(July 11, 2016 at 11:20 am)Lucifer Wrote:(July 11, 2016 at 10:43 am)SteveII Wrote: What part about Christianity did you find irrational (you said rationality won out in your OP)?
That is an excellent question. Let me try to answer that for you:
1. The origin story of the bible does not fit with science, and interpreting genesis 1 and 2 in a non-literal way has many problems of it's own, like the origin of sin (which is kind of a big one).
2. Christianity makes a lot of big claims about reality, like the existence of a God, angels, demons, heaven, hell, etc. I don't accept the existence of ghosts, faeries and dragons by faith, so it is consistent not to this for christianity as well. The requirement for evidence, thus, is very obvious to me, and it is completely absent.
3. The morals taught in the bible are very mixed. Sure, there is some good stuff in it, but a lot of very dark things as well (like killing disobedient children).
4. There are a lot of contradictions in the bible, which take a lot of apologetics to (attempt to) explain away. I would imagine an all-powerful God to be able to write a better book.
5. I have seen a lot of people claiming to be christians, and a lot of them, if pressed, admitted that they doubted and did not have firm reasons to believe, even those who claimed to experience God regularly. Almost all of those people have been raised as christians, so it was logical to assume that they, like me, were just giving christianity the benefit of the doubt.
I could give more reasons if you like.
1. Science may not fit with a literal 6-day creation as described in Gen 1, but science is not in conflict with God creating anything (it is incapable of making a statement like that). I believe that Adam and Eve existed but don't know when. No theological problems.
2. Why do you deny the NT is evidence for the existence of God?
3. Christians are to obey God's moral laws and Jesus' teaching not the OT civil, ceremonial, or dietary laws designed for a theocracy. Objections to God's morality in the OT are understandable but not without an answer.
4. No, there are not a lot of contradictions in the NT (for which Christianity is almost entirely based). Certainly not any that impact the core message. In addition, the question of inspiration (end to end) is important but not paramount to the truth claims of Christianity.
5. Perhaps a reason, but does not pertain to whether Christianity is rational.
First, these are pretty common objections that have been asked for 2000 years and have had literally thousands of books written on each of them. Did you try to answer these objections with someone who knew more than you did (a person or a book)?
Second, all of your reasons, even if they didn't have answers, do not support the conclusion that God does not exist. At most, they conclude, "I don't know".
