Here is a video I made of 21 questions to ask yourself excerpted from A Farewell to God by Charles Templeton.
And for those of you who would rather read at your own pace:
- Is it not likely that had you been born in Cairo you would be a Muslim and, as 840 million people do, would believe that “there is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet?
- If you have been born in Calcutta would you not in all probability be a Hindu and, as 650 million people do, accept the Vedas and the Upanishads as sacred scriptures and hope sometime in the future to dwell in Nirvana?
- Is it not probable that, had you been born in Jerusalem, you would be a Jew and, as some 13 million people do, believe that Yahweh is God and that the Torah is God’s Word?
- Is it not likely that had you been born in Peking, you would be one of the millions who accept the teachings of the Buddha or Confucius or Lao-Tse and strive to follow their teachings and example?
- Is it not likely that you, the reader, are a Christian because your parents were before you?
- If there is a loving God, why does he permit - much less create - earthquakes, droughts, floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters which kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children every year?
- How can a loving, omnipotent God permit - much less create - encephalitis, cerebral palsy, brain cancer, leprosy, Alzheimer’s, and other incurable illnesses to afflict millions of men, women, and children, most of whom are decent people?
- How could a loving Heavenly Father create an endless Hell and, over the centuries, consign millions of people to it because they do not or cannot or will not accept certain religious beliefs? And, having done so, how could he torment them forever?
- Why are there literally hundreds of Christian denominations and independent congregations, all of them basing their beliefs on the Bible, and most of them convinced that all the others are, in some ways, wrong?
- If all Christians worship the same God, why can they not put aside their theological differences and co-operate actively with one another?
- If God is a loving Father, why does he so seldom answer his needy children’s prayers?
- How can one believe the biblical account of the creation of the world in six days when every eminent physicist agrees that all living species have evolved over millions of years from primitive beginnings?
- Is it possible for an intelligent man or woman to believe that God fashioned the first male human being from a handful of dust and the first woman from one of the man’s ribs?
- Is it possible to believe that the Creator of the universe would personally impregnate a Palestinian virgin in order to facilitate getting his Son into the world as a man?
- The Bible says that “the Lord thy God is a jealous God.” But if you are omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, and the creator of all that exists, of whom could you possibly be jealous?
- Why, in a world filled with suffering and starvation, do Christians spend millions on cathedrals and sanctuaries and relatively little on aid to the poor and the needy?
- Why does the omnipotent God, knowing that there are tens of thousands of men, women, and children starving to death in a parched land, simply let them waste away and die when all that is needed is rain?
- Why would the Father of all mankind have a Chosen People and favor them over the other nations on earth?
- Why would God who is “no respecter of persons” prohibit adultery and then bless, honour, and allow to prosper a king who had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines?
- Why is the largest Christian church controlled entirely by men, with no woman - no matter how pious or gifted - permitted to become a priest, a monsignor, a bishop, an archbishop, a cardinal, or a pope?
- Jesus’s last words to his followers were “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. And, lo, I am with you always.” But, despite this and to this date - some two thousand years later - billions of men and women have never so much as heard the Christian Gospel. Why?
While many of these seem like they should be simple for a Christian to answer, I have yet to hear a decent one. If any Christians are reading this, and would like to humour me, please leave a comment or e-mail me at thenoose@atheistmind.com. Next week I’ll look over the answers to these questions and reply.
If you’d like to read more of Charles Templeton’s book, you can get it here: Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith
I’d also highly recommend reading the Portable Atheist which has selected readings and introductions by Christopher Hitchens. This is one of the many readings included. You can buy it here: The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
Tags: Books, Christianity, Thought
April 18th, 2009 at 5:23 am
Thinking some of these types of questions made me become an atheist.
Christians who cannot answer these questions and don’t admit that they at least COULD be wrong make me sad.
April 19th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Thanks for the Comment Zach. Many of these questions were part of my becoming atheist as well. What I like most about them is their simplicity. Yet, despite their seemingly simple surface, most Christians can’t adequately answer them.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Why would it matter if someone is christian or not? Everyone has a belief system which is an integral part of who you are. Atheism is the anti-thesis of religion, not the best answer to the question of whether or not there is a god. A simple fact of life is that you can’t disprove a negative. You can’t only form and opinion and shape beliefs around that opinion and those beliefs are rooted in the personal questions of personal comfort and emotional needs. Being proud to be Atheist is no more rational than being proud to be a Christian.
Just my humble opinion
Noah Lieske
May 13th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
im a christian who cannot answer all of these but my belief remains the same. because you cannot fathom or answer something doesnt disprove anyone or anything, its a struggle on our part not a fallacy on what or who we are attempting to prove or questions we may be trying to answer.
June 13th, 2009 at 6:49 am
I am a Christian, or rather a follower of God’s. I could relativaly answer all your questions in what was a relativley quick manner. I didn’t just say “oh yea, because God says it’s so”. The Adam and Eve theory, well ponder this, The universe, in the abscence of a God, is said to be created the big bang, which in turn was caused by a huge amount of rapid heat, but that was created by, well nothing. From my point of view after reading lots of Christian science to better understand both sides see the big bang was caused by God, my God, our God. How can a human be created by “dust”? How can a human be created by nothing? Ask yourself that.
The last question really sounds more in favor of Christians. Why haven’t we, how come not everyone has heard the Gospel? It rest only on the shoulders of the doubters and Christians alike. We are all human, but only some of us have something special that the others lack, that is a savior in our hearts. God sent Satan to hell only to punish him. In inviting sin into our world, we then are punished for commiting acts that range in the likes of satan. God, or Jesus, saved us, but only when you take him in your heart and confess that he is your savior by tongue. I can’t speak for those who never heard that, but it’s not my belief that they are not saved by God because it’s not there fault; it’s those that have heard his name and willingly “deny” it.
June 14th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Great questions. It would take quite awhile to answer all of these. This one stuck out to me. “If there is a loving God, why does he permit - much less create - earthquakes, droughts, floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters which kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children every year?”
Did you forget that we will all die from one means or another? It could be cancer, it could be heart disease, it could be a car accident. Our bodies may be gone at that point but our soul lives on….in heaven or hell. Does the fact that we die mean that God doesn’t love us? Absolutely not. A different kind of life will extend to eternity.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:30 am
firstly, for all those people who were disappointed in christians not being able to answer your question: if we could you should worship us. why not do your own research instead of blaming your faithlessness on other people?
going on to the questions, your questions are really way off.”Is it possible for an intelligent man or woman to believe that God fashioned the first male human being from a handful of dust and the first woman from one of the man’s ribs?” how intelligent is intelligent? could you model a whole different world of species and creatures without inspirataion from this world? is man so great that even a God has to acede to his whim and fancy?
“Why does the omnipotent God, knowing that there are tens of thousands of men, women, and children starving to death in a parched land, simply let them waste away and die when all that is needed is rain?” why are you wasting typing this when you can get many bottles of water and ship it over there? obviously god wants us to be responsible of ourselves and others!
lastly, i am a christian with my own faith. i am telling you that i have seen people choose faith over family, culture and even life; so do not judge second-generation christians.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I know i am going to hurt you but i want it necessary to tell you that in this world there is not any need of diving the people in several religions such as hindu or christian & do you know what are you doing?you are making a fake posts for the religiousness topics dude get well for your weakness in your mind for having such a kind of disgusting thoughts ,HINDUS & CHRISTIANS !damn sure no body will like it!We all are Human Being!
July 1st, 2009 at 1:37 am
Last summer I read “The Reason for God” by Tim Keller. While not bulletproof, I did think it did a good job of explaining why the Christianity is, in his words, “rationally credible and existentially satisfying.”
It is not a difficult read and I think you may be interested in its content. Give it a shot. I do think that most of these questions are answerable if taken in context and I think Keller does a good job at describing that context.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Practically speaking all the questions asked by you cannot be answered practically and i am sure that on one can satisfy by his/her answer. If i think it is possible if some great answers all your question. It is great post and telling about the mindset of atheist mindsets.
July 7th, 2009 at 12:35 am
You are quite right that if
“You had been born in Cairo you would be a Muslim and, as 840 million people do, would believe that “there is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet? and
If you have been born in Calcutta would you not in all probability be a Hindu and, as 650 million people do, accept the Vedas and the Upanishads as sacred scriptures and hope sometime in the future to dwell in Nirvana? ”
etc
July 7th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Q 1-5: Yes, it’s probable. But that doesn’t in any way disprove Christianity.
Re: the suffering/death questions. IF there is something on the other side, then the reality is that those who die may well be better off than those who remain alive. Which raises the question: If there is a loving God who created a beautiful afterlife, why doesn’t he bump us all off right now!
Re: the questions related to Christian disunity, incompetence: The failure of Christ’s followers (and pseudo followers) to accurately represent him doesn’t disprove his or God’s existence. It simply highlights humanity’s weakness. Also, the disunity, incompetence is far from universal among Christ’s followers.
Re: creation, virgin birth: “is it possible to believe” - yes obviously, many do.
A book I’ve found helpful in addressing some of these issues is The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.
My question: Is it possible that a finite human being would find it difficult to believe in the existence of God as described by Christians, even if that God exists?
July 11th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Girlnumberone said:
“Why does the omnipotent God, knowing that there are tens of thousands of men, women, and children starving to death in a parched land, simply let them waste away and die when all that is needed is rain?” why are you wasting typing this when you can get many bottles of water and ship it over there? obviously god wants us to be responsible of ourselves and others!
Obviously god want us to be responsible for ourselves and others? As I recall from the bible, Jesus tells his follower to “give up everything” and follow me, the apostles ALSO SHARED everything…they shared their property, and were charged to be responsible for each other, the sick, the poor, etc. How sad that you mix up conservative rhetoric with your religion. It shocks me that people who call themselves christian loathe almost everything that Jesus stood for: acceptance, loving the meek and poor, sharing. No, christians mix up their politics with their beliefs, and somehow Jesus is an advocate of free market captalism and personal responsibilty. LOL!!
August 9th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Hi. I don’t pretend to speak for God or other Christians, so mocking me is only mocking me. But here are my answers.
1. Is it not likely that had you been born in Cairo you would be a Muslim and, as 840 million people do, would believe that “there is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet?
2. If you have been born in Calcutta would you not in all probability be a Hindu and, as 650 million people do, accept the Vedas and the Upanishads as sacred scriptures and hope sometime in the future to dwell in Nirvana?
3. Is it not probable that, had you been born in Jerusalem, you would be a Jew and, as some 13 million people do, believe that Yahweh is God and that the Torah is God’s Word?
4. Is it not likely that had you been born in Peking, you would be one of the millions who accept the teachings of the Buddha or Confucius or Lao-Tse and strive to follow their teachings and example?
5. Is it not likely that you, the reader, are a Christian because your parents were before you?
Answer 1-5: Yes, very likely. Your point?
6. If there is a loving God, why does he permit - much less create - earthquakes, droughts, floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters which kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children every year?
Answer: To carry out God’s divine will, even if we humans don’t understand or like it.
7. How can a loving, omnipotent God permit - much less create - encephalitis, cerebral palsy, brain cancer, leprosy, Alzheimer’s, and other incurable illnesses to afflict millions of men, women, and children, most of whom are decent people?
Answer: This depends on your definition of “loving” and “omnipotent”. But illnesses are disorders from humanity’s fall. It’s a consequence that God permits as a result of our choice, whether we like it or not. But the devil creates disorders, not God.
8. How could a loving Heavenly Father create an endless Hell and, over the centuries, consign millions of people to it because they do not or cannot or will not accept certain religious beliefs? And, having done so, how could he torment them forever?
Answer: A. This depends solely on your definition of “loving”. But it is due to our rejection of God’s will, whether we like it or not. B. To carry out God’s divine will, even if we humans don’t understand or like it.
9. Why are there literally hundreds of Christian denominations and independent congregations, all of them basing their beliefs on the Bible, and most of them convinced that all the others are, in some ways, wrong?
Answer: Because Christians are humans, who are imperfect and not all knowing.
10. If all Christians worship the same God, why can they not put aside their theological differences and co-operate actively with one another?
Answer: Because Christians are humans, who are imperfect and not all knowing. We could do better.
11. If God is a loving Father, why does he so seldom answer his needy children’s prayers?
Answer: God prefers “NO” and “NOT YET” much more often than we humans would prefer to have the answer be “YES”.
12. How can one believe the biblical account of the creation of the world in six days when every eminent physicist agrees that all living species have evolved over millions of years from primitive beginnings?
Answer: Everything came from nothing. Truth is truth, regardless if millions speak it or just one. By the way, plenty of physicists don’t believe in evolution, but then I guess they wouldn’t be defined as “eminent”.
13. Is it possible for an intelligent man or woman to believe that God fashioned the first male human being from a handful of dust and the first woman from one of the man’s ribs?
Answer: Yes, but this is solely dependent on your definition of “intelligent”.
14. Is it possible to believe that the Creator of the universe would personally impregnate a Palestinian virgin in order to facilitate getting his Son into the world as a man?
Answer: Yes, the belief exists.
15. The Bible says that “the Lord thy God is a jealous God.” But if you are omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, and the creator of all that exists, of whom could you possibly be jealous?
Answer: If you made a dildo and your wife starting only using the dildo instead of you, wouldn’t you be jealous of it?
16. Why, in a world filled with suffering and starvation, do Christians spend millions on cathedrals and sanctuaries and relatively little on aid to the poor and the needy?
Answer: Because many Christians have their priorities askew.
17. Why does the omnipotent God, knowing that there are tens of thousands of men, women, and children starving to death in a parched land, simply let them waste away and die when all that is needed is rain?
Answer: To carry out God’s divine will, even if we humans don’t understand or like it.
18. Why would the Father of all mankind have a Chosen People and favor them over the other nations on earth?
Answer: To carry out God’s divine will, even if we humans don’t understand or like it. Note: His favored nation has gone through a holocaust and numerous pogroms. Maybe we shouldn’t complain too much.
19. Why would God who is “no respecter of persons” prohibit adultery and then bless, honour, and allow to prosper a king who had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines?
Answer: Because God does what God wants. God has His reasons, even if we humans don’t understand or like them.
20. Why is the largest Christian church controlled entirely by men, with no woman - no matter how pious or gifted - permitted to become a priest, a monsignor, a bishop, an archbishop, a cardinal, or a pope?
Answer: Although some Christians are Catholic, the Catholic church isn’t Christian. It’s an institution of man, not God.
21. Jesus’ last words to his followers were “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. And, lo, I am with you always.” But, despite this and to this date - some two thousand years later - billions of men and women have never so much as heard the Christian Gospel. Why?
Answer: Because Christians are imperfect humans and we have not done as good of a job as we should have. Your point?
Regardless of what the answers really are, God is under no obligation to give answers that would satisfy humans. The answers are what they are. This is my honest assessment.
August 9th, 2009 at 10:50 am
A lot of these questions seem to be questioning the character of God. But what is the point of questioning God’s character if you don’t believe God exists?
August 24th, 2009 at 5:25 am
For all the “probabilities” that you have sited in the first few questions, my answer is yes. It is highly probable that a context, a country, a place of origin, and it’s religious beliefs will also be yours. However, I also believe that while this can just be embedded in one’s being naturally, an authentic religion is something that you will have to decide for yourself. I have also seen Chinese Christians, Arab Christians, European Christians, so this is also a probability.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:32 am
It is by revelation and receiving from God that your new life will grow. This is the way that God ordains. Christ, Who is our example, could do nothing of Himself but only what He saw or heard or was shown from the Father
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:49 pm
After reading ALL of the counter arguments, no creationist can come close to answering these questions.
The best part about all of it, is the fact that they’re so brainwashed. When they answer a question “yeah? so what?”, how would that hold up in court, or in a REAL debate?
“yeah, the only reason i’m a christian is because my parents told me to be (childhood indoctrination), but that still doesn’t prove my God isn’t the real God.”
How can somebody answer a question like this so stupidly? Thats like saying, “yes your honour, my client was found at the scene of the crime with the murder weapon, and a videotape of him doing it, and confessed to everything, but that doesn’t mean he did it, or he’s the one”
Once again, brainwashing at its finest. Apparently common sense, isn’t that common.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:54 am
Why would the lord…. almighty and one with such greatness have such a “simple politically correct story that any kid could imagine up by the age of three.” BECAUSE IDIOTS who cant reason and think of scientifical stuff wrote it.
If they could could rewrite it back then and it be acceptable why cant I put some info in it?
March 16th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I absolutely commend you for asking difficult questions. These are certainly issues to be wrestled with and thought through. However, your tough questions don’t deal with your actual topic of whether or not God exists. If you truly want to think about whether a God exists, I highly recommend ‘Mere Christianity’ by CS Lewis. It will challenge you to think as few other books can.
Having said that, rather than answer your questions I want to point somewhere deeper. As a previous poster commented, none of your questions actually deal with God’s existence. Here’s what you are asking….
Q1 – 5: Could your cultural upbringing affect and alter your beliefs in God? Nothing to do with God’s existence….more a sociological question than theological….
Q6: Is God loving? Not does God exist, but is the God that exists good?
Q7: Same as above
Q8: Same as above
Q9: Why do Christians interpret things differently? Good question, but nowhere near the right questions to be asking regarding whether or not God exists.
Q10: Why don’t Christians cooperate more? Same as above, we’re not even in the ballpark of whether God exists or not.
Q11: Same as Q6 – 8. You aren’t questioning whether God exists, but rather is the God that exists good.
Q12: Still not dealing with whether God exists, but rather how God created the world. For the record….there are *many* Christians that don’t believe in a literal, 6 day creation (and nothing in scripture supports a literal 6 day creation either). But having said that, evolution requires just as much faith as creation. In fact, believing that the incredibly intricate world that we live in happened by chance requires more faith than a belief in creation. We all have faith, it’s just a matter of where we place it.
Q13: Sure it is. Still not in the ballpark of asking questions regarding whether God exists.
Q14: Same as above.
Q15: Solid question, but still doesn’t approach wondering if this ‘jealous’ God exists. If I’m told that hysterically laughing unicorns exist, but I don’t believe it, my reasoning and questions certainly wouldn’t include, “No joke could be funny enough to make a unicorn laugh that much”.
Q16: Don’t judge God by man. Oh, and this question targets the faithfulness of believers, not the existence of their God.
Q17: Refer to Q6.
Q18: Does this question matter if God doesn’t exist? Great theological question (and cause for centuries of debate between Calvinist and Armenian), but doesn’t bring you any closer to whether God exists.
Q19: Certainly a question for debate, as many would argue women should be allowed to serve. But why does this question have to do with whether or not God exists?
Q20: Same as Q16.
My advice would be this…..Answer the question on whether you believe God exists before you move to the 20 questions above (whether that God is good, why His followers aren’t more obedient, what God’s character is like, etc).
April 11th, 2010 at 8:26 am
I do not have a religion. The reason I don’t believe in god is because it doesn’t seem logical. The reason I believe in the Big Bang is mainly because it seems more logical than the others. But none of the beliefs make perfect sense no matter what it is you believe in. I don’t think we’ll ever know what created us or what happened.
Also another reason I don’t believe in god is because we are expected to believe that there is a being who is all powerful who was supposedly created by nothing. It seems slightly more logical to believe that humans were created by nothing rather than a being created by nothing capable of creating entire planets and lifeforms.
April 26th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
These are the questions that I’ve had in my mind for as long as I could remember, and probably the sole reason as to why I became atheist. I didn’t know about all the facts posted in the list, but I gave a great many of them to people that asked me why I don’t believe over the many years. To this date, no religious person has been able to answer those questions, and if they do, the answer is usually “Because that’s the way He does it” or something along those lines. My gf wants to try and answer most of the questions later today for me though (she’s a devout christian)
June 24th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
“there is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet?
If you know arabic u will come to know that is says, “There is no illah(meaning God) But Allah and Muhammed is His messenger.(The arabic translation Lailaha-ILLA-Allah-Muhammedarasulullah)
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:34 pm
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