Why I am not a Christian

**Why I am NOT a CHRISTIAN**

(by Cleveland Glass)

1) Christianity teaches that Humankind is saved through the atoning sacrifice of Christ.However, there is no need for atonement, because Humankind never fell. I accept the scientific "Theory of Evolution." If modern science is correct regarding the age and formation of the Universe, and how humanity evolved from lower forms of life, then the Genesis Creation story cannot be literal; it is mythical, and symbolic, like other ancient creation stories. The Apostle Paul’s doctrine of Atonement (i.e. "The Original Sin), presupposes that the Genesis Creation story is literal, and that Adam’s failure to obey God explains the fall of Humankind.

According to the Scientific Community, Evolution - although it has flaws - is the only credible theory that explains the fossil record. Scientists do not accept "Intelligent Design" as being legitimate science. “According to a 1997 Gallup Poll, 95% of all scientists in the USA accept that the Earth is billions of years old and that mankind evolved from earlier forms of life, whether or not God was involved in the process.”

2) I cannot believe that the Bible is free of error. Even if the original biblical writings were error-free, our current copies contain numerous scientific, historical, chronological, geographical, transmission errors, and irreconcilable contradictions and discrepancies. Discrepancies in the Resurrection story are irreconcilable. If God wanted us to have a Bible that is error-free, he has clearly failed!

Most Christian Scholars do not believe that the Bible is inerrant. In fact, according to Harold Lindsell, former vice-president and professor Fuller Theological Seminary and Editor Emeritus of Christianity Today, "More and more organizations and individuals historically committed to an infallible scripture have been embracing and propagating the view that the Bible has errors in it.….This change of position with respect to the infallibility of the Bible is widespread and has occurred in evangelical denominations, Christian colleges,theological seminaries, publishing houses, and learned societies.”

Also, regarding Biblical Literalism, the same science of archeology that is supposed to confirm the Bible’s historicity has demonstrated that it is highly unlikely that such events as the "Great Exodus," and the"Conquest of Canaan" ever occurred. Read "The Bible Unearthed,”by Israel Finkelstein (Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University).

3) Dying and resurrected gods, trinities, virgin births, sacramental meals, baptism, miracle stories, creation and flood stories, and other "Christian" doctrines, and symbols were embraced by pagan religions that PRECEDED Christianity. Most of these are UNIVERSAL religious symbols and myths that should be interpreted symbolically rather than literally. (Read the works of Joseph Campbell -- who was an expert in ancient myths.) For more detailed information on this topic use the following link:http://www.pocm.info/getting_started_pocm.html

4) This may come as a surprise to many Christians, but no secular historian, who was a contemporary of Jesus, ever spoke of him, or bore witness to any of his miracles. This is quite odd, considering that the Gospel writers claim that Jesus was known throughout the world because of his miracles. "[T]here is not a single contemporary historical mention of Jesus, not by Romans or by Jews, not by believers or by unbelievers, not during his entire lifetime. This does not disprove his existence, but it certainly casts great doubt on the historicity of a man who was supposedly widely known to have made a great impact on the world. Someone should have noticed." - Dan Barker
For more information on this topic, use the following link:http://freethought.mbdojo.com/josephus.html

5) Based on my experience, petitionary prayer is ineffective. I can’t think of a single time when I received an answer to prayer that couldn’t have been explained naturally. Most "miraculous" healings can be explained in terms of the "Placebo Effect." -- To learn more do a google search on"The Placebo Effect.” Alleged occurrences of "miracles" are greatly exaggerated among religious groups. And, frankly, I think the term is greatly abused.

Interestingly,in the largest prayer study that was ever conducted, in 2006, which followed about 1,800 patients at six medical centers, “researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery.In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.” From the Article, “Power of prayer flunks an unusual test,” The Associated Press, March. 30, 2006.

6) Besides the change in my state of mind, Christianity did not significantly impact the quality of my life. There was a change in my mental attitude, due to the power of faith itself, which I could’ve acquired from other religions as well.
Although Christians claim to be filled with "the Holy Spirit," whencompared to non-Christians, I don’t see a significant difference in their liveswith regards to morality. In fact, I’ve observed that certain adherents toother religions, such as Buddhism, often conform more closely to moralprinciples, that Jesus advocated, than Christians do.

Christians will be shocked to know that the “Bible Belt” States have the highest divorce, murder, STD/HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, infant mortality, and obesity rates in America. You can find the statistics at http://www.stopthereligiousright.org/biblebelt.htm

7) Christianity encouraged me to close my mind to valuable spiritual, philosophical,and scientific information and teachings, when it contradicted church dogma.Consequently, many Christians oppose valuable scientific research, such as embryonic stem cell research.

Christianity encouraged a restrictive mindset that strongly opposed other religions and alternative lifestyles.

8) Science cannot confirm that there is an afterlife. But, the closest thing we have to such confirmation are Near Death Experiences (NDE). Research on NDE’s is fascinating but highly inconclusive. Interestingly, people who have NDE’s often come back preaching a universal salvation, and claiming that ALL will enjoy paradise in the afterlife, regardless of what religion you’re from.

9) Regarding hell, it’s a contradiction to believe that a merciful, all-loving God would allow a single soul to suffer through eternity, for not believing in him, when he can simply make a person vanish. Wouldn’t it have been more merciful for God not to have created the human race, than to have created it, knowing that the majority of the race would be subjected to eternal suffering?

10) Christianity has never resolved the problem of evil. If God is omnipotent,omniscient, omnipresent, omni-benevolent, and morally perfect, how did evil and suffering come into the world? If it came through a free-moral agent, such as Lucifer, shouldn’t God have known before he created such a being, that evil would come as a result of its creation. Evil had to be a part of God’s plan, if he created Lucifer, knowing that Lucifer would bring sin into the world.

11) Finally, I have serious misgivings about a god who condones slavery and commands his people to commit mass genocide. Is this behavior consistent with the image of a loving God as portrayed by Christians? In fact, although slavery was a widespread practice during biblical times, no Bible character, including Jesus, has spoken out against it.

In addition, there are scriptures in the Bible that suggests, that at times, God is very violent,vindictive, and capricious. For example, in 2 Kings 2:23-24, the prophet Elisha placed a curse on a group of children for ridiculing him, and making fun of his bald head. God answered Elisha’s prayer by sending a bear to rip apart 42children.

The British author, Richard Dawkins summed it up most eloquently when he stated that “The God of the Old Testamentis arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, blood thirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”