Disproving Christianity E-Book

David G. McAfee

• Herausgeber: Hypatia Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 126

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings compiles popular and lesser-known arguments against the principles established by the Christian canon.

Using a phenomenological approach to build his case based on in-depth study at the University of California, Santa Barbara, McAfee analyzes the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament doctrine to build a logical and reasonable case against their validity. From contradictions between lived and portrayed religions to factual errors within the texts themselves, no stone is left unturned in this fully updated and expanded refutation of Christianity.

Leseprobe

DISPROVING CHRISTIANITY  

and other Secular Writings 

DAVID G. MCAFEE 

© Copyright David G. McAfee 2019 

First Published in the USA 2010 by David G. McAfee as  DisprovingChristianity: Refuting the World’s Most Followed Religion Second edition published in Great Britain 2011 by Dangerous Little Books Published in the United States of America by Hypatia Press in 2019 

ISBN: 978-1-83919-010-0 

Cover by Claire Wood 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. 

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

What This Means to Me 

Disproving Christianity  is important to me, and not  just  because it was my first book. It also means a lot to me because it was my entrance into the world of atheism and secular activism. 

I had always been an atheist, but I wasn’t really aware of the skeptical communities. I was going to school at UC Santa Barbara and majoring in Religious Studies, and I was still planning on having an academic career in that field. I had never considered becoming an “atheist author” because I didn’t know such a thing even existed. 

Disproving Christianity  didn’t start out as a book at all. It began as an essay for personal use. I was taking a class on New Testament literature, combining my loves of writing and learning about religion, and I started to take note of the various contradictions and discrepancies between the books of the Bible. I thought if I wrote an essay with demonstrable errors in the Bible, I could convince my grandparents to give up their positions as Biblical literalists. 

I kept writing my personal essay for months, but it continued to evolve beyond what I ever anticipated. Eventually I had about 20 pages of writing, and I started thinking about  other Biblical literalists I could help if I continued. I kept researching and writing and, at the age of 19, I self-published my book through Amazon. It was called,  Disproving Christianity: Refuting the World’ MostFollowed Religion. 

I immediately booked a few local speaking events, where I sold some copies of the self-published book, but that was about the extent of my promotional work. Regardless, the book picked up a little bit of steam and I ultimately republished it as  DisprovingChristianity and Other Secular Writings with an imprint know as Dangerous Little Books. 

Under the DLB label,  Disproving Christianity  succeeded more than I ever imagined. Perhaps because of the new publisher, or maybe because I gave away more than 40,000 digital copies, positive reviews flooded in. People loved its simplistic style, and the fact that it basically served as a pocket guide for refuting fundamentalist Biblical principles. 

It’s for that reason that, when the DLB contract expired, I opted to republish with Hypatia Press. I didn’t change the content itself – I wanted it to be true to the version people enjoyed – but I thought it deserved a renewed deal and a wider audience. So, feel free to tell all your friends! 

Yours in Reason, 

David G. McAfee

Contents 

Preface i 

PART ONE 

Cultural Christianity 

1

A Brief Introduction to Christianity in America5

The Principle America was Built Upon 

6 

American Money 

7 

American Laws 

9 

Morality versus Worship 

14

Mainstream Theories of Disproval 

18

Contradictions in Scripture and in Practices28

Minor Contradictions 

41

Does God Tempt Man? 

41 

Is God Forever Angry? 

42 

Can Man See God? 

43 

Who Was Joseph’s Father? 

43 

The Prophecy Foretold the Messiah would be Named Emmanuel 44 

Does Jesus Bring Peace or a Sword? 

44 

God Decrees that Adam Will Die Upon Consumption of the Fruit 45 

Does God Change His Mind [Repent]? 

46 

How Many Animals Were to be Saved by Noah? 

46 

God’s Flood Did Not Destroy Giants? 

47 

Can Man Be Righteous? 

49 

Does God Deliver the Commandments unto Moses through a Mediator? 49 

Is God All Powerful? 

50 

Atrocities and Absurdities Committed or Condoned by the Lord 53

God Controls Who is Made Blind, Deaf, Etc. 

54 

God Sends Bears to Maul Forty-two Children 55 

Human Beings as Commodities or Property 55 

Moses to His Soldiers 

56 

Lot and Incest 

56 

A Rich Man Shall Hardly Enter Heaven 

58 

Fire and Brimstone from Heaven? 

59 

The Lord Slays the Ethiopians 

60 

Breaking the Sabbath Punishable by Death 61 

The Resurrected “Armies” of Bones 

62 

Hate thy Father and thy Mother 

63 

The Subservience of Women 

64 

God’s Condemnation of Shrimp and Shellfish 65 

Let Your Women Keep Silence 

66 

Jealous and Furious Lord Causes Natural Disasters 67 

Conclusion 69

PART TWO 

71

There are no Sacrifices for the Omnipotent: The JesusContradiction 73

A Glitch in God’s System: The Paradox of Divine Intervention  74

A Letter to the Christian Hypocrites76

Why Atheists Should Understand the Bible79

Religion and War: The Chicken and the Egg82

Two Nations, Under God: The Canadian Charter from anAmerican Perspective 

84

Preface 

The pages that follow will be focused on the fallacies, improbabilities, and contradictions created by the  Christian tradition—not the idea of a “God” as a whole. Because no one can be  completelycertain that there is no higher power or some other, more abstract, 

“Creator”, it is nearly impossible to ‘disprove’; however, it is entirely possible through analysis and research to find discrepancies within the ancient, organized, religious traditions that support the idea of a  specific god. Each argument and contradiction presented will bring us closer to disproving the main pillars of Christianity using nothing more than logical thinking, statistics, scientific and historical data, and Holy Scriptures. The debates between Christians and non-Christians have raged for thousands of years, and I expect the conflict to continue; but I do hope that these arguments will allow those Christians who may not have questioned biblical fallibility in the past to realize that these texts are man-made, and they represent the ideas of those fallible individuals who created and edited the compilation of texts now considered to be  The HolyBible. They contain errors, contradictions, and a stagnant moral code which, in many ways, no longer coincides with the morality of  modern  man.  What  I  hope  to  gain  from  presenting  these arguments and little-known biblical passages to the reader is a sense of understanding of scripture which may not be presented in Bible Study or in church—and for good reason. If read with an open mind, I truly believe that this book will open peoples’ eyes to i 

the wonders of free thought in a way that other works utilizing a more philosophical approach, cannot. We begin with Christianity primarily because it is the world’s most popular religion;1 adherents of Christian sects compose nearly one-third of the world’s population. Although the arguments will not be centered on the dismissal of a God, ideas and theories contradicting a superior Creator (as defined within Christian texts) will also be presented, as they are primary tenets of the Christian religion. Under normal circumstances, disproval of a theory or statement is a relatively simple task; if you find one fault or weakness in the argument upon which the theory rests, it is no longer a valid argument. In this case, however, we will be drawing attention to numerous weaknesses and contradictions—primarily because of the strength that a  religion can have in one’s own mind. The Christian tradition, developed thousands of years ago, has been refined and altered by kings and clergymen alike to fit more appropriately in their time period and culture. With new-age and modern biblical interpretations and translations, this continues even today—it is therefore understandable that, in order to create an appropriate response,   all weaknesses of  The Bible must be carefully noted, including scriptural evidence from the New  and  Old Testaments, as well as teachings of modern Christianity.  

With so many books of  The Bible and  numerous  known and unknown authors,  The Holy Bible’s words create a battlefield within themselves in which contradictory statements are made, 

— 

1 According to most authorities, including researcher David B. Barrett’s  WorldChristian Encyclopedia, the number of Christian adherents (self-identified) is somewhere in between 2.1 billion and 2.2 billion.  

ii 

translations are forced, and major and minor edits of each account are made to suit the needs of one generation or the next. It is relatively impossible to consider that it would be  flawless  in any edition—but that does not stop some fundamentalist Christians from claiming biblical infallibility. In addition to this critique on biblical literalism, I will also show evidence that the very  concepts  of Christianity, acts of God, pillars of belief, and contemporary teachings are contradictory in themselves, in addition to the unnecessary violence, absurd statements, and ideas that we find ridiculous today that are so common in New Testament and Hebrew scriptures. Each of these ideas will be brought to light using biblical evidence; though  every argument and contradiction will not make it into this book, there will be enough to inform the average person who is unaware of the true teachings of the “sacred” 

Bible. The evidence for doctrinal contradictions will include passages from  The Bible as a whole (as opposed to solely analyzing the New Testament) because the Hebrew scriptures (what Christians refer to as the “Old Testament”) are no less important and influential to modern Christianity than the New Testament containing the acts of Jesus Christ, as his own words indicate in Matthew 5:17: “Think not that I come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” The canonical books of the Torah and other Hebrew scriptures compose the first (and the majority) part of the Christian Bible today—in all versions—ensuring that its laws and commandments are taken as divine law to all Christian followers. 

Before disproving (or even debating) a theory or idea—in this case, we will be discussing a religious tradition—one must first accomplish a few tasks. The first of these is to define that which is iii 

to be disproven or discussed; as Socrates once said, “The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.”2 Following this principle, definitions will continue to be a crucial component of this text because accepted meanings are the keys to universal understanding, without which nothing can be proven or disproven. In this particular instance it is necessary to settle on a universal definition of “Christianity” in order to create and pursue a successful argument. For this I have developed a simple yet concise definition: Christianity, for the purposes of this book, will be considered the organized belief system based on the life and teachings of Jesus ofNazareth and utilizing the Old and New Testaments of The Bible asthe literal word of God.  This definition is carefully crafted to include the following  sects   of Christianity: Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal, Anglican, Latter-day Saints, Evangelical, Quakers, and  many  more. Though some more liberal Christians do not consider  The Bible as a literal work, but a metaphorical one, the sacredness of the tradition relies on these compiled texts—without which the entire religion would cease to exist, as it is the only recorded account of the events which supposedly occurred. Therefore it remains important to outline the outdated ideas that the book teaches and show why—even as a metaphorical scripture— The Bible teaches ideas which are increasingly irrelevant and even counter-productive as our social morality and scientific understanding of the world evolves on a global scale. 

As   The Bible is the central piece of literature upon which all Christian morals and ideas are based, it is also necessary to use one 

— 

2 Quote attributed to Socrates (Σωκράτης), a classical Greek philosopher (c. 

469 BC-399 BC). 

iv 

common type or translation. Though it is not the earliest English translation, nor is it by any means the most recent, the Authorized King James Version of  The Bible, created in 1611, is the most widely accepted among Christian traditions3; therefore it will be cited in the chapters that follow as the  Word of God.  There will be various citations and references for Bible verses on many of the arguments; feel free to follow along. 

Once all definitions have been established, only then is it safe to present evidence; as far as Christianity is concerned, through The Bible and religious discourse, the evidence for “proof” of these supernatural claims—or the Christian  thesis—has already been submitted. These claims, as I intend to show, fail to meet the burden of  proof, which is why faith is considered an acceptable substitute for logic and reason in the Christian tradition. However, this reliance on that which cannot be proven will not stop us from examining the claims of the Christian Bible, as well as the teachings of Christian churches of various denominations, in a logical manner in order to create a successful counterargument. Keep in mind that it is much easier to  falsify a claim than it is to  verify one beyond a reasonable doubt; this makes our task a relatively simple one. A successful argument will show that the Christian religion, as it is understood today and expressed through  The Holy Bible, is  not the literal word of God and contains a plethora of contradictions that would make such a claim  impossible.  

Though many believers in the Christian faith will either disregard the evidence put forth in this book  or  attempt to refute it, it is 

— 

3 Though the New International Version of  The Bible is becoming increasingly more popular, the lack of copyright protections and traditional significance of the King James Version contribute to its success within the Christian canon. 

v 

impossible to effectively argue the validity of an ancient document that has so many weaknesses and problems. Now, using this biblical critique, we are able to document  many  of the fallacies and atrocities canonized within the scripture itself, and taught by missionaries and clergymen across the world. Each argument that follows carefully notates references within  The Holy Bible—citing chapter and verse within the text—ensuring that everyone can follow along as we ‘ disprove Christianity’. 

The Bible is abundantly clear that it is composed of the infallible words of a perfect God, meaning that  any imperfections can essentially disprove the book and, therefore, the religion. Most Evangelical and Protestant groups subscribe to a belief in biblical inerrancy—in other words, the Word of God (Bible) is infallible and perfect—and  any  inaccuracies are impossible, creating an easily refuted thesis. It is however, as previously mentioned, still necessary to document as many instances as possible of these contradictory statements, absurd claims, and historical misrepresentations in order to completely disprove the doctrine of Christianity as a viable, historically accurate, representation of true events—

especially those biblical errors that are not overly popular or otherwise overlooked in mainstream biblical critiques. But before we present the evidence  against the Holy Scriptures, we must first prove that  The Bible is  meant  to be taken as the literal word of a flawless Lord. The biblical evidence is very clear in this regard; for example, John 10:35 states (emphasis added),  “If he called themgods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot bebroken,”  and the Second Epistle of Peter 1:21 claims that  The Bible was not written by men in saying that  “the prophecy came not in old vi 

time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they weremoved by the Holy Ghost.”  Last, but certainly not least,  Revelation22:19  claims that  “if any man shall take away from the words of thebook of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book oflife, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written inthis book.”

vii 

PART ONE 

Disproving Christianity: Refuting the 

World’s Most Followed Religion 

Disproving Christianity Cultural Christianity 

In America, most people identify with the Christian religion…yet I am not convinced that those “adherents” a)  know what it means to be a Christian and understand the historical and metaphorical baggage that comes with such a label, and b) actually  follow the biblical teachings associated with the religion. My interest in the field of  cultural Christianity began two years ago during an interview with a university student for a local magazine. His name was Mike and he was a second-year theater major at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I had the chance to speak candidly with Mike and used that opportunity to put to him a series of questions regarding his religious preferences and freedoms. His answer to one question in particular would surprise me more than the rest. I asked Mike a very simple question: “Do you consider yourself a religious person?” A 2001 American Religious Identifica-tion Survey indicates that 81% of Americans  do  associate themselves with a specific religion—76% self-identify with Christiani-ty4—so a “Yes” would not have been cause for alarm. Instead, Mike paused for a moment and answered, “I’m half Christian and half agnostic.” Before I responded, my mind was filled with ideas of what he  could   have meant; some blend of Catholic intrigue mixed with skepticism perhaps? Upon elaboration I discovered 

— 

4 86% of Americans self-identified as Christians in 1990 and 76 % in 2008: http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org. 

1 

Cultural Christianity 

that Mike’s mother was a practicing Protestant and his father was not associated with an organized religion—alarmingly, he indicated that this made him “half Christian and half agnostic.”