Statistical Evidence Against Christianity

[goodwithoutgod]

It's amazing to me that forgeries in the bible are now fairly common knowledge but that puts not one seed of doubt into the minds of believers. Even when the forgeries form crucial parts of the mythology, like Mark's "ending" (forged jesus resurrection story).

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_16

Also amazing that atheists have spent way more time studying the "word of God" than people who really do think it is the word of God. Some have barely looked at it, let alone studied it objectively.

I mean, can you imagine really having what you honestly thought was the word of God? Can you imagine ever putting that down? And why would you be scared to study it objectively? That's shows incredibly little faith in its truth.

I often say the best book for atheism is the bible. The reason atheists know the bible so well, is we have actually read it, and given it critical thought, attempted to validate it, and in failing to do so, debunked it...which is why we are atheists.

[fr0d0]

And most Christians I know weren't nice people to start off with.

I'm curious as to what that means. Most of the Christians I have known (and that would be most of the people I've known) range from decent people to some of the best people I have had the privilege to know. A few of them range from unpleasant to utter douchebags, but the latter I can count on the fingers of one hand. Not much different from the people of any other religion I know.

Some of them will tell of how religion changed their lives, but with very few exceptions we are talking about people who had some vices (as bad as drugs, and as mild as tobacco smoking) that they cleaned up after accepting Jesus as their savior. Those few exceptions would be people who were somewhat violent or on a path that was very likely to lead to bad consequences. But for the vast majority of people, who they were before they became Christian is who they were after.

Nice post Tonus. I guess I know a lot of genuine people too. Some who had turned their lives around. All old timers. Nothing I witnessed myself directly. I moved to a Pentecostal church where there were a lot of ambitious people. Yes I've also known some exceptionally well grounded and the most selfless and unfailingly charitable people. The non religious people I've known are just beautiful and living people. They can also fall foul to hate and delusion at times. I don't know but I love them more. Maybe it's down to the individual. Faith can have a falseness in that you can't fail perhaps. And we all fail. I feel that's sometimes not been an option, in my experience.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I will stand by the assertion that if a person is truly a christian it will show in their life.

I agree completely.

TRUE CHRISTIAN



TRUE CHRISTIAN



TRULY CHRISTIAN



Boru

[vorlon13]

to be fair, that passage was inserted by later editors. The earliest manuscripts don't have the whole shpiel about doing miracles.

True, one of my fav top ten interpolations in the bible:

The top 10 verses that were not originally in the New Testament

It seems that some of the most familiar verses of the New Testament

. . . . . . . .

there is no post-resurrection appearance or ascension of jesus.

Work Cited:

Ehrman, Bart. Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the bible and why. New York, Harper Collins. 2005. Print.

I really appreciate the scholarship. I'm not inclined to give christers a pass on the poison and serpent thing even if it is a later (pick one) insertion, forgery, data base error, hacking attempt, or some more made up shit.

I really like the Inerrancy and Literalist shtick, if'n it's in the Bible, via whatever agency up to and including fraud with malice aforethought, them christers are stuck with it.

And if we do get a few stiffs from the serpent thing, we've hopefully culled some gullibility from the gene pool.

---

As for post #33, Brian, I luv ya man, but Fred Phelps ain't any more of a christian than any other scripture cherry picker is in any Methodist, 7th Day Adventist, COGIC, AoG, RCC, LDS, FLDS, RLDS, Baptist, CoC, Orthodox, Lutheran, (next 40,000 entries omitted) church in the world.

[dyresand]

More damming evidence against Christians they make up the majority in prisons.
While atheists are such a minor percentage.

[Mudhammam]

Christianity impedes on ethical behavior so long as it stunts a person's ability to think clearly and rationally about human well-being as measured by our ontological or fundamental needs.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

As for post #33, Brian, I luv ya man, but Fred Phelps ain't any more of a christian than any other scripture cherry picker is in any Methodist, 7th Day Adventist, COGIC, AoG, RCC, LDS, FLDS, RLDS, Baptist, CoC, Orthodox, Lutheran, (next 40,000 entries omitted) church in the world.

Well, let's see: he's bigoted, intolerant, pig-ignorant, and imagines that the universe gives a holy toss about who puts which naughty bits where.

I'd say he's as Christian as it gets.

Boru

[Kitty Galore]

I realize my comment is as simple as it gets. Someone touched on earlier.
Maybe this thought stems from violent criminals with terrible backgrounds who "find Jesus" instead of themselves. They change their life around and they are led to it by religious people.

[John V]

(insert 'American' in front of 'Christians' and 'non-Christians' for clarity)

So here's the thing; Christianity says it changes people. That's one of the core claims about the faith; it makes you a new and better person, desirous of being loving and of following the teachings of Jesus in the Bible.

In other words, Christians should be living differently from non-Christians. There should be, as the Bible puts it, recognizable "fruit' in their lives.

But statistics tell us a different story. Teen pregnancy rates among Christians are the same as in the population at large. Divorce, drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic abuse, rates of incarceration - all of these tell us that Christians live and act just like non-Christians.

Now, some Christians will tell you that this is because most of the people who call themselves Christians aren't True ChristiansTM - but this argument doesn't hold water. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that only 10% of the people who identify as Christians are, in fact, ChristiansTM - fair enough?

Well, even if that were true, there would still be a statistically significant difference between the actions of those who call themselves Christians and those who do not. It would be smaller, but it would still exist.

But it doesn't.

Actually studies have shown an inverse relationship between church attendance and divorce (more church attendance, lower divorce rate). It seems reasonable to assume that True Christians would attend church more frequently than nominal Christians. So, I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there, mmkay?

[dyresand]

(insert 'American' in front of 'Christians' and 'non-Christians' for clarity)

So here's the thing; Christianity says it changes people. That's one of the core claims about the faith; it makes you a new and better person, desirous of being loving and of following the teachings of Jesus in the Bible.

In other words, Christians should be living differently from non-Christians. There should be, as the Bible puts it, recognizable "fruit' in their lives.

But statistics tell us a different story. Teen pregnancy rates among Christians are the same as in the population at large. Divorce, drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic abuse, rates of incarceration - all of these tell us that Christians live and act just like non-Christians.

Now, some Christians will tell you that this is because most of the people who call themselves Christians aren't True ChristiansTM - but this argument doesn't hold water. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that only 10% of the people who identify as Christians are, in fact, ChristiansTM - fair enough?

Well, even if that were true, there would still be a statistically significant difference between the actions of those who call themselves Christians and those who do not. It would be smaller, but it would still exist.

But it doesn't.

Actually studies have shown an inverse relationship between church attendance and divorce (more church attendance, lower divorce rate). It seems reasonable to assume that True Christians would attend church more frequently than nominal Christians. So, I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there, mmkay?

Take this into account there are more churches closing than opening in the US.