Why do Christians ask us stupid questions?

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43

I also find so many things about religion to be very confusing.

I’d like to pick on Catholicism for a moment . . . although I could pick on any religion to make similar points.

According to Christian doctrine, God gave us our souls and our minds.

So . . .

It’s my understanding that a miracle (or miracles) must be involved for someone to be cannonized, and they must be dead for a certain amount of time.

There was a microbiologist named Maurice Hilleman who invented more than 40 vaccines. His vaccines have saved the lives of approximately 250 million people.

Since his work was a product of his mind, and his mind was given to him by God, how does this not qualify as a miracle?

In my mind, Dr. Hilleman has done more for humanity than any 1,000 Catholic saints combined.

How does saving the lives of 250 million people not qualify as a miracle? Especially since God gave him the mind and intelligence to do this?

I may be wrong, but I also think Dr. Hilleman was Catholic.

Why does he not get nominated for sainthood?

These are the type of questions that drive me away from organized religion (among other things).

(added later) He wasn’t Catholic, but a Lutheran, Does this make a difference? Mary is a saint, but she was Jewish.

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44

Well, Kevin, on the surface, 250 million people does indeed seem quite impressive. However, in the grand scheme of things, 250 million people is really not all that impressive when it comes to worldwide population over several decades. Barely a drop in the bucket, actually. And that number REALLY pales in comparison to the number of people god has killed (according to the bible), or who have been killed IN THE NAME OF GOD, over the past several centuries. Besides, good ol’ Hilleman used SCIENCE to make those vaccines to save all those people. And then those vaccines were used by many other people over a long period of time. Now, had he personally prayed over and BLESSED all those people he cured “IN THE NAME OF THE LORD”, then MAYBE he could have been a candidate for sainthood.

(Edited due to inflation.)

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I actually agree with your points, but my only point is that I wanted to show a double-standard in religion, and to claim that Hilleman is much more entitled to the label of “miracle-worker” than any of the cannonized saints.

Or–to look at it in another way–religion wants to apply standards from thousands of years ago today in a modern context . . . so, if I transport Hilleman back in time to the late Bronze Age with his vaccines, he could be defined as an angel of God, since anyone he “blessed” with an injection would live a longer, healthier life.

So . . . we have another double standard.

Hilleman would be an angel of God thousands of years ago while he is “just a scientist” today, yet a religious follower wants to maintain the ancient values and gets confrontational when the humanist claims that we know better in this modern age.

I don’t believe that I’m particularly insightful, as hypocrasy, double-standards, and cognitive dissonance has always been intertwined with organized religion.

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Double-standards?.. In religion?.. That’s utterly ABSURD! Have you done gone and bumped your head? Look, allow me to enlighten you a bit…

  • God said, “Thou shalt not kill.” Pretty damn straightforward. Does not matter that God himself has murdered more people than… uh, well… God. It also does not matter that it is perfectly okay for you to raid a villiage and slaughter every living thing in it, as long as you are doing it FOR God.

  • NOBODY knows the mind of God. Unless, of course, you are trying to convince a heathen sinner how YOU KNOW what God wants him/her to do to live a happy life. OR, unless what God wants just happens to coincide with what YOU want, in which case you know what God wants. For all other questions you cannot answer about God, it is simply because, “God is mysterious, and nobody knows the mind of God.”

  • Jealousy is a SIN. You should NEVER be jealous of others. Nevermind the fact God calls himself Jealous. That’s irrelevant. But do your absolute best to be a “Godly” person during your life.

These are just a couple of highlighted examples to demonstrate to you there are absolutely NO double-standards in Christianity. It truly baffles me as to how you even came up with such nonsense. :roll_eyes:

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47

I know the answer to this question. ‘They are fucking stupid!’

I have mentioned that I work with a couple of Christians. The shit that they come up with is fucking amazing. The shit that they don’t know would amaze a third grader. One of them, a 32 year old male, did not know a whale was not a fish. I noticed it the other day when he was catagorizing sea animals for the kids on the whiteboard.

After class, I pulled him aside. Hey Larry. Did you know whales were mammals, just . like people? They have lungs. They are warm blooded? They have hair? They give birth to live babies. They were once land animals, they walked on the land but returned to the sea. They have what used to be leg bones still inside their bodies. They are called vestigial leg bones. (I think I overloaded Larry’s brain. He spent the rest of the day ignoring me. He can’t ignore me long. I’m the supervosor. I think he felt really stupid, and I hope so. What I really hope is that he got off his ass and looked something up on line to see if anything I said was true. That might have been progress. But I seriously doubt that he did.)

Now let’s address your questions

Why do atheists hate god? It’s not the god we hate. It’s the messenger.

Why do atheist worship Satan? I don’t know.

Isn’t atheism just another religion. Surrrrrrrrre! (Dripping with sarcasm.)

Why do atheists want to go to hell? All my friends are there.

Why don’t atheists want to go the heaven? Boring!

Doesn’t it take as much faith to be an atheist? Huh? Faith? What’s that?

What evidence would be sufficient for atheists to accept God? A dinner date.

If atheists truly don’t believe in god, why do they spend so much time talking about him? Um, because Christians spend so much time knocking on my door, passing out tracts, witnessing, yelling from street corners, praying in schools, ringing their fucking bells at 8 AM on Sunday mornings, saying stupid shit after hurricanes and typhoons on TV, blocking off entire networks of TV and Radio with their broadcasting, protesting secular holidays like Christmas and Easter, and more.

Why don’t atheists read the holy bible first and then decide if they believe or not? Hmmm? Honestly, I think most atheists have.

How can atheists know what is moral without god’s guidance? All animals on the planet that live in groups have moral codes. The more sophisticated the animal, the more advanced the moral code. If two people are going to live with one another sacrifices must be made and morality will be invented. It’s pretty dang simple.

Are atheists so arrogant that they believe they know better about what is right and wrong than a genocidal god who thinks women on their period are unclean and homosexuals should be murdered? Um… Yes.

If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys? We did not evolve from monkeys. We are monkeys. We are still evolving.

What evidence do atheists have to prove there isn’t a god? 2000 years of emptiness.

What if you’re wrong and god does exist? Who said he doesn’t? All I did was ask for evidence.

What will I say to God? “You got lots of explaining to do if the Bible is correct!”

If there is no god, why is there so much good in the world? For the same reason there is so much bad in the world.

How do atheists explain all the miracles that defy explanation? They defy explanation.

If atheists don’t believe in god why are they always so angry when we talk about him? It’s probably not what you talk about as much as how you say it.

How can hundreds of prophecies come true? Can you give an example of one that has been agreed upon?

Do atheists believe they can live without god? Who?

Pascal’s wager? Do you not think God would know the difference?

Will atheists admit, life without god has no meaning? I’ll admit ‘Life has no meaning.’ Meaning is something you add to life.

There are hundreds of different unbeliefs. I didn’t know that. Can you name a few?

How can an eye develop from chance and chaos? It can’t.

God designed the eye? Really? Can you show any evidence for that?

What made you become an atheist? I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Evidence for Jesus? Really? I’d love to hear about it.

Many people have died and met Jesus. Many others have died and met Muhammad, the Buddha, Yamraj, deceased loved ones, and many many more. What’s your point?

Cancer remission? Loads of diseases, including cancers, can have remissions. What’s your point?

ARE THERE ANY HARD QUESTIONS? That might be a good thread to start. Are there actually any difficult questions that Christians ask? I think not.

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48

There are no stupid questions. There are simply questions that reflect a different point of view.

Some of which are stupid, from my point of view.

I’ll give my answers.

“Why do atheists hate god”?

I don’t.

“Do atheists worship Satan”?

I don’t. YMMV

“Isn’t atheism just another religion”?

No.

“Why do atheists want to go to hell”?

There is no Hell.

“Why don’t atheists want to go to heaven”?

There is no Heaven.

“Doesn’t it take just as much faith to be an atheist as it does to be a believer”?

No. Faith is the issue. And it’s your issue, not mine.

“What evidence would be sufficient for atheists to accept god”?

Any. Seriously, just one incontrivertible piece.

“If atheists truly don’t believe in god, why do they spend so much time talking about him”?

I Don’t. You do. And it’s impossible to interact with you without you bringing Him up. I’m also atheist about Ganesha, Kali, Wakan Tanka and the many Kami of Shinto, but surprisingly, you never hear me talking about those. You set the agenda, and that is what gets discussed.

“Why don’t atheists read the holy bible first and then decide if they believe or not”?

Did that. I probably have a better knowledge of the OT than you do, and it really doesn’t help when all of my arguments are countered with “The Devil can use the Scripture to his own ends”. That’s not in either Testament, BTW,

“How can atheists know what is moral without gods guidance? Are atheists so arrogant that they believe they know better about what is right and wrong than god”?

Because some people are just nice. And they don’t need to be carrot-and-sticked into being nice.

“If we evolved from monkeys… why are there still monkeys”?

Because there are still mussels and still winkles, even though one evolved from the other. Our common ancestor split into two directions millions of years ago. Also Monkeys, whilst primates, aren’t apes. We’re descended from apes.

“What evidence do atheists have to prove there isn’t a god”?

You can’t prove a negative. And the burden of proof is on you, claiming something, not me, denying it.

“Atheists. What if you are wrong and god does exist”?

That’s my problem. What makes you think it is yours?

Atheists. What are you going to say to god on Judgement Day when you stand before him and he asks why you didn’t believe in him”?

Nothing. Because only you believe that is going to happen. I know it is not.

“If there is no God, why is there so much good in the world”?

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAA.

“How do atheists explain all of the obvious miracles that defy explanation”?

Such as? And if there are any, then I’d say that they defy explanation.

“If atheists don’t believe in god why are they always so angry when we talk about him”?

I’m not.

“If god doesn’t exist, how can hundreds of prophecies written in the bible have come true”?

List three. Just three. No?

“Do atheists believe that they can live without God”?

Yes, evidently. I am alive. Proof positive.

“Isn’t it better to believe in god because when you die and if there isn’t a god it makes no difference anyway, but if there is a god then you are saved from hell and judgment”?

No. Because you will live your life in thrall to people that will tell you what to do, based on their belief. If I am wrong, I’ll have hell in the afterlife, but I won’t have it here, now, when this is the only life I have.

“Will atheists at least admit that without god life has no meaning”?

No. Life has meaning for me every day. I don’t need it to be provided.

“Atheists. Out of hundreds of different unbeliefs that exist… how can you know you have chosen the correct one”?

Ganesha says hi, Christians. You’re all going to Nirvana. Eventually.

“How could something as complex as an eye possibly develop purely by chance and chaos without a god being involved in designing it”?

Because what you see as chance and chaos is not chance and chaos. It’s a millions-year development. You might as well ask “How can the internet result in the iPhone 15?”. Evolution, aggressive exploitation of niches that haven’t been filled by comparable lifeforms.

“What made you become atheist and turn your back on god”?

He made me this way. It’s part of his plan.

Proper answer: Accepting reality, not fiction, as a way of life.

“How can atheists rationally deny that there is more evidence that Jesus Christ lived, died and came back to life than for just about any other event in ancient history”?

The majority of your evidence was written decades after the fact. Whilst I’m prepared to accept that Jesus is a historical figure, that doesn’t make him The Son Of God. Actual person, yes. What you claim him to be, no.

“When I died in hospital, I met god personally before I came back. Many people all over the world have experienced the exact same thing. How can atheists explain this”?

I’m not a doctor. But if I said that King Monkey, Great Sage, Equal Of Heaven tricked you… how would you demonstrate that I was wrong?

“My doctor diagnosed me with cancer and told me I had 6 months to live, I went to the doctor for a checkup 2 years later and the doctors said that all trace of the cancer is gone and he couldn’t explain it. How can atheists deny that this is a miracle”?

The odds of the same number coming up 7 times in roulette are around 1 in a billion. Yet that has happened. The odds of winning the lottery every week are much slimmer than the odds of you being murdered. And yet people win. You equate “immense unlikeliness” with “impossibility”.

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