isn't a surprise that Jesus is more a political figure than a religious one. The crucifixion, as Aslan points out, is not a commiserate punishment for a religious crime; only for sedition.
Since we do not share the same concerns as Jesus did, a nation under subjugation and no way to liberate it, we tend to believe that he is promising us the kingdom of God, which we crave for.
But the point is that what Aslan is telling us now isn't a surprise. It has always been right under our noses. Most of us do not want to acknowledge this. If history is any indicator, Aslan's book won't help change the "traditional view" either.
The only way this can happen if I follow my neighbor Jesus without being a christian, lol.
Very interesting article. There is a book called "Jesus the Christ," by James Talmage, that I think is interesting supplemental reading as well.
There is something called "Understanding" and I am not talking about just reading something and getting the message. understanding is something else. does a dog understand you are in danger,a s in the cases when dogs alert their owner about fire in the house or recognized when a strangers have bad intentions, yet it would be futile to explain the dog what the solar system is! Understanding is something that you either have or you don't!. it seems to me that atheist don't have that kind of .
I am not s bible fan, but it makes no mistake when it says " they have eyes but they cant see" wise men from the Bible and from other ancient cultures have told us that this reality is just a illusion, and guess what science already agrees with them through the discoveries of Quantum Mechanics
We live inside an illusion created by the mind, an illusion we are conditioned for as long as we see, hear and feel with the mind!
Yes, Christianity is simply another one of those illusions.
I can understand his desire to separate Jesus from religion. Even Jesus wanted to keep some distance from religion. "Religion" always seems to carry a lot of trouble with it, as seen throughout history.
The comments this man makes are certainly interesting, and he seems to have a genuine love for Jesus. That much I can understand. I'm just not sure why he rejects the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John because that is where the life of Jesus is described and his words are recorded.
I, too, love Jesus. But I'm not so much in love with "the Church." (Any church.) I can see how much damage organized religion has done through the centuries, in the name of Jesus but without evidence of the love of Jesus. I think the true thread of Christianity is traced through the martyrs and missionaries more than through the history of any church.
And yet, the oppressive rule of the Catholic Church for 1400 years did squeeze some civilization into what had been barbaric tribes that were all at odds with one another. Then the protests of Martin Luther in the 1500's managed to inadvertantly break the enormous power of the Catholic Church so that they did not have the power to Rule anymore, although the Pope did continue to have influence on the faithful who looked to Rome. Surely God used Luther because how could one man have accomplished all that: a peaceful, humble monk who did not organize an army or defy the Church except in words? (It was the French who rose up against the Pope and deposed him.)
The history of the Christian Church and its worship patterns is a puzzle of good and bad. I think God works with what He's got, and it's amazing that God can do this despite ourselves.
Does Reza Aslan believe that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the critical question, for me. If he only loves Jesus the Rebel, I think Mr. Aslan needs to go back and read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John again – because how can you love Jesus without loving the words that Jesus spoke?
Do you really think Jesus said the words that are written in the bible?
Who wrote those words down and passed the quotes on for hundreds of years until the verses were written down by others and the many other years until the bible was compiled and solidified into one book?
Why would educated people choose to hold deluded perceptions such as you claim to hold dearly to – when if you stopped to truly think about what you just said – and asked yourself – did Jesus write anything for the future bible – you might actually question whether jesus ever wrote down any of his ministries – it never mentions that he did in the bible.
I am a follower of Jesus the one that would walk into your churches and synagogues and mosques ( den of thieves) and tear them down. the road to heaven is a narrow road why billions travel on the wide road. your places of worship are corrupt and your teachings judgmental. you are, in truth, the wrath of God; using his enemies to destroy his enemies. you the church have forsaken Gods love by judging when you have no place to do such. he who is without sin cast the first stone and you have thrown boulders at many killing what little faith one may have. you have to ask yourself a question when your flying a plane over a village ready to drop that bomb that will kill 1 terrorist and 50 innocents....What would Jesus do?
It would be a little hard for JEsus to "walk into a mosque and tear it down, given that Islam did not develop until the Seventh Century, about 600 years after Jesus was executed.
I agree with you. Organized religion is so false. When it gathers two or more in my name, all they do is gossip and tear each other down. I grew up going to the Catholic church and they were so hateful against so many. They taught me that I would go to h ell if I ever stepped into another faith's church. When I grew up, I left the Catholics behind and tried the Baptist Church, the Methodists, the Lutherans.....they were all the same. Hateful and prejudiced. Now if I want a conversation with God, it is just between he and I. No others are needed. I will not go into another "church" because they do not teach The Word Of God.
This man could not get Christianity more wrong than he does. He could not get it more wrong. The whole point of Jesus Christ was to bridge the distance between humanity and God. He is NOT some detached spirit and Aslan's idea of a more earthly Jesus is completely unnecessary. He never understood the religion in the first place if he thinks that Islam is more earthy than Christianity. It is in Islam that God is an impersonal and unknowable abstraction. I think that Christians need to see this guy for the confused and ignorant and dangerous person that he is. He is trying to evangelize for his made up version of Jesus. Don't fall for it.
C.S. Lewis answered the question very well:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
@Jessica –
False dilemma.
Hey religious scammers, we have a live one here in Jessica.
She will be an easy mark for you to fleece, like the sheep she is.
I believe that the character of Jesus is a myth and that he is a conglomeration of about a hundred or more prophets running around Palestine at that time and claiming to be messiah and doing miracles and great works. So, Jesus was not a mad man nor the son of god; however, he is a made up character based on real life events.
What is your evidence for this claim?
the evidence becomes obvious if you do a little scientific thought and study of the matter – even on the matter of who actually wrote the bible and for what purposes – why are there no written records from the time of jesus's actual life?
why bother even reading this article if you dont believe? Just to put down someone else's? What's the point? If you dont believe, then move on and read about something else. You dont need to put down what others believe in, unless you;re scared you may be wrong and think if you can convince all believers then you will no longer be alone? You dont have to believe in any of this, but they do, so leave them be!!!
Way to go, Jessica.
The famous "MBOG" argument by C.S. Lewis: Mad, Bad, or God.
... only if you believe that every word in the Bible attributed to Jesus is actually what Jesus said. And, that seems unlikely.
Nice C.S. Lewis quote Jessica. I choose to worship Jesus as God.
A Son of God, who by his teachings gave power to whomsoever would to become the sons and daughters of God. Did you miss that part in your reading?
There is a already a religion that is a follower of Jesus and its followers are not Christian. It is called Islam. The only non-Christian religion that makes it an article of faith to believe in Jesus. I'm actually surprised after realizing the contradictions and errors in the Bible that you continued to try an probe it further for answers without going back to the Qur'an, which you were (to some degree) raised on.
There aren't contradiction in the Bible there are just people with poor understanding of the text. If you want to see text full of contradictions then read the qur'an
Ah if you want to see some contradictions in the babble xtian7, just go to page 8 of this thread and there are over 100 of them posted for your review.
I have read a lot of them They always turn out to be simple misinterpretations. Like claiming Heli and Jacob are said to be Joesph's father when Heli is known to be Mary's father so it is talking about his father in law, not his biological father. They are usually like that.
Here is another one: me and my father are one; my father is greater than I. God takes different forms and the father form is greater. You can't look at the father without being destroyed so he appears in a form that does not destroy us. It is simple stuff. They are not contradictions, they are misunderstanding by human that have small brains (all of us are error prone).
That is always what your xtians say, just a simple mistake.
Even though you say the bible is correct and unerring.
And any passage can be either literal, or figurative, depending on how you want to apply it.
But when you are dealing with make believe land, anything is possible.....
you don't get it, but then the message is about you ...not for you.
Jesus ordered his followers to abandon their families and their wealth, on pain of infinite torture. This is enough to put him in the same category as David Koresh, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, L. Ron Hubbard, Joseph Smith, etc. He could have been a con man, a kidnapper, a pedophile, and/or a violent revolutionary. Imagine how weird and wrong a history written by their followers would be.
Of course, none of that is true. Makes for a nice soundbite, though.
All credibility was lost when the writer called Jesus illiterate. Jesus Christ of Nazareth studied Scripture in the synagogue since boyhood and he wrote in the sand when the people were about to stone the woman in John 8. Clearly, not illiterate. Perhaps the writer hasn't studied Jesus of Nazareth as extensively as he claims.
All that learning did not help him to be much of a carpenter, which is why he turned to store front preaching.
Are you aware that the majority of studies during that time were VERBAL? Writing instruments were not at all common, and again, were generally reserved for those in power.
You don't know much about history, do you? He likely studied under the VERBAL instruction of a rabbi.
Unfortunately, that's not true. While writing was expensive and time consuming, it WAS taught to young jewish boys and men of the day. Paul, who was Jesus' contemporary, had the entire Tanakh (Old Testament) memorized. There were scrolls in every synagogue. So, yes, Yeshua would have been taught writing simply as a matter of growing up jewish in that era, especially in Judea and Nazareth.
Correction. A later writer who wrote about 65 years after JEsus dies\d, claimed he did. The motif of the young wundrkind is common in ancient literature. It is very likely jesus was illiterate.
If Jesus does not know something, then certainly you or any other human does not know it.
I know infinitely more about just about any topic you can think of then jeebus did.
He was an illiterate goat herder, failed carpenter store front preacher.
That is if he even existed, which I doubt.
I would have to agree. I think he's just another in a long line of people making "shocking" claims to sell books and make $$$. No one has ever done that before. I agree with some of what he says. Not to be critical of evangelicals, but they're not the only game in town. Some of their beliefs about scripture aren't scriptural or historical Christianity. So he's kind of thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Good luck to him selling books, I won't be buying it.
Dear Christians:God here.To the extent any of you died for your faith, I am afraid you threw your life away. Because, you see, I do not exist. The concept of a 13,700,00,000 year old being, capable of creating the entire Universe and its billions of galaxies, monitoring simultaneously the actions and thoughts of the 7 billion human beings on this planet is ludicrous. Second, if I did exist, I would have left you a book a little more consistent, timeless and independently verifiable than the collection of Iron Age Middle Eastern mythology you call the Bible. Hell, I bet you cannot tell me one thing about any of its authors or how and why it was compiled with certain writings included and others excluded, nor how it has been edited over the centuries, yet you cite it for the most extraordinary of supernatural claims.Thirdly, when I sent my “son” (whatever that means, given that I am god and do not mate) to Earth, he would have visited the Chinese, Ja.panese, Europeans, Russians, sub-Saharan Africans, Australian Aboriginals, Mongolians, Polynesians, Micronesians, Indonesians and native Americans, not just a few Jews. He would also have exhibited a knowledge of something outside of the Iron Age Middle East. Fourthly, I would not spend my time hiding, refusing to give any tangible evidence of my existence, and then punish those who are smart enough to draw the natural conclusion that I do not exist by burning them forever. That would make no sense to me, given that I am the one who elected to withhold all evidence of my existence in the first place.Fifthly, in the same vein, I would not make about 5% of the human population gay, then punish them for being that way. In fact, I wouldn’t care about how humans have $ex at all, given that I created all of the millions of millions of species on the planet, all of whom are furiously reproducing all the time. Human $ex would be of no interest to me, given that I can create Universes. Has it ever occurred to you that your obsession with making rules around human $ex is an entirely human affair? Sixth, I would have smitten all you Christian activists, and all evangelicals and fundamentalists long before this. You people drive me nuts. You are so small minded and speak with such false authority. Many of you still believe in the talking snake nonsense from Genesis. I would kill all of you for that alone and burn you for an afternoon (burning forever is way too barbaric even for a sick, sadistic bast.ard like me to contemplate).Seventh, the whole idea of members of one species on one planet surviving their own physical deaths to “be with me” is utter, mind-numbing nonsense. Grow up. You will die. Get over it. I did. Hell, at least you had a life. I never even existed in the first place.Eighth, I do not read your minds, or “hear your prayers” as you euphemistically call it. There are 7 billion of you. Even if only 10% prayed once a day, that is 700,000,000 prayers. This works out at 8,000 prayers a second – every second of every day. Meanwhile I have to process the 100,000 of you who die every day between heaven and hell. Dwell on the sheer absurdity of that for a moment.Finally, the only reason you even consider believing in me is because of where you were born. Had you been born in India, you would likely believe in the Hindu gods, if born in Tibet, you would be a Buddhist. Every culture that has ever existed has had its own god(s) and they always seem to favor that particular culture, its hopes, dreams and prejudices. What, do you think we all exist? If not, why only yours?Look, let’s be honest with ourselves. There is no god. Believing in me was fine when you cringed in fear during the Dark Ages and thought the World was young, flat and simple. Now we know how enormous, old and complex the Universe is. Move on – get over me. I did.God
Dear God. Give your message to the Muslims and include your home address.
Thank you god, for sharing your non existence with us.
Now let us get on with killing each other in your name.
Well said. bravo.
If Jesus says he hates this page, I'm not going to argue with him, or ask how God is able to monitor 7 billion here in a universe the size of which no one here can comprehend.
The book is another matter.
Dear "God" – Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense! Why WOULD God just appear to one segment of this planet and announce "YOU are the ONES!" Get over it Fundamentals, Evangelicals, and terrorists!
It's amazing the lengths people will go to to deny the existence of God, while at the same time being completely unaware of what the bible actually says, instead relying on what they have seen and heard in pop culture to "disprove" God.
OMG..There was no such thing as christianity in the days of Jesus, besides before people start arguing about how great this religion is they should ask themselves "if Jesus were still among us if the flesh today, WOULD HE HIMSELF BE A CHRISTIAN?"
I mean with all the disgusting scandals going on and all.
LETS START THINKING FOR OURSELVES PEOPLE
If George Washington were alive today would he be an American? Probably not. You make a good point. Christian RELIGION has tainted Jesus' message. What is written in the bible and the bible alone is his message. Read it and be saved.
If jeebus came back today he would be run out of town on a rail as a hippy.
Plus, he would tell all the mega churches to give their money to the poor, and that would get him killed for sure.
You're argument doesn't hold water. I agree with what the previous poster said. Would George Washington be American?? Let's see, we've enslaved one race. practically killed off another and the ones we didn't we put them on reservations (after stealing their land), we've purposively sterilized people we thought shouldn't procreate (much like that Nazi). I could write pages and pages.....shall I continue? I bet you could dig up something about any country, religion etc with bad examples. know what they have in common??? they're all made of up fallible, sinful, human beings. Are you going to say you should stop being a member of that too? I've never once been told by anyone in my religion that I'm better, that I will be more perfect than the next guy because I'm a Christian. I'm reminded every time I see a Crucifix my faults put him their. So if you're looking for perfect people,......keep on looking and good luck with that. And if you say something about not passing judgment, please make sure you're not doing the same.
SeattleBeaver,
Then how about you not so perfect people start paying your fair share of taxes?
We, the non believers are tired of having to carry your sorry a zzes when it come to fixing the roads and infrastructure that your not so perfect houses of mythology don't have to pay anything for.
I was also curious why churches are tax exempt. I found many articles debating both sides of the issue (and neither side used religous belief as a reason). I encourage you to google ths subject, you will find it is not as clearcut as you may think.
SeattleBeaver,
Then how about you not so perfect people start paying your fair share of taxes?
We, the non believers are tired of having to carry your sorry a!!es when it come to fixing the roads and infrastructure that your not so perfect houses of mythology don't have to pay anything for.
SeattleBeever,
Then how about you not so perfect people start paying your fair share of taxes?
We, the non believers are tired of having to carry your sorry a!!es when it come to fixing the roads and infrastructure that your not so perfect houses of mythology don't have to pay anything for.
Sorry for the multiple posts, the format has changed a bit since I was here a year ago.
I've never once been told by anyone in my religion that I'm better, that I will be more perfect than the next guy because I'm a Christian.
That's a lie. Every sermon you hear reinforces the idea that your belief system is the only correct one. It's just couched in false humility and piety. "We are all sinners, but only our god can save humanity" is still "We're better than you".
I've never once been told by anyone in my religion that I'm better, that I will be more perfect than the next guy because I'm a Christian.
That's a lie. Every sermon you hear reinforces the idea that your belief system is the only correct one. It's just couched in false humility and piety. "We are all sinners, but only our god can save humanity" is still "We're better than you".
I've never once been told by anyone in my religion that I'm better, that I will be more perfect than the next guy because I'm a Christian.
That's a lie. Every sermon you hear is intended to reinforce the idea that your belief system is the only correct one. It's just couched in false humility and piety. "We are all sinners, but only our god can save humanity" is still "We're better than you".
I've never once been told by anyone in my religion that I'm better, that I will be more perfect than the next guy because I'm a Christian.
That's a lie. Every sermon you hear is intended to reinforce the idea that your belief system is the only correct one. It's just couched in false humility and piety. "We are all sinners, but only our god can save humanity" is still "We're better than you".
I've never once been told by anyone in my religion that I'm better, that I will be more perfect than the next guy because I'm a Christian.
Every sermon you hear is intended to reinforce the idea that your belief system is the only correct one. It's just couched in false humility and piety. "We are all sinners, but only our god can save humanity" is still "We're better than you".
Ugh, I'm not used to it either. Sorry for the excess.