Some idiot guy posted this on his blog:

"Top 20 List” of the things that led to my rejection of Christianity

1) God is wrathful, jealous, hateful, and kills nations of people like it is a bodily function. He is certainly not just or “holy” in nature.

2) The act of throwing people into infinite torture and punishment for not believing a Jewish guy from 2,000 years ago was God’s son, or unknowingly worshiping the wrong god, is extremely cruel and sadistic.

3) The statements, “God works in mysterious ways,” or “It will all make sense in heaven,” are little more than irrational cop outs. This God allows horrible atrocities to be committed against innocent men, women and children every day.

4) Bloody animal and human sacrifices are illogical demands by a divine god as payment for petty wrong doings. These actions are no different than the rituals of archaic pagan religions. Not to mention the bizarre ritual of symbolically drinking human blood and eating human flesh.

5) If God loves us and wants us to know and believe in him, why be so completely invisible? What is the purpose of being so illusive to those who believe and worship him?

6) God never manifests himself or performs miracles as he regularly did for the Israelites in Old Testament stories.

7) Prayers are never answered. Certainly not in the way Jesus described. Prayer has absolutely no affect on the world around us.

8) Jesus did not fulfill major Old Testament prophesies or even fulfill his own promises and predictions.

9) The authors of much of the Bible are unknown. And of these unknown authors, the men who wrote the gospels likely never even met Jesus considering they were written 40-70 years after his death. A far cry from reliable testimony.

10) The Bible is repeatedly contradictory with itself, reality, and the laws of morality. Couldn’t God inspire a less poorly written book?

11) The Bible is open to interpretation. Everyone interprets it in the way that suits them best or serves their purposes.

12) Throughout history, Christians have justified horrific actions by the Bible and its teaching.

13) The Bible promotes hate and persecution against women, homosexuals and those who worship other gods or no god at all.

14) According to the Bible, nearly 70% percent of the people in the world will burn in hell because they don’t believe Jesus was the son of God.

15) The only reason I was a Christian was because I was indoctrinated into the religion as a child as a result of the culture and region of the world in which I was born.

16) Christianity has no more rational or factual foundation than any other religion on earth that I openly reject.

17) The Christian church is disjointed and can’t even agree with one another.

18) Christians are not at all ethically or morally different from non-Christians.

19) Today, powerful church leaders steal, lie and molest young children. The church repeatedly attempts to cover up these atrocities, only to reluctantly apologize as a last resort.

20) It is absolutely irrational to continue to believe archaic teaching with the amount of knowledge we’ve gained through science and technology. The Bible reads like a book of primitive folklore, not divinely inspired

This was my reply to him:

By some weird coincidence I happened to stumble upon this post, and it really bothered and frustrated me. You say you used to believe in God, but you didn’t. You didn’t because you don’t even know the real God. How can you believe in him if you don’t know the real God?

I say you have not understood God or the gospel yet because all the reasons you give come from an misunderstanding of the bible. You have tried to comprehend the bible and God through the limited scope of the human perspective and emotions. But God is unlimited. He is perfect. He is whole. He is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.

But I do understand where all your points come from. If I did not know the gospel, I would have been swayed, too. But here’s my rebuttal to your points:

Us humans are born sinners. Even if we didn’t do anything particularly wicked, we are dirty and sinful because of the original sin from Adam. God actually made humans in His image to live IN Him. Just as the fish can only live in the water, we can only live in God.

But because of the Genesis 3 problem, all mankind has left God, thus they are in such horrible suffering and pain from war, famine, mental and physical illnesses, etc. God did not make it happen. Man made that happen by leaving God first.

But God, in His agape love, provided a solution for us which is Jesus Christ. Because we’re sinners and God is just and righteous, we need to die for our sins. But God provided Christ to die instead for us. We cannot understand this with our human mind because such selfless love is uncomprehendable.

But again, God did not choose every single being in the world to be His child. Only those who were chosen will be able to accept the gospel and believe in it. And it isn’t our place, as mere creations, to question God about this. God could have left us all to perish. But the fact that He was willing to die for us is what we need to be eternally grateful for.

God never asked for human sacrifices. Please get your facts right. But He did ask for animal sacrifice. The blood is to symbolize Christ’s death for us. God allows sacrifice on animals because the sole purpose of creating animals is to serve us humans anyway.

God is invisible because again, He only chose a select few to be His children. If everyone could see God, then everyone would HAVE to believe in Him. Also, if God can be seen, He won’t be a God anymore.

God doesn’t perform miracles as He did anymore because He doesn’t need to. In the Old Testament there was no Holy Spirit for people to feel the presence of God. They needed the prophets to deliver the word of God, and they needed to see miracles in order to see God’s power and presence. Even so, God only performed miracles during special circumstances when He needed to.

Prayers absolutely have effect. But many people misuse prayer. Prayer is not about asking a genie for wishes to be granted. It is a personal communication with God, to hear Him and be guided by Him, to maintain our peace and happiness in Him. It is absolutely effective and powerful and necessary. I have personally experienced the wonderful effects of prayer, but probably not in the way you think it should be.

ALL of the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled. You can ask any theology scholar about this.
Even after Jesus Christ’s death, He is still present in the form of the Holy Spirit. People can still experience Him through the spirit. Thus people can still write about him even after His “death.”
Unfortunately, when people misunderstand the bible, they misuse it. They use it to justify their own cruelty and actions. All throughout history, people have manipulated God’s words to serve their own purposes. Also, Christians are still humans. They are still weak. They still sometimes fail in moral and ethical judgments. Such are the Christians who have not truly grasped the gospel. These people may know about God, but they sure don’t live according to God’s purpose and will.

The bible is not archaic. It holds infinite wisdom, layers and layers of insights and revelations. That is why people may interpret the same verse in different ways. That is how deep the bible is. But only those with the Holy Spirit in them can understand it and enjoy the amazing power and wisdom that comes from the bible.

I am sorry you feel this way about Christianity. But I do think you have gotten it all wrong.