JerryM

The idea of sacrificing a life to obtain favor from, or propitiate a deity is an extremely common supernatural belief, and has been a feature, to some degree, of virtually every form of religion in the world. The whole concept lacks logical coherency. Does it really make sense for any deity to require the suffering or death of the innocent, in order to mitigate the sins of the guilty? And, as Christians believe, if we are all sinners and deserving of death, why should God be appeased by the sacrifice of one considered to be sinless? I think all these ideas are basically atavistic remnants of our primitive, tribal past.

Pomp

While interesting, this discussion of the finer points of Xian theology has no bearing on the Existence of God(s), IMO. Off to Misc. Religion.

FreeToThink

I have heard this before elsewhere.

Much of the impact of Jesus' death is lost by the fact that he knew he was going to be resurrected again.

This conundrum has caused some to say that "Jesus was mildly inconvenienced for your sins."

AJ113

Technos:
Some people convert to Christianity after consideration of the facts and the application of their reason.

Koyaanisqatsi

I'd never heard that one before! ROFL

That's a t-shirt!

Jayman

I'll try to answer your question, although I'm no theologian.

God does not dwell in the presence of sin. Humans, in their sinful state, cannot go to heaven because God will not stand in the presence of their sin. When Jesus died on the cross the sins of the world went to hell with him. When he was resurrected the sins of men were still in hell. Through his death humans can now go to heaven because their sins are in hell and out of God's sight. He died in a bloody way because, according to Leviticus, blood is necessary to forgive sins.

JL

Jayman, don't take my bluntness as hostility, but I think this is the sort of circular reasoning Technos suggested. While sighting Biblical requirements and justifications makes perfect sense within the framework of Christianity, offering these reasons to atheists ammounts to saying "God did this because God said that He had to."

Jayman

I think my "solution" begs the question: why does God need the shedding of blood to forgive sins? I think my answer takes the multiple questions of the first post and shows that it comes down to one question. So it's progress. However, I'm clueless as to why God needs the shedding of blood to forgive sins.

not a theist

Wouldn't that be a weakness on the part of God though? - "Needs the shedding of blood to forgive sins."
As you yourself seem to have admitted when you said "I'm clueless as to why...", there seems to be no logical necessity for this to be the case. It would therefore seem to be a limitation on his supposed omnipotence.

not a theist

Let me just play Devil's advocate here.

If God is so important of a personage as the Christian religion makes him out to be, if he has so much magnificence and grandeur, then isn't even "mildly inconvenienced" a great sacrifice relative to humans? Wouldn't that be the equivalent of say...having a finger broken to save a dust mite?