Popular Lies Christians Frequently Claim
Origins
Christians often cite lies whenever speaking of their religion or when it comes to defending the bible. They do so with impressive ignorance too, expecting everyone to accept their claims without contest. More, believers are known to be smug and dismissive of any counterarguments regardless of logic and facts; There’s sectarian condescendence towards anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
As with many religions, Christianity shuns critical thinking, demanding only unquestioned faith. Enemy of Humanity reveals why this is, but it’s safe to say that Christians were told everything in the bible was true and they accepted it with no proof or evidence, worse, expect everyone else to do the same.
Let’s run through eight popular lies Christians frequently claim, and refute them with facts.
CLAIM: The bible is 2,000 years old (or thousands of years old).
TRUTH: This fallacious claim is riddled with chaos because of the myriad of versions there are of the bible. The first authorized and complete canonized bible was created in 1539 and is often referred to as the Great Bible. The King James version was commissioned in 1604 and was first printed in 1611. Before these dates, various manuscripts of scripture remained fragmented, unauthorized and incomplete (e.g., the Wycliffe bible). Some were even fraudulent, while others stayed undiscovered.
So no, the bible isn’t thousands of years old, though, its myths are. Nevertheless, the bible is less than 500 years old—not accounting for the countless translations, alterations and omissions throughout the centuries that would push its “age” even younger.
CLAIM: Hell is real, and it’s a place all sinners go after they die.
TRUTH: The concept of a “hell” was invented by Plato around 400 BCE. He wrote that souls of the deceased were judged after they paid for crossing the river of the dead and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus—a place of punishment. Speaking of Tartarus, the bible originally had different names for hell due to its assimilation of older myths. Later, they were all decidedly translated into English as just “hell,” but they included Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartaro.
It was Augustine of Hippo and his book, City of God, written in 426 CE, that popularized the idea of a hell and set the tone for “official” Christian doctrine. Interestingly enough, he argued that hell wasn’t created to reform or deter sinners but rather that its “primary purpose was to satisfy the demands of justice.” Considering the timelines of when the gospels were anonymously composed (anywhere between 60-120 CE), it’s easy to see how and why the New Testament absorbed the popular hell narrative into their dogma.
CLAIM: The rapture is real, and Jesus is returning soon!
TRUTH: The entire “rapture” concept was invented by an Anglo-Irish theologian named John Nelson Darby in the 1830s. Before Mr. Darby, no one in history (including Jesus Christ) had ever heard of or conceived the idea of a “rapture.”
In 1908, an American minister named Cyrus I. Scofield popularized the rapture narrative by manufacturing the story of the return of Jesus from the clouds with a seven-year tribulation and Armageddon using the book of Revelation as its premise. Since Revelation stands as the most controversial, mistranslated and least understood book of the bible (it was also the last accepted text of the biblical canon), Scofield was able to take advantage of its obscurities and extravagance to craft an elaborate fable without much contest. For the past century his rapture tale has been wildly disseminated despite its unbiblical support.
CLAIM: There is only one God.
TRUTH: Aside from the fact there has been an estimation of up to around 12,000 gods worshiped throughout history, Christians don’t believe in one god but technically three. What makes Christianity both illogical and contradictory is the religion’s fusion of polytheism and monotheism. Things become more confounded when you consider that a great deal of biblical scripture establishes monotheism as its foundation. But this is attributed to the fact that the bible is predicated on the Torah (Judaism) yet separates itself through the New Testament and its Davidic Covenant—things that Judaism opposes (Note that Judaism was originally polytheistic itself).
Throughout Christianity’s tumultuous history, churches and governments have waged deadly wars against one another over reigning Christian doctrine regarding monotheism versus polytheism (among other theologies). Nevertheless, the word “trinity” doesn’t exist in the bible; It’s man-made. God also never defines how many “versions” of himself there are in scripture (some scholars believe there are more than three). In fact, there are more verses in the bible declaring a singular God (no multiplicity) than the Trinitarian concept. Still, Christians believe God to be of three entities towards a whole, which by definition is polytheism. Particularly when they specifically name, recognize, and worship the triune individually.
CLAIM: Jesus Christ existed.
TRUTH: The two biggest facts that need to be established first and foremost about Christianity’s biggest lie is that there isn’t a shred of physical evidence Jesus Christ ever existed, and, there are no historical records of such a person existing anywhere aside from two gospels (Matthew and John)—which have no known author nor date of origin. Additionally, there is no correlating societal, cultural, or governmental indication or testimony of anyone ever performing miracles, being crucified or resurrecting during that time period anywhere in the world.
Christians ineptly allege “proof” of Jesus existing outside of the bible (e.g., Book of Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Tacticus, Suetonius, etc.), however, all of these records have been independently proven to be either forgeries, fraudulent or non-credible. Also, these texts were written well over a century after so-called events “occurred,” which means none of these anonymous writers were eyewitnesses nor wrote based off of any eyewitnesses.
It’s worth highlighting that the life of Jesus in the bible remains mostly omitted and fragmented, worse, the narrative of his birth doesn’t correlate between the gospels, and his death was never included in the original synoptic manuscripts, but later added anonymously at an unknown date. Things become even more dubious when factoring in how Jesus fits the quintessential divine savior motif/archetype found in ancient mythologies that date back to over 10,000 years (e.g., Horus, Attis of Phrygia, Zarathustra, etc.). In other words, Jesus’ character, words, and actions aren’t original to begin with.
CLAIM: America’s forefathers were Christians, and the US Constitution was built on biblical principles, or, the United States is a Christian nation.
TRUTH: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Adams, and Monroe were not Christians, though, were raised religiously. At the time of The Declaration of Independence, mostly all of America’s forefathers were theistic rationalists, or deists (both are philosophical beliefs in human reason as the reliable means of solving social and political problems. They reject the divinity of Jesus Christ and the relevance of the bible). More importantly, America’s forefathers did not intend to build a Christian nation.
Remember, the United States’ forefathers fought for religious freedom and expression because they were escaping the British Empire—ruled by a king who presided over an imperial church (Christian). While it’s true much of the early American colonies were dominated by various denominations of Christianity, in no way was the United States built on Christianity or the bible, nor were our forefathers influenced by them (or any other religion for that matter).
CLAIM: The bible doesn’t contradict itself and/or there are no inconsistencies in the bible.
TRUTH: The bible factually contains hundreds of grammatical, thematic and scriptural contradictions and inconsistencies. Enemy of Humanity highlights many of them in its series. Below is a sampled list of online sites that also exposes them:
Top 20 Most Damning Bible Contradictions
A list of over 700 inconsistencies in the bible
101 Contradictions in the bible
Inconsistencies in the Hebrew Bible
CLAIM: The bible has never been disproved, or, no one has ever disproved the bible.
TRUTH: The bible has been factually disproved countless times within various fields of history, science, and math (numerology). It’s stunning because Christians make their claim without ever actually substantiating it; They intentionally refuse to look at any evidence. What makes matters more embarrassing is that Christians will use the bible to prove the bible…while questioning everything that refutes the bible (also known as religious psychosis or insanity).
Here’s a brief list (in no particular order) of purchasable contemporary literature that disproves Christianity:
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
Christianity Disproved: The Conclusive Proof that Christianity is False by Sig Sawyer.
The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris
Jesus Behaving Badly: The Puzzling Paradoxes of the Man from Galilee by Mark L. Strauss
The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth by Solomon Schimmel
The Bible: A Biography by Karen Armstrong
Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman
How “God” Works: A Logical Inquiry on Faith by Marshall Brain
Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings by David G. McAffee
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Why I’m Not a Christian by Richard Carrier
Enemy of Humanity by Jubei Raziel
CLAIM: God is real, and the bible is the word of God.
TRUTH: The arguments and justifications Christians make to prove that their god(s) and bible are true and real are not only similar to every other religion (both modern and ancient), they also legitimize every other myth, belief, practice and religion—since they all too entirely rely on faith (i.e., believing without proof or evidence).
Christianity requires voluntary ignorance, uses circular reasoning and selective fallacy to justify itself, and leverages research and confirmation bias to indoctrinate followers (among other tactics). It’s also banal—yet expected—for the bible to declare itself holy and sovereign (all “holy” books do). Time and again, whenever convenient, believers default to faith every time proof and evidence invalidates their religion (e.i., cognitive dissonance).
The bottom line: Christianity’s god(s) and its bible are factually derivative fabrications.
Based on the historical sequence of religiosity, either every religion is true, or none of them are. Considering the thousands of faiths, beliefs and religions that have come and went throughout human history for the past 10,000 years (along with their holy books), it’s evidential Christianity is just another grain of sand in a desert of religions.
Every Christian claim can be refuted, traced to its origins, and exposed for being fictitious. It’s only irony that believers go out of their way to question and challenge every other religion except their own.