World Population: 6,790,062,216 (July 2009 est.)
World Birth rate: 19.95 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
World Death rate: 8.2 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Lets examine the above population numbers in terms of the Christian religion.
For the most part, Christians make the claim the bible is true. When one thinks about it they are forced to say the bible is true because if it’s not true, then their whole belief system will crumble down around their ankles. For now, just for the sake of argument, let’s assume they are correct and agree the bible is in fact, true.
Second, let’s make the easy assumption that Christians believe their savior, Jesus, is truthful. I mean, what Christian in their right mind would accuse Jesus of being a liar?
Third, Christians claim their god is omniscient. Omniscient means, “all knowing”. God knows everything that has happened, is happening and will happen. (This pretty much shoots the free will argument in the foot but that's an issue we can turn to later.)
Fourth, Christians claim we should pay attention to and follow the advice of Jesus.
Jesus says in Luke 19:27: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me”.
As I explained earlier, there are some 4.6 billion of the earths’ inhabitants who heartily reject the idea that Jesus should reign over them. The very idea is repugnant to them. If Jesus were to appear today and his orders in Luke 19:27 were carried out, the mountain of rotting corpses he would be standing on would be higher than the highest mountain where his alleged conversation with Satan took place. Hitler “only” killed six million Jews. Jesus would have his followers kill 750 times as many. He would make Hitler look like a Sunday school teacher by comparison. It appears to me this presents yet another dilemma for dogmatic Christians. Either Jesus is a pathological maniac or the bible is untrue. And how can something that is untrue be divinely inspired?
I once had a friend who told me, "Oh don't pay any attention to all that Old Testament stuff. Read the New Testament".
So I did.
Here is what I found.
In John 14:6, Jesus condemns to eternal agony the 4.6 billion people presently living on this earth who reject him as their personal savior. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." It don't get much plainer than that. So it’s gentle Jesus, meek and mild that has condemned the majority of mankind, not the god of the Old Testament, depraved as he was. The God of the Old Testament condoned slavery, the murder of innocent men, women and children, the killing of surly teenagers (by their own parents) and a host of other things so repugnant and disgusting that no moral, ethical and honorable person should ever allow their children to read about it, much less teach it to them.
Regardless of all that, never once (no matter how hard you look) can you find anywhere in the Old Testament that all those victims who were murdered in god’s name would spend an eternity in hell. I would challenge anyone to show me in the Old Testament where that claim is made. Only in the New Testament does it say that. The only conclusion any reasonable person can make is that god sent Jesus to do his dirty work. Savage and vindictive as he is, the Old Testament god is a saint compared to the New Testament Jesus.
Here is a staggering statistic. Only 33% of the world populations of 6.8 billion embrace Christianity. A whopping 67%; over 4 ½ billion of this planets’ inhabitants flatly reject Jesus’ claim in John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. Where does Jesus’ claim leave us? Well, if the Bible is true and Jesus never lies, then clearly, 67% or 4,549,341,684 of the planets’6,790,062,216 inhabitants alive on earth today will spend eternity in unimaginable torment and agony. Let me write that number out for you. Four billion, five hundred and forty nine million, three hundred and forty one thousand, six hundred and eighty four. And that's just the people alive on earth today. It doesn't take into account those billions of non-Christians who have already died. And remember, God is omniscient so he knew all this was going to happen when he created man. Right?
When I point that out to Christians they squirm a little and usually respond with something to the effect of; “Well, I’m not saying all those people are going to hell”. My response is: “Of course you’re not! You are much too kind and decent. You aren’t the one who is making the threat. It comes directly from your Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild”. And remember…we just agreed; The Bible is true and Jesus does not lie!
In light of the inerrant scriptures let's look again at the population numbers in terms of birth and death rates and what that means concerning where most of us will spend eternity. The numbers may surprise you. Just for fun, try to guess how many people on our little pale blue dot of a planet will be born this year? And how many will die? I'll do the math for you below but go ahead and take a guess. How many will be born and how many will die.
World Population: 6,790,062,216 (July 2009 est.)
World Birth rate: 19.95 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
World Death rate: 8.2 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)
O.K., here are the numbers. With a birth rate of 19.95 births per thousand, simply divide 6,790,062,216 by 1000 X 19.95 and the answer is 135,461,741 new souls, 67% of which will totally reject Jesus as their savior. Think of that! 90 million, 759 thousand, 366 innocent new babies born each year who are destined to spend eternity in everlasting torment. That's 10,360 per hour! 172 per minute! (It's actually more since Muslims don't embrace Jesus as their savior and Islam is the fastest growing religion but we won't quibble over that statistic for now)
Same formula for deaths means 55,678,510 people will die this year, 67% of which think Jesus was a bald faced liar. If Jesus was telling the truth in John 14:6 (and other verses) this means that 102,204 people will go to hell each and every day. That's 4258 each hour. 71 per minute!! And to think that god knew this was going to happen when he created us.
Here's another way of looking at it. After 2000 years of effort, Christians make up only 33% of the world population. Only 33%! The Washington Nationals baseball team, considered sorry losers by even their own fans, came in dead last in the 2009 baseball season and even they did better than the Christian religion by winning 36% of their games. And they only had three months to practice....not 2000 years.
Just think; in the one hour it took me to look up all these statistics and bible verses, so that I could compose this short missive, 4258 souls went straight to hell.
One must wonder if Jesus had any idea of the size of his understatement when he said , “Many are called, but few are chosen”
This all gets very complicated and the most direct answer to the problems mentioned is to openly admit that if one assumes a literal interpretation of the Bible, your claims are correct. It is not a pretty picture. To accept a non-literal interpretation destroys the foundation upon which fundamentalist Christian doctrine rests. They are left with only one recourse and that is to attack the one calling it to their attention. This almost always happens. Most mainline Churches ie. Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches have abandoned the claim the Bible is to be taken literally and have less of a problem. The unpleasant accounts of the behavior of Jesus and God can be explained away since they recognize most of our Bible came down to us as unsigned writings and realize some writer actually wrote the gospels 50 to 100 yrs. after the person we call Jesus lived. It would be like someone who didn't know you writing about you 50-100 Yrs. after you were dead. It wouldn't be fair to judge you by those accounts. This doesn't solve the problem, but is a good way to rationalize even though it creates a whole new set of problems. But remember, churches can't simply unwind themselves after hundreds of years. They have to reinvent themselves.
ReplyDeleteDr. DuBious