100 Questions for christians

funny-pictures-cat-is-ponderingA fellow blogger, Angie the Anti-Theist is doing something very cool I want to share with you. She wants to come up with 100 great questions for christians that are creative, hypothetical and unique. They should make christians really have to think about their beliefs. Everyone knows the stale, tired old questions that have been done to death. These should be new, fresh and thoughtful.

So Angie would like us to come up with creative stump-the-fundie questions to add to her list.

You can see the first 10 questions to get you started on her blog post: Questions for christians.In her list are 2 videos you simply must watch. The first one is gay dolphin sex. I mean, come on, you really don't want to pass that up, do you? The second one is a music video that is just awesome. I hate country AND western music, but this was so good I watched the whole thing. Highly recommended.

Here is a quick list of her questions so far (but go to her post to see more detail)

  1. If homosexuality is a sin, are gay dolphins sinning when they have gay sex in a public aquarium? (really, go watch the video. I'll wait. The kids watching are priceless, as is the dad recording)

  2. Will there be jello molds with marshmallows in them in heaven? Explain.

  3. Which is a bigger sin? (compare Noah's naked drunkenness to Lot's naked drunkenness plus sex with his daughters) Note: Noah and Lot were the best and holiest men in their communities and both got dead drunk and were naked in front of their kids. Lot had sex with his daughters too. Great role models, eh?

  4. What Would Jesus Do? (go watch the video. It will crack you up. I'll wait for you.)

  5. If god is better than we are, how come we can think up unicorns but he can't make them?

  6. Same with mermaids.

  7. Did Jesus have acne as a teenager? Please explain.

  8. Why is the Brick Testament the best version of the bible?

  9. Why is christian music so painfully square?

  10. Is it better to be right or popular? (Angie throws in this one because Christian teens especially are repeatedly told they are being persecuted, that it's hard to be christian in this "secular world", etc. Get them to agree being popular is less important, and then present them with the facts about christian persecution with this handy pie chart!)


Some people have commented so far with suggestions:

  • Should god be put on trial for crimes against humanity?

  • List 5 flaws of christianity, 5 contradictions in the bible and 5 similarities between christianity and another religion other than judaism or islam.


This is my (Neece's) addition, which is really a couple questions:

  • Why did Jesus only perform either simple miracles only based on anecdotal evidence or self indulgent miracles? Why didn't he cure all blindness for humanity? Why didn't he make it so that all children under age 5 didn't die or something? Cursing a fig tree, turning water into wine at a wedding and walking on water are pretty lame "tricks" that benefited no one. Shouldn't the son of god have been more "godly"? Shouldn't he have also been literate and written down exactly what he wanted future generations to know about him instead of relying on writers who never met him?


Angie added a couple more:

  • What does god have against pillows? Ezekiel 13:18-21

  • Why do YOU think there are rainbows? (please say Noah, please say Noah!)


I have to say, some of these are thoughtful and provocative. There are a few I don't understand and am not sure if they would further a debate or not. But if we could all have a solid list of great questions to really make christians think, that would be awesome! So send in your ideas. Please leave comments on the original post. I'd love you to leave the same comment here for us at HDC as well. I'll keep you posted on the list's progress!

29 comments:

  1. Thanks Neece - you're awesome. (And seriously, I was so happy that googling "dolphin gay sex video" brought up such a perfect result)

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  2. The best question is:
    What would it take for you to not believe?

    But I plan to do a whole article on that one later.

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  3. How can you worship a God that orders genocide and still sleep at night?

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  4. "If homosexuality is a sin, are gay dolphins sinning when they have gay sex in a public aquarium?"

    But we're not animals! Animals eat their own poo--do you want to do that also? And animals only have the gay sex when they don't have a suitable Opposite Partner available or when they want to show dominance, not as some long term relationship thingie! And animals don't know about the Word of the Lord whereas we do, so we have to adhere to a Higher Standard.


    This message has been brought to you by fundagelical apologists of the world.

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  5. Bwawhaha! Now go leave it on my blog too :) Please?

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  6. Neece, you have disobedient minions, er "readers". (No comments on ATAT?)

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  7. Thanks Angie, you're pretty awesome yourself.
    And you really couldn't have asked for a better search result, Angie. The audio is PRICELESS! :D
    :D

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  8. Notice that the dad filming it is waaaay more freaked out by it than the kids are lol. First time I took my son to the zoo the tapirs started doing it about four feet away from us. He likes nature programs though, so he's got a pretty good idea about animals. (He's started shoving his toy fish into his toy shark's mouth and saying "Yummy!")

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  9. Looking forward to this article, GMN. :D
    It's a great question, one that most atheists can answer the reverse of quite easily.

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  10. LOL! Buffy, that's creepy when you go fundie on us! :P LOL!

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  11. Good one, James. Of course if you're most christians, you simply cherry-pick god until he's just a heavenly daddy who is loving and kind.

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  12. I'm sorry Angie, they are very naughty minions. I think we'll just have to pray to sweet baby jesus for them to follow directions better. :P

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  13. You find the most awesome stuff, Johnny. :D That was great! :D

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  14. Neece,
    I am not atheist, but I'm about as far from being a fundamentalist as one can be. I find myself following a lot of atheist blogs because I think they ask the questions and make the critisisms of religion that anyone, with any degree of faith, needs to consider (that, and some of them are great entertainment!). I *do* believe there is a place for faith, but it needs to be moderated by reason or it descends into fanaticism.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is that one doesn't need to be an atheist to appreciate the questions you ask, and I have to suspect there are a lot of people that hold an opinion similar to mine. So keep on heaving those cats ... it's good for everybody. :-)

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  15. Yeah sadly this IS a done-to-death one, meaning atheists ask questions like this (the immorality of god) regularly. Which is good, except they've come up with mental gymnastics apologetics, so... Hence trying to come up with brand new questions they don't have a pat response to (yet) like the one about gay dolphin sex. I remember learning that dolphins can be gay in marine bio class in high school. It totally blew my mind on the whole nature/nurture debate of homosexuality and the gay bashing from christians.

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  16. Well, since liars make baby Jesus cry and I've successfully conned my kid into thinking Yoplait Whips is ice cream (just stick it in a cone, momma)... I don't think your supplications to BJ on my behalf will work.

    Guess I'll just have to copy paste them on over to the update post this afternoon :)

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  17. Check out the update (and thanks HDC folks for your contributions!)

    http://angietheantitheist.blogspot.com/2009/08/100-questions-update.html

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  18. Hi, first time on this blog and I am laughing my head off.;)
    I think I may have one to contribute to your list. I like to use this one when I am informed that a fundie has "A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH christ" I then ask them,,,
    So, since you have a personal relationship then that MUST mean you will automatically go to heaven??? After they nod there head then I say, Then that means "NO MATTER" what golden rule you break you are automatically forgiven,,, yes??? (nodding my head) So why are you waisting MY TIME trying to get me to follow your rules when you yourself don't follow them in the first place??? By this time they have that deer in the headlights look, and there jaws are resting on there feet... Anger quickly insues. It's fun...

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  19. Hi and welcome! While I of course disagree about faith being necessary, I'm more than happy to accept reason as a great premise.
    I promise to keep heaving the dead cats. I hope you come back often and throw in your two cents wherever you like. :)

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  20. Hello Pete and welcome!
    That's a good argument. I am baffled how people can claim a personal relationship with an invisible, nonexistent friend who does nothing for them and doesn't even listen. Might as well talk to the coffee pot, which at least helps create the elixir of life! LOL!

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  21. >While I of course disagree about faith being necessary ...

    No disagreement. I should have written "I have a place for faith". That is a personal decision for reasons which are sufficient to me, but not necessary for all. I'm not selling.

    >Might as well talk to the coffee pot ...

    Coffee Pot helps those who pour their own damn coffee. ;-)

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  22. Ok. Sounds good, Tomato. (I love tomatoes, btw!)
    And LOL! Coffee Pot helps those who brew the dark brown elixir of LIFE! WOOT! :D

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  23. Oh hi. Feel free to lurk my anti-theist blog too :)

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  24. Why is coffee better than religion???
    I get to controll how sweet and creamy, or degree of bitter and black!!!

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  25. The problem I see with this approach is that they can always say, "Yes, but, because of my faith/relationship, I'm going to heaven, but you're not." Of course, they can't prove it, but they don't feel they need to.

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  26. How about this: If you believe in the Golden Rule, then shouldn't you be willing to apply it to evaluating the miraculous claims of other religions? In other words, if you think, for example, that Mormons and Muslims should accept your miraculous claims about God and Jesus, then shouldn't you accept their claims about Joseph Smith and Mohammed? If not, aren't you imposing an unfair double standard on them?

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  27. Good point, Jorge. Really, the argument is futile. They have faith in the nonexistent, they disregard evidence and reality. How can you argue with that?

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  28. Well, yes. They are. But they do that for their religion all the time.
    The problem is believing in the miraculous in the first place. I know quite a few christians who believe in astrology, spells, tarot cards, and much more. Those things really don't mesh with their judeo christian religion, but they don't see that. They are completely credulous.

    People who are religious feel that makes them morally superior. This has been researched. They then feel they can "cheat" and do less moral things because they have cached their morals in some magical way by being religious.

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