Well, I know there are Christians who are going to disagree and that is really welcome. Having said that, I will go ahead to write why I think Christianity as a religion or a worldview whatever its adherents want to call it, has no redeeming feature. I will just give a few examples and hopefully we can develop the list together.
1. It is life denying
In the old testament, women are treated as impure after childbirth, that they need cleansing. They tell us man is born sinful [I know the evangelicals are moving away from the doctrine of original sin]. They condemn you at birth and at the grave. They tell you, rather their greatest prophet, Jeebus tells you that to be angry is as good as murder, he criminalizes sensual thoughts. He, Jeebus, even curses a tree out of season!
2. Death is the modus operandi
In all situations where their god has felt like redeeming humanity, a people he condemns in the beginning of Genesis, he has chosen blood as his method. The difference has always been in numbers, but death all the same.
3. Their supposed god has favorites
In Genesis, he chooses the gifts of Abel over those of Cain without any reason. The christian apologist insists their supposed god is all loving. Where was the love when he chose the sons of Jacob as a special group, where was the love when he killed the child born of David and Uriah’s wife, where was the love when he stopped the sun for 6 hours? so that Joshua could continue butchering, where was the love when his prophet killed all the prophets of Baal?
4. It is anti- secularism, anti- intellectualism
There is no verse in the bible that encourages doubt and inquiry. It requires you to submit to authority and nothing more. All its laws are not earth based, they are meant to please the heavens. Nowhere is dissent preached, nowhere is independence of mind advocated, it calls people sheep and its adherents are truly sheeples[many if not all of them]!
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As a bonus, there is a piece on free will over at WEIT that some of you maybe interested in looking at.
Random thoughts 
Excellent! The point is that most christians don’t read or know the bible, for instance how many christians know that jesus told them to hate their family?
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Thanks, I guess if they know, they can rationalise it as their theologians and apologists are wont to do!
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Yes, of course. Religion is psychological not logical. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any religion today.
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I have met Christians who argue religion is rational and logical and it is atheism that is irrational and illogical. How they arrive to that position is beyond me though!
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There are too many inconsistencies and contradictions in christian theology to be logical.
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It is for that reason they have apologists and theologians to play mental gymnastics!
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Yep. However, I have yet to see an apologists who really makes. Maybe should christian apologists try a dfferent track AND apologize for all the suffering caused by christianity.
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They would be out of business
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A very clear message, Mak! I really like how you put ‘life denying’ at number one. People being dirty sinners who should be condemned for what they think…yes, that does say it all. 🙂
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You know, this condemnations starts just a few chapters after Genesis 1 and the theists want to convince us their god is all loving and merciful!
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shallow thought yu have on this.
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How now?
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must religion be logical? give religion its space of being, jus as philosophy is on logic, religion is on faith.
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Religious adherents makes claims that their beliefs are rational. So either it is a rational position or an irrational one, I don’t see two ways here!
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if religion was just “faith”, then theists wouldn’t be doing their best to lie about all the evidence they supposedly have.
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It is interesting, club, some group says it’s just faith and another that they have evidence!
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yes, another reason to disblieve the whole lot of them.
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One of the few “redeeming” features of Christianity is the sense of community that one can find. I’ve attended mass a couple times to see what it was like and, while the sermons were too lofty and contrived-feel, it was actually rather peaceful. Not all religious people believe that their faith is necessarily rational. It’s the bible thumpers that you gotta watch out for. A friend of mine is Catholic, goes to church every Sunday, but he’s read even less of The Bible than I have. He’s also annoyed by uber-Catholics and mainly believes in just not harming others.
So while Christianity – and other religions – have been used to justify irrationality and stupidity, devoutness comes in varying degrees. People like my friend can belong to a community (without being a bigotted idiot).
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A case can be made for community but then I would argue it is not unique to Christianity. The Greeks met in the agora, the Romans in the forum and senate houses. So appealing to the sense of community does not redeem Christianity because it is a human response.
Your Catholic friend does not follow his creed simply because he has discovered he can be good or even better without the creed. So this is not an argument against the Christians, but their creed.
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Anti-Intellectual, anti-secular is what bites me the hardest. Believe in magic men in the sky if you want to, just leave that shit at the door, thank you.
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Pardon me Makagutu, I’m going to hijack this part of your blog over here to pick on JZ for a bit…because I can. Jump in if you want.
So, chronology guy, who says they live in the sky? Elvis eats at Burger King.
But seriously, answer me this because I am totally ignorant of atheist ‘ideas’ (and alien ones for that matter): any idea why I hear so many atheists discount the possibly of gods, but then turn around and praise what they claim to be a domineering (benevolent or no), interference of aliens? Isn’t that just trading one version of gods for another?
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Of course it is, and that’s precisely why UFO religions started springing up in the 1950’s… but i haven’t heard any atheists talking about benevolent aliens.
All the anthropomorphic gods live in the sky… those “Up High.” Personally i like the nature spirits. Not spirits, of course, in my mind, but natural things (rivers, oceans, mountains) do possess personalities of a sought.
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Amen
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I could almost definitely ( :-)) vouch for the spirit of natural things… We communicate on some level. Hmm this is getting weird. Get the dreamer out of here.
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Naw, ever seen an angora rabbit? Now that’s weird.
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I had not, so I looked it up. You are right that’s weird and I am still laughing.
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I couldn’t find it’s wittle head!
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It’s around the black spot/nose, somewhere.
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The dreamer can’t leave just yet!
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🙂 still hanging around.
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😀
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I think I agree with you. The natives talked about the wind, something they could feel but I don’t think they conceived it as a personal god.
And it is not us who took the gods to the sky. I mean we are told Jeebus rose up to the heavens!
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I don’t personally talk about aliens benevolent or not.
The idea of the sky god is one, if not implicitly said it is implied. The prayer Jeebus taught is ‘our father who art in heaven….’ a place that is said to be up somewhere in space. It is not my or any atheist’s creation but there promoted by the believers. Even Mo is said to have gone to god on a pegasus and he didn’t go into the earth crust. Does this answer your question?
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The sky question was just to pick on John, but I loved your answer!
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😀
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hmm, what atheists are praising aliens? This one, aka me, isn’t. And I am curious what evidence people claiming alien nonsense are citing.
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Pyramids, and Mayan spaceships, crop circles and Elvis. You name it, I’ve heard it. It’s cool for them, but not my bag.
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It’s threats all the way!
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Initially I thought of two good qualities of this belief system that I find admirable but are often (always?) downplayed by the hypocrites who follow (supposedly) this creed. However, after reading your essay, I find myself questioning that thought. Nice job and good points, my friend.
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The Christians and muslims and Judaists are better than their creed. If any of them claims they are good because of their creed, we have to handle them with a long rod!
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Christians may have redeeming features. Christianity does not. The few bits that are humane and decent, can be found in much better sources. Ones that don’t need acrobatic apologetics.
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As the adage goes, Christians are better than their religion!
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Religion<Christians<x1000 what they make their religion out to be
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We have Christmas. We get free stuff and vacation days. That’s kinda bad ass 🙂
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Haha, Hmmm! Well yes, we have kinda lots of holidays
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Very good points, I especially like the seldom mentioned part where the god God has favourites. That always seemed bizarre. I think Christianity does have a couple of redeeming features though. The first being the social aspect that someone has touched upon, which I think is especially important for older people in some societies. They are quite often living alone, far from any family and the church gives them a reliable and trustworthy sense of community and social contact that bingo and the library don’t quite stretch to. The second is Christianity’s contribution to architecture and art generally – lots of cool things wouldn’t exist without it.
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We would still have got the music and art without Christianity since they aren’t so to speak special to it. I think the religion has no redeeming features, it’s adherents try to redeem it because they are better than their creed.
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I don’t know about that. Yes, of course we would have art anyway, I grant you. But there is something very moving and unique about some art work that seeks to touch the divine, not appease it, but to transcend the physical world and reach into the spiritual. I am thinking specifically about the gothic cathedrals with their lacy stones and the stained glass that changes the light within the “sacred” space. It is more than the sum of its parts in those spaces, it reflects a whole humanity seeking to understand and cope with its tragedies and yearnings. I am not moved the same way in shinto or Budhist temples or mosques. It could be entirely cultural…
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I think it is entirely cultural. The Buddhist must feel the same sense of awe when they get to a temple of Buddha or visit the sites that are said to have been visited by the great sage. The Greeks felt the same way about the Parthenon, the Egyptians felt the same way about the Pyramids, and am sure the Aztecs must have felt the same way about the Ziggarat.
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Not only does it provide no value, but it’s counterproductive to a healthy society.
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Very counterproductive.
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People, no matter what they believe/don’t believe – have redeeming features. Religions as practised by many – very little redeeming features.
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