Why I’m Not a Christian
October 6th, 2007 by The Atheist
For me, religion is pretty clear cut. I’m not religious, and won’t ever be. The easiest religion to discount as being credible is, in my opinion, Christianity. Most of the points I’ll raise below apply to other religions as well, but everything just seems to clear cut when it comes to Christianity. I’ll also cover all these points in more detail at a later date, so I’ll just touch on them briefly here.
So why am I not a Christian?
- I don’t like your God - I guess this is fairly fundamental, but it’s true. Bearing in mind the God doesn’t actually exist, I don’t like the concept. The one thing that really gets me is the whole “Worshiping” thing. If God is all powerful, why does he demand that people worship him? Does he crave the attention that much?
- Free Will - So this whole “free will” thing, the reason bad things happen to good people, it’s bollocks. If there really was free will, and it was supported by God, surely Christians wouldn’t be forced to attend Church? You can’t have it both ways.
- Church - Christians have to go to church. Why? Well, if you believe in something that isn’t logical, something you can’t see or hear, something that doesn’t exist, there’s nothing like surrounding yourself with people who think the same to reaffirm your beliefs.
- The Risk - A favorite question asked by Christians is “what if your wrong?”. As an argument, it’s slightly ridiculous, it’s almost suggesting that people should be Christians just in case their right. I’ve embedded a video at the end of this post which has Richard Dawkins answering this very question and he raises a very good point. My logical argument goes thus. If I am wrong, I’m in a better position that if a Christian is wrong. Imagine the day you die and you suddenly realize there is a God judging you. Would you rather have gone through your life having not worshiped anything, or gone through your life worshiping the wrong God? Would you rather have murdered the wrong person, or not murdered anyone at all?
- Your Heaven is my Hell - Seriously, the one thing that annoys me about Christians more than practitioners of any other religion is the fact they push their beliefs on you at every opportunity. If heaven is full of Christians, I don’t want to be there.
So those are my five top reasons for not being a Christian. I’ve left out the obvious (there’s no God, I wasn’t raised a Christian) and approached it from a more logical angle. I’m going to try and expand on the thoughts on each of the points over the next few weeks.
“Church - Christians have to go to church. Why? Well, if you believe in something that isn’t logical, something you can’t see or hear, something that doesn’t exist, there’s nothing like surrounding yourself with people who think the same to reaffirm your beliefs.”
i dont have to go. actually i go to church because i believe i found someone/something wonderful and i like it to be a part of my regular life. kinda like a husband and wife. would you say that they are in love and wanna be together? or would you say that they are simply surrounding themselves with each other to pretend that the concept of marriage is real and to keep reaffirming each other that they are in fact married?
I was not raised a Christian. I am a logical person, but not a stubborn person.
I came to faith a few years ago when I was faced with some rather full-on experiences of God that I could not logically or fairly dismiss, and because I am not stubborn I was willing to open my mind to the possibility that God may exist.
I have now chosen, out of free will and against the grain of those around me, to consider the evidence in my own life and choose to believe. Now that I believe I no longer require empirical proofs (though I believe there are very compelling ones out there) as I realise that faith is a matter of exactly that: faith.
Nothing in these debates will come to any conclusion, because ultimately the issue is not about proof, it is about faith. Any one can debate proof. But only I can debate my own faith.
Why debate other people’s faith? Only they know what they believe and only they can debate it.
Also, Christians do not have to go to church. I don’t know where that came from. Many Christians don’t go to church. The bible says that famous line “Your body is a temple”… you don’t need to go to the temple or church, because it is in your heart.
My faith does not live at church, it lives only in me.
I just watched the Dawkins clip and was really disappointed! He completely ignored the question! His answer was really immature to me.
This is my answer to the issue:
It doesn’t matter if a christian is wrong (I’ll just use myself as an example because I can only speak for myself).
If I am wrong, and God is not real, it doesn’t matter one bit. Because when I die I will die like everyone else. Sure I was deluded all those years, but who cares because we’re all dead and buried now. There are no consequences.
But if an athiest is wrong, and god IS real, then it matters VERY much. Because when they die, they will have to face God. There are very significant consequences.
As I said, I was not raised a Christian (as Dawkins would assume).
If a theist is wrong, and God does NOT exist, there are no consequences for him. But if an athiest is wrong, and God DOES exist, there are very serious consequences for him.
I don’t like your God
How can you not like something that does not exist?
Christians have to go to church. Why?
Who is forced by whom to go to church?
The one thing that really gets me is the whole “Worshiping” thing. If God is all powerful, why does he demand that people worship him? Does he crave the attention that much?
He is King and those in hell, or everlasting condemnation will get exactly what they want…not God
Church - Christians have to go to church. Why? Well, if you believe in something that isn’t logical, something you can’t see or hear, something that doesn’t exist, there’s nothing like surrounding yourself with people who think the same to reaffirm your beliefs.
I would guess on the contrary you would hang out with non-believers?
Your Heaven is my Hell - Seriously, the one thing that annoys me about Christians more than practitioners of any other religion is the fact they push their beliefs on you at every opportunity.
No one should push their beliefs on to others. It is sad that some Christians do. Sharing information looks different than pushing.
Interesting view points by the writer of Why I’m Not a Christian. I noticed God was was capitalized throughout.
God is a verb. God is love and is the spirit of love. Jesus said that those who deny the Son will be forgiven, but not those who deny the spirit. In other words, Jesus KNEW that men would name/claim him and cause many to stop believing in him. That’s ok. As long as you continue to love one another, you understand the spirit, regardless of the ‘name’ you assign to the noun.
A lot of Athiests are living with the Spirit of God better than Christians are living for the name.