The Christadelphian Obsession With Death

Have you ever noticed just how obsessed many Christadelphians are with death? I recently drove past a Christadelphian hall which had a sign out the front advertising an upcoming lecture titled, "What happens when we die?"

Of course, like any rational human being, when I want to find out the answers to such scientific / medical questions I always seek out my local Christadelphian community and trust them to know the correct answers to all things about human biology and natural chemical processes. I jest. What I actually did was type the above lecture title into Google, which linked me to a science article with a handy graphic showing the various stages of bodily decomposition in slightly unnecessary detail.

But why are Christadelphians so obsessed with death?

Was The Bible Written By God?

When faced with strong evidence from modern science that contradicts traditional Christadelphian interpretations of the Bible, many Christadelphians claim that the Bible was written by God - the very same god who created the universe - and thus it contains a superior understanding than anything science has discovered or even can discover.

But how did they, as fallible humans, reach the conclusion that the Bible was written by God? What if it wasn't?

This article explores some of the more common arguments for the claim that the Bible is the "Word of God".

Science: What it is and why it matters

All readers will be familiar with science in some form. Most of us enjoy far better health than our distant ancestors, and have the prospect of a longer life, on average. You are reading this on a device only made possible by discoveries from the last 100 years. Through science, humanity has explored the far reaches of space as well as the very strange characteristics of matter at subatomic scales.

But I want to convince you that science is not merely a body of facts. It is not merely something engaged in during the working week by people who studied to become scientists. Perhaps most importantly for this audience, science is not a weapon of mass propaganda wielded by unbelieving apostates intent on robbing your children of a place in God's kingdom. Science is not your enemy. Science is simply a method or process by which we can understand the world and reality. You probably use this method all the time without realising it.

I Was Free

When I was a young boy,
I was free to play in the rain.
I dreamed a thousand dreams,
and imagined who I could become.

But then they taught me about a God
who insisted I give up on my dreams
and follow his instead. Or was it theirs?

Morality and Atheism

If you have read any material from believers on the topic of morality you will no doubt be familiar with the idea that morality requires or implies the existence of a god, and the idea that we get our morals from God and/or the Bible. I disagree with both of these ideas, and in this article I will offer some reasons why.

Morality is a deep and complex subject, so consider this merely an introduction to my views and reasoning on this broad topic, at this point in time. I claim no particular expertise, and my views will likely continue to evolve over time.

Thinking On Purpose

As someone who no longer believes in some kind of afterlife, I quite often come across the claim that life without belief in God or an afterlife must be meaningless and without purpose. I think the fundamental problem with this claim is that it is self-fulfilling. It is only true if you believe it to be true. But you don't have to believe it. There are other ways to look at meaning and purpose, just as there are evidently many ways to live a fulfilling life.

In this article I want to explore some of my current thoughts on meaning and purpose, especially in the context of someone who has left a strict, dogmatic, fundamentalist religion and way of life, and who must now navigate a somewhat unfamiliar world, and a new set of challenges.

10 Signs Your Religion May Be Harmful

No one knowingly joins a cult and no group has ever admitted to being one. The cult label is so despised that even groups that are widely regarded as cults will go out of their way to explain why they are not a cult. Thus it is not helpful to speak of "cults" at all. Every cult in existence can point to one or more features of other cults that they do not share, and their members undoubtedly do not think they are members of a cult.

So instead I want to list some common features of groups that are generally considered harmful and potentially unsafe. There are several such lists online and many of them offer some combination of the features listed below.

If you recognise similarities between the warning signs listed below and your own ecclesia or even the Christadelphian religion as a whole, then perhaps it is time to ask yourself some critical questions or seek a second opinion from a counsellor or third party outside the religion.

What if ... ?

“What if Jesus soon returns and you are left behind?
What if you are judged and your eternal life declined?
What if the kingdom really comes and loud you hear the shout?
What if the Christos enter in but you yourself miss out?”

Divinely Inspired Iron Age Morals?

If a book really was inspired by an all-knowing, perfect god, how would we go about finding out? After all, several books from different religions make this claim, but how do we determine which of them, if any, actually live up to it?

In the case of the Bible, we know the individual books were literally written by humans. The only question we need to answer is about where they got their information from. Did a god really tell them what to write? or did their words have a rather more human origin?

Why Do Christadelphians Believe?

Even though most Christadelphians might say they believe because of prophecy, or because of current events, I don't think that is actually the case. Most Christadelphians believe quite simply because they happened to be born into Christadelphian families, were taught Christadelphian doctrines from a young age, and were raised in a largely Christadelphian culture. The evidence is clear. Had they not been born into such an environment, it is almost certain they would not be Christadelphians today.

Why I Think The Christadelphians Are Wrong

Pardon the provocative headline. In this article I will show why I believe the Christadelphian religion is founded on falsehood, using several distinct lines of evidence.

It is my hope that, even if you still remain a Christadelphian, you will take the time to look into each of these areas in detail, and enrich your understanding of what you believe, why you believe it, and how well it aligns (or doesn't align) with the nature of reality.

Does It Matter If Christadelphians Don't Have The Truth?

As someone who grew up in a Christadelphian environment I understand how compelling the religion can feel, and how it all seems to make so much sense of the world and of life. It provides an all-encompassing narrative that informs not only your purpose but also the purpose of the entire cosmos as well as your place in it.

Bad Creationist Arguments: If you can't explain "how" it happened, then it didn't happen?

They don't know how the window
smashed. Does that mean it didn't?

One of the more common arguments used by creationists to try to undermine evolution is that if someone cannot explain every detail about how something evolved, therefore it didn't evolve, and by extension the theory of evolution is flawed.

This argument is invalid, and I will show you some reasons why.

Bad Creationist Arguments: If we find a flaw in evolution, creation wins by default?

Creationists typically resort to arguments to try to undermine evolution, thinking that if they can find flaws in evolutionary theory, creation wins by default.

This is a logical fallacy known as a False Dichotomy or False Dilemma, which is also a type of Non-Sequitur (meaning the conclusion does not follow from the premise). A "true" dichotomy would be one in which it is known that there are only two possible options. In the case of creation vs evolution, there may be a third possibility (and indeed other ideas have been put forward throughout history), or even hundreds of other possibilities (however unlikely), and thus the idea that, "if evolution is flawed then creation wins", is a false dichotomy.

Why doesn't prayer work?

I realise most believers argue that prayer really does work, but how many have considered how they might go about actually verifying the efficacy of prayer?

If it works better than blind chance, as many claim it does, then we should be able to measure and demonstrate that. If we measure it and find that it works at about the rate of chance, shouldn't we conclude that it doesn't work? If you're honest, you'll realise very quickly that this is exactly what we find!

Why do we need saving in the first place?

I sometimes think it would be nice if there was an all-loving, all-powerful being who was fully in control of everything that happened. I can see the allure in such a belief, as a way of consoling oneself about the seeming chaos and uncertainty that surrounds us at times. In a world that can seem so out-of-control, it can be comforting to imagine that there is an all-powerful mastermind at the helm, silently but calmly working out some great plan.

But as enticing as this view might be, it never translates to belief for me, and the illusion always vanishes as soon as I give it a moment's thought. The picture is too simplistic, too disconnected from reality, and the problems with it too numerous, to warrant serious belief. It's like a fairy tale, intended to bring comfort and reassurance but then failing to deliver on its promise.

Where is all the evidence?

Why is it that virtually all religions have moved towards belief in invisible, undetectable gods rather than visible, detectable ones?

In the Bible, God is often found on mountain tops or in the clouds. But he was suddenly relocated into space once we invented flight. Since then he has been moved further still after the discovery of other galaxies and an entire universe.

Does The Grand Canyon Provide Evidence For A Global Flood?

A commenter on the ex-cd blog recently posted a link to an AnswersInGenesis article entitled, "Worldwide Flood, Worldwide Evidence", which claims to list evidence for a global flood. I thought I'd take some time to respond to this so-called "evidence".

Apologies in advance - this "article" is going to be quite heavy with quotations from other sources.

Since I am not a Geologist, I need to refer to those who are. I've provided links to all sources, and would encourage you to check them out. I've referred to several articles that are well worth reading in full, if you're interested in getting to the heart of what scientists know about the Grand Canyon and how they reached those conclusions.

Let's dive in...

Eliminating Bias

"I don't believe that", said Alison, "I'd like to see your evidence."

Chris was taken aback. He had not faced someone so skeptical before. In the discussion so far, Alison had seemed polite enough but she was also becoming increasingly closed-minded. At first Chris wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't prepared for this response at all.

Before we continue, let's meet Chris...

They promise eternal life and happiness

A Christadelphian's primary hope is to live forever in a future state of bliss, surrounded by fellow believers and worshipping Jesus and God for eternity. No more sorrow and suffering, no more tears, no more pain, no more death. So the promise goes.

This utopia is apparently available to anyone who wants it. Just give up your ambitions and freedoms in this life, and submit yourself as a slave to a magical, invisible being, and you will be rewarded with more happiness than you can imagine. The sacrifices you make in this life will be more than repaid in the next, and the suffering you endure now will be insignificant compared to the glory you will inherit later. Feeling lucky?

But what are these merchants really selling?