Sunday, October 05, 2014

Some Of The Dumbest Things That Christians Say

(The image at left is from ClipartPal.)

The following was not written by an atheist or skeptic. It was written by Tiffany Willis, who is a practicing christian. It turns out that many christians, like Ms. Willis, are embarrassed by the dumb things that come out of the mouths of some christians (mainly right-wing evangelicals). Here is what she has to say about those people -- and what she believes are the dumbest things they say:

Evangelical Christians have become stupid.
Or they’ve chosen to be stupid. Or they’re just plain crazy. Or…I don’t know. Rather than believing that God is an intelligent designer, they seem to believe he was a wizard with a magic wand. Instead of seeing God as the Great Scientist, they seem to think God is stupid and can’t have possibly created the heavens and the earth with science rather than wizardry. Evangelical Christians are guilty of making those of us who are sane Christians look stupid. They’re giving us a bad name. They are effectively turning us into the most hated group of religious people in the world. . .
The fact is, I hear and see Christians saying really stupid things. It’s embarrassing. Here’s the best of the best. Or the worst of the worst
    1. Evolution is just a theory. By that reasoning, belief in a Biblical God is also a theory — at least to non-believers.
    2. If you don’t believe in God, you don’t know right from wrong. Ridiculous. Every day, we hear stories about pastors and other religious figures in a scandal of some sort. Infidelity, theft, child molestation, etc…Their belief in God didn’t help them be more moral, did it?
    3. You can’t prove God doesn’t exist. Can we prove that he does? Most non-believers say that the burden of proof is on us who are theists.
    4. Anything said while speaking in tongues. I grew up in an Assembly of God church. Speaking in tongues was a common practice. The way it works is that one person supposedly gets taken over by the Holy Spirit and begins to chant gibberish. Then after a few minutes, another church member “translates” the message from God. OK, so the omniscient being (God) that I worship doesn’t know English? This is a great example of Christians implying that God is stupid.
    5. Nothing can come from nothing, so an intelligent being must have created it. I personally agree, but did it genuinely definitely happen in seven 24-hour days? I don’t believe it did.
    6. A Godly home guarantees Godly children. No. Just no.
    7. When someone dies, they become an angel. This is completely not Biblical. Human beings and angels are completely different creatures. The Bible is very clear about this.
    8. Put God back in schools. Again, he is an omniscient being. If he wants to be there, he’s there.
    9. Keep the Christ in Christmas. Um…no. Man put the Christ in Christmas.
    10. We’re in the end times — Jesus is coming soon. The Bible is very clear that no one knows the time of Christ’s return.
    11. If you have enough faith, you’ll be healed. I’ve known many people who had lots of faith and they weren’t healed. If non-believers die of horrible disease, Christians say that they didn’t have faith enough to be healed. If Christians die of horrible disease, Christians say that “God healed them completely and took them home” or “God needed them in heaven.”
    12. God told me to _______. This isn’t provable on any level. If God did tell you to do something, that was a conversation with no witnesses. It’s asking a lot to expect people to believe that.
    13. It’s un-Christian to question anything in the Bible. God (the omniscient being) gave you a brain. Use it.
    14. God destroyed ______ with a hurricane (or fire or whatever). That’s very much a logical fallacy, because when it’s done to Christians, they say that the devil is testing them. Or God is testing them. Yet when it happens to anyone else, it’s God punishing the victims. Shut up.
    15. If you’re not ashamed to say you believe in God, share this photo (or status or whatever). Because God is spending all of his time on Facebook patrolling memes?
    16. Kangaroos were the first to sink during the great flood because they have pouches that filled up with water. Stupid. Just stupid.
    17. Most homosexuals molest children. Actually, the horror stories we hear more often than not involve a heterosexual adult who has preyed on a child.
    18. The miracles that happened in the Bible prove that God exists. Do the miracles that happen in a Harry Potter book prove that, too? Again, we have to refine our argument if we expect non-believers to take us seriously in any way.
    19. Graffiti is a sign of the abandonment of God. What…?
    20. Animals ended up on different continents by making rafts out of logs that were knocked down by the great flood. To float across oceans. Um…yeah.
    21. Fossils were put here by God to test our faith. Yes, someone actually said this to me. My ex-husband is finishing up his degree in Geology. One of his professors has a father who is an evangelical Christian. When the professor asks his Dad “well how do you explain fossils, etc…if the world is only 7,000 years old?” His Dad’s response? “God put all of that stuff here to test our faith.”OK so, God really enjoys messing with people’s heads and playing games? Pin the tail on the belief? Shut up. Why would anyone want to be a part of our religion if this kind of nonsense were true?
    22. Our Founding Fathers were Christians. Nope. At least not all of them were.
“Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies.” – Thomas Jefferson
“In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.” – James Madison

“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.” – Benjamin Franklin

“I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” – George Washington

“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.” – John Adams

8 comments:

  1. No dumber, I would suggest, than much of the nonsense that emanates from the sillier sort of socialists!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And especially no dumber than the stupid things that tumble out of the mouths of ALL right-wingers.

      Delete
  2. She sounds like an intelligent moderate xtian. BUT... if she has the buyBull then most of her points are BS too from the buyBull point of view.
    If the buyBull is not TRUE as written than it is metaphor or allegory in which case the buyBull is a waste.
    If it is TRUE but she is picking and choosing parts than the buyBull is a waste.
    If gawd did it with science than the 'miracles' are lies or at best delusions.
    So why does she even bother being a xtian??
    But she is right as the religious right is making xtians look really stupid by stressing the buyBull as totally true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She actually refers to herself as a member of the "Christian Left".

      Delete
  3. Great post-so much to agree with!

    ReplyDelete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. And neither will racist,homophobic, or misogynistic comments. I do not mind if you disagree, but make your case in a decent manner.