ATHEISTS -- if you could ask a group of Christians 3 serious questions, what would those questions be?

Question

They could be questions about their deity, their holy text, their political points of view, their personal lives, behaviors, feelings, etc, etc, etc.

I may be attending a Christian discussion group meeting and if I'm not going to be arguing or disagreeing, I'd rather ask a few questions and let them suss things out amongst themselves. It's sort of like bringing Y!A R&S into the real world!

So... what serious questions should I ask?

Answer 1

I'm rarely a serious person, Zero. This is difficult for me. But for you...

1. Why are all the sins of the world equal, in exact proportion, to one roman execution? There are people who suffered worse than Jesus did, and there are people who suffered less. So presumably Jesus had to suffer, but not too much, and not too little. Similarly, how did Jesus' death rectify anything?

2. How did you decide that the Trinitarian Council got it mostly right with regard to what goes in and out of the Bible? What makes your sacred text THE sacred text?

3. Did people before Jesus' death get saved? How could they accept Jesus retroactively? If they get saved automatically, why is the onus to accept Jesus as a personal savior placed upon generations following him, but not preceding him?

... Phew! I did it, Zero. For you. I need a rest. I'll be asking ridiculous questions about the Creation Museum if you need me.

Answer 2

I am a Christian and I started not to answer but I hope this helps. The fact that the people you are going to be in the discussion group with are Christians should mean that they do NOT argue or rant or rave about your opinions or your questions. They should gladly and calmly(lovingly) answer them and make you feel as comfortable as they possibly can. What kind of Godly example is arguing the Bible or making someone feel bad because of the way they believe or because of the way they chose to live their life? Considering God is the one true Judge in my Christian belief I have NO right to judge ANYONE NO matter what.

Answer 3

Why do you believe what you believe? If you were raised by a different family, who held different religious beliefs than yours, and you were indoctrinated in to that religion before you were old enough to make an informed decision on your own, would you now be a Christian? Are you only a Christian because you were raised that way?

If God is all-powerful, and all-knowing, and all-good, and He created everything that exists, how can evil exist in the world? Either He doesn't know about, can't do anything about it, or won't do anything about it. Which is it? Which of the above qualities does He not possess?

Everyone is happy in heaven, despite the fact that people they loved in life who didn't make it in to heaven are now roasting in eternal torment? How will you be happy in heaven, how will you ever get a moment of peace, knowing that your loved ones are suffering horribly?

Answer 4

1) How does "thou shall not kill" square with "thou shall not suffer a witch to live" and other biblical mentions of putting various pariahs to death?
2) How can a God be omni-present, omni-potent, all-knowing and perfect, who inspires a holy writ that has so many contradictions (as my # 1 shows) & extreme scientific inaccuracies (i.e., flat earth, geocentric universe, etc.)?
3) For people born into the Intersex (hermaphrodite) community the Bible's gender rules are hard to fathom. After all, why should we believe in a God who doesn't believe in us or our happiness.
So ask "How do we know which gender rules apply to the Intersexed, since they are genetically between male and female, and by extension who are they allowed to marry?

Answer 5

Because religious people are often gullible. They will believe anything, they vote for the people who run our country based on ridiculous criteria like gay marriage, they enable the worlds largest and most corrupt organizations to gain in power through their donations and support, and they are filled with intolerant "we don't liiike urr kind round heerraahh" attitudes. It's a waste of time to try to "convert" these people though--if religion just *poof* vanished they would still be the same ignorant, intolerant, narrow minded bigots that they are today, AND they would no longer be easily identifiable by their fish bumper sticker, cross necklaces, and jesus tattoos.

Answer 6

I'm sorry you decided to go. I think as I said you won't do anything but show your ***.
To give you a question that will make you look like you are serious about learning something, ask this.
How does Isaiah 17 and Ezekiel 38-39 relate to each other?

Answer 7

If 'god' is all powerful
1. Why does evil exist?

If 'god' is the cause of all causes and everything is 'of god'
2. Why would he even consider sending me and other 'parts of himself' to hell to burn for ever? Isn't that just a tad like being a self-mutilator? Why is he a masochist?

3. Why did 'god' build us with an built-in glitch that insists we doubt till we see real proof of existence? Why did he build some of us to forgo LogicReason and have faith in such incredible beliefs which the god-belief needs?

4. Why was I born into affluence with intelligence and enough to eat? Why are some born to starve and be abused in third world countries? Why was I so lucky? Why won't many of the starving even make it to five years old?

5. Why does 'god' make it so hard to 'love' him?

6. If he threatens us with hell if we don't suck up to him how can he expect us to love him? Isn't love under duress another word for FEAR?

7. How come 'god' can do all this evil stuff that he's done and expect to be loved for it?

8. If my earthly parents will give me untold chances why won't 'god'?

I know you asked for three only; I'm not real good at taking instruction.
I got on a role there for a moment.


[edit]
I just noticed below me, siar's: "d)"for his pleasure"(so we are the toys of a God ain't that nice)" and it reminded me of Bu$hit and how USians were created for his pleasure - to send off to 'war' for fun so he and his mates could make Buku MORE dollars cos they didn't have enough yet.

Answer 8

1. If God both loves us and wants us to love him, why would he punish us with eternal torture? If he's all powerful, then why wouldn't he be able to come up with a punishment for our misdeeds that would teach us and rehabilitate us so that we could be with him?

2. Why does God like the smell of burning flesh?

3. Why would God allow his word to contain mistakes or anything that could be seen as a mistake? (i.e. Pi = 3, the earth is older than the sun, etc.)

Oh, and a bonus question -

4. What do you think God thinks of the Council of Nicea VOTING on what the Bible would contain?

Dammit I keep thinking of more...

5. How do you explain the similarities between Jesus and several other gods, many of them Pagan, and especially in the light that those gods came before Jesus?

Answer 9

unleash R&S...into the world? this is exacting what Rev. is talking about when it speaks of "releasing the beast"


anyway, i'm not an atheist, but here are some questions:

Does God love everyone? if so, why are the isrealites/jews His "chosen people"

Why does God command killing(i would avoid this, it's a little confrontational-little being an understatement)

What purpose does Hell serve? you should actually get a good answer from this one.
(but if they equate it with jail, ask what eternal punishment could teach someone, while jail is temporary)

Answer 10

1.) What exactly does it feel like to have Jesus in your heart as opposed to not?
2.) What is it that you find challenges your faith more than anything else?
3.) With all the different religions in the world and even all the different denominations just in Christianity, how are you sure you're following the right one?