(Any reference to “your God” means the God in the bible of Christianity. Your God is referred to as a He because that is how it is in your bible.)
Introduction
If you sincerely want to take the test, please answer the questions IN ORDER. Please don’t skip around or just ignore the parts you don’t like. If you feel that you don’t have enough information on the question or don’t understand it, then put that down as your answer. Just realize that dodging the questions does you no good. You can make the answers as short as you want, provided you feel they are complete. Remember this test isn’t about testing God. It is about testing the dominant religion in American culture to see if it is the Truth that it claims it is. It is a set of questions about the history and ideology of the Christian faith. The goal of the test is to a) get people to think and b) reassess and/or challenge their beliefs. The test is long and complex, but we are dealing with issues of eternity, God and Truth. We are not dealing with issues that simple and clear.
Questions
1. What is your definition of the word Christian or of Christianity? What role do you think the bible plays in that religion?
2. According to Christianity, God had to come to Earth as himself/his son to sacrifice himself/his son so individuals could be forgiven. Since He is supposed to be all powerful, He could have chosen any method to forgive us by. First, why was Deicide (God committing suicide, in this case altruistic suicide at the cross) chosen by God, and secondly how did this Deicide enable people to be magically washed free of sin.
3. How do you justify the persecutions of non-Christians by Christians in the past 1700 years? Can you explain why Christians had a right to kill people of other races/religions/cultures? If you can’t justify or explain it, do you at least know that religion, specifically Christianity, has been used as a reason to kill millions in the past through things such as the Spanish Inquisition, “holy” wars, the holocaust (Hitler was Catholic), the slaughtering of the Native Americans and numerous other methods of killing in the name of God?
4. Isn’t a “holy war” an oxymoron? Would a God of mercy want His followers to wage merciless wars on unbelievers (Deut 13:8, Exodus 20:23-25, Deut 20: (16-17), Numbers 31: (7-18), etc)? If war is bad, why did God command his people to engage them?
5. Is God a “Man of war “(KJV) / “warrior” (NIV) (Exodus 15:3) or a God of peace (Rom15:33)? How can both philosophically coincide as the same God? How does peace relate to war other than the fact that they are polar opposites?
6. Is your God, according to the bible, all good? (See Isaiah 30:32, Numbers chapter 31 (especially 17:18), Matthew 10:34, Amos 3:6, Deuteronomy 18:8, Deuteronomy 20:16, Exodus 20:5, Exodus 32:27, Isaiah 45:7, Psalms 52:5, Luke 22:36, and Jeremiah 18:11 for a small sampling of Biblical passages that show your God in a different light then love and peace.)
7. Why would your God delight in the senseless killing of innocent animals? Isn’t this sadistic? How does an animals slaughtering erase or cover “sin”?
8. Do you believe that discrimination against women is wrong? If so, refute 1 Cor 11 and 1 Tim 2:11-15. If not, aren’t these versus holding an unequal bias of ignorance. Justify your answer if you think men are better than women are and all people are not actually equal in the eyes of your God.
9. Explain why, when slavery is clearly very wrong, the bible clearly supports slavery. Answering this question entails refuting 1 Peter 2:18 and Deuteronomy 20:14 (what else are soldiers going to use people for as “plunder”?) See Exodus chapter 21 if you need more. NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe that slavery is an acceptable way to run a society.
10. Is corporal punishment good? How do children learn to be kind, loving, and non-violent if they are hit/spanked because they had yet to reach a maturity level at which they made the right decision? If not, then refute Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Proverbs 13:24, and Hebrews 12:7-8. If so, then do you realize that the main reason for ideas like this is that it allows immature parents an excuse to respond impatiently and immaturely to the extremely complex job of parenting? The true goal and/or effect of spanking is not to teach the child the correct way, but to give them a fear-inspired reason for immediate behavior modification.
11. Explain why, if your God loves us all, more than half of us are going to Hell after we die. If your God loves all of us, and created all at the whim of his will, couldn’t He have found a better way? (i.e. if your God is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving, why did He create a system in which many of us would be sent to hell.)
12. In justice, doesn’t the punishment need to fit the crime? What crime or sin is so bad that it would justify eternal punishment in Hell? How can a God be either just or merciful if He sends his own imperfect creations to Hell?
13. Explain how your God can be both just and merciful, when these terms apparently contradict each other. (i.e. – if I bring a guilty man to punishment, then that is justice, but if I set him free, then it is mercy.)
14. Will God only judge people according to their maturity level spiritually? If so, how could any man go to Hell since we all operate according to our current level of awareness, which, if faulty, could make us make bad decisions not because we are “wrong” but rather immature and undeveloped in regards to our potential? If not, how could a “just and merciful God” send a child to Hell? Remember that some people only age and never really grow up.
15. If people worship God to avoid Hell, is that really worshipping Him with a free will? Isn’t that worshipping Him with a will subdued by fear? (kind of like, say, if your naughty during the year, then you will get coal in your stocking)
16. If people worship God to go to Heaven, is that really worshipping Him with a free will? Isn’t that worshipping Him with a will enticed by promised provision? (kind of like, say, if you are good all year, then you will get presents in your stocking)
17. Explain why original sin exists. Why would a just and merciful God punish all of humanity for the disobedient actions of the pair of naïve original humans? Why are children stained from the point of conception? If you do not believe in original sin, refute Psalm 51:5 and the other verses in the bible that say we are born into sin.
18. Read Genesis 3:16. Why do you think a just, merciful God would have chosen a horribly painful means by which women give birth?
19. According to the bible, (gen chapters 2&3)Adam and Eve were the only two people on Earth in the beginning. They were also the only two people God directly created (as in they were not born from the womb). They had Cain and Abel. Then Cain killed Abel. That left Adam, Cain, and Eve. Then Cain lay with his “wife” and they had Enoch. (the last three sentences in Gen chapter 4) Who was Cain’s wife and where did she come from? Keep in mind that God had yet to give laws concerning sexual relations and rules for marriage and the Eve was the only woman (unless Adam and Eve had unmentioned daughters) on Earth at this time according to the bible.
20. Considering the vast health and mental problems that arise from inbreeding in humans, is it logical and or realistic to believe that all of humankind was spawned from two people reproducing sexually?
21. If your God did not want Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, why did he put the tree in the garden of Eden (and at the center, no less)? Was it for shade? If so, why use something so dangerous as a shade tree? If the purpose of the tree was to tempt Adam and Eve, explain why it’s acceptable for your god to engage in a practice that our modern-day courts of law refer to as “entrapment.” Refute James 1:13 if you believe God tempts man or refute Genesis 22:1 if you believe God does not tempt man.
22. Explain why sex, potentially one of the most wonderful, beautiful things in human nature, is often portrayed as sinful or “bad” in the bible. If you think that it isn’t portrayed this way in the bible, then refute Matthew 19:12, 1 Corinthians 7 (particularly verses 1 and 9), 1 Thessalonians 4:3, James 1:14-15, Matthew 24:38, Luke 17:27, and Revelation 14:4. If sex were “bad”, then why would God create a being that is sexual in nature? (Sex is not only a great interest for the human species, but rather its vital form of reproduction)
23. Gen 2:20-21 NRSV says that “The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.” What kind of partner was Adam looking for in your opinion? (keep in mind that directly after this your God created Eve for Adam)
24. If you were born in a different culture that was reared to believe a different religion, do you think you would still be a Christian? If so, how and why? If not, isn’t it unfair that we would all have such a difference in opportunity to believe the truth, if Christianity is that? Remember that many countries in the world a) do not allow Christianity b) do not have a language in which the bible is translated (67% of the world approximately) c) and are just like our country: full of individuals more interested in seeing that the beliefs given to them in their youths are proven true than they are actually interested in trying to seek the Truth.
25. Why are the stories of the resurrection inconsistent?
26. Do you realize that Christians among themselves, in different sects, do not agree as to which biblical books are inspired? (For instance, the Catholics claim the books of Maccabees, Tobit and Esdras are inspired and other sects would like to do away with the Song of Solomon, Esther, and Ecclesiastes.
27. If your God is kind and gentle, why did He kill thousands of men in the books of Exodus and Leviticus? Are these truly the traits of an adroitly mature loving Entity?
28. Does it seem reasonable that the universe could only be around 6,000 years old? How do you explain the fact that the bible never speaks about dinosaurs or their extinction? What about the bodies of ice-age men that have been found? Are they our ancestry are a different species? Why doesn’t the bible speak of us having either an evolutionary ancestry or having a relative species to us?
29. Matthew 12:31 says that all “sin” will be forgiven, except for blasphemy against the holy spirit. Most biblical scholars say that blasphemy against the holy spirit means attributing the reported miracles of Christ as acts of Satan. Some fundamentalists say that as long as you are not sure whether or not you are not committing it, then you aren’t, but if you know that you aren’t, then you may be committing blasphemy. (gee, such clear double talk, huh?) Generally, they don’t believe as the biblical scholars do. Other Christians simply don’t know for sure. What do you think this blasphemy is?
30. Why would your God deliberately cause sinners to sin (cf. Romans 9:15-23 and numerous parts of the book of Exodus where Jehovah says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.”). Are these sinners still responsible for the sins that your God forces them, by manipulation against their free will, to commit? Justify your answer.
31. Do you feel that it is a coincidence that people (not individuals, but society) generally accept the religions, dogmas, and belief/value systems of their society? What does this say about conformity having more power than Universal Truth.
32. What do you think of the phrase “Only sheep need a shepherd” (sheep being scared conformists, mindless drones, and all other walks of small minded thinkers that will forever live in a cycle of mediocrity.)?
33. Why should we accept the words of the gospel writers as truth when they are reported to be liars in the same book that says they speak the truth? (See Romans 3:7). Why should we accept the words of Jesus in light of John 5:31 and John 8:18? (Unless of course, God Himself gives a shout out re-affirming Jesus as his son sometime from wherever Heaven is. I don’t think he has done that yet, has he?)
34. Do you believe that your God is anti-homosexual? If so, then how does He love those who are homosexuals? Why should they be discriminated against, or why can’t they pursue homosexuality if it brings them happiness? If not, refute or explain away Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1:26-27. Also, other than your personal culture saying it is sick, what in homosexuality is intrinsically wrong, in your opinion?
35. Is asking a superior supernatural force to intercede in a way that would be impossible according to the normally accepted laws of physics and logic wrong? Isn’t this what prayer is? Isn’t this what spell casting is? Explain why prayer is required by your religion, but spell casting is evil?
36. According to the Gospels, from the Christian standpoint, Jesus was the most important person to ever live. From the Roman standpoint, Jesus was a huge pain because of his liberal political activities (he promoted great social change). Explain why nothing was written about his life for over thirty years after his death, and nothing except the Gospels was written until the third century CE (not coincidentally, this is when Emperor Constantine began converting Rome from Paganism to Christianity.
37. Explain why you believe a person whose life is so poorly documented (see #36) was even ever born, or at least was the great son of God when little, if anything, other than the Christian Bible has historical accounts of his greatness.
38. Why are their two stories of creation (Genesis chapters 1 and 2) and two accounts of the flood (both in Genesis chapter 7)? Why do the stories of creation have two different orders of events? (For instance, in chapter 1, animals come before man, but in the second story of creation in chapter 2, animals come after man.)
39. Does God ever change? If so, then refute Malachi 3:6 James 1:17 and 1 Samuel 15:29. If not, then refute Jonah 3:10 genesis chapter 6 and exodus 32: (9-14).
40. In light of Matthew 10:34 and Luke 22:36, explain why Jesus is called the Prince of Peace.
41. Are all members of other faiths bad? Are they all damned to Hell? Justify your answer preferably with quotes from the bible.
42. Do you believe in unicorns, cockatrices (giant bird like creatures with snake tails instead of legs, I think) and satyrs (a man with a goat's legs, ears and horns.)? All three are common in Greek mythology. They are also allegedly real as reported in the King James Version of the bible (Isaiah 34:7, Jeremiah 8:17, Isaiah 13:21). Why do you think modern day translators took them out of current bibles, like the NIV? Did biblical translators finally realize how idiotic it was to believe such nonsense? Isn’t changing them altering the bible though? The KJV is pretty specific to say that these mythical creatures were real.
43. If your God requires that people believe in Him and follow His orders through their own free will, why do Christians push their views on public policy (examples are prayer in school, censorship, and the possibility of posting the ten commandments in the schools. There is also the Texas constitution that states that “no man or women running for office will be submitted to religious testing provided that they acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being”)?
44. Do you fear Self-Reliance?
45. Explain why spreading the “truth of Christ” requires you to spread lies about other religions, such as the idea that Wiccans (so-called “white witches”) worship the Christian devil. (Incidentally, they don’t, and Christians have persistently spread this rumor since the second century CE. Wicca was also almost destroyed by loving, benign Christians that burned most Wiccans to the stake in the 15th-18th centuries.)
46. Should we always follow the ten commandments? Aren’t their any exceptions? If we should always follow them and there are no exceptions, then why should a daughter who is molested by her father honor that man? Shouldn’t she dishonor a horrible person like that? In your opinion, if a married couple agrees to allow each other extra marital partners, is it adultery? Did you know that in biblical times the dictum not to bear false witness against a neighbor was a tribal commandment and meant to apply only to persons within the tribe? (It was quite all right to bear false witness against “strangers”) Is it acceptable for God to break his own commandments, (do not kill, and do not covet)? What about Santa Claus? Telling children that Santa Clause is real is lying to them, whether or it is done in good-hearted fun or not.
47. Given the fact that Jesus did not say anything original (the Golden Rule was in Confucianism 600 years before Christ was born and the “turn the other cheek” idea were stolen from Buddhism and the Beatitudes were common in the Jewish devotional literature at the time), why do you see Jesus as such a great and unique thinker/ philosopher/ ethicist? (All of Jesus’s wisdom can be found in other religions as well, with most of those religions predating Christianity. Christianity has just been more “popular”(wonder if the persecutions in number 3 have anything to do with that), not unique or superior in wisdom.)
48. Are all atheists/agnostics/humanists and other freethinkers bad? Are they all damned to Hell? Justify your answer preferably with quotes from the bible. (Atheists do not believe in supernatural powers, agnostics neither deny nor believe in God but say that we cannot (comprehend/prove) (Him/Her/It) yet but that may change, and humanists don’t really care because they are devoted to helping the cause of humanity by using logic and reason, not worrying about the (existence/non-existence) of a (diety/God.))
49. Why are so many Christian holidays on the same day as Pagan holidays? (Easter and Christmas as the main two. Couldn’t the early Church fathers have converted pagans only by appealing to their reason and/or faith if Christianity is the true religion? Why did they have to adopt some pre-existing parts of the Pagan faith? Hint: (It all began with Rome, which was Pagan, but converted to Christianity by Emperor Constantine starting in 312 C.E. He did it not because of some great spiritual maturity, but for a dream. See Constantine’s dream, if you have that attachment.)
50. Explain how your God can be “just and merciful” in light of Exodus 20:5.
51. Do you believe that the Old Testament should be accepted as part of Christian theology? If so, explain how you can worship such a cruel, sadistic being (see Numbers 31:17-18, Deuteronomy 20:16, Proverbs 20:30, Amos 3:6, Deuteronomy 13:8, Psalms 52:5, etc.).
52. Explain why your “just and merciful” God sent bears to kill forty-two children who called his prophet Elisha “baldhead.” (See 2 Kings 2:23-24). (Kind of refutes “suffer the little children” doesn’t it?)
53. If prostitution is wrong and incest wrong, why are there so many examples of it in Genesis? (For instance, Gen 19:8, where Lot offers his daughters to a mob so that his guests can avoid gang rape. Later his daughters have sex with him “while he was asleep and did not know {drunk maybe?}” to preserve his seed. Genesis 20:11-12 shows that Abraham married his sister. In Genesis 17: (15-16) God blesses Sara, Abraham’s wife/sister. According to Deuteronomy 27:22, Abraham should have been cursed, but is often considered a great man of God. There is also the whole Cain, Adam and Eve thing mentioned in question #19)
54. Isn’t a man being all man and all God at the same time as the same man a philosophical contradiction (you know, something not possible)? Isn’t just more of an egotistical human idea created to make us feel more important because we want to believe that God would take on our form?
55. Was Jesus the wisest man ever to live? Read Matthew 5: (39-42). Is it wise to allow yourself to be pushed around by anyone else and to basically consider yourself so worthless that you shouldn’t be able to stand up for your own rights?
56. If Jesus is the only way to Heaven, then how did people get there before he died?
57. Was Jesus pro-slavery? If not, explain Luke (12:47) which says "And that servant [slave], which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." Jesus never denounced servitude, incorporating the master-slave relationship into many of his parables.
58. Was Jesus a good model for families? Consider please Luke 14:26, Matthew 10:35-36, John 2:4, and (in response to a disciple who wanted to bury his recently deceased father) Matthew 8:22.
59. Matthew 13:41-42 states that "The Son of man [Jesus himself] shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." In your opinion, what does this reveal about the true character of Jesus and his ethnocentricity?
60. Does it bother you that the burning of men and women and children by Christians during the Inquistion were based on the very words of Jesus? Those words were: "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth . . . and men gather them into the fire, and they are burned." (John 15:6) Do you see the social construction? “If a not abide in me” (unbelievers) “he is cast forth” (lose Jesus and his favor) “and men” (and believers) “gather them into the fire, and they are burned” (burn them for their heresay).
61. If your God created Satan, as Genesis states, then didn’t He create evil? If He did, then isn’t He the original source of all evil, and not Satan? See Isaiah 45:7, (the KJV shows this better than newer translations.) If Heaven is supposedly without sin or evil, how did Satan exist there?
62. What was your God afraid of when He cast out Satan? If He was so superior to Lucifer in Heaven, why did 1/3 of the angels follow Lucifer when given the option of choose a leader, seeing them both for what they were?
63. Is your God perfect? Justify your answer. (Remember the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy)
64. Do biblical prophecies hold much water when you consider they are only fulfilled in the bible and that a corrupt leader (Constantine, early Popes, other dictators, etc.) could have planted those in the bible to make it seem as though it flowed and to give “proof” of its truth. What about the prophecies that have not or did not hold true?
65. Christianity is directly descended from the Jewish faith. Did you know that the Jews did not even believe in Satan until they absorbed the Egyptian god Set while they were captives in Egypt?
66. Why do “evil people” (non-Christians) often prosper? Justify your answer.
67. Why do “good people” (Christians) so often fail to prosper? Justify your answer.
68. Under Christianity, we are born into sin (psalm 51:5). Therefore, a baby has sin. Under Christianity, someone, and a baby is someone, who dies with sin cannot enter heaven. If a baby dies when they are too little to repent and accept Christ and that baby is not baptized, then does it go to Hell? If not Hell, where (it can’t enter your Heaven with sin)? And if the baby is baptized, how does that save him/her? It was not an act of their free will, and a child with religious parents may go to Heaven, while a child with non-religious parents would go to Hell. Would a just and merciful God allow all of this?
69. How did Judas die? Did he hang himself ( Matthew 27:5) or from "splitting asunder" while standing in a field (Acts 1:18)
70. What is sin, exactly?
71. If Jesus was God incarnate, why does he say God was greater then he was (John 14:28) and if he was God why did he know less than God "No one knows about that day and hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mark 13:32, and Matt. 24:36)”
72. One man is a rapist/batterer his whole life but “finds Jesus” in the last 5 minutes of his life. Another man leads a good life in which he loves others, is faithful to his wife, provides for his family and helps humanity. He believes that a Higher Power exists, but never becomes a Christian. Then, out of character, he uses God’s name in vain in the last seconds of his life (say, as a reaction to an oncoming bus). Is it “just and merciful” for the first man to get an eternal reward while the second man goes to Hell? Doesn’t your religion teach this?
73. Is your God anti-Semitic (against the Jews)? If yes, then doesn’t that contradict everything about the Jews being His chosen people? If not refute, 1 Thessalonians 2: (14-15).
74. Explain why your God created humans as imperfect, then set his standards so high that very few could possibly live up to them, and then punishes those who don’t live up to his mighty standards. Doesn’t this also constitute “entrapment?” (If you don’t understand entrapment, don’t worry about it)
75. Did it ever strike you that the reason the bible has so much success at being called “inerrant” is simply because it is such a huge and imposing book that even most Christians don’t take the time to read it? Instead, many just take the word of other Christians and memorize a few inspirational and/or important versus and never even try to take in the whole thing. Very few, if any, Christians take the time and effort to decipher its meaning and test its validity and/or origin (studies indicate that the number of Christians that have actually read the entire bible is about %10).
76. Why was it required and necessary for the ancient Israelites to sacrifice animals to their God, while it is wrong and sadistic for modern religions to sacrifice animals to their Gods? Justify your answer.
77. Why would your God confuse people? (See 1 Sam 7:10 and Gen 11:9). Isn’t life confusing enough already?
78. Why would your God cause blindness, deafness, and dumbness? (See Ex 4:11)
79. Why would your God want to damn people by making them believe false
things? (See 2 Thessalonians
2:11-12).
80. Is religion the lie your God wanted people to believe through His delusion (see #79)? If not, then what is your God in terms of Truth in light of 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12? If so, then is not your God the enemy of the Truth?
81. What exactly is faith? Isn’t having blind faith just another way of saying that you can’t understand the most important things in life so you take the most expedient and least resistant approach to understanding these things, even if that approach doesn’t make sense or contradicts?
82. Does it ever strike you as odd that all major religions demand unquestioning, blind faith in the absolute truth of their version of God and existence? Isn’t it this blind faith, combined with fear and generational teaching (one generation teaching the next only what it believes with overwhelming authority), what keeps religion thriving, not Universal Truth?
83. If the greatest commandment of Jesus is “love the Lord with all thy heart and mind” and blind or “childlike” faith involves the absence of using the mind, don’t people of blind or “childlike” faith disobey the greatest commandment?
84. Why did your God allow Satan to do evil things to Job (Job 2:7 etc.)? Isn’t this a wicked way to treat a righteous man?
85. If Jesus and God are one (John 10:30), then why does Jesus have to pray (i.e. Matthew 26:39)?
86. Isn’t creating sin for someone else by telling them they are sinners and selling (metaphorically and/or literally) them Jesus as a “cover” for sin kind of like giving someone a black eye and trying to sell them an icepack?
87. How do you feel about tithes? Isn’t awfully convenient for the Christian churches that God would dictate through the bible that religious followers pay 10% of all earnings to the Christian churches (as compared to say, giving 10% of your wages to charities and/or good causes)?
88. What is your interpretation of the temptation of Christ by Satan in the desert (Matthew 4:5-8, Luke 4:5-9)? Do you believe the world is flat? If so, WOW! If not, refute Matthew 4:8. Tell me how can there be a mountain on Earth from which you can see all of the Earth? You can’t see the bottom of a sphere from the top. Jesus could have only seen “all the kingdoms of the world” from that point IF THE EARTH WERE FLAT!
89. In view of Matthew 6:5-6, shouldn’t prayer in public schools be discouraged? Support your answer, preferably with scripture quotes.
90. Do you feel that the last words of Christ were significant? If so, why do the four gospels attribute three different sentences to Christ as his last? (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34: “My God (El), My God (El), why hast thou forsaken me?”; Luke 23:46: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”; John 19:30: “It is finished”).
91. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” reportedly means, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me”. However, some scholars in the Hebrew language say that the “oi” may be a way to show ownership of something or the “my” part of the sentence. So a more specific translation could be “My El, My El, why hast thou forsaken me?” El is the name of a specific pagan god. If this was true (and it is not completely certain), why would Jesus call out to a pagan god at the moment of his death? If he was referring to God, why does he question God/himself or why didn’t he say Jehovah or Yahweh?
92. A commonly recited litany in many forms of Christianity is “The Lord is my shepherd.” (Psalm 23:1). Given the fact that the only reasons that people raise sheep are to rob them of their wool and to kill them for meat, and the fact that sheep will often follow the shepherd to their destruction, do you think that this is any appropriate image for your God? Do you feel you are nothing more than a mindless sheep? Justify your answer.
93. What are the requirements for being saved? Some sects say that faith alone is enough; others say that faith without works is dead. The Bible supports both these viewpoints. What do you think?
94. How should the book or Revelations be perceived? Isn’t it odd that Christians are continually prophesying the end time and trying to decipher the truth about the Anti-Christ? What to you think about the Anti-Christ? What will he/she/it be like?
95. In the Genesis story, your God tells Adam and Eve that the day they eat from the tree of knowledge they will surely die (Gen 2:17). The devil tells them that they will not die, but that their eyes would be opened and they would know the difference between good and evil (Gen 3:5). Then, after eating the fruit, they lived and gained the knowledge of good and evil. Wasn’t Satan telling the truth here? Is your God a liar? Justify your answer in light of Jeremiah 20:7 and Ezekiel 14: (9-10).
96. If Satan was cast out of Heaven for jealousy and jealousy is a sin, why is it OK for your God to be a jealous God (Psalms 78:58 and 79:5)?
97. How can knowledge be so bad as to cause the “fall” of man? Why would your God wish to have mindless drones that were absent of knowledge and thought be the ones to worship Him? What was it about the knowledge of good and evil that your God didn’t want humanity to know?
98.Did you realize that the book of Psalms presents 33 different characteristics for God? They are: Anger, Avenger, Creator, Deliverer, Faithful, Forgiving (Savior), Glory, Good, Gracious, Healer, Holy, Jealous, Judge, Justice, King, Living, Love, Majesty, Mercy, Only God, Perfect, Protector, Provider, Redeemer, Refuge (Rock), Relent, Righteous, Shepherd, Spirit, Universal, Wisdom (just once, by the way 104:24) and Wonder Worker. In the light of these many characteristics, some of which are opposing (avenger & redeemer, justice & mercy, judge & forgiving, jealous & perfect, love & anger) isn’t your God more like a human than a Divine Entity?
99. Have you read the entire Bible? If not, how can you be devoted enough
to try and convert others to a religion that you don’t know that much about?
Isn’t knowing as much as possible about something necessary to understanding
it? Isn’t understanding something necessary to being completely devoted
to it?
If you have, then did you even come close to understanding it?
100. Why is 2 Kings 19 exactly identical to Isaiah 37? Isn’t it odd that God would repeat Himself for no apparent reason if He writes the bible through others?
101. Do you realize that reading certain parts of the Gospels, Acts, and Proverbs every now and then does not constitute knowing and understanding the bible? Do you know that memorizing certain bible versus does not mean you will truly understand it?
102. Do you realize that King James commissioned his translation of the bible to be poetic rather than accurate? Do you also realize that Kings would often (and still do) persuade the masses by manipulating the things that are important to them, things like religions, economic conditions, and the laws of the land?
103. Why do so many Christians act as if being able to quote John 3:16 means that they are an authority on God, the bible, Truth, and Love?
104. Gregory of Nazanzius, a 4th century church father and bishop of Caesarea, wrote to St. Jerome: "A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire." (Quoted by C. Volney, The Ruins, p. 177 (1872)) What do you think of his thoughts?
105. Do you know what a theocracy is? If so, how has it shaped Christianity in your opinion?
106. If your God is omnipotent (all-knowing of all things for all time(s)), wouldn’t he have known who to kill in Exodus 12:23? Would he have needed blood on the doorframe to separate the houses? If your God is not omnipotent, why do you worshipping Him and go to churches that claim He has perfect wisdom?
107. How many legs do insects have? (see LEV 11: (21:23)) . Is a bat a bird? (see LEV 11: (13-19) and DEU 14: (11:18)) (Science classifies bats are mammals. You can go outside if you want to find an insect, like say, a grasshopper, which is cousin to the locust. Unless it is mutated, it should have six legs.)
108. What do you think of the phrase “It is easier to be one teaching twenty than it is to be the one in twenty following his own instruction.” How do you think this applies to the history of Christianity?
109. If your God is omnipotent, why would he, according to the “inerrant” bible, need to remember (Genesis 8:1)? Wouldn’t information all ready be with him already?
110. Did you realize that the roots of the Roman Catholic Church (which is the engine that drove (and drives) Christianity from 350-400 C.E. to the modern day) were corrupt? For instance, Pope Alexander VI held wild orgies and had incestual relations with his daughter. He made the papal palace a whorehouse and used the money of the church to become rich and support his constant lavish parties and orgies. He would also kill anyone who questioned his authority or pointed out that he was a complete hypocrite for his do as I say, not as I do lifestyle. He, like many tyrannical leaders, viewed religion as a means by which subduing a society into mediocrity for the means of financial stability and personal control.
111. Jews believe that people are basically good people and can work to overcome their sinful tendencies. Most Christian sects (but not most individual Christians, by the way), following the teaching of Psalm 51:5, 1 Kings 8:46, Ezekiel 18:4, Isaiah 59:2, and Psalm 143:2, believe that people are nearly completely debased and hopelessly lost in sin, and that only your God can lift us out of this state? Isn’t this an incredibly negative view of people? Isn’t Judaism, (along with most other faiths) a more mature faith just for this reason?
112. How do you, as an individual, feel about Psalm 51:5?
113. What does your sect teach about Psalm 51:5 (and 1 Kings 8:46, etc.), predestination, and similar matters? If you are not in a sect, good for you ?. You can answer with a smiley face. If you don’t know what your sect says about Psalm 51:5, good for you as well?.
114. Don’t you think that the idea that no matter what we do, we can never be good and righteous without help from your God (Isaiah 64:6) fosters an unnatural and unhealthy dependency on Him?
115. Revelation 22:16 says that Jesus is the “offspring of David.” Mary
was not descended from David, but
Joseph was. Doesn’t this mean that Jesus wasn’t the son of your God
at all, but the (mortal and not divine) son of Joseph? Isn’t the
reason why the Pharisees couldn’t answer Jesus in Matthew 22: (41:46) because
what Jesus said a) made no sense and b) was a contradiction (if he was
David’s Lord, he could not have been David’s offspring)?
116. Do you believe that, as Paul said, we are nothing more than glorified clay pots, devoid of judgment, feeling, emotion and that it is our duty to willfully submit to the hands of He who molds us? Doesn’t this strip us of all personal identity and creativity?
117. Have you ever heard of the writing “On the Jews and their lies”(1543)? Probably, you haven’t. It is a book in which the author, who was quite anti-Semitic, describes how the Jewish people are the poison of the Earth and how good Christians should set fire to their synagogues and schools and basically rule over the Jews. You may have heard of the author. He is Martin Luther, founder of the protestant faith.
118. If your God is “just and merciful,” why would he take Solomon’s kingdom away from Solomon’s son while not punishing Solomon, when it was Solomon himself who committed the sin of idolatry? What did Solomon’s son do to deserve punishment? (See 1 Kings 11:12).
119. Why is Solomon commonly considered to be the paragon of wisdom by many Christians, when he constantly sinned against your God (1 Kings 11:4-10, etc.)? Is it wise to have a thousand lovers (1 Kings 11:3)? If he was willing to take a thousand lovers, how does the bible get off blaming them for Solomon’s “being led astray” (1 Kings 11:3)?
120. Don’t you think that an anti-sex position (see question #22) is a rather silly position for your sect to take when the biblical book “Song of Solomon” is a piece of erotic poetry? (For instance, in Song of Solomon 8:2, the bridegroom proposes to “drink of spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate.” The pomegranate was a symbol of the female genitalia, and the “spiced wine” explanation is quite sick. It is much worse than what you are thinking. But the point is that the book is erotic and very sexual in nature.
121. Read Romans 8:36. Do you still want to be a sheep? Do you really lack that much self-confidence and sense of personal worth? Honestly?
122. Christianity is a religion of “moral absolutes”. One such absolute is Luke 6:30 that says “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back”. I come up to you and ask you for all of your money. Do you put your money where your faith is? Do you follow this “moral absolute” and “have faith” in God, or do you walk away and try to put your “sin” out of your mind as soon as possible? If I take your car and all of your money, do you report it to the police? Isn’t this breaking God instruction? Explain.
123. Do you realize that often men and women of the Christian faith acquire low self-esteems and negative self images because they can never live up to their self created image of God or live up to his standards? Do you also know that sometimes these people will lash out at themselves, their families, or others because they feel inadequate and unimportant, often turning to substance abuse, affairs, and other forms of immorality? (It is kind of the “if I can’t be perfect or good enough, then what is the difference” attitude.
124. Even if your God did create the universe, why does he want to be worshipped? Is your God an egomaniac?
125. Do you know anything about other religions that are not Christianity? If so, does it ever strike you as odd that many of them are very similar to Christianity and that much of the “unique” wisdom of Christianity are in many religions? (Wicca, for example, advises to harm no one and to not harm oneself and Buddhism’s eight-fold path is quite similar to the ten commandments)? If not, then how do you say that all other religions are false and bad and that all other religious believers are doomed to hell/ mislead by Satan if you know nothing about them?
126. Did it ever escape you that modern Christianity, influenced by Rome, is actually a descendant of Paganism in many ways? (Think of all of the stories of bloodshed, sexual perversion, and mystical occurrences in the bible. The are awfully similar to other mystical stories in both ancient Pagan and Greek belief systems.)
127. For a book that is supposedly the center of a perfect ethical system, isn’t the bible very savage? The old testament and book or Revelations, for instance, contain more killing, blood, and fear than most Stephen King novels and most of the “horribly violent” entertainment on television and in modern video games. How do you explain this?
128. Numbers 23:21 says that your God “has not seen wickedness in Israel.” If this is so, explain why your God burned Israelites for complaining (Num 11:1), sent a plague against them for eating the meat he had given them (Num 11:33), why he burned people for using incense (Num 16:35), why he sent a plague against the Israelites who accused Moses of wrongdoing (Num 16:44-49), and why he sent fiery snakes among the Israelites (Num 21:5). Is your God a liar, or was it just more convenient for him to lie at that particular place and time, or what?
129. Isn’t a God described above (see #128) a sadist?
130. Did it ever occur to you that humans only view things as “sin” because of their own vanity? (Even if I really don’t contain any supernatural importance, my sin is strong enough to separate me from God, and my beliefs are important enough to override my important sin) Did it ever strike you that religion is a function of fear and sin is a function of vanity?
131. If someone accepts Jesus, and is “saved,” but then turns away from Jesus, is that person still saved?
132. How do you explain that Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus?
133. Did you know that the term Easter comes from the name of Oestre, an Anglo-Saxon Pagan goddess, who governed the vernal equinox?
134. Did it ever occur to you that you can use the bible to support 95% of all stances on 95% of all issues because of its contradictory nature? (For instance if I am for war, I can see a God of war. If I am for love there is a God of love. Whatever I want, it is there, somewhere. Even if what I want is bad and untrue, I can still support it)
135. Matthew says that on the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus was riding on an ass and a colt (Matt 21:7) (on 2 separate animals at the same exact time. Pretty special guy) How do you explain that the original prophecy (Zech 9:9) stated that Jesus would be riding on only one ass, and the other gospel writers place Jesus only on one ass (Mark 11:7, Luke 19:35, and John 12:15)?
136. In Matthew 1:23, Matthew has the angel say that Jesus would be born of a virgin. However, the prophecy that Matthew is referring to, Isaiah 7:14, uses the Hebrew word almah, which simply means a young woman. ("Hinneh ha-almah harah ve-yeldeth ben vekarath shem-o immanuel” is Matthew 1:23 in Hebrew, it uses almah as well) It has nothing to do with sexual purity; the Hebrew word for virgin is bethulah. How do you explain this? Is a virgin birth important to your beliefs?
137. Isaiah 7:16 seems to say that before Jesus had reached the age of maturity, both of the Jewish countries would be destroyed. Where is the fulfillment of this prophecy in the New Testament? you can look if you wish, or accept the fact that many, many biblical scholars have never found the fulfillment of this prophecy)
138. Have you ever met a very immature older man who had gray hair? Read Proverbs 16:31. Doesn’t it sound like all gray hair men are righteous and wise according to your bible?
139. How many inconsistencies in the Bible, other than those mentioned in this paper, do you know of? Cite chapter and verse for as many as you have room for. If you think that they bible doesn’t contain inconsistencies, then have you ever actually read it and are you taking this test?
140. Do you think that by lying on a dead boy and putting your “mouth to his mouth, eyes to his eyes, hands to his hands” that you could bring him back to life. Isn’t that sick? If you think one can revive the dead by such means, then I feel for you, if you think that one cannot, then I congratulate you on having a mind that uses logic, reason, and is not perverse. Either way read 2 Kings 4: (34:35)
141. The Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Tartars, Africans (in most areas), Eskimo, Persians, Turks, Durds, Arabs, Polynesians, and many other peoples are still substantially ignorant of the bible. If it is the Truth, why did and why does God allow a vast majority of His children to remain ignorant of His will? Doesn’t this put those people at an unfair disadvantage compared to us “blessed” Anglo-Saxons?
142. Doesn’t it seem convenient that most Christians only focus on the “good” parts of the bible (Jesus saves, God is love, the bible’s “morals”) and not the bad parts (God kills, Jesus said he came to not bring peace, the bible is bristling with contradictions and things that don’t make sense).
143. Do you think it is only a happen stance that most children bibles only have the “good” parts of bible (Jesus loves me, God saved Noah and the animals, God parted the sea, Christians go to Heaven (sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell)) and omit the “bad” parts (God killed all of humanity and the animals but those in the Ark, God kills, the bible is partially sexist, racist, etc.)
144. Shouldn’t any loving parent denounce a book that proclaims a God that wishes, or at least at one time wished, to see rebellious children killed? Deu 21: (18:21) (Remember when dealing with God that you are not dealing with only issues that are most convenient for today {Christianity qualms my fears, my church is nice, all of my close friends and family are Christians} but rather issues that span the entire existence of the human species {who is God, Does God exist, what is our meaning and purpose, how can we love ourselves and others})
145. Do you realize that things like Hell, presenting God as a killer, the flood, the plague(s) of Egypt, accounts of God as a destroyer, renouncing all other religions, requiring blind faith, etc. are all ways that a religion (in this case Christianity) inspires fear and submissiveness into its followers? Do you really wish to be nothing more than an afraid, submissive follower of some authoritative often bureaucratic system?
146. Do you believe Jesus changed everything? If so, why did he change everything and is this changing repealing the old law? If so, are the Old Testaments bunk? If this is so, why keep them? If the Old Testament is important, why can you reconcile a loving God with a God that is perhaps worse than and at least as bad as any tyrannical leader in the history of mankind as being the same God?
147. Read Matthew 5:(17-20). In light of this, do think Jesus came to change everything? Doesn’t this sound like Jesus was in favor of the old laws and the old scriptures? If so, why does he later change some of them (like eye for eye, tooth for tooth, for example)? In not, what was he talking about?
148. Do you know what Mithraism is? Does it bother you at all that Mithras in Mithraism is a) the son of God, b) humanity’s savior c) is the only way to heaven d) has his birfday on December 25 e) participated in the Mithrain last supper with his disciples and followers e) is God f) will send his followers to Heaven and “the wicked” to Hell and g) will one day return to Earth to lead his followers in Armageddon? Did you realized that many other stories and religious myths, some that predated Christianity (for instance Mithraism has a written history dated back to 67 B.C.E.), are a lot like Christianity and that most all of these religions derive their roots from Paganism? Did you also know that the place where Christianity was basically crafted (Rome) had some of these other similar religions before become Christianized?
149. Do you realize that it is possible to be a happy, loving person who believes in the existence of a Creator or God but not buy into “revealed” religion? Has it ever struck you that you can be a good, positive, caring individual without the dogmas, confusion, intolerance, acute moralism, and illogical/mythological beliefs of organized religion? Did you know you could be a happy, loving, positive, and good individual and not believe in God or be certain about God’s existence? You can always have Love, regardless of your religion or lack their of.
150. Now, what is your definition of the word Christian or of Christianity? Now what role do you think the bible has in that religion?
Thank you for taking the Christianity Test.