This is one that I wrote and posted on my facebook blog back in August. I thought I'd post it since my entries kind of jump from looking for a different religion to near full blown atheism.
August 14, 2010
There are many reasons that I don’t believe in the Christian God but the basic one boils down to this and I think I’ll leave it here for now:
I don’t understand how a God that created the world and specifically human kind, supposedly out of love, can be so ambivalent toward his own creation. Through Christianity, we are told that God created each of us and gave us free will to choose eternal life with him or a life in hell. We are led to believe that everyone on Earth, regardless of whether they’ve been directly spoken to about Jesus Christ, has the opportunity to become a Christian and have this eternal “life”. It is believed that outside of general revelation, the individual must choose Christ, so I’m going to single out the people that have other religions and have no reason to question their own devout beliefs. There are billions of people outside the christian faith and the lack of accounting for their souls is what bothers me the most. In this writing, I’m not going to touch upon the groups of indigenous people with tribal religions based in pantheism that most Christians argue are easily accounted for via general revelation.
I am mostly unsettled by those that faithfully worship in religions outside of Christianity like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. According to the information that I was able to find with minimal work on my part this morning (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html), Christianity claims 33% of the world’s adherents. If you add the other four religions that I mentioned it equals 41%. I did not include indigenous religions or the other smaller sects of asian religions as I was more interested in the major mainstream religions. I also didn’t include the 16% of the world’s population that does not subscribe to any particular religion, whether they are theistic, agnostic, or atheistic. My focus of this is to specifically talk about those that are devout to a major religion other than Christianity.
Islam, Judaism and Christianity share religious roots via Abraham. So technically they worship the god of Abraham but they eventually go their separate ways and explicitly do not agree on the deity of Jesus Christ. Though these three differ, they do share many basic tenets. A non-religious bystander would find them remarkably similar. It seems odd that a little more than 21% of the world’s population are so close to being “right,” if we work under the assumption that Christianity is “right.” They can be so devout to the god that they believe rules supreme and still be turned away because they don’t believe in Jesus when they essentially are seeking to worship the same god as those that are “right.” Then you have the other religions that aren’t based in Abrahamic tradition whose followers are just as devout but don’t worship a deity(ies) familiar to Christianity. They still believe, the same as Christians, that their religions are the true path to eternal happiness. All of the various religions, however similar or dissimilar to Christianity, all believe that their path is the right way.
Here’s where my beliefs come in:
I don’t see how a god who created the whole world and specially made human kind in his own image, can willingly allow the greater majority of them to suffer because they didn’t choose the “correct” religion, much of which is determined more by geographical factors than religious ones. If I were born in India, for instance, there is a good chance I would be either Hindu or Muslim. Chances are that I would be fully convinced that the religion I inherited was the correct religion and the only way I would have eternal happiness.
So we are given free-will to choose Christianity but only 33% of the world claims to be Christian right now and those numbers surely have fluctuated over time and likely will drop off in the future. This benevolent, loving god who created the entire world’s population can be satisfied with only about a third of his “children” actually choosing to follow him. Oh yes, it is the job of the Christian to go out and witness and try and convert all of those that are “wrong”. There are two things wrong with that in my opinion: 1.) Christians are greatly outnumbered. I guess they’d really better get to filling those quivers. (I’m only half sorry for the snarkiness, forgive me). 2.) It doesn’t make much sense to me that God is banking the salvation of two-thirds of the world on the faithfulness of Christians. First of all, that seems unfair that an inordinate number of people will burn in hell because somebody else didn’t do their job. Secondly, it seems an unfair burden on Christians. The odds are heavily stacked against them. In this scenario, there will always be blood on the hands of all Christians, even if you have been able to witness and planted that seed, you still will fall short and people will die without knowing “the truth”. I guess the life for the Christian boils down to dying with the least amount of blood on your hands.
As a parent, I cannot fathom willingly (yes, I see it as a willing act) allowing most of my children suffer eternally, over a third of which are actively seeking the higher truth that is god but happen to be misguided simply due to the religion they inherited. When Jude was born, I thought I felt a special connection to God through becoming a parent. I understood that I would always love Jude more than he could possibly love me. I chose Jude. It was a willing act to bring him into the world. While I didn’t get to choose the person he would become, I wanted him. I wanted whoever he was. He didn’t get to choose his relationship with me. I am his parent and he has no say in that matter. His love for me is obligatory. It’s the same with all parental/child relationships. As the children grow older they may come to love their parents for whom they are, based on their character, compassion, interests, etc., but in it’s basic form children love their parents out of obligation. They love us because we meet their needs. Needs for food, clothing, security, etc. Parental love is much more unconditional. I thought I related to god because of that. We’re told that our devotion will never measure up. God has unconditional love for us because he chose us, created us. We can never love him as much as he loves us. I believed that. I believed he loved us. Then I took off the myopic lens through which I saw the world and wondered how, if he loved all of his creation how it could be reconciled that so many of those he created and loved would end up eternally separated from him? Only a third of which would actually make the cut. I began to wonder if maybe all that mattered was that people were actively seeking to understand the world and were worshipping god in their own cultural subtext. That allows for a greater number of his children to make it to heaven. It’s directly contradictory to the beliefs held by Christians but I couldn’t see how God would allow all those out there that were worshipping, albeit misguidedly, to go to hell. The Christian dogma tells us that the path to god is narrow and that you are special if you find that path. That sounds sort of good and all. It feels good to know you’re one of the lucky ones that “made it”. But what about the others? The others that won’t know. They also think they are right and have no more reason to question what they believe than Christians do. They won’t know Jesus for lack of being told or anything like that, but just because they are following the religion they were born in to, just as many Christians do. If you are able to think outside of the box and for an instant pretend that it turns out that Islam actually holds the key to eternal communion with God but you are a Christian. You’ve been talked to about Islam but you are solidly certain that you’re on the right path. You have no reason to doubt that the Bible is the true word of God just as they have no reason to doubt the Qur’an. But in the end, in this scenario, no matter how devout you are or even how close your religion is to Islam, you end up eternally damned and the Muslims turn out to be right and get to go to heaven. I just cannot fathom that a God that created everyone would make eternal life such an exclusive club. I would never put one of my children’s fates in the hands of my other child. That is unfair to both children. Jude doesn’t deserve to be held responsible for Lennon’s life choices or moral character. Lennon, also shouldn’t be punished because Jude somehow neglected to morally instruct him. I, as the parent, am the one that should be held responsible. Why doesn’t god take that same responsibility? The entire population of Earth are our brothers and sisters. They don’t deserve to suffer because of the inadequacy of those that “know the truth”. Christians are the first to remind us, and rightly so, that they are just mere humans. That they are fallen and imperfect. It utterly confuses me that god would leave things of such eternal consequence in the hands of those he knows to be fallen and incompetent of such a task. It is the parent’s responsibility to instruct their kids but it seems that God is willing to pass that off on his kids, even if that means that most of them get overlooked in the meantime. I don’t understand how God can sit back and say, “I’ve done enough” when so many will miss out and be eternally separated from him.
I was asked semi-recently about free-will. I was arguing that it hardly seemed fair that so many, would be left behind because they mis-chose the religion they followed or simply relied on the one they inherited. At the time, I really didn’t know my argument on the subject. The person asked if I would like it if my children only loved me because they were forced to. They argued that is why god gave humans free will. He wants us to choose him. I sort of understand that reasoning. That kind of chosen love does seem more genuine. As I’ve already explained, I don’t think that our children really have that kind of love for us, though, at least not initially, it’s more obligatory. I do believe that they do grow to love us for who we are, not just what we provide, but that it’s never really free. Yes, that does bother me and I see the benefit in them wanting to willingly love me. I understand that it would be awesome. However, it would seem that God wants us to choose him and wants us to follow the right way, but while it may grieve him that most do not, he’s okay with it as long as some of his children manage to get it right. It feels, to me, like he is an insecure teenager looking to get his ego stroked. “Please like me, please!! If you do I’m going to have an awesome party this weekend to reward those of you that do like me. Oh and just so you know, all you guys that don’t like me, you guys are going to die and it’s not going to be pretty. You know that deep down I’ll always like you even if you don’t like me; but still, if you don’t tell me how much you like me, or if you don’t do it right; you’ll suffer and it’s more or less out of my hands.”
Also, is it even really free will? God offers an incentive to behave a certain way and a retributive punishment if we don’t. If there are rewards and punishments attached, in my mind, it does not support the idea that god gave humans free will because he wanted true love. I mean, a parent can get their child to attend every family function if they offer them something. Likewise, if you threaten to take something away, you can elicit a similar response. Here, god who is supposed to be seeking genuine lovers of him as the purpose of this free will, is offering both a bribe and a harsh punishment. I’m sure I’m not alone in praying that prayer because I was scared of Hell. How is becoming a Christian because of fear or even because of reward any different than not having a choice? The only difference I can see is that so many die and go to hell in the scenario with free will.
I just cannot entertain the idea of worshipping such a cruel god. To see any of your children suffer eternally, even if they do knowingly turn their back on you, does not follow the idea of a loving and forgiving god. I mean, Jesus always preached that you should turn your cheek infinitely if your neighbor harms you. But God, the supposed father of Jesus, has much less of a forgiving nature. I mean god, willingly hardened the hearts of many just so his will could be done for his “chosen people”. I just cannot reconcile it.
I’m going to leave you all with a quote that I find very wise and it very aptly sums up my stance toward god:
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?” ~ Epicurus
