2 Comments:

Anonymous wrote:

When looking at the title of this list, its clear that whoever made this list didnt have a full grasp of what it means to be a Fundamentalist Christian. True, many of the items are those famous from the fundamentalist agenda, but many of them are also aspects in which all Christians share views, be they Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, etc. In fact, after reading, I have decided that a more apt title might have been Top Ten Signs Youre a Christian and Act Like One. It seems that if youre a faithful Christian, youre automatically a fundamentalist (mostly).

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

The first item on this list attacks apparent hypocrisy on the part of Christians. Apparently, saying that your religion is accurate makes you hypocritical. Seems a bit silly, doesnt it? For the sake of argument, lets assume that a religion and all its beliefs are 100% real/true. Now assume that because of this, all other religions are false. Sure, those other religions may have good morals and value systems. They may even preach peace. Regardless (for the sake of argument), they worship false Gods. Is it not the duty of those members of the one true faith to convert those that arent members of the one true faith? What good is salvation when you cant share it with your friends, family, and loved ones? If I were sure that I would be granted paradise, wouldnt I want to take as many people there with me?

I think we can all agree, though, that every religion believes themselves to be the correct religion. No one would be a part of a religion if they thought it was false. However, ..10 attacks Christians who defend their religion, even if they become outraged in the process. How terrible of them for wanting people to be in heaven with them. For shame!

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

The author here makes the mistake of assuming Gods actions take place within the realms of science. They can, but do not always. God works within the realm of science, but he is also the Lord. God, by definition, is perfect and all-powerful. Then quite simply, he could create life from dirt if he chose to.

Besides, evolutionists claim that life began when matter formed with other matter randomly in the universe to form single-celled organisms with their own genetic codes. These single-celled organisms branched out and out millions of times. Eventually, one of those branches became humans. Hence, in evolution we are formed by matter as well, just not dirt. Chemicals from space and dirt we hear about in the bible are both matter in the end.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

The author of the list wants you to think that Christians must be hypocrites. After all, how can we condemn polytheism if we are polytheists ourselves? Actually, the definition of triune is one in three. The definition of polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one God. Well, Christians do worship one God. God, however, is also three entities. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit dont each comprise one-third of God. Each is fully God, one hundred percent. This very concept works outside of the realm of science, obviously. However, God by definition is all-powerful (as mentioned above). Christ himself said that those who have seen him have also seen his father, implying that he and the Father were one. Yet by the same token, he also often prayed to God the Father, implying that they were of separate entities (see John 14:9, Luke 11:1-4).

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

Since God the Father (the God/Jehovah referred to in the Old Testament) is the same as Jesus Christ (from the New Testament), there would seemingly be a contradiction. God the father seems angry and vengeful, while Jesus Christ seems loving and peaceful. However, Christians believe in something known as righteous anger. Righteous anger is the concept of morally just anger. Righteous anger is what Jesus exhibited when overturning tables when he discovered merchants selling goods in his fathers temple (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46). It is acceptable for any human to exhibit righteous anger. However, wrath that comes from that righteous anger is not acceptable to us. Wrath is, though, acceptable for God to use. God says that vengeance is his alone.

God used this vengeance plenty of times throughout the centuries against those who disobeyed him, including the Egyptians, who had enslaved Gods chosen people (the Israelites) and were killing Israeli newborn infants. God gave them Moses as a messenger to warn the Egyptians. After several attempts at peace, God sent unnatural plagues upon them, including water turning to blood, insects, boils, etc. The Pharaoh even had promised Moses that he would let the Israelites go if he would ask God to stop the plagues. He broke those promises. After all this, God took the lives of every firstborn in every Egyptian family in one nights time. Sure, its not comforting to think God killed some children to prove a point, but it was a last resort. Many of those children were innocents, and Christians entrust that God would show them infinite mercy because of their innocence. God judges perfectly, and innocents are never held accountable of their sin.

The same goes for the innocents found in Joshua. The author points out that God had his chosen people slaughter women and trees too! Women could easily have been as war mongering as the men involved in the slaughter. As for trees, even Christ killed a tree (Matthew 21:19). Those ethnic groups that were killed included the Chanaanites. According to the ancient Assyrian and Egyptian writings and excavations by the Palestine Exploration Fund, we learn much. The Chanaanites, in addition to occupying land that God had promised to some other people, were worshipping false Gods, sacrificing their own infants, and worshipping phallic symbols.

In short, God is merciful to those who can, could, and do seek his mercy. However, since innocents may be too young to seek his mercy, they are not culpable in any way. God is just. Innocents may die, but they cannot seek Gods mercy due to their given age. Hence, we trust that God shows them his infinite love and care on them.

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

The big difference here is that when the Greeks talked about gods sleeping with women, they mean that the god (Zeus for example) came down from mount Olympus in human form to have sexual intercourse with a female. The Holy Spirit never came to her in human form, and certainly never had sexual intercourse with her. She merely conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is God (Luke 1:26-38).

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

Actually, I have no arguments with ..5. Bravo, author. We can infer that the events of creation in the book of Genesis (the first book of the bible) are symbolic. However, I will note that many atheists take this opportunity to then say the entire Bible then must have been made to be symbolic. Not so. Ancient Jewish and Roman records, as well as archaeology coincide with the historical events of most of the bible.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

Well, I will say that not all Christian sects believe that all other religions are going to hell. Even in fundamentalist Christian sects, most will agree that those who never have heard about the life of Jesus wont be held responsible for converting (for example, members of a tribe in some remote area of the planet).
Personally, I wouldnt say Christianity is tolerant at all. If a fellow Christian were to say such a thing, I would correct him. Tolerance allows evil to slip its way into this world in order to desecrate the world God intended. A modern Christian leader once said, America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance. It is not. It is suffering from tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so much overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded. If anything, we need to be more intolerant of evil in the world. Human slave trafficking, ethnic cleansing, abortion, euthanasia, gay marriages, war, the arms race, and multitudes of other evils occur in todays world. These are things Christians need to be intolerant of, period.

As for Hell, the Bible shows us that God works in covenants. If youre unfamiliar, a covenant is a contract. Ill do (a) if you do (b). Gods final covenant occurred when Christ announced it at the last supper (Luke 20:22, Mark 14:24, Matthew 26:28). Christ would die for the sins of the world, but in return, we must do as he asks of us. What will happen to those who sin? Sadly, there is eternal sorrow, anguish, pain, and suffering (Matthew 5:29, Matthew 10:28, Mark 9:47, Revelation 20:13-15).

The opportunity for salvation is available for all who seek it. There should be no surprises when we all inevitably die. Why risk the chance of living selfishly when the kingdom of heaven is so readily accessible?

Much like the student who gets the failing grade, he is apt to say, My teacher gave me a failing grade. In reality, the student gave himself the failing grade. God doesnt put people in hell. You put yourself in hell. I pray you make the right choice. Choose Christ above all things.

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

Id love to meet the person who proved Christianity by watching some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in tongues, but Im willing to bet he doesnt exist. The author of this list fails to realize that Christians believe God (as in God the father) to be a being of pure spirit. The spirit is not something testable by scientific methods. To say then, that it does not exist, is silly. In fact, living by seeing is believing is unfruitful. Christ himself addressed this issue in John 20: 24-29, long before modern science existed.

The author assumed that since geology (?), biology, and physics havent yet proven that God exists, he must not exist. Thats a common reason that atheists give for being atheists. I believe in love as something very real, but it is not something I see. Yes, we can put me in a machine that reads my brainwaves while I feel the emotion of love, and I can see which parts of my brain are activated, but that doesnt negate loves existence as something very real (or hate, hunger, lust, humility, etc.). As for history, history has done nothing but help show that many of the events of the bible did exist. Look up the study of biblical archaeology sometime. Youll be glad you did.

2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

I love ..2 the most. Since when is there a success rate percentage of prayer? Im almost convinced the 0.01% number is fabricated. If it isnt, Im sure the source is pretty unreliable. Besides, prayer isnt and shouldnt always be about what you want. Its about learning to come to know who God is and learning to develop a relationship with the Lord.

Besides, what if a thousand people pray to be elected the President of the USA? Even if you acknowledge Gods existence, you must admit that not everyone can hold the position of President. We can ask God for things (I do it all the time), but theres never a guarantee that they will be granted. If you assume they will be, Christianity isnt for you. Only God knows what is best for us, his will trumps the will of all men. Hours before Christs passion and crucifixion, he prayed to God the Father that there would be some other way to save humanity without his humiliation, suffering, and death (Matthew 26:39, Luke 22:42). Was his prayer granted? No! If God the Father wouldnt permit the wishes of his own Son, who is also God, what makes you think hell always answer ours?

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

Really? Im willing to bet that overall, more Christians know more about the bible than atheists or agnostics. In fact, I think the author of this list ran out of things to put, and decided to try to sum it all up in one last question (a list of nine items seems sort of incomplete without a nice, even ten).

Giving the author the benefit of the doubt, I will admit that yes, there are many Christians who know little about the bible. Im equally as sure some atheists and agnostics know a lot about the bible. However, the bible-ignorant person can still be considered a true Christian.

By definition, a Christian is someone who believes that the historical man named Jesus was indeed God and savior. If I spend my life as a Muslim and never look into other religions, and for whatever reason convert to Christianity on my deathbed, Im still a Christian, even though I know nothing of the bible. Hence, the author flaws here, as well.

posted: April 08, 2006  

Anonymous wrote:

Interesting how the Christian "defender" of religion exhibits such bizarre and irrational thinking, proving the point of the original post. The problem is that superstitious and deluded thinking will cause Christians to answer everything with totally absurd statements, but they are so in the realm of delusion that they will never know how insane they sound to people outside of their fantasy world.

posted: May 25, 2006  

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