10 Questions Every Christian Needs To Answer.

[Whateverist]

1. How is the method by which you became a Christian reliable?

Praying...did it many times before and it worked (Holy Spirit and such, not the answered prayers stuff you hear people talk about).

But aren't you answering a how-question with a what-answer? If praying is what you did to become a Christain, then my question is what makes that reliable (ie, how can you trust it)?

2. Apart from church dogma, how can you know what happens when we die?

I really don't care about the afterlife. I prefer to live in the here and now.

Good answer.

3. What if you and your silly bible are wrong and there is no heaven, hell or afterlife of any kind?

I'd just be dead and not be in any capacity to care.

Another good answer.

4. If you are God's unthinking lacky, how can you call yourself moral? Do you really think morality is simply a question of rule following?

I just live my life according to the values I intrinsically have had...I added a few restrictions (not marrying a divorced woman, abstaining from eating blood), but that is just extra.

And that makes three good ones in a row.

5. Even if there is a God, you are obviously free to do what you want. The prisons are full of Christians. Do you or do you not believe God gave man free will?

On the prisons being full of Christians, prison is a depressing place and many turn to faith because they have nowhere else to turn. It's what gets many through the misery.

Christianity does seem to be a belief system designed to buoy the downtrodden.

6. If all you do is follow God's rules, how does your life have any meaning? What makes it your life?

There is a lot of freedom in the in-between especially since I don't have to follow a lot of the restrictions that both observant Jews and Moslems face.

That is a valid criticism, and one I thought of too when writing it. But I was mostly just trying to model the questions off of that earlier thread about the 10 questions atheists must answer.

7. Where did that which you believe created the universe come from? (And if anything can always have existed, why not the universe and all its prior conditions?)

I change my beliefs of the origin of the universe based upon the best scientific data that is available...collapsing universe theory was my favored before the new data on dark energy was made available.

Thank you for not reaching for the first-mover crapola.

8. What about miracles? Aside from the most ridiculous claims, wouldn't most of what technology makes possible today have seemed miraculous to the ancients? So what's the big deal?

They didn't have the technology unless you really believe in ancient aliens.

So you would agree that miracles are pretty much irrelevant to what Christians should believe?***

9. What’s your view of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris? Do you read anything else but the bible?

I read outside of the Bible, but don't waste my time on people resorting to philosophy. I haven't read much from the Christian authors for that matter either, which also use philosophy to back up their points.

Oh well, most of the people on this board have some weird reason for dismissing philosophy. I have a retired mathematician friend who feels the same way. I'll let this sleeping dog lie.

10. If there is but one God, then why does every society have a different religion? [Props to Jenny.]


The majority of the people of this world all claim to worship the same God, but do so in a way fitting with their cultural values. If you want the hardcore Fundie version, the other people worship demons.

I never want the fundie version and am always rooting for theists to claim the high ground. I prefer good theology to crappy, self-congratulatory atheism. (But I will stick to the atheism, thank you very much.)

***Your response to #8 brings up a question I actually do care about. It has always puzzled me that most Christians seem to prefer to think that God works by magic. That makes God seem a little less clever or artful than He would be if He was actually working with an underlying reality. If it is all just magic, it makes it seem like God is just some cosmic force that poops galaxies. If there was some craft/technology/insight involved in His miracles, I'd actually be more impressed. Any response?