Criticism of Christianity

See also: Criticism of Religion

Throughout the history of Christianity, a wide range of Christians and non-Christians alike have offered criticisms of Christianity, the Church, and Christians themselves. Christianity has responded to many of these criticisms, partially through the field of Christian apologetics.

Much of the criticism cannot be distinguished from general criticism of religion. Other criticism addresses the Christian teachings specifically and concerns interpretations and dogmas related to Christianity.

Within Christianity

The New Testament is rife with admonishments of Christians and appraisals of Christian doctrines. Scholars associated with the Federal Vision theology have argued against the idea that a Christian is someone who subscribes to a particular belief system called "Christianity". For example, Peter Leithart states that the Bible speaks of "Christians" and of "the Church", but not of "Christianity". Some Christian writers, such as Dave Andrews, also reject Christianity on the basis that organised religion can detract from following Jesus.

Rationality

Atheists such as Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins argue that Christianity has sought to suppress rational enquiry and hence the quest for truth.

Compatibility with science

Main article: Religion and science

David C. Lindberg states that the widespread popular belief that the Middle Ages was a time of ignorance and superstition due to the Christian church is a "caricature". According to Lindberg, while there are some portions of the classical tradition which suggests this view but these were exceptional cases. It was common to tolerate and encourage critical thinking about the nature of the world. The relation between Christianity and science is complex, according to Lindberg. David C. Lindberg reports that "the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led. There was no warfare between science and the church." Ted Peters in Encyclopedia of Religion writes that although there is some truth in the "Galileo's condemnation" story but through exaggerations, it has now become "a modern myth perpetuated by those wishing to see warfare between science and religion who were allegedly persecuted by an atavistic and dogma-bound ecclesiastical authority."

Medieval artistic illustration of the spherical Earth in a 14th century copy of L'Image du monde (ca. 1246).

During the nineteenth century developed what scholars today call the conflict thesis (or the warfare model, or the Draper-White thesis). According to it, any interaction between religion and science almost inevitably would lead to open hostility, with religion usually taking the part of the aggressor against new scientific ideas. A popular example was the supposition that people from the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat, and that only science, freed from religious dogma, had shown that it was round. This misconception was propagated even by professional historians: in fact, educated people from the Middle Ages already thought that the Earth was spherical.

This notion of a war between science and religion (especially Christianity) remained common in the historiography of science during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Similar views have also been supported by many scientists. The astronomer Carl Sagan, for example, mentions the dispute between the astronomical systems of Ptolemy (who thought that the sun and planets revolved around the earth) and Copernicus (who thought the earth and planets revolved around the sun). He states in his A personal Voyage that Ptolemy's belief was "supported by the church through the Dark Ages...[It] effectively prevented the advance of astronomy for 1,500 years." Sagan rebukes claims that religion and science did not have an antagonizing relationship in the Medieval era by explaining the axioms of Copernicus' discovery:

This Copernican model worked at least as well as Ptolemy's crystal spheres, but it annoyed an awful lot of people. The Catholic Church later put Copernicus' work on its list of forbidden books, and Martin Luther described Copernicus in these words...

People give ear to an upstart astrologer [Copernicus] who strives to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun or the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is of course the very best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.

— Martin Luther, Tischreden, ed Walsch XXII, 2260

Ted Peters however points out that the above remark didn't come from Luther's authored writings but rather from students who were taking notes. Ted states that Luther had only heard tales of Copernicus' new idea and didn't really have any serious engagements on this issue. Regarding Copernicus' thought, he is said to "have quipped that this would be comparable to somebody riding on a cart or in a ship and imagining that he was standing still while the earth and the trees were moving." Peters concludes that "spoken in jest, such items ought not to be interpreted as indicating any general opposition to science."

The framing of the relationship between Christianity and science as being predominantly one of conflict is still prevalent in popular culture, but the same is not true among today's academics on the topic. Most of today's historians of science consider that the conflict thesis has been superseded by subsequent historical research

Clerks studying astronomy and geometry.
France, early 15th century.

Moreover, many scientists through out history held strong Christian beliefs and strove to reconcile science and religion. Isaac Newton, for example, believed that gravity caused the planets to revolve about the Sun, and credited God with the design, yet his religious views are generally considered heretical. In the concluding General Scholium to the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, he wrote: "This most beautiful System of the Sun, Planets and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being." Other famous founders of science as we know it who adhered to Christian beliefs included Galileo, Johannes Kepler, and Blaise Pascal.

Medieval scholars sought to understand the geometric and harmonic principles by which God created the universe.

Historians of science such as J.L. Heilbron, Alistair Cameron Crombie, David Lindberg, Edward Grant, Thomas Goldstein, and Ted Davis also have been revising the common notion — the product of black legends say some — that medieval Christianity has had a negative influence in the development of civilization. These historians believe that not only did the monks save and cultivate the remnants of ancient civilization during the barbarian invasions, but the medieval church promoted learning and science through its sponsorship of many universities which, under its leadership, grew rapidly in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries, St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church's "model theologian," not only argued that reason is in harmony with faith, he even recognized that reason can contribute to understanding revelation, and so encouraged intellectual development. He was not unlike other medieval theologians who sought out reason in the effort to defend his faith. Also, some today's scholars, such as Stanley Jaki, have suggested that Christianity with its particular worldview was actually a crucial factor for the emergence of modern science.

Ethics

See also: Criticism of the Bible and Ethics in the Bible

Racial or cultural dominance

From the 16th onward into the 20th century, some White Christian Europeans oppressed some non-Whites, non-Christians, and non-Europeans in many parts of the world. As was the case with the West's science, philosophy, and politics, some employed its religion to aid causes that the majority of modern people, Christian and otherwise, now see as abhorrent. In light of this history, critics have characterized Christianity as promoting slavery, racism, Eurocentrism, and colonialism. Many Christians have responded to these criticisms.

The practice of slavery in the West predates the emergence of Christianity by thousands of years. Early Christianity variously opposed, accepted, or ignored slavery. In early Medieval times, the Church discouraged slavery throughout Europe, largely eliminating it. That changed in 1452, when Pope Nicholas V instituted hereditary slavery of captured Muslims and pagans, which effectively meant Africans or Asians. As he read the Bible, God had instructed his faithful to make slaves of the neighboring heathens. Since then, various Christian groups taught that Africans were the descendants of Ham, cursed with "the mark of Ham" (dark skin) to be servants to the descendants of Japheth (Europeans) and Shem (Asians). Some Christians became involved in slavery from the Middle Ages until the abolition movement of the late 19th century met success.

Today, only some periphery groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other "Christian" hate groups on the racist fringes of the Christian Reconstructionist and Christian Identity movements advocate the reinstitution of slavery. With these exceptions, all Christian faith groups now condemn slavery, and see the practice as incompatible with basic Christian principles.

Rodney Stark makes the argument in For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery, that Christianity helped to end slavery worldwide, as does Lamin Sanneh in Abolitionists Abroad. These authors point out that Christians who viewed slavery as wrong on the basis of their religious convictions spearheaded abolitionism, and many of the early campaigners for the abolition of slavery were driven by their Christian faith and a desire to realize their view that all people are equal under God. In the late 17th century, anabaptists began to criticize slavery. Criticisms from the Society of Friends, Mennonites, and the Amish followed suit. Prominent among these Christian abolitionists were William Wilberforce, and John Woolman. In Britain and America, Quakers were active in abolitionism. A group of Quakers founded the first English abolitionist organization in 1873, and a Quaker petition brought the issue before government that same year. The Quakers continued to be influential throughout the lifetime of the movement, in many ways leading the way for the campaign. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was instrumental in starting abolitionism as a popular movement.

In addition to aiding abolitionism, many Christians made further efforts toward establishing racial equality, contributing to the Civil Rights Movement. The African American Review notes the important role Christian revivalism in the black church played in the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., an ordained Baptist minister, was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a Christian Civil Rights organization.

File:RFJesus.jpg

A hypothetical reconstruction of someone from the same time and place of Jesus, created by forensic artist Richard Neave.

Christians have answered the charge of Eurocentrism by pointing out Christianity’s non-European origins. Christianity originated as a sect of Judaism in the Middle East, as Jesus, the founder and central figure of Christianity, lived and held His ministry in the Middle East. The race of Jesus is contested, and various theories have presented His ethnicity as White, Black, or Middle Eastern. Paul of Tarsus, an ethnic Jew who was born and lived in the Middle East, holds such importance to Christianity that some call him the religion's "Second Founder". The greatest influence on Christianity after Paul, Augustine of Hippo, a Church Father, a Doctor of the Church, and an eminent theologian, was African.

Others point to the diversity of Christians worldwide to counter criticisms of Eurocentrism. Christianity is a religion open to all humanity. that counts one out of every three people on earth among its members. Christendom encompasses a greater area of land than that of any other religious territory. In terms of both population and geography, Christianity is the world's largest religion. As such, Christianity contains a great diversity, and has followers from a wide range of ethnicities, nationalities, and cultures. Both Europeans and non-Hispanic Whites are shrinking minorities in the Church.

In his book Enlarging the Story: Perspectives on Writing World Christian History, Richard Fox Young views the connection between Christianity and Eurocentrism as tenuous, and points to the postcolonial and non-Euopean nature of the emerging Church and its impact on the development of World Christianity. In the postcolonial world, Christianity has lost its association with the West. At the turn of the millennium, 60% of the world’s two billion Christians lived in Africa, Latin America, or Asia, and by 2025, those demographics will shift to an estimated 67% of the world's three billion Christians. The rise of Christianity in the southern hemisphere, especially northern Africa and Latin America, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is a "grassroots movement" that has generated new forms of Christian theology and worship, and shifted the cultural and geographic focal point of the Church away from the West. The prominence of the southern hemisphere's Christianity has brought with it a cultural and intellectual diversity to World Christianity, and contributed such ideas as Liberation Theology.

Persecution by Christians

Main article: Persecution by Christians

Certain Christian groups and regimes have historically persecuted other groups, including both non-Christians and Christians, based upon claims to the "one true religion". Women, minority groups and genderqueer have been targets of discrimination based upon scriptural claims.

Christianity and women

Joan of Arc led battles in the fight to free France from England. She believed that God had commanded her to do so. She was tried for heresy and burned at the stake. She is now a saint venerated in the Roman Catholic Church.

Christianity has been criticised by proponents of gender equality for what they view as its advocation of female subjection to men.

Though there are two canonical books named in honor of women (the Book of Ruth and the Book of Esther), the Bible was written by men. Genealogies in the Bible are patrilinear, though there are a few mentions of women, such as Jesus' descent from Rahab. Most Biblical figures such as prophets, judges, patriarchs, and kings are men, though there are exceptions, such as the prophetesses Hannah, the judge Deborah, and the queen Esther).

Jesus himself is never recorded in the canonical Gospels as saying or doing anything derogatory toward women, and had several female followers.

In the early Church Christian women enjoyed a higher status among fellow Christians then non-Christian women did among their fellow non-Christians and many, perhaps the majority, of converts to Christianity were women. Many women are recorded as having obtained the status of Deacon. Paul addressed several of his letters to both women and men as leaders of their respective congregations. The fact that Christianity prohibited infanticide of both sexes led to a far higher number of women among Christians than among non-Christians which aided Christianity's growth. The conversion of several upper class women who then converted their husbands and families also helped bring about the dominance of Christianity within Greco-Roman society.

The Old Testament includes many sagas that portray women as leaders and Heros helping or asserting some power over men such as Sarah and Rachel in the book of Genesis and the many women who saved and helped Moses and the Isrealites in Exodus such as the Midwives of Egypt, Moses's sister, the daughter of the Pharaoh and Moses's wife Zipporah.

Doctrine

Hell and damnation

See also: Problem of Hell

Adam and Eve being driven from Eden due to original sin, portrayed by Gustave Doré.

Skeptics have criticized Christianity for seeking to persuade people into accepting its authority through simple fear of punishment or, conversely, through hope of reward after death, rather than through rational argumentation or empirical evidence. Traditional Christian doctrine assumes that, without faith in God, one is subject to eternal hellfire. The Epistle of James states that even mere belief is insufficient for salvation, for "the devils believe and also tremble" (James 2:19). Saint Paul also states in Romans that confession of the Lord as your savior entails you will be saved and "He that doubted is damned" (Romans 14:23). Not only is doubt detrimental to salvation, but mere hope to Saint Paul is an unacceptable sign of uncertainty, "For hope that is seen is not hope: for what man sees, why does he yet hope for? (Romans 8:24)" Not only must one have unwavering belief and faith to receive salvation, but according to Saint Augustine, one of the church's prime theologians throughout the medieval era, those who are already saved are predetermined, they however must have been baptized and a member of the church.

Since we all inherit Adam's sin, we all deserve eternal damnation. All who die unbaptized, even infants, will go to hell and suffer unending torment. We have no reason to complain of this, since we are all wicked. (In the Confessions, the Saint enumerates the crimes of which he was guilty in the cradle.) But by God's free grace certain people, among those who have been baptized, are chosen to go to heaven; these are the elect. They do not go to heaven because they are good; we are all totally depraved, except insofar as God's grace, which is only bestowed on the elect, enables us to be otherwise. No reason can be given why some are saved and the rest damned; this is due to God's unmotivated choice. Damnation proves God's justice; salvation His mercy. Both equally display His goodness.

Critics regard the eternal punishment of those who fail to adopt Christian faith as morally objectionable, and consider it an abhorrent picture of the nature of the world. "God so loved the world that he made up his mind to damn a large majority of the human race." - Robert G. Ingersoll. On a similar theme objections are made against the perceived injustice of punishing a person for all eternity for a temporal crime. Some Christians agree (see Annihilationism and Trinitarian Universalism). These beliefs have been considered especially repugnant when the claimed omnipotent God makes, or allows a person to come into existence, with a nature that desires that which he finds objectionable - see original sin.

Atonement

The idea of atonement for original sin is criticized by some on the grounds that the image of God as requiring the suffering and death of Jesus to effect reconciliation with humankind is morally repugnant. The view is summarized by Richard Dawkins: "if God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them? Who is God trying to impress?" [3] Christians often respond to this objection by claiming that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was the greatest expression of divine mercy God could give while still maintaining perfect justice. See also Penal substitution.

Robert Green Ingersoll suggests that the concept of the atonement is simply an extension of the Mosaic tradition of blood sacrifice and "is the enemy of morality". [4] The death of Jesus Christ represents the blood sacrifice to end all blood sacrifices; the resulting mechanism of atonement by proxy through that final sacrifice has appeal as a more convenient and much less costly approach to redemption than repeated animal sacrifice – a common sense solution to the problem of reinterpreting ancient religious approaches based on sacrifice.

Prominent Christian apologist, Josh McDowell, in More Than A Carpenter, addresses the issue through an analogy of a real-life judge in California who was forced to fine his daughter $100 for speeding, but then came down, took off his robe, and paid the fine for her from his billfold.

The Second Coming

A fundamental belief of Christianity is that Christ will return to the earth to conquer evil and rule over the faithful - a simplified definition of the Second Coming. Since the first century until modern times, some Christian leaders and their followers have prophesied that this would happen, usually during the lifetime of the person making the prophecy, and frequently within the next 20 years after the prophecy. This practice seems to contradict a fundamental Christian principle that says that no one knows when Christ will come (Mark 13:32). The failure of even one of these many prophesies to come true often has the effect of trivializing Christian teachings and making the church seem unreliable.

Several verses in the New Testament appear to contain Jesus' predictions that the Second Coming would take place within a century following his death. Most notably, Matthew 10:22-23, 16:27-28, 23:36, 24:29-34, 26:62-64; Mark 9:1, Mark 14:24-30, 14:60-62; and Luke 9:27. However many of these statements of Jesus are Jesus quoting from the Old Testament books such as the Book of Isaiah and Book of Daniel which many Christians assume renders them metaphorical, not literal, prophecies. An example is Jesus' predictions of the Olivet discourse, where much is taken from Isaiah's predictions of the fall of Babylon and God's judgments on the world. Such statements have contributed to the Preterism movement, a belief that the Second Coming had already taken place by the end of the first century CE.

Conflicts via afterlife

What often poses problems for Christians is the nature of the afterlife portrayed by the history of the land of Ancient Israel, or the Old Testament. Many scholars believe there is no concept of immortality or life after death in the Old Testament. The human body was shaped by God from the earth, and animated with the "breath of life" (Gen 2:7-8). At death, the person becomes a "dead breath" (Numbers 6:6). Biblical passages such as Ecclesiastes 12:7 state, "the dust returns to the earth as it was", "In Sheol who will praise you?" and "Will the dust praise thee?" The presumption is that the deceased are inert, lifeless, and engaging in no activity. This is portrayed in Job's plea to God:

Job seen arguing with his friends concerning the suffering Satan put him through. God will later tell Job the monsters Behemoth and Leviathan are the chief of his creations. Portrayed by Gerard Seghers.

Why did I not die at birth,

come forth from the womb and expire? ...

From then I should have lain down and been quiet;

I should have slept; then I should have been at rest...

There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together;

they hear not the voice of the taskmaster [God].

The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his master.

The idea of Sheol or a state of nothingness was shared among Babylonian and Israelite beliefs. "Sheol, as it was called by the ancient Israelites, is the land of no return, lying below the cosmic ocean, to which all, the mighty and the weak, travel in the ghostly form they assume after death, known as Raphraim. There the dead have no experience of either joy or pain, perceiving no light, feeling no movement." Professor Obayshi alludes that the Israelites were satisfied with such a shadowy realm of afterlife because they were more deeply concerned with survival. This theme of prosperity via unity is very much portrayed in the book of Joshua. The descendants of Moses, led from Egypt, follow Joshua into Canaan where they capture much of the land, the book ascribes this to their religious piety. The famed walls of Jericho even fall when Priests encircle the walls and blow ram horns. This theme of unity resonates in the next stanza where Joshua suffers a setback at the easily conquerable town of Ai. God lets the Israelites lose in battle because a man stole booty from the victory prior, this exemplifies the Old Testament's logic of salvation via collective survival.

Achan, who was stoned to death in front of his sons and daughters. A great cairn of stones was the burial for criminals, portrayed by Gustave Doré.

Joshua summons the man named Achan with his sons and daughters and stones him to death (7:24-26). This leads to God's full endorsement where they are commanded to genocide the 12,000 inhabitants of the town (8:18). The town is then burned to the ground, the king is hanged (8:28-29), and men and women are killed by the sword "in the open country and wilderness" (8:24). Recent Archaeology has revealed that the town of Ai was destroyed 1,000 years before the story took place, 500 years before the fall of Jericho, however the cult-like theme of unity and sheol which largely shaped the ancient tradition of Judaism and thus Christianity is later dispersed when only the most pious of Jews were being massacred during the Maccabean revolt.

The suffering during the Maccabean period became the most serious challenge to the old Israelite thinking. This time it was not the shared suffering of all the Jews, but only those who remained loyal to the Torah who suffered and died. Thus the ancient belief of Sheol, the underworld, which summarized the common fate of all the Jews, proved no longer satisfactory. The logic of salvation that focused only on corporate or collective survival was no longer sufficient. The fate of the individual who perished for the faith had to be addressed. It was through this situation that the idea of resurrection, which Robert Goldenberg calls "the most individualistic of all religious conceptions," was introduced into Judaism... Resurrection and apocalypticism were the Judaic answer to changing times.

Scripture

See also: Criticism of the Bible, The Bible and History, and Internal consistency and the Bible

Abraham, whose unconditional promises were not fulfilled by Jesus according to people of the Jewish tradition. Portrait done by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Many skeptics reject Christianity because of its reliance on the Bible, the most recent parts of which were written during the Roman period, almost 2000 years ago, with older parts dating back many centuries before that.

The Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, is a history of the land of Israel. God gave Abraham unconditional promises entailing multitudinous progeny, nationhood, royal leaders, and land possession. The Hebrew Bible's prophetic literature ends waiting for Judah to be restored via a new monarch, one who will restore the Davidic kingdom and possibly create universal peace. The New Testament traces Jesus' line to that of David; however according to Professor Stephen L Harris:

Jesus did not accomplish what Israel's prophets said the Messiah was commissioned to do: He did not deliver the covenant people from their Gentile enemies, reassemble those scattered in the Diaspora, restore the Davidic kingdom, or establish universal peace (cf Isa.9:6-7; 11:7-12:16, etc.) Instead of freeing Jews from oppressors and thereby fulfilling God's ancient promises - for land, nationhood, kingship, and blessing - Jesus died a "shameful" death (Deut 21:24), defeated by the very political powers the Messiah was prophesied to overcome. Indeed, the Hebrew prophets did not foresee that Israel's savior would be executed as a common criminal by Gentiles (John 7:12,27,31,40-44), making Jesus' crucifixion a "stumbling block" to scripturally literate Jews (1 Cor. 1:23).

Many skeptics have composed lists of conflicts involving the Bible, perhaps none so renowned as Robert G. Ingersoll's 61 reasons in his article Inspiration Of Bible.

Many Christians believe some prophecies are left to be fulfilled in the future upon Jesus' return, labeling them as "Future Unfulfilled." Many Jews today have rejected Jesus as their Messiah because of those specific yet-unfulfilled prophecies.

Internal consistency

Main article: Internal consistency of the Bible

Many critics point to general inconsistency between different sections of the Bible, or to perceived specific contradictions in matters of detail. Most of these reflect a disparity between the Old Testament, identified with a jealous and vengeful God, lack of tolerance, and often violent attitude towards non-believers living near Jewish cities and lands, and the New Testament, identified with God as a loving father and an approach to salvation inclusive of all cultures. Even apart from the perceived specific contradictions of detail, the overall discrepancy between Biblical texts from widely different historical periods are a major cause of skepticism regarding Biblical inspiration. (Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christians generally respond by attempting to show that the inconsistencies are only apparent at first glance and ultimately non-existent, while liberal Christians seek to reconcile Christian belief with a critical approach, accepting that the text reflects its historical context and is not verbally infallible.)

Selective interpretation

Main article: Cafeteria Christianity

Sometimes particular attention is directed to Jewish rules contained in the Old Testament which are not observed by Christians [5]. Many of the rules in question are specifically abrogated by the New Testament, such as circumcision (see the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15); and the entire Law is described by Galatians 3:24–25 as a tutor which is no longer necessary, according to Antinomianism. The alleged hypocrisy is in the continued invocation of portions of the Old Testament that are considered obsolete under Christianity, particularly when those portions endorse hostility towards women and homosexuals. The counter argument is that these viewpoints are (allegedly) also endorsed in the New Testament.

Matthew 5:17–19 (see also Adherence to the Law) can be taken to imply that the Old Testament laws remain in place in the New Testament, while Matthew 5:38–39 (see also Antithesis of the Law and Christian view of the Law) can be viewed as contradicting those earlier passages. Skeptics believe investigation yields many apparent contradictions in the Bible, which Christians use to argue against belief in the Bible as the absolute, inerrant Word of God. See "Internal consistency" section above.

While consideration of the context is necessary when studying the Bible, some find the four different accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus within the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, difficult to reconcile.

Mistranslation and textual corruption

Criticisms are also sometimes raised because of contradictions arising between different English translations of the Hebrew or Greek text. Some Christian interpretations are criticized by non-Christians (and sometimes particularly by Jewish believers) as being based on mistranslations, or on readings found in only some manuscripts of the Bible, or in particular English translations of the Bible.

Newly discovered ancient manuscripts of the Bible, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and Codex Sinaiticus, suggest that passages such as the Pericope Adulteræ, and Mark 16 and Comma Johanneum originally took other forms than are present in older translations such as the King James Version, or were even absent. There is also the question of whether the masoretic text, which forms the basis of most modern English translations of the Old Testament, is the more accurate or whether one of the translations which pre-dates the masoretic text, such as the Septuagint, Syriac Peshitta, and Samaritan Pentateuch is more accurate.

Some accuse Christians of translating the Bible in a dishonest way to make the text reflect Christian doctrine. For example, Muslim convert Gary Miller (Abdul-Ahad Omar) points out that modern English translations avoid using the word worship in some contexts ("Nebuchadnezzar came to Daniel and he worshiped him") while crucially retaining it in others ("a man came to Jesus and he worshiped him"). and that the word Messiah or "anointed one" is translated differently when applied to Cyrus the Persian in Isaiah, chapter 45, and when applied to Jesus. This Miller claims that this is a deliberately inconsistent translation, in order to "give us the impression that there is only one Messiah, one Christ and no other."

Bart D. Ehrman makes similar claims in his book Misquoting Jesus. In Chapter 7 of the book, he discusses theologically motivated alterations of the text. He argues, for example, that scribes added Luke 22:43-44 in an attempt to counter the arguments that Jesus was not fully human and did not have a body. In Chapter 8, he argues that texts were changed in order to minimize the role of women and counter the Jews and pagans.

Virgin: Matthew 1:22–1:23 reads: "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" — which means, "God with us." This verse is, according to Jews (and other critics of the doctrine of the Virgin Birth), a misquoting of Isaiah 7:14. Jewish translations of the verse reads: "Behold, the young woman is with child and will bear a son and she will call his name Immanuel." Moreover, it is claimed that Christians have taken this verse out of context (see Immanuel for further information).

Another example is Matthew 2:23: "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, 'He shall be called a Nazarene.'" A Jewish website claims that "Since a Nazarene is a resident of the city of Nazareth and this city did not exist during the time period of the Jewish Bible, it is impossible to find this quotation in the Hebrew Scriptures. It was fabricated." However, one common suggestion is that the New Testament verse is based on a passage relating to Nazirites, either because this was a misunderstanding common at the time, or through deliberate re-reading of the term by the early Christians.

Sectarianism

Some have argued that Christianity is undermined by the inability of Christians to agree on matters of faith and church governance, and the tendency for the content of their faith to be determined by regional or political factors. Schopenhauer sarcastically suggests that Christian beliefs are affected by climate:

The Catholic clergy, for example, are fully convinced of the truth of all the tenets of their Church, and so are the Protestant clergy of theirs, and both defend the principles of their creeds with like zeal. And yet the conviction is governed merely by the country native to each; to the South German ecclesiastic the truth of the Catholic dogma is quite obvious, to the North German, the Protestant. If then, these convictions are based on objective reasons, the reasons must be climatic, and thrive, like plants, some only here, some only there. The convictions of those who are thus locally convinced are taken on trust and believed by the masses everywhere.

Christians

Mahatma Gandhi: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time. At times the example of Christians may be a contributory factor resulting in atheism. "..believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion".

Origins

See also: Historicity of Jesus and Jesus as myth

Some scholars have argued that Christianity adopted many mythological tales and traditions into its views of Jesus. These traditions, largely from Greco-Roman religions, have parallels to the story of Jesus, according to some scholars.

Dionysus

See also: Osiris-Dionysus and Dionysus

Dionysus, son of Zeus, holding wine with a faun eating lionskin, portrayed by Michelangelo Buonarroti.

The story of Dionysus, son of the Greek Olympian God Zeus, has been seen by several writers as containing parallels to the story of Jesus. Professor Harris writes in his book Understanding the Bible that "the myth of Dionysus foreshadows some later Christian theological interpretations of Jesus' cosmic role. Although Jesus is a historical figure and Dionysus purely mythological, Dionysus's story contains events and themes, such as his divine parentage, violent death, descent into the Underworld, and subsequent resurrection to immortal life in heaven, where he sits near his father's throne, that Christians ultimately made part of Jesus' story. Like Asclepius, Heracles, Perseus, and other heroes of the Greco Roman era, Dionysus has a divine father and human mother. The only Olympian born to a mortal woman, he is also the only major deity to endure rejection, suffering, and death before ascending to heaven to join his immortal parent. The son of Zeus and Semele, a princess of Thebes, Dionysus was known as the "twice born."

Dionysus also parallels the life of Jesus as he and Demeter gave humanity two gifts to come into communion with the divine: grain (or bread) to sustain life and wine to make life bearable. The Athenian Euripides, a playwright from 485-406 BCE, writes in his The Bacchae:

Next came the son of the virgin. Dionysus.

bringing the counterpart to bread. wine

and the blessings of life's flowing juices.

His blood, the blood of grape,

lightens the burden of our mortal misery...

it is his blood we pour out

to offer Thanks to the Gods. And through him.

we are blessed.

Professor Harris alludes that "long before Jesus linked wine and bread as part of the Christian liturgy (Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:17-20) the two tokens of divine favor were associated in the Dionysian tradition. In the Bacchae (worshippers of Bacchus, another name for Dionysus), the Athenian playwright Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE) has the prophet Tiresias observe that Demeter and Dionysus, respectively, gave humanity two indispensable gifts: grain or bread to sustain life and wine to make life bearable. Tiresias urges his hearers to see in Dionysus's gift of wine a beverage that brings into communion with the divine.

One particular wine ritual of the Dyonisian myth followers involved priests and guests. The priests would leave three empty pots in a building for all citizens to see. Pausanias states in his Description of Greece, "The doors of the building are sealed by the priests themselves and by any others who may so be inclined. On the morrow they are allowed to examine the seals, and on going into the building they find the pots filled with wine."

According to Professor Luther H. Martin in his Hellenistic Religions, this wine tradition and that of the emblem liknon, or the process of purifying wheat from chaff via agency of the spirit, was adopted by the earliest Christians.

"This Dionysian wine ritual was incorporated into Christian imagery by the Gospel of John. According to this gospel, the first public act of Jesus was to transform jars of water into wine- the typical Dionysian epiphany miracle. By employing this well-known Dionysian convention, the Gospel at its outset establishes the presence of Jesus as a divine epiphany...the Dionysian liknon represented the possibility of an ecstatic purification by the breath of the spirit as initiates transcended the conditions of everydayness. This image of separating wheat from the chaff through the agency of spirit was also employed by the early Christians (Matt 3:11-12; Luke 3:16-17)."

The list scholars have compiled for parallels of Jesus and Dionysus include:

• Birth to a divine parent
• Narrow escape from attempts to kill him as an infant
• Some "missing" formative years
• Sudden appearance as a young adult manifesting miraculous gifts
• Struggle with evil forces
• Return to his place of origin, commonly resulting in rejection
• Gift of wine and bread for communion
• His betrayal, suffering, and death
• His resurrection to divine status leading to the establishment of a cult honoring his name.

Christian apologists claim the Messianic prophecies which allegedly predicted Jesus' life were around before Dionysus legends. They state that the Messianic prophecies were recorded before the legends of Dionysus and are contained in the Old Testament. Apologists also argue that the Old Testament prophecies are more precise than a comparison of the life of Jesus to Dionysus. Some would point out the differences between Jesus and Dionysus as well.

Horus and Isis

Isis with cow horns, solar disk, sitting on lion throne with Horus on her lap. (Egyptian Late Period)

Some critics of the historicity of Jesus have pointed to similarities between the stories of Jesus and some late (Hellenistic) versions of ancient Egyptian myths involving Horus and Osiris. For example, the death and resurrection of Horus-Osiris and Horus' nature as both the son of Osiris and Osiris himself, have been seen as foundations for the later Christian doctrines of the resurrection of Jesus and of the Trinity.

A few scholars and critics theorize further that certain elements of the story of Jesus were embellishments, copied from legends surrounding Horus through an abrupt form of syncretism. Indeed, some even claim that the historical figure of Jesus was copied from Horus wholesale, and retroactively made into a Jewish teacher ; these assert that Horus was the basis for elements, such as the infancy narratives, which are found independently in Matthew and Luke, and not in Mark or in the hypothetical source called Q.

Mithras

Main article: Mithraism § Christianity and Mithraism

Comparisons are also made with the tale of Mithras, whose cult existed during the period of the origin of Christianity.

Responses

A classic response to this criticism is that of J. R. R. Tolkien and subsequently C. S. Lewis, who considered that just because a story was a myth does not preclude it from also having taken place as a historical event. Pagan myths can be seen as prefiguring the life and death of Christ, but without detracting from their historical and religious significance. Lewis even went so far as to suggest that the existence of these Pagan myths lend Christianity credibility, as their existence might reflect God's hidden watch over all human history and His influence on the collective subconscious in the form of "good dreams" and premonitions. Lewis states that he would be far more doubtful of the reality of a supposed historical event the magnitude of the Atonement if humanity had neglected to anticipate it in any way.

See also

• Criticism of the Catholic Church
  • Anti-Catholicism
  • Anti-clericalism
• Anti-Protestantism
• Criticism of Jesus
• Criticism of Mormonism
• Criticism of Islam
• Criticism of Judaism
• Criticism of the Bible
  • Science and the Bible
  • Biblical cosmology
  • Biblical literalism
• Judaism and Christianity
• Criticism of atheism
• Christopher Hitchens
• Sam Harris

References

• Joseph McCabe, "A Rationalist Encyclopaedia: A book of reference on religion, philosophy, ethics and science," Gryphon Books (1971). Excerpts appear at: http://www.christianism.com/

Further reading

• Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris
• The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, by Carl Sagan
• From Jesus to Christianity, by Michael L White
• Where God and Science Meet [Three Volumes]: How Brain and Evolutionary Studies Alter Our Understanding of Religion, by Patrick McNamara
• Russell on Religion, by Louis Greenspan (Includes most all of Russell's essays on religion)
• Breaking the Spell, by Daniel Dennett
• Einstein and Religion, by Max Jammer
• Out of my later years and the World as I see it, by Albert Einstein
• Understanding the Bible, by Stephen L Harris
• Future of an illusion, by Sigmund Freud
• Civilization and its discontents, by Sigmund Freud
• Why I am not a Christian and other essays, by Bertrand Russell
• Death and Afterlife, Perspectives of World Religions, by Hiroshi Obayashi
• Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, by Bart Ehrman
• The Birth of Christianity : Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan
• Why I Rejected Christianity: A Former Apologist Explains, by John W. Loftus

External links

Historical perspective

• From Jesus to Christ, an objective study on Jesus of Nazareth from professors at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Stanford, Princeton, and Duke.
• Professor James Tabor's educational site on the Jewish Roman world of Jesus
• PBS Special: Apocalypse! Contains Jesus' apocalyptic promises along with those of Saint Paul's.
• Roman Sources on the Jews and Judaism, 1 BCE-110 CE
• Jewish Encyclopedia: New Testament: Unhistorical Character of the Gospels

Antisemitism

• Christian Anti-Semitism

Skeptical

• The Warfare of Science With Theology by Andrew White
• Contradictions in the Bible from the Skeptic's Annotated Bible
• New Testament contradictions by Paul Carlson

Apologetic

• Virtual Office of William Lane Craig from Leadership University (web portal)
• Probe Ministries
• Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
• Answers to common objections from Muslims about Christianity

Islamic Point of Critics about Christianity

• Answering Christianity "Islam's Answers"