Following Jesus: What did Jesus actually do?

Recently I came across a comment from a Christadelphian who argued that:

"...many of us are just trying to do our best to live in the example Christ set for us to follow.....is that a bad thing? To love your enemy, to care for your neighbours, the sick, the poor etc?"

What example?

That got me thinking a bit. Did Jesus actually set that example? Or is this an assumption made by believers who read the Bible and then fill in the gaps according to what they were taught from when they were young?

To find out, I decided to scan through all four gospels and find every actual action that Jesus was said to have performed. That's when things got interesting.

Here is what I found...

What is God?

Or perhaps we should ask, "What is a god?"

Does anyone know?

In my experience, the various Christian and Christadelphian ideas of "God" could fit any/all of the following definitions:

• A place-holder for things we don't (yet) understand.
• Another word for "magic".
• An external projection of a person's ideal self (see this scientific study).
• An anthropomorphism of the laws of nature.
• A mental crutch for people who feel vulnerable and look for strength outside themselves rather than looking within. Ironically, the strength still comes from within, but indirectly via a powerful illusion. An inner parent vs child metaphor works equally well.
• A comfortable catch-all for people who don't like uncertainty.
• The answer to end all questions.

Did I miss any?

How do you know someone is listening?

There was a time when I realised that I could not tell the difference between praying and merely talking to myself. I realised that the world looked and worked exactly the same even if there was no one listening. Of course, I still looked for answers and convinced myself that events in my life were "providence".

Something Beautiful

Seth Andrews recently posted this video to his YouTube channel, The Thinking Atheist.

It's a future I could get excited about.

This is a message I'd happily preach.

Unfortunately it's not the one Christadelphians preach.

Why I don't believe in God

Below are the reasons why I don't believe in God...

Searching for truth: Part 3

One of the goals of my own search was to rebuild my worldview. Not only did I seek to follow the evidence wherever it led me, I also wanted my view of reality to be internally consistent and make some sense to me. I don't know if I succeeded in all of those areas. I certainly feel as though my worldview now has a firmer foundation, that being evidence and reason, coupled with the scientific method.

Searching for truth: Part 2

Claims about the existence of God

I'm going to be blunt here. The existence of God has never been demonstrated. In fact, for several of the most common definitions of "God", the existence of such a being is actually not testable or falsifiable. By pushing God beyond the reach of science, believers often confidently claim that science is the wrong tool for the job of proving God's existence. What they always fail to appreciate is that this isn't my problem. It's theirs. Science is our best method for discovering truth about reality. Without science, their task of confirming the existence of God just got a whole lot more difficult.

Searching for truth: Part 1

As I look back over the last few years, and as I think about the many discussions I've had with believers, there are some key fundamental differences that keep resurfacing over and over again. I'll expand on this in more detail in this article, but in short I'm referring to how people go about searching for truth.

My main focus for this series of articles will be to explain my own framework for building a consistent worldview. Why don't I believe in a god? Why don't I believe that the Bible is divinely inspired? Why do I accept scientific claims such as evolution, physics, and germ theory? Is there anything I believe in, for which the evidence is not conclusive? I hope to answer all of these questions and more in this series.

I've wanted to write an article like this for a long time, because I often run into issues of this nature when in discussions with believers. Perhaps I should have written this article first, so that I could refer to it in later discussions. Well, better late than never I guess.

The flawed methodology behind Christadelphian Bible Prophecy

Bible Prophecy was always at the forefront of the Christadelphian message while I was growing up. It was often cited in public lectures, and youth group talks, as one of the reasons we could be confident that the Bible was the inspired word of God, and therefore that we could trust everything it said to be accurate.

But is it as reliable as they say? Let's find out.

The High Cost of Leaving Your Faith

When your entire life is built around a religion,

leaving it means leaving your life and starting over again from scratch.

I did not write the article I refer to here, but I can relate to so much of it. I'm sure there are other former believers out there who feel the same, and who may benefit from reading this article and realising that we are not alone. Our struggle with faith need not be in vain, and it doesn't need to end here. There is life after faith.

Click here to read the entire article

Anyone who has struggled with their beliefs and ended up questioning and then abandoning their entire belief system in search of the truth about reality knows how difficult this process can be. The article captures the mental anguish and the process from first beginning to question your beliefs through to the painful choices that are forced upon you. I will be offering some comments around the article as it relates to my journey, but I encourage you to click the link above and read that article in full before returning here (if you choose).

Resurrection: Perhaps it's not what you want

One of the central doctrines of Christianity is resurrection. I don't think many people spend much time thinking about it. In a way it's the ultimate placebo. A way to avoid thinking about the reality and finality of death. Do people really believe it? Or is it something they try in vain to convince themselves of? Is it a belief propped up by fear?

I want to explore some aspects of resurrection itself as a concept. For example, how would it even work?

Is the biblical idea of resurrection even something you want?

Did you ever wonder why God is a "he"?

God's gender

Did you ever wonder why God is a "he"?

I mean, we know how to determine the sex of almost all animals in the animal kingdom. We know how it works. We know why it is that way. That part all makes sense. If you're not sure, ask your parents.

Some living things don't reproduce sexually (bacteria, for example). We don't refer to those as 'he' or 'she'. It simply doesn't make sense to do so.

And then you realise God reckons he is male. That's weird. I have so many questions.

"Unbelievable" - A new book by former Christadelphian Rob J Hyndman

A journey from faith via evidence. Why a university professor gave up religion and became an unbeliever. 

Rob J Hyndman is Professor of Statistics at Monash University, Australia. He was a Christadelphian for nearly 30 years, and was well-known as a writer and Bible teacher within the Christadelphian community. He gave up Christianity when he no longer thought that there was sufficient evidence to support belief in the Bible. 

This is a personal memoir describing Rob's journey of deconversion. Until recently, he was regularly speaking at church conferences internationally, and his books are still used in Bible classes and Sunday Schools around the world. He even helped establish an innovative new church, which became a model for similar churches in other countries. Eventually he came to the view that he was mistaken, and that there was little or no evidence that the Bible was inspired or that God exists. 

In this book, he reflects on how he was fooled, and why he changed his mind. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, you will be led to reflect on the nature of faith and evidence, and how they interact.

More details including where to buy the book are available on the author's website.

Why so many religions?

This question used to come up fairly often in Christadelphian public lecture titles. Perhaps it still does. And the standard Christadelphian answer is that the other religions were led astray and they're all wrong but Christadelphians discovered the truth, the only truth, and lucky for you dear friends, we are here to tell you all about it.

I wonder how the other religions would answer the question? My guess is that it would sound much the same.

But there is another answer. One that you probably won't hear from a Christadelphian. The fact that there are so many religions makes perfect sense if they are all man-made. If no holy book was ever divinely inspired, then we are just seeing the same human phenomenon repeat itself in different ways. This is not a new concept. Most believers already accept that all other religions are mistaken. Why not apply that same skepticism to their own beliefs too? Why should someone like me believe that all of the other religions are false, but this one over here (that looks indistinguishable from the others in almost every respect) is totally true?

In the beginning God created.....what??

Many people naively assume that Genesis 1 verse 1 describes the creation of the entire universe and all the galaxies, stars, and planets, including Earth. But they are wrong.

Let's see what it actually says...

20 terrible reasons to be a Christadelphian

Below is a list of 20 terrible reasons to be a Christadelphian.

How many of these apply to you?

Problems with the Flood Story

In this article I will give several reasons why the biblical flood story does not align with the evidence from nature.

If you believe that the flood story is literally true, don't feel bad. I used to think that too. Most of us were taught it as children, and it was reinforced so strongly that it became part of our identity. Any belief that is internalised so deeply is likely to be protected, defended, and rarely questioned (at least not critically).

Let's take a more critical look at the flood story...

Could I be wrong? (Resurrection of Jesus)

In the previous article, I discussed a couple of arguments often presented in support of the existence of God, and explored whether I could be wrong in those areas.

This next article will explore one of the main arguments used in support of the Bible - the resurrection of Jesus.

Could I be wrong? (Nature, Origin of Life)

Anyone who is honest with themselves and their beliefs will often ask themselves the question "Could I be wrong?". It's a very good question to ask ourselves.

There are many reasons why I no longer believe in gods or goddesses, and also why I no longer believe that the Bible, nor any other holy book, was written by such a deity. I don't intend to list them all here. Readers of this blog would already be familiar with many of them.

However, it would be more accurate to phrase it slightly differently and say that I have no good reason to believe that any holy book was divinely inspired, nor that any gods or goddesses actually exist.

Winning the lottery of life

Do you believe that only Christadelphians (or those with similar beliefs) will be saved?
Do you believe that God will justly and fairly reward the faithful in the future?
Are your parents Christadelphians?
Have you considered just how "lucky" you are to be a Christadelphian?

Well, let's find out then...