The less you Think, the more you Believe. The following are some Beliefs I’ve Thought have issues. Use your God-given brain and contemplate beliefs.
God’s Plan
The fundamental part of god’s plan is to not know what god’s plan is. If god’s plan was clearly and easily explained it would eliminate the need for faith. We are born into this world and presented hundreds of drastically different religions that claim absolute truth, but only one can be right. We could study every different belief in depth for the entirety of our lives only to find contradictions and disagreements. We can’t know for ourselves with reasonable certainty so we must rely on prophets and scriptures. In any case we must simply accept the prophets word for what they claim as truth with no way to verify that they are indeed god’s chosen prophet or a deceptive false prophet. Following someone’s command “because they said so” is a form of authoritarianism. It’s irrational and illogical. I assert that a deity capable of creating the universe would be more intelligent than this.
Adam & Eve
(Disclosure: This is not a complete explanation of the scientific facts of evolution)
A true understanding of biological evolution will reveal devastating flaws in the Adam and Eve narrative. There is never a first male and female parent to a new species. Each generation can successfully reproduce with the the former and latter generations, but given a few hundred thousand generations a new species cannot breed with a distant biological “cousin”. Our ape ancestors never gave birth to homo sapiens. Today, humans can’t breed with Chimpanzees despite our 99% genetic overlap. There has never been a first male and female human. The Adam and Eve narrative is saturated with myth.
Original Sin
Even if we assume the myth of Adam and Eve to be true, there’s a significant logical plot hole. God commands them to not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but they don’t know right from wrong because the have not yet partaken of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They don’t know it’s wrong to disobey God’s commandments. They were ignorant and innocent. It is not just to hold someone accountable for disobeying a law they didn’t know about. No sin was committed, or God is not just. The narrative is a founded on a paradox of circular logic.
Faith
Faith is the belief in the supernatural based on anecdotal feelings rather than scientific evidence. Jesus frequently emphasized the importance of faith. When the pharisees requested proof of divinity he taught that it would not convince the non-believer. Perhaps Christ had performers anxiety. The problem with faith is when a false belief arises. A misguided religion, a crazy prophet, a deception of Satan; I would hate to led away from truth by believing a lie dressed in sheep's clothing. There is no way of knowing with reasonable certainty which teachings are divine and which are deceptions. “But you can ask God and receive an answer by the holy ghost”. More on that fallacy later.
Atonement
Not only could God have simply forgiven us of our sins, he should have. God enacted the atonement to fulfill the law of heavenly perfection; a law he created. As a loving heavenly father, God should have forgiven us. I imagine if I was a father and wanted to award my children with a generous inheritance (heaven) conditional upon good behavior, I would simply forgive them. I certainly would not sacrificially torture my favored son to death in order to forgive my other children that I also love. I’d say “you did your best, I love you, welcome to heaven”.
When ancient tribes would offer up a sacrifice to their particular god(s) of belief, they would irreversibly kill a worthy subject. Dead and gone forever. Jesus Christ was offered as a sacrifice, suffered, and died… but he didn’t stay dead. Christ was perfectly resurrected as a glorified deity for eternity. He paid a price, but received a hundred times the reward. That’s not a sacrifice, that’s an investment. To add insult to lunacy, Jesus was aware of the final outcome because he was making a deal with himself as God; an omniscient deity fully aware of the future result. Much like an investor making a deal with himself Jesus invested his money for infinite returns. There is nobody who wouldn’t make the same deal without a moment's hesitation. The atonement was not a sacrifice.
Repentance
Faith, Repentance, Baptism; the pillars of many religions. The typical steps of repentance are to feel sorry, ask for forgiveness, and then move on with renewed commitment to not wrong again. One problem is that each religion defines a different code of sin and righteousness. Is it a sin to drink coffee or receive a blood transfusion? There is no sure way to know which commandments are God’s or there would be no need for faith. A just god can’t hold us accountable for disobeying laws we’re not aware of. I can’t feel sorry for disobeying an unknown law. Then we are expected to ask forgiveness for a sin that has already been forgiven. Jesus suffered the atonement and paid the price of sin already. To ask for something that has already been purchased is just petty pageantry.
Baptism
I have two sizable issues with baptism; informed consent and unnecessary symbolism. Many baptisms are performed on babies well before they can effectively communicate. The Mormons established the age of baptism at eight years old which is better than infancy, but still a whole decade before the US considers citizens adults capable of important decisions. Personally, I was still very ignorant at eighteen. Jesus waited till he was thirty which seems like a better age of informed consent. My other point is that the ritual is purely symbolic. Scientifically, no sins are literally washed away in the water. The symbolism is a nice excuse for botched baptisms (still counts), but what if someone never had the chance to be baptized? I can’t imagine Jesus would say “Sorry too bad, you can’t get into heaven”. On the flip side if someone with evil intent in their heart gets baptized an omniscient God will suspect trickery. It should be sufficient for the king and judge of the universe to evaluate the heart of each heaven applicant independent of baptismal dunkery.
Holy Ghost
The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, or the Comforter. Different religions assign different names to the same thing, “The Good Feels”. Many faithful people claim a testimony founded on a personal spiritual experience when they felt a good feeling. “Ask God in prayer, and the Holy Ghost will reveal the truth of all things” - Said Every Religion Ever. That’s the problem. Many people from vastly different religions claim to know the truth because they felt what they believed was the Holy Ghost in response to sincere prayer. All religions can’t be simultaneously true because it would contradict their doctrine. Again, God is a god of confusion.
Scripture
The scriptures are often referred to as the Instruction Manual for Life. A divinely inspired text that would never lead us astray. My concern are the many inconsistencies, contradictions, and fallacies. A number of Biblical stories have been proven false including, but not limited to the Genesis Creation, Tower of Babel, Noah’s Ark, Jonah and the Whale, Exodus of Moses, and The Nativity of Christ’s Birth. If some sections of the Bible are intended as anecdotal fictions of inspiration, it follows to question the validity of the whole Bible. If you catch a friend telling a lie you’re less likely to trust other things they tell you. This faulty hodgepodge Bible of fact and fiction is the best source of godly inspiration for life. One must be a dedicated scholar just to try and understand it thus excluding all non-scholars from the divine instruction manual for life. If I were an omniscient deity inspiring a holy text I would ensure it was thoroughly complete and succinct as a Terms of Service Agreement and yet as easy to understand as counting fingers and toes. But instead God presented a confusing and boring 1,200 page puzzle. Good Luck.
Prophets
God is our loving heavenly father, but he’s too busy to raise us and care for us directly like a good parent, so instead he’s enlisted a prophet to babysit us. This might not be the worst plan if it wasn’t for the hundreds of other false prophets claiming to be the true babysitter for God. Every supposed prophet touts “listen to me, trust me, I’m god's only prophet, and I will never lead you astray”, but only one is actually telling the truth. All confusion would be dispelled instantly if only god paid a quick visit and informed us who is the true babysitter. Unfortunately, this will never happen because it would spoil the necessity of faith.
Heaven & Hell
After this life we stand before our maker and perfect judge. Our lives on Earth are carefully evaluated and then we receive our sentencing of eternal paradise or suffrage. In no stretch of the wildest and most ludicrous imaginations is this system even close to justice. In a fair trial, the defendant is sentenced to a punishment that fits the crime. Sexual assault 1st degree gets 10 years minimum. Murder is a 25 year minimum. And Burglary 2nd degree with a firearm is 1 to 10 years. Not having faith in Jesus Christ earns you a one way ticket to hell for eternity. Lock you up with no probation based on good behavior. On the other hand a lifelong asshole can repent and accept Jesus on their deathbed and receive the greatest reward ever fathomable. This is the plan of a psychotic narcissistic sadist also known as God.
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