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The Challenge: Convert Me to Christianity

The original purpose of this site was to protest web censorship.  However, thanks to search engines the site took a life of its own, and I've become something of an Atheist poster child.  As a result, I get a ton of replies from people trying to convert me to Christianity.  Since I see a lot of the same arguments over and over again, I'm putting up this page so that potential converters would know what it would take to change my mind.  

 

My former beliefs

What many people have assumed is that I am not familiar with Christianity, and take great pains explaining to me about Jesus dying for my sins, etc. I should tell you that I was a Christian about 15 years ago, and not just a church-on-Christmas-and-Easter-only type. Of course, you might say "Ah, then you weren't a true Christian" without realizing how circular you're being.  (You'd also be guilty of the "No True Scotsman" logical fallacy.)  If you wish to make that argument, I'd recommend telling me exactly what a true Christian is. As far as I'm concerned, it's someone who believes that Jesus saves the souls of people who have "faith the size of a mustard seed."

What's funny is that I often seem to know more about Christianity than many Born-Again Christians.  

 

How I lost my faith

At one point I started questioning all of my beliefs, from religious to political.  This was an attempt at philosophical spring-cleaning; I felt that beliefs that couldn't stand up to scrutiny probably weren't worth holding.  At the time, I didn't think that this would jeopardize my Christianity, for my faith was very strong. But after years of questioning my basic beliefs and assumptions, I came to believe that my religion was an elaborate form of wishful thinking, and thought that the universe didn't make any more sense by imagining a God in it.  While I'd feared a universe without God, I was surprised to find how liberating this was. There was no big ol' ghost monitoring my thoughts, no need to try to understand why a benevolent spirit would allow suffering in the world. Suddenly, there was just me to rely on. I didn't even miss the aspects of religion that comforted me, for I realized that a comforting illusion was still an illusion.

I'm not trying to say that Christianity should be abolished or that all Christians are befuddled, misguided morons. It's just that the world makes more sense to me without a God.

 

How to convert me to Christianity

So, if you want there's really only one way to convert me to Christianity, and that's to do all of the below:

1. Show me unequivocal evidence for the existence of God. Why is this so difficult? If God has an effect on the world, why is that effect immeasurable? If God's presence was so obvious to the Israelites, why not us? I know unequivocally that my wife, cats, and the chair I'm sitting on exists, so why isn't God's presence just as evident? In other words, why should doubt even be a part of life?  (Warning: Most of the bad arguments I receive come from attempts to answer this one.)  
2. Show me that this God is the Christian one. Now that you've accomplished #1, congratulations!  While the Nobel  committee is on the way, tell me how come this God isn't the God of Islam, Judaism, any of the gods in Greek Mythology or anybody else? Using the Bible as evidence here is circular; "God exists because the Bible says so, and we know because the Bible is the Word of God."
3. Show me that the Christian God is worth my time. If God is worthy of my worship, why did he create sin? (After all, he created the universe, defined what behaviors would be sinful, and created beings who were not only capable of sinful behaviors but were predisposed toward sinful behavior.)  In other words, why create people with sinning natures, punish those sins with dire consequences, and then hide from us - all the while insisting that the only way to be forgiven is to believe in Him without hard evidence?

To quote Christopher Hitchens:  

"One is presuming ... that this is the same god who actually created the audience he was addressing. This leaves us with the insoluble mystery of why he would have molded ("in his own image," yet) a covetous, murderous, disrespectful, lying, and adulterous species. Create them sick, and then command them to be well? What a mad despot this is, and how fortunate we are that he exists only in the minds of his worshippers."

If you want to waste your keystrokes (or risk getting put on my Wacky Responses page), try any one of these arguments:

• God exists, since somebody had to start it all.

• God is the source of all morality.  

• God doesn't need to be visible to us, since he wants us to have faith.

• God exists: I just know deep down inside.

• You have to believe first, then you'll see evidence for the existence of God.

• You aren't really an Atheist: 

  • you're an Agnostic

  • you're just trying to be rebellious

  • deep down you believe in God.

  • you'll change your mind when the going gets rough (aka "There are no atheists in foxholes.")

  • you're just mad at God

  • you just want to live an amoral life

  • you must believe in God since you bothered to make this site

• Prove that God doesn't exist, Mr. Smartypants.

• Why not believe in God just so you'll get into Heaven?

• Jesus was either Lord, Liar, or Lunatic

• The Bible is historically accurate, so what it says about Jesus is true.

• Being an Atheist requires faith.

• You'll go to Hell, you heathen!

• Evolution is "only a theory" (and other Creationist claptrap)

• You can't see air, yet you believe in that, don't you? (aka Misplaced Empiricism)

Also, It might help to look for your argument in this page.

^*God created sin, didn't he?  Based on my responses, this seems to be my most misunderstood point.  Many folks respond that "Satan created sin, not God."  Step back for a minute and think about this: 

1. God created the universe and all that exists within. (Your claim, of course, not mine!)

2. Sin exists in the universe.

3. Therefore, God created sin.

Yes, Satan is claimed to have propagated sin, convincing humans to give in to their sinful natures.  But God's the one who set the ground rules, not only defining what is sin but creating beings who have the capacity to sin.  

In my view, this makes God responsible for sin and its consequences.  After all, if someone designed a car in which the driver could maliciously press a button and eject a passenger, they are complicit in the resulting deaths even if they personally didn't eject those passengers.  

In addition, because God supposedly created us, one could argue that God is as responsible to humans as we are to our children.  If so, God was guilty of neglect and endangerment by leaving the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden.  After all, if you left a loaded gun in a room with your child, you'd be guilty of neglect and endangerment no matter how often you told them not to play with the gun.  

Besides, unless God was exceedingly stupid, God had to know what Adam and Eve would do in Eden, and is therefore complicit in their sin.