World Religions in a Nutshell (20 page)

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Like King Arthur and so many folkloric figures, probably someone who existed, whose teachings and deeds were blown out of proportion by the human imagination. Certainly not the son of God (since I don’t think He exists in the
first place) or the redeemer of our sins (same deal). Probably a nice guy with some good messages and a lot of prejudices inherent to his time, but little else.”

[Not believing in King Arthur will not affect anyone’s eternal salvation.]

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Pretty-much like Krishna—there was probably an actual historical figure at some point, who may have even said a few (but probably not all) of the words attributed to him. But what we have today is a hackneyed collection of sayings (with some ancients texts burned as ‘heresy’ and others canonized). Neither Jesus nor Krishna nor Muhammad nor Joseph Smith left us with any compelling evidence that they had a connection to any God or gods—therefore, while our picture of the historical Jesus is vague and incomplete, we have no reason to particularly much care what he said any more than we care what anyone else says. I liked some of the teachings attributed to Jesus (cast the first stone, do unto others), but some of these ideas (do unto others) already predate Jesus by several centuries anyway. Some of his other teachings I find disagreeable, e.g., I find it appalling that Jesus would advocate that a woman should not get a divorce
if she is in an abusive marriage, but only if her husband is adulterous (Matthew 1:31).”

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Jesus, if in fact such a man did ever exist, was just that—a man. He may have had a few radical ideas for his time. He may even have been some sort of magician (as in tricks, not as in supernatural).”

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A relatively enlightened man for his times. Preached simple things such as brotherly love. Likely a real man. Some, like I, think his simple lessons were warped to control the gullible masses (which still works).”

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The carpenter from Bethlehem existed, in all likelihood. He went around giving sermons, but he was not the son of God and he did not speak for God. My father, also an atheist, has speculated that Jesus himself was an atheist and preached his doctrine to give comfort to the minds of people on Earth. I am not sure about this.”

[In one such sermon, Jesus gave the ultimate challenge to skeptics: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). To find out with 100% absolute certainty that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, atheists can simply obey His command to repent and believe the gospel, and He will reveal Himself to them. Then they will know God exists, because they know Him.]

Scriptures

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I think the Bible is simply a book of stories and rules, written by man. It has no divine meaning...It was written to try and explain the unexplainable, but also to control people and make them easier to govern, using the threat of death and hellfire. In a modern society it should not be taken literally at all.”

[We are in a modern society (no doubt, every society in history considered itself “modern”) and millions take it literally. It is easy to believe that water can be walked on, fish can be multiplied, seas can be opened, storms calmed, etc., when a supernatural nature of God is acknowledged. With God, nothing is impossible.]

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Ha-ha, which Bible? The KJV? NIV? I think the new Oxford
annotated Bible is the most derived from the best copies of the earliest Greek manuscripts. It’s a lot different from the KJV and NIV. Not to mention all of the other books that weren’t canonized, and other books that have been found since, such as the book of Judas. At any rate, I think it’s an excellent resource on the culture of 2,000–3,000 years ago, and with the different changes and additions to the New Testament over the past 2,000 years, an excellent resource on the culture of the past thousand or so years within the Christian churches.”

[Atheists will often ask which Bible is right, and point out the fact that there are many versions. The inference is that each one is different, and therefore the Bible has no credibility. So, it’s good to agree with them. Explain that there are thousands of different versions—there are English versions, Chinese versions, Spanish versions, etc. There are versions in contemporary language, old English, and paraphrases, all written so that sinners of any nation or culture can have access to and understand the Word of God. Then tell them that nowadays we have computer programs that give us the earliest Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, and we can see that they haven’t changed down through the ages, as is often claimed.]

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The Bible is a collection of old writings from diverse sources. The authorship of most sections is in question, its historical accuracy is spotty, and it’s self-contradictory. I don’t
trust it any more than I trust other mythologies. Actually, it’s not as interesting to read as most other mythologies.”

[It’s good to ask an atheist how he knows that “its historical accuracy is spotty.”]

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Arbitrarily selected religious scribblings writings written by various mortal men from a single culture in the distant past on the other side of the planet. Of large historical interest, due to the significant effects that it has had on history, but having read it, found there is nothing in it to indicate that it was divinely inspired (similarly, the Koran and the Bhagavad-Gita and the Vedas are interesting in their effects on history, but do not contain anything to indicate they were written by anything other than historic, poorly educated, fallible mortal men).”

[Note his “having read it.” Many who say that they have read the Bible actually haven’t read it through cover to cover. If they maintain that they have, ask them if they know the main theme of the Scriptures. When they say that it’s a book of rules and moral guidelines, agree with them, but add, “The Old Testament was God’s promise to destroy man’s greatest enemy—death. The New Testament tells us how He did it.”]

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There is no ‘official’ atheist belief concerning the Bible. My personal opinion is that it is nothing more than a collection of fables which were cobbled together from older pagan fables. The virgin birth, resurrection, great flood, etc., were all borrowed from older religions and given a slightly different spin.”

[Again, never hesitate to challenge the atheist’s unquestioning faith in history books by asking, “How do you know that to be true?”]

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I think it’s just a book of old Judean myths.”

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A fine book, certainly, but with little more mystical value than any other mystical book. May have historical value and
even some moral lessons here and there, gives insight to civilizations long past. But then, so do the Eddas, the Vedas, the writings of Buddha, or any other mythology.”

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Parts of it make a good historical account, but it is a book of myths of varying provenance. Some of the myths would be quite repellent to a modern audience, for example the offering of one’s virgin daughters to a crowd of men about to rape runaways in Judges 19:24.”

[Many atheists think that because the Scriptures relate the brainless things men did, these are somehow examples of what the believer is to imitate.]

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A book put together by a group of people over a period of time, writing about what they have experienced. Or a fictional book put together, possibly to put people in check.”

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It’s a work of fiction, very contradictory, and it’s not sufficient by itself to prove the existence of anything therein. Not even Jesus.”

[What I am about to say goes against the grain of thought held by many respected and wonderful apologists and Bible teachers. I don’t see that the mandate of the Church is to convince sinners that the Bible is the Word of God. Rather, I believe that our mandate is to convince sinners that they need a Savior, by preaching the gospel of salvation to them. The early church didn’t have the Bible as we know it. There was no such thing as the printing press; besides, few could read. Rather, they heard and believed the gospel. Their salvation wasn’t dependent on their belief in the New Testament (which didn’t exist yet), but on the fact that they had been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Christ dwelt within them, and it was with that experience that they went to the mouth of the lion. So, don’t feel frustrated when an atheist points to “terrible” judgments of God (and there are many), or what he sees as mistakes in the Bible. Rather, move from his intellect to his conscience by taking him through the Ten Commandments, as Jesus and Paul did with their hearers. Then pray that the Holy Spirit convinces him of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. Your mandate isn’t to intellectually convince him that he should believe the Bible, but that he desperately needs a Savior, so that his faith will not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.]

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Like other holy books, it was written by people; the books were collected by people. It didn’t magically drop from the sky into everyone’s homes.”

[The irony is that atheists believe that’s what happened with everything else in creation.]

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A bit of history mixed with a lot of fiction and distortion. Like every good book, there are important lessons to be learned. However there are some truly disturbing things in it that I would never let my children read.”

[This is true. The Scriptures don’t hide the sins of mankind. The Bible contains accounts of rape, genocide, cannibalism, suicide, decapitation, incest, terrible violence, adultery, and murder. The most heinous of all is man’s rejection of His Creator.]

Heaven and Hell

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I do not believe in either because I don’t think there is any valid reason why we would have an afterlife. However, I know some atheists who do believe in an ‘afterlife’ of sorts, citing that the conscious mind could go on after death. I don’t think any atheists believe in Heaven and Hell in the biblical perspective, because it goes against the point about God.”

[It is amazing how any seemingly rational human being could think that because he doesn’t believe in something, it therefore doesn’t exist.]

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I don’t believe in Heaven or Hell. When I die, I will push up daisies and feed worms. I strive to make sure people will think fondly of me should I die unexpectedly.”

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I assume that you are referring to the Heaven and Hell within Christian dogma, in which case, the modern vision of Hell has little to do with the Bible, but more to do with Dante’s divine comedy. Either way, there is no reason to believe that there is any sort of reward or punishment after my life.”

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No more plausible than fairies, ghosts, witches, Baba Yaga, etc. I note with interest how Hell doesn’t really make an appearance in the Bible until the New Testament—before that the concept is ‘Sheol’ and has very different connotations. You can ask some practicing Jews about this.”

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The carrot and the stick in the chain letter that is the Christian religion.”

[Eternal life is not a reward for good works. It is a free gift that comes by grace alone through faith alone. It cannot be earned, and it certainly isn’t deserved. This is why the moral Law needs to be used when reasoning with sinners. It puts them before God as devious and guilty criminals, to whom the Judge owes nothing but swift and terrible justice.]

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On par with Atlantis, Narnia, and Middle Earth.”

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Non-existent. No reason to even entertain the notion that they
exist. Ideas constructed to give people motivation to be ‘good’ and to not fear death.”

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They don’t exist. We aren’t rewarded or punished after death for anything we do in life.”