Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Top 10 Religulous Questions:

This ‘mockumentary’ video by Bill Maher is often vile, irreverent and blasphemous. It is often ill-informed (Maher states that no one who ever wrote about Jesus had ever met him… Matthew and John anybody?) and clearly biased (he makes his yardage by getting often embarrassing answers from average Christians, while not showing any well-spoken knowledgeable Christian apologists).

However, this video is instructive. It is most frustrating that the ‘average’ Christians did such a poor job of defending their faith; this is why many see Christians as dogmatic, simple and ignorant. These poor answers play into Maher’s statement that “Faith means making a virtue of not thinking”, and this should challenge us to THINK!

As a follow-up to our Video BLOG on this topic, here are some major questions that were asked directly or by inference. These questions are not listed to say anything negative about Maher; they are tough, provocative and worthwhile questions. Can you answer them; at least with some semblance of support and logic?

Note: Click Here to download a file of all 33 questions.
  1. What evidence is there for the existence of Christ (given that no one who wrote about him even met him)?

  2. How can we believe in a talking snake, people living to 900 yrs of age and the virgin birth?

  3. Why did Lot offer his daughters to be raped in order to protect the angels; and he was the good guy?

  4. Are miracles not just mundane coincidences?

  5. Did Jonah really live inside a big fish for 3 days (how)?

  6. Are the Ten Commandments really the ten most important laws? Only two of them are real laws; don’t steal and don’t kill. Why not include torture, child abuse and rape?

  7. Do you think that, if when you were a kid, they transposed the Bible stories with fairy tales, that you would know the difference as an adult?

  8. God is super-powerful, he can do anything, why doesn’t he just obliterate the devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world? What is he waiting for?

  9. Your God is jealous, that seems so un-godlike, I know people who have gotten over jealousy. (Can you justify his jealousy?)

  10. Does it ever bother you that the story of Jesus was floating around the Mediterranean area for at least 1000 years before him? Implied question – is the story of Jesus not just a compilation of other stories?

    1. Krishna (India >1000 years BC) was a carpenter, born of a virgin and baptized in a river.

    2. Mithra (Persian god ~600 BC) was born on Dec. 25, performed miracles, resurrected on the third day and was known as the: lamb, way, truth, light, savior and messiah.

    3. In 1280 BC, the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes a god, Horus, who was born to a virgin, baptized in a river by Anup the baptizer, who was later beheaded. He was tempted while alone in the desert, healed the sick, the blind and walked on water, raised Asar from the dead (translates into Lazarus), had 12 disciples. He was crucified first, after 3 days, two women announced that he had been resurrected.
These questions should give you pause for thought. This might stimulate some personal study or maybe even some sermon topics. Thanks Bill.

14 comments:

  1. It is a shame how people will watch this and see it as valid. Unfortunately those whole may be genuinely interested in learning about Christianity will be misinformed.

    It seems as though the person who made this film was a bit uneducated himself. If he is wrong (example: the people writing about Jesus not knowing him) maybe people will see how his message is actually wrong.

    I would hope that this would encourage Christians to become educated and study their bibles. We live in a world that no longer just has faith they need evidence. I would recommend people read "Evidence that demands a verdict" by Josh McDowell. It is a long read but well worth it.

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    1. Why would you ever want to believe in something that you do not know to be true? That seems absolutely pointless, irrational and uneducated. Just because you can type correctly, use proper punctuation, and speak using elaborate sentences, phrases and all that bullshit, does not make you smart.

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  2. This is why I don't watch movies.

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  3. That Josh McDowell book is great. I would recommend it as well.

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  4. The facts on Mithra and various Dionysus-Osiris pagan cults sharing numerious things with the story and teachings of Jesus is not only undeniable, it is part of documented church history.

    We even have letters from the very same church founders that we are studying in our History of the Christian Era classes discussing their dismay over these things, and the church even was forced to come up with a response to these items.

    Altough their response was to find all these cults and wipe them out, and to come up with the theory of plagiarism by anticipation. Which is one of the most ridiculous theories I have ever heard of. That theory still exists to this day in the church.

    So what are we going to teach on this matter? I only see two options...

    Option 1: Say... I just don't believe it. It is just not true. Put your fingers and your ears and say its just a lie.

    Option 2: Teach plagiarism by anticipation. Tell everyone that Satan somehow knew everything that Christ was going to do thousands of years before he did it.. including little details such as the water to wine story, riding on a donkey, or being visited by the 3 wise men... and he inspired men to create false religions that copy Jesus... before Jesus existed... just to screw with us.

    So far I see from the above comments..

    1. Its a lie
    2. Its uneducated opinion
    3. Study the bible more
    4. Reac more Christian books
    5. Stop watching movies

    Is this really how we deal with issues?

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  5. I believe Bill Maher presented all of his facts very well. Of course it's going to be biased because he is the host of the documentary. In a culture where it's okay to question people who very strong beliefs about something, I don't understand why that principle can't be practiced in religion as well.

    The Bible does have outrageous improbabilities. For example, the Jewish Supreme Counsel meeting on Passover Eve to get put Jesus to death. And Ponchos Pilot letting go of a known killer of Romans for Jesus to take the killer's place.

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  6. Bill Maher's point is that you cannot "study" the bible because he believes it is a fictitous book. Everyone posting to "go and study the bible" or find ways to defend their beliefs by interpretations may have trouble because there are no facts or proof that any of it is true.

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  7. This was a fantastic movie! I watched it tonight and it really made me think! My favorite line was at the end when Bill said that Religion is keeping us from living our lives. It is so true. I admire this documentary, and I hope that people will start to question organized religion. Most of the people that he interviewed hadn't even thought to question what they believe! One guy even walked out! I would not consider that courageous; I would consider that fear. People will believe anything that they are told. I find that sad. People really need to develop individuality.

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  8. The Average Person can not explain how their TV works so it must be a fable

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    1. But it CAN be explained by facts. That's where a TV is defferen't from the Bible lol

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  9. To the person who said the Bible is impossible to prove should do an in depth study of Archeology of the area. AND by your rationalization, Egyptian history can not exist, because it shares the same amount of Archeology evidence as the Bible (some of its historical facts are in the Bible)

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  10. I love how followers one religion think the others beliefs are ridiculous. And why do followers feel the need to claim that the existence of god is proven,when they can't. They are unwilling to simply say that it is solely faith.

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  11. I thought his point was great: Doubt

    One religion may be right, all may be right or none may be right. But the point is, we really don't know. It is wise to be doubtful, to ask questions & explore. It is ignorant to believe solely on faith. The Greeks believed Zeus was God, for the Egyptians it was Ra. We laugh at their ignorant beliefs, yet we are accepting organized religion of today on faith without asking any questions.

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  12. No Ancient Egyptian record that mentions Israeli slaves or Moses has been found. Roman records list Herod's death at 4BC. DNA studies agree that humans did not evolve from one common ancestor. Mark and Matthew contradict each other. The Muslims allowed the Jews to stay in Jerusalem. The First Crusade massacred the Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem. DNA studies of Jewish rabbi hint of a common 3000 BC ancestor

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