Video: 10 Questions

This is a transcript of the ever-so-popular video of Marshall Brain called "10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer." Now, I'm don't really understand what Brain means by "must answer." Must answer in order to what? Millions of Christians, billions in fact, have gone through life without answering or even thinking about these questions. Do we have to answer these questions in order to be a true Christian, or to be intelligent? Certainly, the latter would make it circular.

Either way, I'll take a stab at it. Not that any Brainist will think these answers are valid.

In this short video, I am going to assume that you are an educated Christian. You have a college degree, and you have been trained to think logically and rationally about the world we live in. I'm currently working on a college degree. I'll probably be in school for another eight years...I plan on pursuing a doctoral degree. For example, you might be:

- An Engineer or Scientist
- A Doctor, Pharmacist or Nurse
- A Teacher
- A Manager or administrator
- A Government employee
- A Business owner
- An Account rep
- An Executive
- A Lawyer
- An Accountant
- A person working in the Financial sector or Human resources
- An Architect or Designer
- A Software developer

Can I add some more? How about a musician? Or, more relevant, how about a scholar of New Testament? How about a theologian?

In other words, you are a smart person. You know how the world works, and you know how to think critically. This is a problem for you, Brain. When you first assert that Christians are delusional, simple people, you can't just admit that there are "smart people" who are Christians. You either have one or the other, not both. If you are an educated Christian, I would like to talk with you today about an important and interesting question. Have you ever thought about using your college education to think about your faith? To be quite honest, I'm not sure what a college degree in accounting and beer consumption does for anyone's critical thinking ability when it comes to religion. Your life and your career demand that you behave and act rationally. Which is why Christians don't get fired. Christians act rationally too, and you just admitted it. Let's apply your critical thinking skills as we discuss 10 simple questions about your religion.

Here is an example of the kind of thing I am talking about: As a Christian, you believe in the power of prayer. According to a recent poll (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42061), 3 out of 4 doctors believe that God is performing medical miracles on earth right now. Does this disturb you? When you go to the doctor, do you ask him this question, and if he says yes, do you call him delusional and simple? Most Christians believe that God is curing cancers, healing diseases, reversing the effects of poisons and so on.

So here is question #1: Why won't God heal amputees?

It's a simple question, isn't it? We all know that amputated legs do not spontaneously regenerate in response to prayer. Amputees get no miracles from God.

If you are an intelligent person, you have to admit that it's an interesting question. On the one hand, you believe that God answers prayers and performs miracles. I believe that God answers prayers and performs miracles when it suits his divine providence to so. On the other hand, you know that God completely ignores amputees when they pray for miracles. It's not that he "ignores" anything. It's that he says "No."

How do you deal with this discrepancy? As an intelligent person, you have to deal with it, because it makes no sense. Actually, it makes complete sense. If God is God, he has the ability to choose what prayers to answer and what prayers to refuse. And if God doesn't want to heal amputees, that doesn't make him mean or cruel or anything. It makes him sovereign. It means that he has a better idea of how to run the world than you do, Marshall Brain. In order to handle it, notice that you have to create some kind of rationalization. You have to invent an excuse on God's behalf to explain this strange fact of life. You might say, "well, God must have some kind of special plan for amputees." So you invent your excuse, whatever it is, and then you stop thinking about it because it is uncomfortable. Notice the subtle implication here that any answer besides the one you want ("Because God is imaginary") is a rationalization. What gives you the right to say this? Nothing. You've simply assumed that you have it all figured out and the theist's answer is automatically wrong.

Well, here's my answer. God doesn't answer the prayers of amputees for the same reason that he doesn't answer a whole lot of prayers today. If God is going to have that title of supreme deity, you must submit that he has control of the situation. And if he has decided that it's best for his interests to not answer that prayer immediately, then that's simply that. He has a better idea of how to run the world, and he's under no obligation to do anything that we ask. He's under no obligation to fix our mistakes whenever we want.

And, of course, I would make the point that in Heaven, the Bible says that we receive new bodies. And I doubt that the amputee would still be limbless then.

Here is another example. As a Christian, you believe that God cares about you and answers your prayers. Sure. Not always, again, but sure.

So the second question is: Why are there so many starving people in our world? Because we're not feeding them, that's why.

Look out at our world and notice that millions of children are dying of starvation. It really is horrific. It is. It's terrible. Why would God be worried about you getting a raise, while at the same time ignoring the prayers of these desperate, innocent little children? It really doesn't make any sense, does it? Why would a loving god do this?

Let's return to the example I used earlier. Imagine that you, Marshall, represent America. That's certainly a horrifying thought, but we'll ignore that for a moment. God is the patron of a banquet, and there are enough seats at the table for everyone, meaning all the countries of the world. You are sitting there next to all the rich countries. Next to you, on the floor, are starving countries like the Congo, Zambia, Tanzania, and Angola. They are dying, they want food. But the rich countries are blocking them. Whenever they come up to the table for food, we push them out of the way or we eat all the food quickly so there is nothing left for them.

When all the food is gone, you suddenly realize that they haven't eaten yet and they're starving. Then, you turn to God, who has been standing next to the table, watching passively. You shout at him in anger, saying "Why don't you feed these people, patron? How can you call yourself a good patron if you don't provide enough food for these people too?"

The point of the story is that we have the means to solve the hunger problem. We simply don't because it's uneconomical. It's our job to solve it, not God's. And besides, he commanded us to do it already when he said, "Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me."

In addition, I will also note that most of the people who are actually working to stop the hunger problem, which you are not it seems, are Christians. Ever heard of Compassion International, for example? Or the Salvation Army?

To explain it, you have to come up with some sort of very strange excuse for God. Like, "God wants these children to suffer and die for some divine, mysterious reason." That's a bad answer that probably nobody I know would use. Then you push it out of your mind because it absolutely does not fit with your view of a loving, caring God. Intelligent Christians wouldn't do this either.

Third question: Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible? Marshall, what does innocent mean, exactly? It means, "free from moral wrong; free from legal or specific wrong, guiltless." By this very definition, are these people innocent? Look up these verses:

- Exodus 35:2 � God demands that we kill everyone who works on the Sabbath day. If someone breaks this law, are they innocent? No. But another caveat...You shouldn't use the present tense here. The Sabbath command of abstaining was fulfilled in Christ, and thus, following it isn't necessary anymore.


- Deuteronomy 21:18-21 � God demands that we kill disobedient teenagers. Not in the way that you are thinking. There's a linguistic issue that I have already been over several times I believe in this blog. So no, it doesn't mean killing someone for not doing their chores one day, it means killing someone who is a danger to society, their family, and themselves. But even if that weren't true...Are "disobedient teenagers" innocent by the definition you're using? Nope.


- Leviticus 20:13 � God demands the death of homosexuals. Again, if there was a law against homosexuality, then were homosexuals innocent? No. You're using word games.


- Deuteronomy 22:13-21 � God demands that we kill girls who are not virgins when they marry. Ditto.

And so on. There are lots of verses like these.

It doesn't make any sense, does it? Why would a loving God want us to murder our fellow human beings over such trivial matters? To the bigoted, 21st century mind, they may sound trivial. But it just exposes your lack of research. This type of thing was quite literally life and death. Everything revolved around the family in order for the survival of society, and doing things that break that bond was literally dangerous to other's lives. Just because you work on the wrong day of the week, you must die? That makes no sense, does it? Why not? I have never understood what's so difficult about this commandment for you. God is giving you a break from the work week. But working on a day that God deliberately made for rest and worship was blasphemy and a direct insult to God. In fact, if you think about it, you realize that it is insane. Wah, wah, wah. So you create some kind of rationalization to explain these verses. I really love how you continue to use the world "rationalization" when it means "to treat or explaio in a rational or rationalistic manner."

Question #4: Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense? Perhaps because it's not a science book, and perhaps because the authors were not scientists. You have a college degree, so you know what I'm talking about. You know how science works. You happily use the products of science every day: your car, your cell phone, your microwave oven, your TV, your computer. These are all products of the scientific process. You know that science is incredibly important to our economy and to our lives. Of course it is.

But there is a problem. As an educated person you know that the Bible contains all sorts of information that is total nonsense from a scientific perspective.

- God did not create the world in 6 days 6,000 years ago like the Bible says. Sorry, but the Bible doesn't "say" that the world was created 6,000 years ago. There is no exact date of creation given. But it's interesting that you assert that God didn't create the world. Have you proven this?


- There was never a worldwide flood that covered Mt. Everest like the Bible says.


- Jonah did not live inside a fish's stomach for three days like the Bible says. It's also interesting that you say this. You've proven this too?


- God did not create Adam from a handful of dust like the Bible says.

These stories are all nonsense. They are not, actually. Even if they are false, they are still excellent parables. They could easily have been intended as such anyway. Why would an all-knowing God write nonsense? This isn't troubling to the believer, since you have no idea what it means when we say "God wrote the Bible," apparently. Inspiration is not literal, word-for-word, "Here's what you should write" dictation as you think it is. It makes no sense, does it? So you create some type of very strange excuse to try to explain why the Bible contains total nonsense.

Question #5: Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the Bible? The question should be, "Why does God allow the practice of indentured servitude?" which isn't that difficult of a question. Why do we allow indentured servitude today? I'm almost tempted to simply point you to Proof 13, where I go into greater detail about this topic, and leave it at that. But I won't. Look up these Bible verses:

- Exodus 21:20-21: God says that it is OK to own slaves, and it is also OK to beat them. No, it doesn't say it's "OK to beat them" at all. Not even close. It says that if someone kills their slave by beating, they would receive death in turn as punishment. But if their slave survives, it assumed that the master was trying to discipline him rather than kill him, and even this was frowned upon in the Ancient Near East. Get it right.


- Colossians 3:22-24: Slaves need to obey their masters. Would you rather it say, "Slaves, rebel against your masters. Kill them if necessary?"


- Ephesians 6:5: Slaves need to obey their masters just as they would obey Christ. Ditto.


- 1 Peter 2:18: Slaves need to obey their masters, even if their masters are harsh. Again, if the Bible promoted disobedience, this would just give you more fodder for stupid arguments, wouldn't it?

And so on.

And why do all intelligent people abhor slavery and make it completely illegal? Because slavery, as it has been understood in our Western culture, is evil and terrible. Forced labor is terrible. But again, the "slavery" in the Bible isn't anything like it. You have to come up with some kind of weird rationalization to explain it. You're right. I did just explain it in a reasoned way. Well, I did a better job in 13.

Question #6: Why do bad things happen to good people? That makes no sense. Actually, it makes complete sense if you don't have the mindset of a spoiled child. Bad things happen to good people for the same reason that they happen to bad people. We have the ability of free choice, and that's how it goes. If someone wants to do something bad to a good person, then they are freely able to do that. You have created an exotic excuse on God's behalf to rationalize it. No, I just answered it. It's a truly simple question.

Question #7: Why didn't any of Jesus' miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence? Evidence like four, independent accounts from eyewitnesses, or interviews of eyewitnesses? Evidence like creeds which we have dated to within five years of Christ's death? Or what, evidence like a photograph or an engraving in the rock that says, "Jesus Lives, Worship Him?" It's very strange, isn't it? It would be if you were actually right. But the only reason we even know about Jesus is because it did leave evidence behind: the accounts written in the Bible. Those are evidence whether you like it or not. You have created an excuse to rationalize it. Haha.

Question #8: How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you? A friend of mine claims that he did. Do you believe her? Why not? Jesus is all-powerful and timeless, but if you pray for Jesus to appear, nothing happens. Why should he? I don't see any legitimate reason for him to. I don't need him to, in fact. I already believe in him. You have to create a weird rationalization to deal with this discrepancy.

Question #9 � Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood? Everytime I see this argument, a little part of me dies on the inside. It sounds totally grotesque, doesn't it? Why would al all-powerful God want you to do something that, in any other context, sounds like a disgusting, cannibalistic, satanic ritual? *sigh*. Communion is NOT literal cannibalism. I'll wait for you to get a better source than The Da Vinci Code for this load of bullocks.

And finally, Question #10: Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians? Christians get married in front of God and their Christian friends, all of whom are praying to God for the marriage to succeed. And then they say, "What God has put together, let no man put asunder." God is all-powerful, so if God has put two people together that should seal the deal, right? Yet Christians get divorced at the same rate as everyone else. To explain this, you have to create some convoluted rationalization. Are you actually serious about this? You know, I already showed that this was 100% logically fallacious in the proof that you wrote about it. And therefore, I'll leave it at that, because typing an explanation to you makes me giggle to much to finish.

So, we have looked at 10 fascinating questions. *snort*. In order to believe in God, you have had to create all sorts of strange rationalizations and excuses. You act as if these questions are actually serious, awe-inspiring predicaments to the believer. They are not. If you are an intelligent, college-educated person, all of these excuses and rationalizations probably make you uncomfortable. Actually, us intelligent, college-educated people have come to realize that you are merely excluding all possible answers except your own as a "rationalization," a word which you don't even understand the proper meaning of. If you think about it honestly, using the critical thinking skills that you learned in college, you have to admit that your answers to these questions make no sense at all.

Now, let me show you something remarkable. What if you instead assume that God is imaginary? A funny thing happens: the answers to every one of these questions make complete sense. Just look at all ten questions as an intelligent person:

1) Why won't God heal amputees? Because God is imaginary, and he doesn't answer any prayers. Every "answered prayer" is actually a coincidence. Hmm. There are some pretty incredible coincidences, then. All scientific evidence supports this conclusion. Absolutely, positively false. Don't be naive enough to say that there is NO scientific evidence supporting answered prayer.


2) Why are there so many starving people in our world? Because God is imaginary, and he is therefore unable to answer their prayers. But that doesn't even answer the question at all. The answer you have supplied is irrelevant.


3) Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible? Because God is imaginary, and the Bible was written by ridiculous, ruthless men rather than any sort of loving being.


4) Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense? Ditto. Primitive men wrote the bible, not an all-knowing being.

5) Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery? Ditto.

6) Why do bad things happen to good people? Because God is imaginary and bad things happen at the same statistical rates to everyone.

7) Why didn't any of Jesus' miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence? Because God is imaginary, and Jesus' miracles are myths.

8) How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you? Because God is imaginary.

9) Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood? Because God is imaginary, and this bizarre ritual came from a pagan religion. Hehehehe...


10) Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians? Because God is imaginary.

Do you see what has happened here? Yep. I saw that you answered these questions as if this answer doesn't come with any problems of it's own. However, this answer leads to a whole batch of more questions, including the following:

1) Why does anything exist at all?

2) Why is the universe so complex?

3) Why do most humans claim to have spiritual experiences of some nature?

4) Why do humans have a sense of objective morality?

5) Why do humans perceive that their lives have meaning, since there can't be
meaning without God?

6) Why are there four people saying that Jesus rose from the dead, giving
hundreds of eyewitnesses to support it, if it didn't really happen?

7) Why did the disciples die for something they knew to be false?

8) Why does Rick Heil of the band SONICFLOOd not have any traces of Chron's
disease anymore, a disease which has no cure?

9) Why does Christianity have such an effect on the morality of converts?

10) Why do good things happen to good people?

11) Why does music have such a profound effect on the emotions and desires of humans, as it doesn't seem to have any evolutionary benefit?

12) Since you played the game of completely irrelevant questions, why aren't there any organizations fighting hunger in Africa in the name of atheism?

13) I could go on and on.

When we assume that God exists, the answers to these ten questions make absolutely no sense. Yet, when we assume God doesn't exist, the above questions make no sense either. See, I'm in a better position, since all of your questions do is prove that we don't understand God's nature as much as we'd like. Mine seem to prove that atheism is ridiculous. But if we assume that God is imaginary, our world makes complete sense. HA. I've never heard such a silly statement in my life.

It's interesting, isn't it? Actually, it's more than interesting: it is incredibly important.

Our world only makes sense when we understand that God is imaginary. Really? Then I guess you can explain the concepts of morality perfectly, right?

This is how intelligent, rational people know that God is imaginary. But wait. You've already admitted that Christians can be intelligent and rational. Did you forget?

When you use your brain, which Christians do everyday, and when you think logically about your religious faith, which some Christians, like me, do everyday, you can reach only one possible conclusion: the "god" that you have heard about since you were an infant is completely imaginary. Another stupid assumption. What about the Christians I know who were raised by fundamentalist atheist parents who refused to let their children go to church while growing up, but still came to know God in their teenage years? You have to willfully discard rationality, and accept hundreds of bizarre rationalizations to believe in your "god." Self-contradiction, again.

Now, let me ask you one last question: why should you care? What difference does it make if people want to believe in a "god", even if he is imaginary? Good question. The question of whether God exists is the most important question we can ask.

It matters because people who believe in imaginary beings are delusional. Correct.

It matters because people who talk to imaginary beings are delusional. Correct. Fortunately for me, God isn't imaginary. Or at least, you've failed miserably to prove it, what with your fifty attempts.

It matters because people who believe in imaginary superstitions like prayer are delusional. Like the three out of four doctors, apparently.

It's that simple, and that obvious. Your religious beliefs hurt you personally and hurt us as a species because they are delusional. Even if it's true that God doesn't exist, I really wouldn't go that far. I believe in God, and it doesn't hurt me at all. If anything, it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. You wouldn't know, of course. But besides, you say they hurt the species. Hurt us and hinder us from achieving what? A great, secular society? The belief in any "god" is complete nonsense. According to you, perhaps. But that's because you're delusional.

You are a smart person. Wait, I'm a Christian. According to you, I'm not. It is time for you to use your intelligence to free yourself from these delusions. It is time for you to begin thinking like a rational human being, rather than clinging to imaginary friends and childhood fantasies. Atheist parents, man. Atheist parents. Look up.

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