Questioning Christianity - Part 1/3

(This is an updated version of a video I uploaded earlier. My apologies for using certain photos of people in ways that were inconsiderate. It was poor judgment on my part.) Video description:

Leaving the faith was not an instantaneous decision for me. I didn't get mad one day and decide, "That's it, I'm through with Jesus!"

One by one, every idea I had about God and the Bible began to crumble underneath the massive weight of reality. I never thought there could be reasonable objections to Christianity. It just seemed obvious to me that an all-loving, invisible being named Yahweh had arranged to have his own son tortured and executed, so he wouldn't have to torture ME forever after I die because my great-great-great-(etc.) grandmother was convinced by a talking snake to eat a magical piece of fruit. How could anyone NOT believe that??

The ideas presented in this video series were not enough to make me leave the faith. However, they made me more willing to CONSIDER that the Bible was NOT the inspired, inerrant, non-contradictory Word of God, and that the evidence I had thought to be so massively in support of Jesus essentially amounted to nothing more than groundless presuppositions and rumors of ancient miracles.

Most Christians are too wishy-washy in their faith to demand that Jesus actually keep his promises. They are far too willing to accept the usual explanations for unanswered prayer, particularly the idea that we must pray according to his will. This seems to bring any idea of a real "relationship" to a grinding halt. Try treating your other relationships the way Jesus supposedly treats you and see how far you get. Promise to give your girlfriend whatever she asks for, then say "no" whenever she asks because it's not your will. Promise to give her magical powers of healing, then sit by while her family gets sick and dies off as she attempts to use them. Promise to come back soon, then leave and don't come back for a few thousand years, or even just ten years. Then, when she questions you, just claim that you operate on a different time scale, that you are far wiser, and tell her she is evil. When she tries to leave you, tell her you're jealous and then threaten to torture her if she leaves. Finally, make sure your only form of communication with her is a bunch of contradictory emails written by OTHER people writing under YOUR name, written 10 years ago to an entirely different group of people in a foreign language. See how well your "relationship" goes after all that. And if anyone would care to enlighten me on how this is any different from the way Jesus relates to us, please comment.

As mentioned in the video, here is the link to ProfMTH's video on unanswered prayer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aEf2bC-tkk

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Scott Horlbeck
• Christianity
• deconversion
• religion
• spirituality
• bible
• faith
• problems with Christianity
• scripture
• reliability of Scripture
• faith in Jesus
• Jesus Christ
• Jesus
• Christ
• Yahweh
• Jehovah
• God
• Son of God
• prayer
• unanswered prayer
• dogma

[R11110000]

Premarital sex is in the Bible friend. Matt 15:19; Mark 7:21; Acts 15:20,29; 21:25; 1Cor 5; 6:8,9,13,18; 7:2; 10:8; 2Cor 12:21; Gal 5:19; Col 3:5; 1Thes 4:3; 1Tim 1:10; Heb 12:16; 13:4; Jude 1:7; Rev 2:14, 20; 21:8 among many others. You could say that sexual immortality isn't premarital sex but that is not the truth of it friend. You ALSO can also be easily caused to lust after a woman (7 deadly sins), commit adultery even just by looking at a woman to lust. This is not inhumane in my opinion

[scotthorlbeck]

@R11110000 This is all I will say for now: Throwing a bunch of verses that are read through a modern mindset (muddled by 2000 years of man's traditions), and reading those verses without the cultural/historical perspective involved, original language, etc. doesn't prove a whole lot. It's like me tossing out 1 Cor 7:29 and Psalm 51:5 as proof that ALL sex, and even marriage itself, is sin. I still have another video to make on this topic.

[pixl8ed1]

Scott, you've got courage. I'm 71 years old, and although I didn't ever really believe in Christianity, I did my best to work at it. I finally gave up and accepted that it's mythology, like all the other creation stories. My sister is a hard core Christian, but I can still talk to her. She's given up trying to "save" me. It's sad, because she believes I'm going to hell. Oh, well.

[scotthorlbeck]

@BurntEngineOil Evolution and the Bible account of creation are so horribly incompatible, it's disgusting. I simply cannot stand the view that God somehow "guided" evolution and that Genesis 1 is metaphorical. That idea is NOT very well thought out, as I will hopefully explain at some point!

[VvDOPAMEANvV]

@R11110000 Quit calling him friend as you lie to his face.

[R11110000]

@scotthorlbeck Sounds good. I don't want to offend but I am just responding to a differ of opinion from your video. I do believe the Bible talks about sex in it and for a good amount of it, I understand the greek translation (at least more than the average person) and can still relate it to not having sex until marriage (at least for sure that the Bible talks about it)

[R11110000]

Unanswered prayer-How we think things should happen is not necessarily how God thinks they should. If you wreck your car, you could of ran over someone instead if you didn't wreck it etc... Salvation for your friends is not up to you or your prayer (SADLY if I may add). it is your friends choice bec of free will & how do you not know that he helped them in a way where they could accept him. It is ok to Doubt. You are not born a Christian & you have to doubt the old way & new way to become one.

[scotthorlbeck]

@violetember I'm going to save my breath and let nonstampcollector answer your comment: watch?v=aUtSM2oVy_E

[violetember]

@scotthorlbeck One of his commandments is to love him...but he doesn't force you. Just like he commands us not to murder, but doesn't prevent people from doing so. This shows the ultimate allowance of free will when an all powerful God wishes one thing and ALLOWS us to do the opposite if we choose. You can "choose" to break his commandments & deny him his rightful place in your life, BUT you won't be able to deny his holiness once you pass into eternity with him or apart from him, your choice

[scotthorlbeck]

@violetember If God wants us to FREELY love him, then why does the Bible COMMAND it?

[violetember]

@scotthorlbeck I'm not sure what "emotions" you are referring to. I didn't mention emotions in my statement. I did mention men willingly going to their death for standing firm on what they witnessed. Not nearly the same thing. Why is it so difficult for you to acknowledge truth? These men didn't die for an emotion. They simply couldn't deny the truth they knew. You're just a spoiled selfish person who didn't get what he wanted. Now you're mad & stomping your feet. You will meet him one day!

[violetember]

@scotthorlbeck You fall into the unsound reasoning like all others before you that blame God for not "making" humans follow his will by force and then say free will can't be the reason he doesn't. Foolishly you throw free will aside whereas it IS the reason. You can't FORCE your children to love you. This is elementary ethics & logic. Free will MUST exist in order for LOVE to have any meaning. Sorry that you think not allowing the correct conclusion helps you win the argument. Bad reasoning.