18 Reasons Why Christianity is Man-Made

The most obvious and yet most damning reason against Religion is that it is man made. Here is a great website that gives 18 reason why Christianity is man made. He makes the case that Christian apologist have arguments against them but they only satisfy the believer. All they need is one bent and barely stable rusty nail to hang onto to be satisfied. I recall buying such things when I was a Christian, but deep down inside, something just told me they really were flimsy defenses and happily for me they won they day. Good-bye cognitive dissonance. It is no wonder so many youtube videos made by Christians block the vote, block leaving a comment or you must wait for their approval. Doesn't that sound like fear? They cannot bear the truth. On the flip side the videos done by atheist allow the free flow of comments. This is all true for blogs as well.

The Evidence For Christianity

As Mark Twain said, "It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled."

The 18 arguments showing Christianity is man-made. I had added some of my thoughts here.
1. The flawed Bible
2. Jesus and Paul expected the apocalypse very soon even in that generations lifetime.
3. Converting a local god into a universal god, who heretofore left millions unaware.
4. No evidence to the historicity of Jesus beyond the New Testament.
5. Christian refusal to learn from new evidence and recite old arguments.
6. Prophecies of Jesus retrofitted into the Old Testament and poorly at that. The book of Matthew is quite flawed for me in particular.
7. The flimsy argument the NT was written by eye-witnesses. My favorite is the 500 who were resurrected when Jesus died and they are unnamed but apparently told everyone and yet not even one of them is named or has a book written by them.
8. The flawed argument that people will only give their lives for that which is true. No. They only need to be convinced its true. That doesn't make it true. The 9/11 terrorists flying into the World Trade Center is sufficient to dismiss that.
9. The mumbo jumbo about crowbarring Jesus into divinity where now the one god is three. That wasn't introduced until the late 4th century.
10. Christian apologist practice bait and switch tactics. They argue for the existence of god that could be used by any religion and then supposedly having you convinced they assume that proves their god, which is does not. It could just as easily apply to Thor, Odin, Vishnu or Enki.
11. In order to believe Christianity literally they are forced to believe the world is only 6000 years old and the arguments they use to ignore evidence is astonishing.
12. The obvious human endeavor to determine which books belonged in the Bible. They had to choose out of hundreds of books which one was god inspired. They was a long period of dispute and then once settled the command went out to destroy those books not in the canon. There is nothing awe inspiring about that process. This was done under the Roman Catholic reign, which many Protestants would not be happy about. Interestingly enough the gospels were unnamed for years until someone decided to give them a church leader's name (e.g. apostle) to provide clout. This was typical in ancient times. Additionally in comparing manuscripts of the New Testament there were thousands of errors, omissions and even additions so much so the author of Revelation gave a stern warning against the practice. A perfect god could have been more hands on.
13. The account of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the only thing that matters in Christianity, is contradictory when you read the 4 gospels side by side.
14. It is obvious from the style of writing that the gospel of John & Revelation were not the same authors. Revelations almost didn't make it into the NT (which frankly would have been great to cut down on all the nuts attracted to it), but they made the argument to accept it into the NT because they said it was written by the same author as the gospel of John which actually is not the case.
15. The author of the book of Revelation makes no claim about his cryptic prophecies being way off in the future but meant it to be applicable to his times. Meanwhile, generation after generation of Christians say it is for their time.
16. Christian history and particularly when Christianity is in power they torture and murder those who don't believe as they do. Sounds like a local god, doesn't it? Here in the U.S. they show the same proclivity to oppress others that don't believe as they do (e.g the laws against gays and abortion). A taste of things to come if they continue. Their local god gets pissed at those who don't agree with him, but somehow he is unable to take care of it himself. All-powerful or imaginary?
17. You shall know them by their fruits Jesus said. Yet morally speaking there is no difference between an atheist and a Christian or any other group of people who believe differently. How is it the one nation under god was one of the last to abolish slavery. And then there was and is the continual race hatred. Also, why did the loving Christians wipe out about every Native American populations? Is this the country they want to get us back to? For the answer ask a gay person.
18. Why are there so few details on heaven besides eternity bowing before god. Why is hell easier to understand?

Christian Ignorance Of Science - part 2

Christian Ignorance Of Science - part 1

Is Satan A Catholic?

Russian Orthodox child abuse at convent

German Jesuit report shows years of abuse cover-up

(Reuters) - A Jesuit investigation cited 205 allegations of sexual abuse against priests at its schools in Germany on Thursday, revealing decades of systematic abuse and attempts of a cover-up by the Roman Catholic order.

The new allegations threaten to further undermine the German Roman Catholic Church, already accused of hushing up hundreds of sexual and physical abuse allegations in Church-run schools that have come to light recently.

"In the name of the order I acknowledge with shame and guilt our failure," Father Stefan Dartmann, Germany's leading Jesuit official, said in a statement. "I ask for forgiveness."

"There was a widespread mentality in the order, and perhaps still is, that the primary concern was the reputation of the institution and its fellow brothers," Dartmann added.

The report also cited a further 50 allegations of abuse relating to other, mostly Catholic institutions.

The abuse scandal also has put a spotlight German-born Pope Benedict and his handling of the crisis. Benedict was archbishop of Munich at a time when a priest in the archdiocese undergoing therapy for sexual abuse was returned to work.

The Vatican denies Benedict was involved in the decision.

The allegations by predominantly male victims in the Jesuit investigation focus on 12 priests, six of whom are now deceased, from several schools and youth facilities in Germany. Solitary victims cited a further 32 church figures.

The order would continue to examine the allegations and talk to victims, Dartmann said, noting it was still open whether state prosecutors would become involved in the investigations.

The German report, commissioned in January after 25 students came forward alleging abuse at the Jesuit-run Canisius Kolleg in Berlin, details harsh corporal punishment and sexual abuse stretching back as far as the 1950s.

Since then, media reports have documented more than 250 cases of abuse in Catholic schools, prompting the government to set up a round table to address issues of abuse in Germany.

Cases have popped up across Europe and bishops in Ireland, Belgium and Germany have been forced to step down.

Nearly 50 people at three schools said a priest -- given the alias of Father Bertram -- beat students in a "sadistic sexual" way on their bare or clothed buttocks in the 1970s and 1980s.

The report details how Bertram underwent years of therapy. Before leaving the order, he confessed in 1991 to having suffered emotional problems that led him to beat children.

Father Bertram wrote in a report that year: "From 1957 to 1990, I beat several hundred children and adolescents of both sexes on their exposed buttocks, in nearly painless, symbolic acts of punishment."

Though allegations of abuse in Jesuit schools surfaced in January, Dartmann admitted that Father Klaus Mertes, director of Canisius Kolleg, informed him about the problem in 2006.

(Writing by Christopher Lawton; Editing by Michael Roddy)

See article at Reuters-May 27, 2010

Church and Lying like a horse and a carriage

Look how the Church loves to keep it's lies. This shroud was carbon dated meticulously by 3 independent laboratories. They all placed it in around the 14th century in which it suddenly appeared. But the Pope like a snake-oil seller continues to prey on the credulous.

TURIN (Italy) - POPE Benedict XVI all but gave an outright endorsement of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, calling the cloth that some believe is Christ's burial shroud an icon 'written with the blood' of a crucified man.

During a visit Sunday to the Shroud in the northern Italian city of Turin, Benedict didn't raise the scientific questions that surround the linen and whether it might be a medieval forgery. Instead, he delivered a powerful meditation on the faith that holds that the Shroud is indeed Christ's burial cloth.

'This is a burial cloth that wrapped the remains of a crucified man in full correspondence with what the Gospels tell us of Jesus,' Benedict said. He said the relic - one of the most important in Christianity - should be seen as a photographic document of the 'darkest mystery of faith' - that of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

The 4.3-meter-long, 1 meter-wide cloth has gone on public display for the first time since the 2000 Millennium celebrations and a subsequent 2002 restoration. Kept in a bulletproof, climate-controlled case in Turin's cathedral, it has drawn nearly 2 million reservations from pilgrims and tourists eager to spend three to five minutes viewing it. The Shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping from his hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen's fibers at the time of his resurrection.

Benedict focused in his meditation on the message that the blood stains conveyed, saying the Shroud was 'an icon written in blood; the blood of a man who was whipped, crowned with thorns, crucified and injured on his right side. 'The image on the Shroud is that of a dead man, but the blood speaks of his life. Each trace of blood speaks of love and life,' Benedict said.

The Vatican to date had tiptoed around the issue of just what the Shroud of Turin is, calling it a powerful symbol of Christ's suffering while making no claim to its authenticity. Benedict's meditation - delivered after he prayed as if in a trance before the shroud - appeared to imply that in the end it doesn't matter what science says about its authenticity. -- AP

Hitchens seeks Popes arrest this September