The Antichristian Phenomenon

There is a kind of argument theists will use constantly in a debate. It appears in various forms, but the basics are all the same. In my many debates with christians I have recently had to endure another barrage of this argument, so I thought it was about time I adressed this in a more formal way – this article.

So what is the argument I’m talking about? I’ve come to calling it the “true christian” argument, but I’m sure it’s valid for any kind of theist. You’ve probably encountered it before. The christian or theist will say: “But that’s not what the Bible says” or “Those people aren’t real christians” or “You didn’t get the message from that verse/chapter/book”. It can all be placed in the same umbrella: The accusation that your or somebody else’s interpretation of some verse, or the bible integrally, is incorrect. I’ve had christians tell me that the bible is not open to interpretation, but I have also had christians tell me I mustn’t take it too literally. Both think their view of the bible and its message is correct and they will use that assumption as the “true christian” argument in a debate.

The former argues that the Bible is the actual and literal word of god, not to be interpreted subjectively. This creates some clashes not only with our current understanding of the world and its workings, but also internally the bible contradicts itself [1. Contradictions in the bible (Skeptic's Annotated Bible)]. The latter usually pops up when you swing a random “blood-’n-guts” type verse in their face and ask them to explain  where the loving god went and they tell you it is not to be taken literally. This creates a diversity of problems ranging from the questions which parts of the bible are to be taken literally and which not, to the possibility of different interpretation and the loss of original meaning (if there was one).

The fact is that the last issue I put forward is what has been happening for thousands of years. The bible is a collection of books written over a span of many years – not a technical specification for a device called “life”. Upon reading the bible it is unavoidable that you interpret it in a certain way while you are trying to uncover what it means. It doesn’t matter whether you read it as an important literary work or as the word of your god – in both cases you are going to make up your mind about the bible’s content. A well-known part of the bible is the Exodus [2. The Exodus (BibleGateway.com)]: Moses, the ten plagues, the Pharaoh and the enslaved Jewish people. From it one could conclude that God takes care of his people, which would put him in a good light. One could also conclude that God, while all-powerful, still deemed it necessary to kill many innocent first-borns in order to grant freedom to a people. Both conclusions can be defended  (and have been).

The important thing about these various, possibly opposing interpretations is that they can all be defended using the bible. I have often expressed my view of god as an oppressive, fascistic dictator who I would oppose if he existed. I didn’t make that view up; it is my interpretation of god as I have read about him in the bible. But not only non-christians like me have read (parts of) the bible and made up their minds about its contents; people who call themselves christians have too. Siding the plethora of denominations, there are also the non-denominational christians who have their own brand of Christianity. Denominations can disagree on pretty important issues too. During history, schisms and off-branching of christian denominations has occurred in plentitude [3. Historical schism Schemes of Christian theology (Wikipedia).]. Simply consider the fact that there are denominations in christianity that are a response to another denomination, as is the case with Protestantism (versus Roman Catholicism). Also consider the “shunning” of a christian denomination by many other christian denominations, such as is the case with Mormonism (for their “blasphemous” Book of Mormon) and the Westboro Baptist Church (known for their “Thank god for dead soldiers” funeral protests and “God Hates Fags” website [4. GodHatesFags]) – even though their views, mine and the pope’s can be defended succesfully using the same book.

Interpretations of the bible has led to people who do not identify themselves as christians, to denominational christians and to non-denominational christians. The last two often clash between them and also internally to what the true christian message is – if there even is one. Deriving a message from the bible is taken very seriously for no apparent reason other than faith that there should be a message in it.  The so-called professional experts (theologians) can’t seem to agree – even though there exists the general consensus that they are trying to uncover the same message. Using the argument “<You/They> clearly didn’t understand <that part of the bible>” in the light of the previous conclusion is therefore pompous and far from a legitimate argument, and I would like to invite theists to come up with something better.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.