Sunday, February 7, 2010

thought of the day.394

3 Problems with Jesus’ Sacrifice

1. HELL
According to Christian doctrine, Jesus died to save humanity from hell. Of course he created hell, so to praise him for this is like praising a fireman for saving children from a house he set ablaze.

2. DEATH
An all-knowing and all-powerful eternal being cannot die, has nothing to fear and knows his “death” is not really death at all. To say “Jesus died for our sins” is quite misleading.

3. SACRIFICE
What exactly did Jesus sacrifice? Not his life and certainly not his comfort — he moved from the outhouse of earth to the penthouse of heaven. It wasn’t even an extraordinary act. What good parent would not do the same for their child? What good spouse would not do the same for their partner? What good friend and neighbor would not do the same to save his friends and neighbors from eternal suffering?

Jesus is not only a myth but a rather poor one at that.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

1. Jesus did not create Hell for humans. Hell was created for demons and Satan. Your analogy, then, does not add up. The children weren't supposed to be in the building.

2. An eternal being cannot die, however, God made himself fully human in the form of Jesus. He did die, as a human would; he just also came back to life. (Lazarus came back to life too - just not of his own doing - so Jesus wasn't the only human ever to do this, just the first to do it of his own self.)

3. I'll admit I've thought on this one myself. A spouse would sacrifice themself for their partner, a friend for their friend, a parent for their child. This analogy might be a little weird, but if I made some people out of play-dough and someone threatened to squish them, I sure wouldn't sacrifice my life for my little play-dough people. Even if the little people were enabled somehow with personality I don't think I'd die for my play-dough people. That's where the sacrifice is - that God made people, that people rejected God, that God still died for them anyway. I've been asked out by guys before and rejected them, and I can tell you right now that after telling them no (however nicely I try!) they sure wouldn't be willing to die for me!

john evans said...

1. If he is all-knowing he knew BEFORE making his torture chamber that he would be torturing most of humanity in it. He knew BEFORE making humans that he would torture most of them for eternity.

2. Yeah, coming back to life was rather commonplace in the bible (OT and NT) and most all other religions.

3. You might not die for them but I bet you a kazillion dollars you wouldn’t torture them either. Not for a second. :)

Unknown said...

(I said they wouldn't die for me, not vice versa.)

And I suppose if you were a Christian, you would be a Calvinist/determinist? Saying people actually have no free will because God knows what is going to happen is like saying that because I have read a book before, I must have caused the characters to do what they did. God is outside of time. He can see the past, present, and future, but to him it's just "now". There is no time outside of our universe. He knows what will happen, but we still make our own decisions.

john evans said...

“God is outside of time. He can see the past, present, and future, but to him it's just "now". There is no time outside of our universe. He knows what will happen, but we still make our own decisions.”

Wow. Really? I am awed by your intimate knowledge of the seemingly unknowable!