Christianity as a Leap of Faith


A Christian pundit wrote recently it is wrong for church goers, as well as non-church goers, to only somewhat tolerate the farfetched things in the faith. Instead, he advises, people should swallow the entire whale. They should believe the entire list of things that on their face are not believable. The faith is not, he writes, a leap of faith but a provable set of facts. 

I'll digress here to discuss the way Christians regard the majority of the world's population which is not Christian. These millions can be divided into those who have been preached to but do not believe the claims of Christianity and those who have never encountered Christianity. Parts of the faith give these latter millions a pass--they will not spend entirety in a fiery hell. Those who have heard but did not buy in will, of course, have a miserable eternity. (I've been told countless times on this blog I'm the latter.)

We atheists have no lever, like hell, to mentally abuse believers as they have to use against us. So, we can only offer advice. The link author goes through all the reasons it is logical to believe all the Christian tenets. In the end, however, believing them requires one believe the Bible was actually written by someone or some being other than self-serving human beings. The atheist's advice to believers is your life can improve if you treat the Bible as you would any other piece of written propaganda. 

Here is where we atheists encounter our weakness. If life were fair, we could say to believers, "You have been exposed to the truth. The truth is there is no evidence the Bible was written be anyone other than self-serving humans. Now that you have been exposed to the truth, you will suffer eternal punishment if you fail to believe this truth. You have a hardened heart and must face your consequences."

But, we have no such club with which to beat believers. We do not have the bull whip which Jesus used on the money changers in the temple. Telling believers they are throwing their lives, money and time down a worthless rat hole is not as persuasive as "eternity in hell." 

However, we none-believers have something going for us believers do not have. We have time on our side. So far as we know, there have always been humans who did not believe in unseen gods and spirits. We can make the valid claim, "The truth never changes." Christians, on the other hand, cannot make this claim. Religions and their gods have changed countless times. Without lifting a finger, atheists are watching a decline in Christianity. 

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