7 Questions for non-Christians

[Aractus]

I'm looking for people to answer the following questions as a part of a survey I need to conduct. Could you share your answers to them?

While those are all excellent questions they are very incomplete.

1. How would you describe your religious background and church involvement?

I was Anglican until earlier this year. After learning quite a bit about the history of the early Christian church I turned my attention to early Judaism and found that it did not develop at all in the way described in the Old Testament. In particular, I found out that the Exodus could not have occurred and that the conquest of Canaan certain didn't occur especially since Egypt had complete control over that area well into the 11th century B.C.

2. To you, what is God like? Describe God.

Which god? Jehovah?

Okay.

Jehovah does not recognise "illegitimate children" as being equals with what he views as "legitimate children".

Jehovah believes that daughters should not receive any inheritance, he believes this is only for sons.

Jehovah instructs Moses to allow men to divorce their wives in a certain context, but it makes it clear that women are not allowed to divorce their husbands. This reinforces the view that women are property.

Jehovah gives his laws of warfare, in it he instructs that his chosen people when they go to battle with a city shall first give it a chance to surrender. If they refuse they are to be put to the sword, except the women and children who will be the "spoils of war" meaning that all the women shall become sex slaves (concubines) for his chosen people.

If the city surrenders, Jehovah instructs his chosen people to enslave everyone and to make the enslaved men to do "forced labour", the enslaved women are the spoils of war as before (sex slaves).

3. To you, what is important in life?

Friends, enjoyment, health and security.

4. What do you think is important and unimportant to God?

See answer to Q. 2.

5. What do you think is takes to be straightened out with God?

1. Be a misogynist. 2. Advocate for slavery. 3. Fight with the sword to expand your borders.

6. Describe what the term Jesus Christ means to you.

Jesus was a man who lived and died in the early first century. He was crucified by Pontius Pilate under the suggestion of Jewish authorities, and his body was taken and placed in a tomb by a man called Joseph (of Arimathea, not to be confused with Jesus's supposed-father), who probably took the body out of the tomb and had it buried in the ground afterward.

Jesus had followers (i.e. disciples), he also had a message. He knew the Hebrew scriptures well.

7. From your perspective, what are the major problems of churches today?

Which one? Some are better than others, some are far far worse. Paul advocates for excommunication of non-believers, and this is followed by some Christians but not by all. For instance Jehovah's Witnesses follow this. Also, some churches advocate for rejecting modern medicine and modern science. What I found is that the overwhelming majority of churches reject modern archaeological science even though they accept other science that disproves most (if not all) of Genesis. Most Christians do not critically think about such issues and are unwilling to fairly assess their beliefs when presented with hard evidence.

Let me suppose for a moment that you are right, and that Jehovah exists. He's a brutal misogynistic god, but he exists nonetheless. If I'm shown clear scientific evidence that the Exodus didn't happen, that the pilgrimage through the Sinai Peninsula and the conquest of Canaan didn't happen, and that although David and Solomon did exist that they were rulers over only tiny villages, then it shouldn't surprise him that I don't accept or believe his so-called "sacred text" which is nothing more than political propoganda that probably began in the 7-6th century B.C. as a way for king of Judea of the time to control religion - thereby outlawing other religions and forcing conformity to the Judeans of the time to the "law of Moses".