The prophet Elisha had 42 children killed for making fun of his haircut, Muhammad had a child bride and the atrocities committed in the name of Jesus Christ are innumerable. Whose the lunatic here?
Well let's remember to be scientificological now.
So you interpret scriptures based on the actions of people who lived more than a thousand years after those scriptures came into existence? And trying to use Christians who lived hundreds of years ago and more than a thousand years after Christ to discredit Christianity is so weak it only convinces people who already want to be convinced Christianity is evil. You can't judge a religion based on its supposed followers. You don't even know if those followers are sincere. And those crimes you mention- did they happen because of Christianity or in spite of it? I mean, for example, colonization. If you really think those colonizers were motivated by some strong love of Jesus and it had nothing to do with gold, land, slaves and power, I'd like you offer you a discounted deal on the statue of liberty. If you order in the next five minutes, I'll throw in Mars. Throw in an extra $120 and I'll sell you the Atlantic Ocean. It has quite a history and anyone who is anyone wants to buy it.
Okay, so you use three arguments here
1- Reductio Ad Weaksauce- Some people who claimed to be Christians did bad things, therefore Christianity is false
(this argument is so weak I wouldn't use it even if I was an atheist)
2- The "prophet" Muhammad did some bad things, therefore Christianity is false
You know what, you got me. I have no idea what to say to that argument. I'm stumped. I might be like "yeah, I don't like Donald Trump" and someone might say "well, actually grass is purple and the underground mole people want to fly through the sky on rainbows and e=mc2. Think about it, Etagloc, E=MC2! Come on, man! THE DISH RAN OFF WITH THE SPOON! Wake up! Donald Trump is the subatomic free radical who will disestablish the epistemological BE DA DOO BOP REVELATION BE DA DEE DOO DOP!" "COME ON, MAN! BEE DA DEE BOP? BEE DE DOO BOP? BEE DA DOO TRUMP!"
I admit. I would have no idea what to say to that person and I would be totally stumped. You totally got me with your "Muhammad's crimes disprove Christianity" argument. It doesn't matter that there's a chronological order to things. You clearly have some type of mystical understanding of time in which people in the future can do bad things that debunk unrelated people in the past. I admire your creative, surrealist Monty Python logic and I want a turn at it, too! You see all you're doing is proving George Washington really was a pokemon. Checkmate, atheists!
Okay, two argument down.
Argument 3- "The prophet Elisha had 42 children killed for making fun of his haircut"
2 Kings 2:23-24, “Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.”
Ahem:
"Why would God allow two bears to kill 42 young lads simply for saying Elisha was bald? Let’s take a look. Elisha was traveling from Jericho to Bethel when a group of young men verbally accosted him. 42 is a large number of people, and they were probably an organized group who had gone out to challenge Elisha. Their mockery implied a malicious intent; especially when the culture of the time insisted on showing respect to their elders. Furthermore, the statement “go up you baldhead!” has cultural significance. First of all, “go up” is probably a reference to Elisha’s predecessor, Elijah, ascending to heaven (
2 Kings 2:11). In other words, they are stating they want Elisha gone; and since Elijah had gone on to the “next world,” the implication is they wanted Elisha dead. Also, the epithet ‘baldhead’ was one of “contempt in the East, applied to a person even with a bushy head of hair.”
1 Lepers had to shave their heads, so such a statement could easily have been a deliberate and malicious insult--something dangerous in a mob that can quickly get out of hand.
Given the challenge of the youths, their intimidating number which could constitute a mob, their veiled threat, the contemptuous attitude, and the fact that Elisha was the prophet of God, the Lord allowed the youths to be destroyed.
But, God did not break his own moral law. The Bible says do not murder. Murder is the unlawful taking of life. But, all people have sinned against God and are worthy of death (
Rom. 3:23;
6:23). So, God had them killed according to the Law."
https://carm.org/why-did-god-kill-42-lads-merely-saying-elisha-was-bald
And then "Bethel was a center of idolatry in Israel; it was one of the golden calf sites (v. 23). Evidently Elisha's approach triggered a mass demonstration against him by many young men. The Hebrew word
na'ar translated "lads" in 2:23 describes young men, not boys, in many other places in the Old Testament. Some of the individuals this Hebrew word describes were Gehazi, Elisha's servant (4:12), an unnamed young man (4:19), and the Shunammite's servant (4:24). "Baldhead" was and is a term of disrespect. The idolaters challenged Elisha to "go up" to heaven as Elijah had done if Elisha could. These youths were typical of a nation that "mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at his prophets" (
2 Chron. 36:16). Not motivated by personal pride but by a desire for God's glory, Elisha pronounced God's curse on them for their disrespect of His prophet and Himself (v. 24; cf.
2 Peter 3:3-7). As before, God used wild animals to judge the rebels (cf.
1 Kings 13:24). Wild bears were common in ancient Israel.
[26] These early miracles identified Elisha as God's spokesman who possessed Yahweh's power to bless or to curse."
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-God-kill-42-lads-merely-for-saying-Elisha-was-bald
So you want me to leave my religion based on one argument that totally ignores this concept known as time and how it functions and functions according to Monty Python logic. And based on an argument that is incredibly weak. I mean, Hillary Clinton is lame and crooked. Therefore, we might as well apply your logic and say "well Hillary Clinton is crooked so leftism itself must be crooked" and discredit all leftism because Hillary Clinton is crooked and supposedly she is a leftist.
You develop some very interesting forms of logic in those two arguments. Some diseased mutations of logic.
Then finally, you want me to leave my religion because some bears ate some people. These people mocked God's prophet and possibly threatened him. So they do unholy stuff and then- what- are they surprised when mysteriously bad stuff happens?
People die everyday. You mock God and then get upset when a bear eats you? I mean, I'mma be a little surprised. I'mma be like "ugh! I was wrong! I thought it was gonna be lightning!" but yeah, if I see someone mocking God or God's prophet and then a bear comes along and eats that person... I mean... I would take that as "hmm.... maybe I should be taking God and that prophet seriously". I mean to me that just adds weight to what the prophet is saying. What, for you it makes you decide you're going to turn against God? Since we're talking about bears and you want to go against God, why not try some bear wrestling? I wouldn't seriously want you to but I say that because I'm pretty sure you're not gonna go out and try to wrestle a bear. If you wouldn't wrestle a bear, why would you want to wrestle with God?
If someone says they're gonna wrestle a bear and I tell them "ya know, that might not be the best idea" and they go and wrestle the bear for whatever insane reason... well..... when the bear is tearing their flesh apart I'm not gonna be looking at the bear and yell "Oh, the injustice". I'mma be looking at the crazy person who tried to wrestle a bear and I'mma be saying "yeah man... told ya so". Then I'm walking off. Cuz I'm not the crazy one who tried to wrestle a bear.
