Why I am not a Christian 


I do not understand why anyone would choose to be religious in the Christian sense. 

For me, Christianity is a nonstarter. All of the Christian sects presume the existence of a particular type of god. Nothing of the Christian religion makes any sense if that god does not exist. Oh, there may be some principles of behavior that Christians follow that might be justified by some ethical system independent of Christianity. Those principles are not inherently religious, since they would have a nonreligious basis. But ideas like the divinity of Jesus and the divine inspiration of the Bible can't be true if the Christian god does not exist. So, there is no reason to proceed with any exploration of the Christian religion until the existence of the Christian god has been established. Unfortunately for Christianity, that cannot be done.

While the Bible may be a historical record to some extent, it can't be relied on to establish the existence of the God. At least, it can't be relied on to any greater extent, or with any greater trust, than any other historical record. Why should we trust such claims as the resurrection of Jesus any more than we trust reports of UFO sightings? The Bible has known inconsistencies and historical errors. It contains claims of miracles, supposed violations of natural laws well-established by science. It is by no means an objective source of information. Portions were clearly written with the intent of establishing a religion. Claiming miracles is one way of doing that.

The Scottish philosopher David Hume had the right idea about miracles. In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, he wrote "The plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention), 'That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish....' When anyone tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous, than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion."

In short, which is more difficult to believe based on the evidence available, that Jesus came back to life after really dying or that the report of his resurrection was mistaken in some way? Clearly the former, which should therefore be rejected, based on Hume's principle that one should believe what is most probable.

The hypothesis of a Christian god is not needed by any branch of science and has no meaningful explanatory role to play in any scientific enterprise. It may be that the origin of the universe will always remain a mystery, but attaching the name of "god" to that mystery doesn't help us to understand it. Although Christians may not like it, Darwin explained how human life evolved on Earth and the discovery of DNA led to filling in many of the details. Science continues to learn about the origin of life and there is every reason to think that we may eventually understand the general principles in as much detail as we wish.

Christianity has a long history of intolerance of people who believe and live differently from Christians. Christians have tortured and murdered and waged unjust wars in the name of their god. Christians are a fundamentally irrational group of people, since they base their beliefs on what they call "faith", a kind of trust that rejects the call for any kind of rational justification.

Recently a Christian woman crushed the skulls of her two oldest boys and tried to kill her infant. She claimed that God told her to do it as a test of her faith. A jury ruled her insane. But her claims are not really any different in kind from what you can read in the Bible about Abraham. All people who think they can talk with God are to some extent insane, but I don't know that we should excuse people for the evils they do as a result of an insanity that they choose to embrace.

 

Posted: Sunday - April 04, 2004 at 01:53 PM          

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