20 Questions
Offline I've been working on several activism-pamphlet ideas, and one I thought up that would be easy to do is "20 Questions." Not the game, just a piece of paper with 20 hard-hitting questions for Christians (I'd like to do some for several other religions also) that get people thinking. I've met Christians of all ages that have just never questioned their beliefs in a skeptical way, so I think getting these questions out there could get at least a few people started. I'd love some suggestions for questions, but I've got lots of ideas of my own here too.
If God made the universe, who made God?
If God is eternal, what has was he doing during the eternity before creation?
If God can be eternal, why can't a physical universe be eternal?
Why is there so much horrible violence in the Old Testament?
If God is perfect, why did he have to change his plans?
If God is all-powerful, why couldn't he just forgive people instead of going to the trouble of killing Jesus?
Why would an all-powerful god sacrifice himself to himself in order to appease himself, just so he could repeal a moral and spiritual standard he himself created?
How can an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good god allow so much evil and suffering to exist?
If god knows the future, how can there be free will?
How is eternal punishment just?
If the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all part of God, how can only the Father know the time of the end of the world?
Why would an all-powerful, perfect god desire worship and obediance?
Why don't great miracles happen in this day and time?
Isn't it unfair that so many prophets, apostles, and their followers were offered proof of God's existence, while all we have is stories about those people?
Why are there so many competing religions if only one of them is true?
Why is there so much division among Christians about the proper way to worship and believe?
Why are all religious texts written through people and not directly by God, as the Ten Commandments supposedly were?
How do we determine which stories in the Bible are true, and which are only allegory, metaphor, or moral teaching?
So there are a few I came up with just this afternoon.
Also, is there a way to post a PDF file on the forums, or upload it so that people can download it and print it off?
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OOH... I love to play make-believe theist. I want to answer.
God is the uncaused cause. He didn't need to be created because he is the end of infinite regress. This is obvious since it's impossible for a thing to really be infinite. Therefore, infinite regress doesn't exist, so the only answer is a god who's beyond infinite, but we can only describe him as infinite because we're finite.
You've heard of the multiverse theory, right? Maybe he's god over an infinite number of universes that existed before ours. He's infinite, after all.
Duh. Because god is not physical. Only physical things can't be infinite.
Because if we didn't see how nasty god could be if he wanted to, we wouldn't appreciate the loving sacrifice of his only begotten son.
He didn't change his plans. People have changed, and so the plan had to be different at different times to account for what part of god's unchanging nature they were capable of understanding.
Because if he just forgave everybody, there would be no reason to worship him, and it would effectively take away our free choice to love him.
To demonstrate his love to us, of course.
He suffered for us to demonstrate his love by repealing the old standard. If we hadn't had the old standard, we wouldn't recognize how much better the new one is. It was a human limitation that necessitated this, not an imperfection in god.
Again, knowing good requires knowing evil. Without the evil, we wouldn't appreciate the good things god does for us.
We don't know the future, so even though god knows, we're still existing in each moment, making our own choices, without god forcing anything on us.
Because he gives eternal reward, too. Eternal punishment is the perfect balance to eternal reward.
Because he's all powerful. He's powerful enough to limit his own knowledge within one part of himself.
We are made in god's image, and we all want to be loved, right? He wants to be loved, but since we are finite, the only way we can truly love such a being is through worship and obedience.
They do, but your eyes are closed to the truth.
We do have proof positive. Once you experience god's love, you know for certain. This is the new covenant. We don't need miracles anymore because all we have to do is say a little prayer in sincerity, and we will know the love of Jesus with certainty that defies understanding.
Satan is deceiving the masses, trying to win souls for himself.
Because people are fallible, and even Christians close their hearts to the true word of god sometimes.
But they were written directly by god. He just used human hands to do it.
When you are truly saved, and read with an open heart, god will reveal his truth to you.
*********
I should have been a theist
I wonder if any theists will come up with better answers.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Nah, I think you've pretty much got it right. Actually, the most common answer to questions like these that I've heard is "I don't have all the answers," or to just say that it's a mystery that we won't understand until we're ...dead.
Do You Worship an Evil God?
This is the part where we play the fun game of "Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes."
At this very moment, there are theists reading, thinking to themselves, "He wouldn't have said all those answers if he didn't think they were bogus, but they were what I was going to say... Am I brave enough to try to defend them?"
There are also theists frantically formulating better answers in their heads, but they're having trouble with it, cause darn it... those are pretty good answers...
Pretty soon, somebody's going to bust the cherry, though. Don't you worry. Somebody's going to blast me for misrepresenting the "True Christians."
(You may be asking yourself, how does he know what's in my brain???? Silly theist... Rambo Kitty knows all and sees all. Verily it hath been written. Verily shall it come to pass if we only taunt them enough times...)
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Dang it.
Just saw that this is in FTA.
So, yet again, Rambo Kitty has proven that only the faithless doubt his ability to fuck up even the simplest of prophesies.
Oh... I forgot... meant to add a possible question to your list for you:
If God's love is unconditional, why do we have to believe in Jesus? Isn't that a condition?
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Ok, i guess i'll blast ya for misrepresenting a true christians with answers that only a true christian would come up with hence either you are satan himself (since satan is the great deceiver) or a closet christian.
I vote for both 
Maybe you or one of the other mods can move this to AvT? I'd like to see some theist responses to those questions. Your winning this thread in your earlier post doesn't mean too much if you win the thread by default.
Good night, funny man, and thanks for the laughter.
I'll be happy to move it, but it's up to the OP, whether he wants it to be answered by theists or not.
Incidentally, isn't this what all religions do? "My religion is right because it's true. Therefore, you lose."
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
You can move it you like, but I posted it here to get suggestions without Christians jumping all over it in defense. I know they can come up with tons of answers, that's not the point. I just want to make a leaflet that will cause people to think. Chances are, if a theist is on this site, they've encountered these kinds of questions. My target audience is those who haven't, although I won't mind turning this into a slugfest. Some of the questions don't have answers, which is the point.
Btw, anyone got an answer to my last question, the one about PDF files? How can I make those available to everyone?
Do You Worship an Evil God?
Let's just leave it here for now then.
I'm probably the least computer savvy mod on the team. Sorry I can't answer your PDF question.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I really like the questions. I'd like to print them out and just leave leaflets around town here in the bible belt. What about asking why god never heals amputees?
Exactly my plan! I'll be leaving them at school, church, and random other places. I'm in Dallas, so I'm in the same Bible Belt boat as you. I intend to do the same thing with my "You Worship an Evil God" pamphlet, but I want to make it available to everyone in PDF format so other people can just print them off and get to work, instead of having to cut and paste and format the whole thing. I think more people would read the 20 Questions leaflet than they would a pamphlet, regardless of subject matter. I think it'll be overall more effective and easier to do as well.
Do You Worship an Evil God?
I don't know about a downloadable PDF. The only thing I can think of is to post it on PhotoBucket (or a similar site) and keep it large instead of making it smaller to display on websites.
Is there anyone out there that's computer savvy that might be able to help here?
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
If you have personal web space you could upload the PDF into that and just give everyone the link to it.
: Freedom - The opportunity to have responsibility.
: Liberty is about protecting the right of others to disagree with you.
If you have a google account, you could set up a google page and upload the pdf file there. The storage size maxes out at 100MB, but I don't think you'll be creating a PDF file anywhere near that. You could also use the page for future projects like this one.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
How about including the address to the Rational Response Squad's web site on the leaflet? Then they can come here and learn why theism is a harmful and irrational belief system.
Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?
RickRebel:
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/the_rational_response_squad_radio_show/freethinking_anonymous/10995
A leaflet is in progress here. There are 3 different files for the pamphlet, the latest one is at the bottom of the forum. I will most likely create a new forum topic for the final release
I put links to http://www.godisimaginary.com and http://www.whywontgodhealamputees.com, two sites that helped me complete my journey to atheism.
Your god's silence speaks loud and clear
Good deal. Thanks for the links.
The http://www.godisimaginary.com site is awesome.