Atheism VS Christianity

1: Why are you an atheist?

Note; To make certain each party had a good chance to reply to one another, we will be taking turns choosing the subject/question, and will each have 2 replies to one another. Ariodor was offered the first question, but turned down the offer.

Mckenzie; Why are you an atheist?

Ariador; Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a small child of five, let's call him Jasper. So Jasper, like all children his age, was quite hyperactive: He used to jump randomly from place to place, run about the entire house shouting 'I AM BATMAN' and create loads of mischief. However, Jasper's mom was smart too, and instead of disciplining her child by violent means, she used a different approach.

One day she told him that if he didn't listen to his elders, the Boogyman will take him to the Underworld and there he will be eaten. Of course, Jasper was quite terrified by this, and from then on he stopped his mischiefs (not really but that's what his mom thought). So... years went on, Jasper grew up from a little dumb kid to a regular child.

At some unknown pointin his life (somewhere around the age of 7) he was told by his parents that the Boogyman did not exist and that this was all a trick to get him into obeying his parents. Little Jasper was left in embarrassment; he couldn't believe he got fooled so easily.

So... Let's increase Jasper's age a bit more, to some unknown point when he is introduced to the concept of gods and religions, so Jasper hears that there's something called a 'god' that had apparently created the universe, he is enterested. He is also told that there is apparently a rulebook which if he doesn't follow then he will go to some place called 'hell' where he will burn for all eternity for doing wrong things. Does this sound familiar?

Mckenzie; That is a horrible story, because in that story there is a constant threat looming over your life and you fear breaking the rules because of it. In the Bible, Jews also came to live in this fear, and they made hundreds and thousands of laws within God's laws to make certain they couldn't break God's law.

But the difference between these stories and the story of Christianity is this; we don't have fear looming over our heads all the time. Yes, we sin, we break God's laws. But we can have hope because the price of our sins has been paid. When Jesus came to earth, He paid the price so that we may have assurence of our place in heaven.

All we have to do is accept and trust that the debt has been paid, and do everything in our power to sin no more. As long as we do that, we don't have to fear hell, because God promises we (those who accept and repent) will not go there.

Ariador; To be fair I've heard that one sentence too many times, and I think it's a really flawed arguement.

Firstly, why should I join a religion which has no more chances of being truer than any other? Say now I tell you that Cthulhu exists and the only way to please him is to offer sacrifices to him, hoping he'll spare you when he rises from his sunken tomb. You have no way of telling me I am wrong. So why should I believe something which has little difference from any other fantasy story?

Secondly, this statement proves that religion isn't based on love and acceptance, as it claims to, but rather fear. The missionaries who come to speak to us are not using love, but rather fear to convert people by telling them they're doing something wrong.

Mckenzie; I fail to see any flaws in my reply, but if there are any, I apoligize.

Yes, it's true that if you told me Cthulhu exists there is no way I can tell you he doesn't, but on the flip side of it, there is no way you can prove to me that he does. The difference is this; Christianity is entirely dependant on the belief that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. If you disprove this, you disprove Christianity. But Jesus' death and resurrection is something that can be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

We can prove Jesus existed not only because of the Gospel writers' testamonies, but also by the writings of the other authors from those times. We can prove he died because of the details in the Gospels about things like blood and water flowing from the side wound (proof that the Roman's spear pierced his heart) Which is something a simple fisherman would not have known. And because the Roman soldiers were professional killers and would often be killed if they failed their job.

So Jesus did die on that cross. Now comes proof that he was raised from the dead; there were literally thousands of people who saw him alive from three days to several months after. A delusion? A conspiracy? Not likely, because many of these people died horrifically as a result of their refusal to renounce their claims. Nobody would do this for a lie, and few would do it for the truth unless it was an extremely significant truth.

As for the fear factor, let me put it this way; I think everyone can agree that there is evil in this world. If not, watch the news. There is murder, rape, theft, child abuse, you name it. Think of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussain, do you really want there to be no hell? No. If there is no hell, there is no reason for people not to do horrific things.

Intolerance? I think we can agree that everyone has lied, stolen, and commited adultery in our hearts by looking at someone with lust. But dispite the fact that we spit in God's face every time we sin, He longs to give us a second chance. He wants to give us that grace so badly, that He allowed His Son to die, paying our fine so He can legally dismiss our case.