Very few are those who can believe in the Christian God and yet live in defiance of him, too. Belief dictates reliance, not defiance, and a subordination of self will to God’s will. This is a path that many choose not to follow, and the choice is easier to justify by criticizing the imperfections of those who follow God’s path than by criticizing the path itself. By dwelling upon the hypocrisy, bigotry and self-righteousness of some believers, the non-believer can feel morally (and/or intellectually) superior to all believers.

Self-righteousness and intellectual contempt, the very things they condemn in Christians, provide a veneer of respectability for their non-belief and a plausible shield against the type of self-examination that belief ultimately dictates. There is not and never will be a shortage of motes and even logs lodged in the eyes of believers, and thus there will always be an ability for the non-believer to rationalize his defiance, and his acceptance of the claimed consequences of defiance.

The suggestion that Christians are “the single greatest cause of unbelief” in Christ is absurd and challenges God’s plan in a manner so fundamental as to challenge God himself. Christ “blew it”, then, when he selected disciples, gave instructions for the creation of a Church, and instructed his followers to spread the “good news,” as he entrusted these matters to those who are and always will be flawed and imperfect. One Jimmy Swaggert is enough to defeat such an imperfect plan. No, I think the greatest cause of unbelief, and of the struggles of believers (myself included), is self-righteousness, self-justification and a lack of humility.

Our younger generation has not accumulated a great amount of life experience, however, they are perceptive. As a teacher I can certainly attest that students, both then and now, perceive actions more than words. I think it is belittling of youthful minds to say their own perceptions of Christianity come from a tainted or slanted media, such as in the form of comedy news programs. Though this is one area for students today to become informed about religion, I would suggest the larger perceptions stem forth from Christian or irreligious friends, local churches, family members, and their community.

For certain the book unChristian does present a multitude of statistics, some of them necessary, others not that important.

However, it is my belief the book presented what teenagers and adults are thinking the world over about Christians:

“The single greatest cause of unbelief today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and get on with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

I am surprised that you would make the claims you have without reading the whole Bible. Or have you? I mean, there are plenty of benefits during this lifetime of being forgiven by God. As for your problem with faith, we do have evidence of the existence of God. It is all around you in creation and in how he has changed out lives. You use evolution of species as a way to boost your argument, but that has been shown to be without fact or even possibility, even by secular scientists. So who here has faith without basis in fact? I’d also love to know how you could determine if morality is derived from a deity or not.

Mary S.

In either case, I’m not sure I believe in such “concepts.” I don’t think science has proven such things exist. But maybe you have faith in “shared moral concepts.” If you and I share this invisible “moral concept,” why are we arguing?

Would another “shared moral concept” be Don’t kill other people? Boy, that one would have come in handy in Pakistan, eh?

I’m off to worship with the saints. Thanks for the challenge; it keeps me sharp.

Yes, it is morally wrong to teach any theory as fact to a child. Just as it was wrong for those who followed David Koresh to teach their children he was the second coming of Christ.

Should religious indoctrination in children be illegal? Is it the equivalent of child abuse? Should a person not be allowed to choose what god they want to worship until they are an adult? A person most often becomes the religion of their parent for no other reason than that is the person who raised them. There was no conscious choice. There was no careful examination of the various religions and gods currently being worshiped and then whichever one they ‘connect’ with becomes their religion. Consider the following scenarios: A young child of 7 years-old is being raised by Christian parents, and during a camping trip in Utah, both parents are bitten by a poisonous snake and die. The child wonders off into the wilderness and is later found by another family who was also camping. The child is taken in by the family and raised by them. The family is Mormon. Will the child grow up to be a Christian or a Mormon like his ‘adopted’ family? How about if the Christian family is doing missionary work in Afghanistan and their vehicle hits an old landmine and everyone is killed but the child who wonders off into the desert and is found by an Afghani family. The child will grow up and be a Muslim not a Christian. How about if the Christian family is doing missionary work in the depths of the Amazon and is attacked by a Jaguar and the parents are killed. Say a local tribe finds the child and raises him amongst them. That child will grow up worshiping the river god Waesaritu. Why would God allow the innocent child to be misled this way, damning him to eternal hellfire?

[[[…I don’t understand why you’d mind if the Church takes over the whole world. I mean, what’s it to you since we’re all going to die anyway? Why not live and let live…]]]

Live and let live is a practice few god worshipers follow. In fact, interfering in everyone’s lives seems to be their primary goal.

You appear to be an intelligent person. I hope you’ll be so bold as to check out my site http://doubtingthomas426.wordpress.com/ even though the questions I post for god worshipers will most likely rub you and yours the wrong way. I’ve categorized all my posts on the left. Take a few minutes to read through a few. Leave a comment if you like. Take Care.

One of our shared moral concepts is presumably, one ought not to deliberately attempt to believe falsehoods, or conversely, one should attempt to filter out falsehoods and find what is true.

Faith, by definition, is a subversion of this, in that it involves believing things to a degree of certainty which exceeds what is warranted by the available evidence, in some cases, believing in spite of the evidence. Faith, in this respect, is inherently dishonest, and immoral.

There you go. Happy?

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
” ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’ ”
Romans 14:10-11

I hope that books like this and “Jim and Casper Go to Church” push pastors (and lay people) to ask good questions of friends they have who are not currently a part of a church (including opinions like Steve’s). I think that these are the kind of questions that will put churches focus back on their neighbors and off the path to Mega-Churchdom (at least that’s what I hope).

Thanks for your blog.