Article: Understanding the excuses

Rather, "Article: Understanding the attempts to refute Christians"

So here's a little article on GII that I was made aware of by an atheist on YouTube. He asked me why God would say something that's not true, which of course he hasn't. So let's get right into this, shall we?

The video entitled Prove that Jesus is imaginary in less than 5 minutes uses Proof #50 to prove that Jesus is imaginary. Yet, despite the evidence that we all can see, believers make excuses to try to rationalize their belief. On this page we look at these excuses one by one. I love the absolute arrogance here. He's naturally assuming that his argument is perfect, and whatever believers come back with is immediately a "rationalization." Unfortunately, this terrible attitude is being transferred to Brain's groupies all over, and it's almost making me sick.

Imagine that you are talking to a devout Christian. You ask her, "Is Jesus real?" Her response might go something like this:

Is Jesus real??? What a silly question! Of course he is! Jesus is the living son of God! I have a personal, loving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray to him every day, and he answers my prayers. He helps me make important decisions and guides me in everything I do. I walk with Jesus every step I take. Jesus loves me and has a plan for my life. Jesus is my savior, the rock of my salvation. His blood washes all of us and forgives us our sins."

You'd think a simple "Yes" would have been sufficient.

Now ask her:

Has Jesus ever appeared to you in the flesh? Can the resurrected Jesus appear to us right now? The answers will of course be "No" and No".

Let me add my answer.

"No, and no. But I don't see why this is necessary...at all. Your attempts to show me the importance of this action have ammounted to little more than spoiled child tantrums. So please, Brain: Use a rational argument to show me why Jesus appearing to you, as if you were as important and influential as Paul, would be a good idea."

Now ask this simple question:

Why Not? Jesus has to appear to people to prove that he is resurrected. According to the Bible, Jesus appeared to hundreds of people. In the Bible Jesus promises to answer our prayers. So why wouldn't Jesus appear to us to prove that he is God? Why can't we pray for him to appear right now, and have him appear?"

How about this? "Jesus doesn't have to do anything to prove anything. He's already proven it and we have several independent attestations to it in both Biblical and secular sources (Well, to be fair, Tacitus in his anti-Christian nature calls it a "superstition" and the Josephus passage was probably a partial interpolation, but whatever.) Jesus never once promised to answer every prayer with a "Yes" answer, either. These were hyperbole, and only a fundy atheist would think otherwise. So in other words, praying such a prayer, especially as an atheist, would violate several verses in the Bible, namely "Don't test the Lord," and the like.

As soon as you ask this question, the excuses will start to flow. There it is again. Here is an explanation of each one:

Excuse #1 - Jesus never promises to answer prayers

Normally this excuse will be phrased with something like, "God is not a big vending machine," or "God is not your personal Genie!" And yet, there is no denying that we can find verses in the Bible where Jesus specifically promises to answer your prayers. Hmm. Well, you completely disregard any possibility of hyperbole here. You continue to read the Bible hyperliterally.

In other words, despite what Christians say to try to rationalize their unanswered prayers, Jesus does promise in the Bible, in many different places, that he will answer our prayers. There is no way to misinterpret what Jesus says (Heck there isn't. You're doing it right now, you dolt!), and these verses are not taken "out of context". Jesus clearly promises to answer prayers. Only to you, Brain. Only in your delusional world.

It would be trivial for the all-powerful, all-loving son of God to materialize in the Flesh. That may be true, but you've yet to show me why it would be a good reason. Supposedly he has done it for hundreds of people. Supposedly he is in our midst already. As Jimmie pointed out, this is in spirit, not in body. Get out of your third-grade Sunday School mindset. Yet when we pray and ask him to materialize, nothing happens. For any rational adult, this proves that Jesus is imaginary, especially when you combine it with things like this and this. I think that any rational adult would see right through your childish logic. Any theologian or philosopher would laugh in your face and kick you out of his classroom, I'd think, even the atheist ones.

Excuse #2 - It is not Jesus' will to appear

Often this excuse will be coupled with the following explanation, "Jesus is a conscious, sentient, all-knowing being. He has a will of his own, just like you do. He hears your prayer, but he has the option of answering, 'No.' We cannot know the reasons why, but Jesus has his divine reasons for never appearing on earth."
This explanation, of course, directly contradicts all of the Bible verses quoted above. No, it doesn't. Not one bit.

At another level, imagine for a moment that Jesus does exist. He is all-loving and all-powerful. He is "in our midst" already, according to Matthew 18:20. He has promised in many places to answer prayers. He supposedly hears your prayer. And then he just stands there laughing at you. "What, ME appear to YOU - you must be JOKING!!!" is what Jesus would be saying. No, he'd probably be saying, "No. The only reason you're praying that prayer is because you're trying to test me. Praying such a prayer is in direct violation of Matthew 4:7 and Luke 4:12. Isn't it interesting that you're doing exactly what the devil was doing to Jesus?

"Hey Jesus. If you're the Son of God, throw yourself off this high building. You're omnipotent, you can survive. Angels will save you. This is an unambiguous situation, no other answer can suffice except that you are indeed the Son of God. So do it, why don't you?"

"How about not," Jesus replied. "The Bible says not to test me. I'm not your personal magician that you can flaunt my mad skills around."

In reality, what we have done here is create an unambiguous situation, as described in Proof #9. There is only one way for Jesus to appear in this situation: he must exist. Coincidence cannot answer this prayer. Since he does not appear, we know he is imaginary. Hmm. Well, that proof was about as useful as a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. There are several good reasons God wouldn't answer any of the prayers you make to acheive unambiguous situations. There probably are many more for any other stupid, hypothetical situations you could concoct in that brain of yours.

Excuse #3 - It would destroy our free will if Jesus appeared to us

This is the famous free will argument. Oh, thanks Sherlock! Of course, if this argument were true, then God could not incarnate himself on earth. Jesus is supposed to be God. He supposedly came to earth and millions of people saw him. Incarnating yourself in a normal human being isn't anywhere near obvious. If it really were obvious, you'd already be a Christian. According to the Gospel of John:

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25) I wonder if you interpret this verse literally too.

That's an awful lot of miracles -- so many that the world would not have room for all the books describing them. Presumably at least one person witnessed each miracle. Think of how many names fill just one phone book. Now imagine a whole world full of phone books. That's millions of people who all had their free wills destroyed by Jesus' presence on earth. Yep...He did. *slaps forehead* What an idiot.

Brain, let's grant that "millions" of people saw Jesus of Nazareth. This is highly unlikely for many reasons, one being that he spent his entire life in the region of Nazareth and Galilee, which wouldn't have had nearly that many people, and he spent most of his time with poor, diseased people who were socially shunned. But let's grant that "millions of people...had their free wills destroyed by Jesus' presence on earth." Those people, out of the percentage of people that have lived since Jesus, those people amount to probably 0.0000000001%. That's not very many. There are billions upon billions of people that haven't had their free wills "destroyed."

But wait, the number's even smaller. In the case of the miracles before Jesus resurrection, nobody had to believe anything. They could interpret miracles as coincidence or magic. Only the perhaps 600 people that saw Jesus after his death might have had their free wills "destroyed." So what percent is 600 out of billions upon billions upon billions of people that have lived and died since about 33 A.D.? I'll let you calculate that out.

The Bible still fully supports the idea of Jesus remaining hidden. Sorry, bud.

Clearly the issue of "free will" is irrelevant. It is purely a rationalization.
Jesus could appear to all of us today just like he (supposedly) appeared to millions of people when he was on earth. Clearly the issue of "could" is irrelevant. It is purely a rationalization for your unbelief. Jesus could stand on his nose and juggle five candlesticks and six eggs, too. You haven't demonstrated why he "should."

Excuse #4 - Jesus does appear to people - He appeared to a dozen people at the XYZ church last week

The obvious response is, "Really? Can you prove that? For example, do you have a video tape showing his appearance? Did you ask Jesus a question, like 'what will be the winning PowerBall numbers next week?' that would certify his omniscience? Did you ask him to move Mt. Everest to Nevada to prove his omnipotence?"

Did anyone else see the childishness in this paragraph? I don't agree with this "excuse," because I'm pretty sure nobody would actually use it, unless they were referring to God working on their hearts, not actually appearing to them in person. But again, let's grant that Jesus really did appear at XYZ Church.

Why in the world would he give you the Powerball numbers? The love of money is the root of all evil, the Bible says. Buying lotto tickets is the easiest way to show your love of money. Why in the world would he move Mt. Everest to Nevada? Despite causing an incredible amount of destruction on the Earth, I can't think of any reason to do it that even makes sense.


Excuse #5 - Jesus does appear to people - He appeared as an image on my breakfast toast this morning

I'll pass. I'm assuming this is sarcasm, but taking note of Brain's incredible lack of reading comprehension, it's probably not. Though he does say: "If Jesus was going to appear to you as he did in the Bible, he would appear in the flesh as a living, breathing person." Well, says who? What's stopping Jesus from appearing as something else? Absolutely nothing.

Excuse #6 - Jesus does not appear to me, but he does speak to me every day and guide me in everything I do.

To rational people, these are called hallucinations. Ah, yes. Christians are delusional, hallucinating people. Gotcha.

Since Jesus is an all-knowing being, if he were actually talking to you, he would be able to tell you things that no one else knows. You, as a person channeling Jesus, would be the smartest person on earth. You would ace every test you took. You would never make mistakes. You would know what the winning PowerBall numbers would be next week. You would be able to solve world hunger. Etc. The fact that none of these things are happening shows us that you are hallucinating.

...WHAT?! This paragraph was ridiculous on so many levels. Congratulations, you've been nominated for a Tektonics.org Screwball Award.

So apparently if Jesus, an all-good, all-powerful being, was talking to you, he'd compel you to cheat in multiple ways, bring glory to yourself, etc? Does that even make any sense at all? By the way, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out how to solve world hunger. We have the resources. We just need the desire to do it. Let me ask you Brain, are you sponsoring any children in Africa? If not, why not?

Drawing a conclusion

Here are the facts:

• Jesus has promised to answer our prayers (see excuse #1 above). False. There is not a single verse that promises to answer prayers positively. I feel like I'm repeating myself.
• It would be trivial for Jesus to appear since he is all-powerful and timeless. But, seems to me, it would also be useless. You'd never believe Jesus appeared to someone in the flesh if they told you, would you? You'd ask for proof, which may or may not be available. If he gave you a photograph, you'd think it was photoshopped. Video...staged. You'd never believe it.
• We know it is OK for Jesus to appear to people because, according to the Bible, Jesus has appeared to hundreds. But we don't know why it's okay for him to appear to you, as if you are just as important to the rise and daily life of Christianity as they were.
• There are no issues with free will (see excuse #3 above). I beg to differ.
• The only way for Jesus to prove that he is resurrected is to appear to people. Which is why he resurrected in the first place. Your argument against the resurrection is the worst I've ever seen. Therefore, each person needs an appearance by Jesus to know that he is real. No, we don't. We're not spoiled children, you are. You're no "rational adult."

Therefore, since Jesus does not appear, we know that he is imaginary. When combined with facts like this and this, the case is airtight. There's the arrogance again. Those videos are so easy to refute that it makes me laugh you could be so gullible as to think your case is remotely near "airtight." The story of Jesus' resurrection is no different from the story of Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer or Jack's Beanstalk. Yet those stories were written as fiction, weren't they?

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