pc12driver

Very nice set of questions. An all time favorite of mine is, "If you could duplicate your body perfectly, including all the electrical impulses that create your brain, memories, and consciousness, would I have an identical duplicate of yourself?" This question addresses the existence (or lack) of a soul.

Jason

WinAce

I hope you don't mind that I included your question in the mind-body dualism section.

Once enough suggested questions are included, I'll of course make a section listing the additional contributors. More heads are better than one, after all--input can only make this a much better piece of infidel propaganda

Pulp

Hi - I am a Christian, and have gone through most of it.

I haven't taken the time to really analyse it or my answers to it however, I assume you can glean some better truth off of my straight reactions

And a lot of my comments aren't necessarily attacks on the questions, just thinking out loud

Hope this helps somewhat. And I hope you can read it okay
Josh

Issues with the doctrines of Salvation, Original Sin and Hell
If God inspired the Bible, did he know that including an existing Sumerian flood myth, changing several details, such as turning it into a global flood, and leaving no geological evidence of its occurrence, myriad evidence against it, and a disastrous local flood around the area and time the myth is originally placed [2], would lead many to suspect it was a human-exaggerated legend and artificially drive them away from belief in Christianity?
Yes
You would likely worship the Hellenistic Pantheon had you been born in ancient Greece. On a similar vein, you would likely worship Allah or Vishnu had you been born in Iran or India today. Cultural influences are the single greatest factor deciding which religion you'll pick, with few individuals choosing one that's unpopular in their country. Given this data, in your view, is belief in Christianity a legitimate, fair criteria for deciding who goes to hell?
No.
Could an omnipotent God resolve spiritual issues and pave the way to salvation without requiring blind faith, which wouldn't lead to good people arbitrarily going to hell for eternity just for being honestly mistaken?
Yes
God that didn't do this and is instead content with at least 60% of humanity spending eternity in hell [3], with no chance of ever being forgiven and the exact same punishment being administered to child rapists, medieval inquisitors, Hitler and your friendly neighborhood agnostic, is worthy of human worship:
Point taken – see above
If Adam and Eve did not possess the knowledge of good and evil before eating the apple, were they nevertheless capable of understanding that God was good, and Satan was evil, which would likely be necessary to understand why obeying God's order above Satan's suggestion was the right decision?
Personally, I interpret the story and a myth, intended to explain the imperfection of man. It is indeed problematic.
If you answered 'yes', and they already had knowledge of good and evil, was there a purpose to the Tree of Knowledge?
Yes A metaphor.

Would you seriously consider throwing your kids out on the street for taking a chocolate chip cookie before dinner, when you clearly told them not to?
Well, I don’t have to. But, I often consider it when my younger sister throws a tantrum
If you somehow answered 'yes' to the preceding question, would you consider letting them back in without conditions such as exclusive worship of yourself required before forgiveness?
Yes ( ) No
Can you think of any crime so horrendous that it would justify eternal, unrelenting torment, with no second chances ever being given, even if the criminal honestly repents and is completely forgiven by his victims?
No
Is it reasonable to expect that an ecosystem with no death, such as the Garden of Eden, will very quickly become overcrowded and unpleasant if any animals are allowed to reproduce, as they were ordered to do ("be fruitful and multiply") in the Genesis account, unless God constantly increases the surface area or performs other miracles?
Well, birth control’s a sin…..
Many perfectly fine people were around well before Christianity, even though they were prone to sin just like the rest of us. Many Christians now say that Jesus' sacrifice redeemed them anyway, along with those who never heard of him later on. However, would this not seem to imply that there are loopholes to salvation that don't directly involve belief in Christ?
Yes
Suppose you arrive in Heaven and find that many of your friends, people who weren't really all that bad, are not there, because for this or that reason, they never got around to accepting Jesus in their finite lifespan. Do you expect to be happy and content with that little bit of knowledge?
No
Will you rationalize it away as 'regardless of their ethics, they should have believed... now they must pay the price ... forever and ever'?
No.
A million years has passed. Nothing has changed. A few billion years now pass. You still know that the people who were once dear to you on Earth are suffering as greatly as they were when you just arrived in Heaven. Will you eventually break down and ask 'God, can't you please do something? They really deserve a second chance, you can't just forsake them like that if you're so good... can you?!'
Yes, as in yes, I will break down
Will God consider whether they've suffered enough and grant your request, giving them a second chance?
Yes
If he refuses to give them a second chance, will you be able to honestly say 'This being called God is the epitomy of justice. Whatever he does is perfectly moral in every way, and it is not up to us to question his actions.'?
No
At this point, would you consider taking matters into your own hands, whatever form such actions may take and regardless of the consequences?
Yes
The argument from evil
In your opinion, is there any specific, justifiable reason that a person in Africa should die from a rotaviral infection merely because of drinking contaminated water?
No. However, a person in Africa shouldn’t be subjected to slave labour by oil corporations, are you going to blame God for that too?
Similarly, could you justify standing by and watching as legions of innocent people were destroyed by a natural, understandable phenomenon like a tidal wave or earthquake simply because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time?
I don’t think so, no. Chaos is terrible, and I couldn’t stand by and let them be destroyed.
If you believe God allows such events for a greater, unknowable purpose: would it not be possible for God to bypass such events and get to the good directly? Do the ends justify the horrific means, especially when any number of better methods, available to the mind of a super-intelligent, omnipotent deity, would serve equally well?

Aging, death, suffering, natural disasters and other nasty things are all claimed to be the result of the Fall of Man. However, when we look at ancient fossils, distant stars, our geologic record and elsewhere, we can come to only one conclusion--they existed long before any human was around. Does this have serious implications for standard Christian theology?
No. Well, explain Standard Christian theology? Do You mean creation? If so, no but, I’m a little confused
The fairly chaotic nature of our universe makes the existence of such problems impossible to avoid. It's also a very large universe, leading many to consider that we're not the only intelligent life around. However, if the universe was changed from perfect to corrupted by Adam's act of sin, would any other intelligent life also suffer for an act they did not even know about, much less be guilty of?
No
If other intelligent life is fairly common in our universe, it logically follows that what we've seen locally on earth--random natural disasters--have completely obliterated entire civilizations for no other reason than they were unfortunate enough to be in the path of an asteroid or within range of a supernova. We have so far avoided such a fate by around 65 million years, but the dinosaurs weren't as lucky. Compared to the smaller evils mentioned before, would an entity with the power to easily stop an event of such magnitude, who instead stood idly by while billions of self-aware life forms burned to death in a burst of intense radiation, be worthy of our respect, much less worship?
Probably not, no. Does self-awareness naturally qualify moral value?

The Bible as proof of God's existence – The Bible is not proof of God’s existence

Historical facts on religion
Are holidays like Easter and Christmas based on known dates relating to Jesus' birth and death, or were their currently accepted dates inspired by popular pagan festivals such as the worship of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre [8] and the Winter Solstice [9]?
This is not a yes/no answer. Pagan festivals
Was there a Persian cult of Mithras predating Christianity by centuries, one in which the deity was part of a trinity, was incarnated into human form and said to be born of a virgin on December 25 in a manger, is prophesied to bring the eventual triumph of good vs. evil, required the faithful to be baptized, had a 'last supper' with his companions before ascending to heaven after fulfilling his earthly mission, and in which ceremonial 'blood' and 'flesh' (such as bread and wine) were consumed to impart eternal life and oneness with the god [10]?
I don’t know
Has Christianity itself evolved over the centuries, with many doctrines being added, changed or reinterpreted from the original ones in current mainstream denominations like the Catholic church?
Yes. What is a religion if it doesn’t evolve to help people with what they need
Is Christianity, if you consider it separate from Judaism, one of the youngest of all currently popular world religions, second only to Islam?
Yes
Has the imminent return of Christ been prophesied by his followers ever since his death almost two millennia ago?
What does imminent mean? If it means, he’s coming, yes. But no, I don’t believe he’ll be knocking on my roof tomorrow

The power of prayer and miracles as proof of God's existence

When praying, do you count the unfulfilled prayers as failures, or explain them as part of God's plan?
Again – not a yes/no answer. Not all Christians believe in petitionary prayer. I don’t

If God has a plan, it should be a very good plan. Given that basic assumption, prayer can consist of two things. Either you pray for something that is already included in God's plan, in which case he would likely make it happen anyway, or you pray for something that isn't, which he likely wouldn't perform against his better judgment. Given these two options, is there a significant chance of swaying God's opinion and behavior with your request?
No

In your opinion, is a dying cancer patient with 20 friends and loved ones praying for his recovery more worthy of surviving than one with no friends or loved ones praying for him?
No
Hypothetically, if a doctor had the power to cure every single child suffering of malaria across the world easily and at no personal expense, but only did so for those who asked him just right, would you consider him a good human being?
No
Have the studies on the medical value of prayer used flawed methodology and given contradictory results (some showing success, some showing no change, some showing the non-prayer group improving more) [11]?
How can I answer a question as general as that. I certainly believe SOME have used adequate methodology. I am unsure of the conclusions.
Do prayers to Allah, Vishnu or other deities, when fulfilled, as devout Muslims and Hindus claim they often are, indicate those gods exist? Do the miracles members of those religions profess to have observed do the same?
Maybe
Given that people of other religions see their own gods in such miracles, would you be able to objectively test whether a 'miracle' was caused by God, another force, or an unknown or not-well understood natural phenomenon?
No. However, many ‘miracles’ are so beyond the realms of science that I believe one could only seriously classify them as stories or miracles
Are miracles that seemingly point to the existence of other gods over the Christian God nevertheless real?
Nevertheless? You are writing some fantastically loaded questions here. Yes, I suppose they are
If you answered 'yes' to the preceding question, do you believe the Christian God intentionally leave his miracles ambiguous so they can be interpreted as evidence of other, lesser gods and lead people further from salvation than they already are?
I’m going to choose not to answer this question. Both yes or no conflicts with my belief structure
A Buddhist quits smoking, loses weight and comes off drugs. He believes it was due to his religion and the enlightenment it brought him. Is his religion directly responsible, or could any of a number of other factors also inspire him to such accomplishments just as well?
A Buddhist quiting smoking does so to purify his body and improve his spirituality or self-outlook. Why should this either threaten or promote religion?

Difficulties with mind-body dualism
I am not a dualist. As such, I’m not qualified to answer these questions

Argument from design as proof of God's existence
Similarly, you cannot prove God’s existence. Only God could do that, and even then I have no idea how he would prove it was him

Human psychology and how it applies to religion
Are you familiar with confirmation bias (remembering only hits, not misses)?
Yes
What about selective thinking (applying undue skepticism to arguments and data unfavorable to your position, while having a less stringent standard of evidence for data confirming it)?
Yes
Do you know what the placebo effect is?
Yes
Are you aware that very realistic mystical experiences can be produced by a myriad assortment of known causes, from drugs such as LSD, to sensory deprivation, to direct magnetic stimulation of the brain? [14]
Yes
Do you recognize that the human mind is capable of recognizing patterns where none really exist, such as images in clouds, the Rorschach ink blot test, and numerology, especially when it has already developed a bias to look for specific patterns?
yes
Are peer pressure and social reinforcement powerful forces which can push you to adopt a belief you might not readily accept otherwise?
Yes. Just look at all you atheists
Will a person brought up in our Western culture be more likely to see God's influence all around him? Similarly, will a person brought up with constant references to different gods, spirits or other supernatural forces be more likely to see their influence?
Western culture? You mean sex, drugs and materialism? They will perceive God as he is portrayed, negatively
If an individual constantly repeats a mantra, prayer or chant, especially among a large group of friends, will he or she be more prone to developing a belief that it 'works' regardless of its actual effectiveness?
Unclear. I get your point but, I often become weaker in my belief in God praying with groups of other people
Have you studied the various mechanisms people will utilize to defend their often unfounded beliefs on UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness monster, cold fusion, urban legends, and others?
no
Have you heard of cult leaders making specific, falsifiable claims such as "UFOs will destroy the earth on this date" or "Los Angeles will be utterly annihilated in a huge earthquake soon", and people still following them, even more fervently, when the predicted event failed to occur, using rationalizations such as 'he must have miscalculated the date'?
Yes
Do you find a disturbing similarity between these quirks of the human mind and the logic most theists use to confirm their beliefs, as well as what cult leaders, psychics, quacks and other charlatans unscrupulously learn to exploit with great success?
Yes. However, I also struggle with a similarity between those who don’t believe in God dismissing mystics, holy men, and theologists as’ quacks’ or ‘charlatans’
Given all these facts, and assuming you believe all other religions are in error, do you think there's any serious possibility you could be as honestly mistaken as they are?
Yes. Yes I do. If I didn’t have doubt, it wouldn’t be a belief, it would be ‘the way’

Objections to secularism/atheism on moral grounds
Would you be a moral, kind person if you had never been exposed to the Bible?
Maybe
Are you capable of choosing what's right without the threat of punishment or offers of rewards, and often in spite of them?
Yes
If morality is defined by God, would anything he decreed, including ordering you to kill an innocent child, be moral?
Yes
If God could never order such a thing, doesn't it imply that his moral code is based on some outside standard that could be utilized just as well in his absence?
Yes
Are we capable of using just our intellect and empathy, with few other influences, to develop a more-or-less reasonable moral code, such as humanism, based largely on the Golden Rule?
Sorry, the golden rule? I’m not sure of the terminology you use. I think you can get reasonably close. However, I don’t think reason and empathy are entirely sufficient. Sometimes unreason can contain profound truths. Even if you look at many religions as erroneous, that doesn’t make their teachings unwise
Have you known atheists and agnostics who were basically good people without any religious beliefs? Have you known devout believers who you wouldn't even want to associate with?
Yes

Miscellaneous questions
Has this questionnaire made you think deeply about your most valued beliefs?
Some of them. The argument from evil is perpetually difficult for me. However, I think the perception western culture has of god is flawed, and the argument almost argues against a kind of god that I believe in. I am theist, however conceive of God as much more passive. In other words, I think God extends to Eastern religions to, in terms of an internal focus, and transcendence kind of works itself out.
Do you now believe you might have reason to modify some of your beliefs as a result of rationally scrutinizing them?
Hmmmm, I’ve pretty much questioned most of this stuff, but I agree with a lot of what you say. I think its certainly a healthy questionnaire to give staunch Christians
Do you better understand the atheist/agnostic position now than before taking the quiz?
Hmmmm, I think I understood it before
Do Deism (the belief in a God who created the universe and left it to its own devices), Universalism (the belief that most everyone will be saved eventually), or agnosticism (the belief that a higher power may exist, but we cannot know for sure) seem any more attractive after considering these questions?
Is universalism exclusive of Christianity?

bluefugue

"Criteria" should be "criterion."

RogerLeeCooke

I particularly like this one:

Especially if you yourself *created* the tidal wave/earthquake, etc. There have been cases of criminal prosecution against people who set booby traps to kill trespassers/thieves and killed instead little children who happened to wander where they shouldn't have been. Most people agree that those are good laws, but they refrain from bringing a true bill of indictment against God for doing the same thing.

WinAce

Thanks a lot. Your constructive responses and criticisms were quite helpful, unlike those I received at the GameFAQs boards, which basically amounted to "the author is obviously an idiot with his FIRST question--they found Noah's ark years ago and it proves the flood happened".

I updated the questions that were unclear or improperly constructed, corrected a few typos, added a few more questions (including ones inspired by fellow II members), etc.

From my experience, Universalism usually appears as a very liberal subset of Christianity (the Unitarian Universalist churches spring to mind--they admit Wiccans, Pagans, Jews, agnostics, atheists and everyone else while preaching secular morality), but it technically includes many religions which recognize the validity of other religions.

*Runs off to correct criterion*

Pulp

btw, I do think its important that Christianity is held to the grill of atheism. In refuting the untruths, you get closer to the true message of god (and away from the prejudices, untruths, and intentions of men).

I'm unsure if there's any great meta-narrative that I will discover when I will die however, I think GOd's message is remarkably similar to the Dalai Lama's. "Be content with what you have, serve others, and stay true to your heart".

To tell you the truth, if we could all do that, we certainly wouldn't need a God

Thanks for taking the time to do that. I am about to post a question that I hope you can respond to. Nothing too cryptic but something which perpexes me...

lcb

i have a question: if you were called to sell your possessions and go to feed the hungry, heal the sick, defend the oppressed and live a life of sacrifice to save others would you go?

lcb

q. 2. you are in a foxhole with five wounded men who will live but cannot move for now, a grenade lands in the foxhole, will you sacrifice yourself to save those five men?

Pulp

There's a pretty story in the bible about this.

Essentially, yes I should go but, I don't because I'm imperfect.

Now let me ask you, would you go?

Both you and I ARE being called to feed the hungry (be you Christian or not). What will you do