An Atheist's Objections To Christianity/Theism--Scientific, Historical, Logical and Moral
I. Scientific Objections to Christianity:
A. Adam and Eve story.
1. How did God create a female (Eve) from the male DNA of Adam's rib?
2. How did Adam and Eve successfully mate and produce offspring when, at most, they had identical DNA, and at least, they were twins?
3. How did a snake acquire the ability to speak in human language?
B. Crossing the Red Sea.
Stipulating: The sea is roughly 1900km long and at its widest is more than 300km. The sea floor has a maximum depth of 2,500m in the central median trench and an average depth of 500m, but it also has extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life and corals. The sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 or 450,000km².
1. Stipulating that, how did Moses and the Israelites pass through it? After all, it was substantial enough to deluge Pharaoh's army.
2. If the sea was parted, how precisely was that done?
C. Jesus' resurrection.
1. How did Jesus rise from the dead, and walk around good as new, when after three days of death he would be brain dead, with decayed muscles, bloated from gasses, with blisters on his skin and with millions of dead and useless cells, including dead and useless heart and kidney cells?
It should be noted that brain death is irreversible in every instance. In no circumstance, in no situation, for no reason, is brain death reversible. It cannot be turned back. It is permanent.
For a forensic refresher...
Upon death, this happens:
Although brain cells may survive for no more than 5 minutes after somatic death, those of the heart can survive for about 15 minutes and those of the kidney for about 30 minutes.
The Degree of Rigidity of the Body (Rigor Mortis)
4-6 hr - onset of rigor mortis in the neck & jaw.
12 hr - rigor mortis is well established.
18-24 hrs - rigor mortis is partially resolved due to muscle decomposition.
30 hr - rigor mortis has resolved.
*Note: Jesus still has 42 more hours of decomposition to endure before his corpse reanimates and walks around*
The Degree of Decomposition of the Body.
18-24 hr - greenish red skin, rigor is resolving.
30 hrs - rigor is resolved, body is flaccid.
3 days - body swells as gas forms. Blisters form on the skin.
*Note: Did the disciple witnesses mention Jesus was very swollen or had blisters all over his skin?*
D. From AnswersInGenesis:
"The National Academy of Science (USA) has recently produced a guidebook for public school teachers, Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science (see detailed rebuttal). This book tries to assure readers that neither the NAS nor evolution are anti-Christian. But a recent survey published in the leading science journal Nature conclusively showed that the National Academy of Science is anti-God to the core. A survey of all 517 NAS members in biological and physical sciences resulted in just over half responding. 72.2 % were overtly atheistic, 20.8 % agnostic, and only 7.0 % believed in a personal God. Belief in God and immortality was lowest among biologists."
E. Noah's Ark.
1. How is it possible to hold all the worlds species in an ark with the dimensions specified? There are possibly up to 100 million animal species alone.
2. How is it possible to feed these millions of animals?
3. How did specific species and classes of animals become trapped on different continents? For example, most marsupials are only found in Australia. If the Noahs Ark story were true, then we should expect a more homogeneous converge of species.
4. Why didn't many aquatic ecosystems die off from the massive change in salinity?
5. Why didn't many modern plants die out, as they should have?
II. Historical Objections:
A. This historical objection relates directly back to the Noah's Ark scientific objection. In the following narrative, a historically-sound explanation is given for the Noah's Ark legend. In contrast to Noah's Ark, the following narrative can be supported by science, archeology and history...
"Ziusudra reigned for ten years as king of Shuruppak, a Sumerian city then on the Euphrates River. Ziusudra's reign was at the end of the Jemdet Nasr period that ended with the flood of 2900 BC. Then as now, river barges were used for transporting cargo on the Euphrates River. This cargo included livestock, beer, wine, textiles, lumber, stone, metals, dried fish, vegetable oil, and other cargo. In June about 2900 BC during the annual inundation of the Euphrates River, the river was at crest stage. A six-day thunderstorm caused the river to rise about 15 cubits (22 feet) higher and overflow the levees. By the time the river began to rise, it was already too late to evacuate to the foothills of the mountains 110 miles away. Ziusudra boarded one of the barges that was already loaded with cargo being transported to market. The runaway barge floated down the Euphrates River into the Persian Gulf and grounded in an estuary at the mouth of the river. After moving to dry land, Ziusudra offered a sacrifice to a Sumerian god on an altar at the top of a temple ziggurat, an artificial hill. Later, storytellers mistranslated the ambiguous word for hill as mountain. The storytellers then erroneously assumed that the nearby barge must have grounded on top of a mountain."
B. Moses/Israelite Enslavement/Egypt
"The school of skeptics called Biblical minimalism, whose views are commonplace among academics, suggest Moses never actually existed as a historical figure, and the events of Exodus, uncorroborated, are the products of pure myth. There is no extra-biblical evidence that Moses existed as a historical person."
"Several professors of archeology claim that many stories in the Old Testament, including important chronicles about Moses, Solomon, and others, were actually made up for the first time by scribes hired by King Josiah (7th century BC) in order to rationalize monotheistic belief in Yahweh. Evidently, the neighboring countries that kept many written records, such as Egypt, Assyria, etc., have no writings about the stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC. Such claims are detailed in "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by William G Dever, William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI (2003). Another such book by Neil A Silberman and colleagues is "The Bible Unearthed", Simon and Schuster, New York (2001)."
"It is important to note that to date there is no historical mention of the enslavement of Jews by Egypt or of their rescue in any capacity by any person outside of The Bible. There is no archeological evidence that any group of people, much less one of about 600,000 people, wandered a desert for 40 years. Biblical purists chalk this up to the fact that Egypt eliminated any type of failures from their history and did not make records of such events, and surely the loss of a group of slaves would have been viewed as a failure."
from Wikipedia.com
III. Logical Objections:
A. I see no point in believing in a God, even if one does exist, when I know nothing about this deity's nature or expectations. For example, God could be benevolent and care about my actions. Or, God could be malevolent and care about my actions. Or, God could be benevolent and not care about my actions. Or, God could be malevolent and not care about my actions. Saying "I follow the Christian faith just in case God exists" is utterly nonsensical. That would be like somebody saying, "I follow the Satanist faith just in case a malevolent God exists." With limitless plausible possibilities, there is no way one can "be on the safe side" in terms of not offending God.
IV. Moral Objections:
A. God's apparent bloodlust.
I'll quote the Scripture:
Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)
So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt-worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.
Exodus 11 (1-6)
Rather than simply smacking the Pharaoh upside the head for refusing to let the Israelites go free, God instead chose to murder every firstborn son in Egypt. This, of course, was after already turning the sea water to blood, thereby killing all the innocent fish, as well as afflicting the livestock with pestilence, among other offenses.
What did the poor slave girl do to warrant her firstborn son being murdered? Did the slave girl set the Pharaoh's policies? Did the slave girl's firstborn son set the Pharaoh's policies? Here, God is shifting the blame from its rightful shoulders (those of the Pharaoh) to a mass of innocent people. It's staggeringly vicious and cruel; especially in light of the fact that God supposedly has completely limitless options. With that in mind, God CHOSE this course of action.
I. Scientific Objections to Christianity:
A. Adam and Eve story.
1. How did God create a female (Eve) from the male DNA of Adam's rib?
2. How did Adam and Eve successfully mate and produce offspring when, at most, they had identical DNA, and at least, they were twins?
3. How did a snake acquire the ability to speak in human language?
B. Crossing the Red Sea.
Stipulating: The sea is roughly 1900km long and at its widest is more than 300km. The sea floor has a maximum depth of 2,500m in the central median trench and an average depth of 500m, but it also has extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life and corals. The sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 or 450,000km².
1. Stipulating that, how did Moses and the Israelites pass through it? After all, it was substantial enough to deluge Pharaoh's army.
2. If the sea was parted, how precisely was that done?
C. Jesus' resurrection.
1. How did Jesus rise from the dead, and walk around good as new, when after three days of death he would be brain dead, with decayed muscles, bloated from gasses, with blisters on his skin and with millions of dead and useless cells, including dead and useless heart and kidney cells?
It should be noted that brain death is irreversible in every instance. In no circumstance, in no situation, for no reason, is brain death reversible. It cannot be turned back. It is permanent.
For a forensic refresher...
Upon death, this happens:
Although brain cells may survive for no more than 5 minutes after somatic death, those of the heart can survive for about 15 minutes and those of the kidney for about 30 minutes.
The Degree of Rigidity of the Body (Rigor Mortis)
4-6 hr - onset of rigor mortis in the neck & jaw.
12 hr - rigor mortis is well established.
18-24 hrs - rigor mortis is partially resolved due to muscle decomposition.
30 hr - rigor mortis has resolved.
*Note: Jesus still has 42 more hours of decomposition to endure before his corpse reanimates and walks around*
The Degree of Decomposition of the Body.
18-24 hr - greenish red skin, rigor is resolving.
30 hrs - rigor is resolved, body is flaccid.
3 days - body swells as gas forms. Blisters form on the skin.
*Note: Did the disciple witnesses mention Jesus was very swollen or had blisters all over his skin?*
D. From AnswersInGenesis:
"The National Academy of Science (USA) has recently produced a guidebook for public school teachers, Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science (see detailed rebuttal). This book tries to assure readers that neither the NAS nor evolution are anti-Christian. But a recent survey published in the leading science journal Nature conclusively showed that the National Academy of Science is anti-God to the core. A survey of all 517 NAS members in biological and physical sciences resulted in just over half responding. 72.2 % were overtly atheistic, 20.8 % agnostic, and only 7.0 % believed in a personal God. Belief in God and immortality was lowest among biologists."
E. Noah's Ark.
1. How is it possible to hold all the worlds species in an ark with the dimensions specified? There are possibly up to 100 million animal species alone.
2. How is it possible to feed these millions of animals?
3. How did specific species and classes of animals become trapped on different continents? For example, most marsupials are only found in Australia. If the Noahs Ark story were true, then we should expect a more homogeneous converge of species.
4. Why didn't many aquatic ecosystems die off from the massive change in salinity?
5. Why didn't many modern plants die out, as they should have?
II. Historical Objections:
A. This historical objection relates directly back to the Noah's Ark scientific objection. In the following narrative, a historically-sound explanation is given for the Noah's Ark legend. In contrast to Noah's Ark, the following narrative can be supported by science, archeology and history...
"Ziusudra reigned for ten years as king of Shuruppak, a Sumerian city then on the Euphrates River. Ziusudra's reign was at the end of the Jemdet Nasr period that ended with the flood of 2900 BC. Then as now, river barges were used for transporting cargo on the Euphrates River. This cargo included livestock, beer, wine, textiles, lumber, stone, metals, dried fish, vegetable oil, and other cargo. In June about 2900 BC during the annual inundation of the Euphrates River, the river was at crest stage. A six-day thunderstorm caused the river to rise about 15 cubits (22 feet) higher and overflow the levees. By the time the river began to rise, it was already too late to evacuate to the foothills of the mountains 110 miles away. Ziusudra boarded one of the barges that was already loaded with cargo being transported to market. The runaway barge floated down the Euphrates River into the Persian Gulf and grounded in an estuary at the mouth of the river. After moving to dry land, Ziusudra offered a sacrifice to a Sumerian god on an altar at the top of a temple ziggurat, an artificial hill. Later, storytellers mistranslated the ambiguous word for hill as mountain. The storytellers then erroneously assumed that the nearby barge must have grounded on top of a mountain."
B. Moses/Israelite Enslavement/Egypt
"The school of skeptics called Biblical minimalism, whose views are commonplace among academics, suggest Moses never actually existed as a historical figure, and the events of Exodus, uncorroborated, are the products of pure myth. There is no extra-biblical evidence that Moses existed as a historical person."
"Several professors of archeology claim that many stories in the Old Testament, including important chronicles about Moses, Solomon, and others, were actually made up for the first time by scribes hired by King Josiah (7th century BC) in order to rationalize monotheistic belief in Yahweh. Evidently, the neighboring countries that kept many written records, such as Egypt, Assyria, etc., have no writings about the stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC. Such claims are detailed in "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by William G Dever, William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI (2003). Another such book by Neil A Silberman and colleagues is "The Bible Unearthed", Simon and Schuster, New York (2001)."
"It is important to note that to date there is no historical mention of the enslavement of Jews by Egypt or of their rescue in any capacity by any person outside of The Bible. There is no archeological evidence that any group of people, much less one of about 600,000 people, wandered a desert for 40 years. Biblical purists chalk this up to the fact that Egypt eliminated any type of failures from their history and did not make records of such events, and surely the loss of a group of slaves would have been viewed as a failure."
from Wikipedia.com
III. Logical Objections:
A. I see no point in believing in a God, even if one does exist, when I know nothing about this deity's nature or expectations. For example, God could be benevolent and care about my actions. Or, God could be malevolent and care about my actions. Or, God could be benevolent and not care about my actions. Or, God could be malevolent and not care about my actions. Saying "I follow the Christian faith just in case God exists" is utterly nonsensical. That would be like somebody saying, "I follow the Satanist faith just in case a malevolent God exists." With limitless plausible possibilities, there is no way one can "be on the safe side" in terms of not offending God.
IV. Moral Objections:
A. God's apparent bloodlust.
I'll quote the Scripture:
Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)
So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt-worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.
Exodus 11 (1-6)
Rather than simply smacking the Pharaoh upside the head for refusing to let the Israelites go free, God instead chose to murder every firstborn son in Egypt. This, of course, was after already turning the sea water to blood, thereby killing all the innocent fish, as well as afflicting the livestock with pestilence, among other offenses.
What did the poor slave girl do to warrant her firstborn son being murdered? Did the slave girl set the Pharaoh's policies? Did the slave girl's firstborn son set the Pharaoh's policies? Here, God is shifting the blame from its rightful shoulders (those of the Pharaoh) to a mass of innocent people. It's staggeringly vicious and cruel; especially in light of the fact that God supposedly has completely limitless options. With that in mind, God CHOSE this course of action.
