The Bold Indian
What is the difference between the Christian concept of God, who sends all those who don’t convert to his religion to hell and a sadist who burns a female with acid just because she refused to love him?
In this article I would first explain what Christianity is in simple terms and then question the faith logically. I hope someone from the Christian side answer my questions.
I am a firm believer in Hindu dharma and so not neutral. So respecting other religions is natural to me. But this respect doesn’t necessarily means not viewing at something critically, including Christianity. I will always have lot of questions on Hindu Dharma as well and all the time gets the answers from my Guruji.
What is Christianity?
As per the Christian Mythology, God, who is male and whose name is Yehova/Jehova, created the whole of this universe in 6 days. 7th day is Sunday and Holiday. God created the Sky, stars, earth, nature including animals and everything other than human beings in the first 5 days and created Adam and Eve on the 6th
With lot of love God created man in His image, just like him and created the entire nature, including animals for his pleasure
He first created Adam, a male by breathing life (soul) in to him and from his ribs created Eve, a female and instructed both of them not eat the fruits of “Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil”
Satan comes to Eve as a talking snake and convinces her to eat the apples from the tree. After that she convinces Adam also to do so
God then curses Adam and Eve along with all their progeny of eternal hell after death because of Adam and Eve eating apple disobeying Him. This is called the “Original Sin”. As, as per the Christian mythology Adam and Eve are the first human beings and as per this curse of God we all will be burnt in the hell after death forever. So all human beings are born sinners as they are affected by this “Original Sin”
After a few thousand years God repents for His curse and sends His only Son as a savior to earth. Mary gives birth to Jesus as a virgin to avoid Him from being affected by “Original Sin”. So unlike us, Jesus is not a born sinner
Jesus was crucified on the cross by the then king. Jesus sheds his blood on the cross and undergoes severe punishments during the process and finally dies. This is called “Crucifixion”. Jesus comes back on the third day and this coming back is called “Resurrection”,
God relieves all the humanity of the Original Sin as against the sufferings of Jesus during crucifixion. In other words God equated the whole of sufferings of the humanity in eternal hell with the suffering of Jesus, His Son during Crucifixion. This is called “Substitutionary Atonement”.
But things don’t stop here. “Substitutionary Atonement” applies ONLY to those who believe this mythology as real and die as a Christian. So, God sends all non-Christians to hell and burn them forever.
Just like there is a beginning for this creation, Christian Mythology also proposes an end to this. It is called “End Times”. At the End Times Jesus comes back and all the dead will rise again. All the Christians will stand on the right hand side of the Jesus and non-Christians on the left side. Jesus sends all the Christians to eternal heaven and non-Christians to eternal hell
Christian Evangelists bring this mythology to us and try to convert us to Christianity so that we are not burnt in the hell after death for ever, for dying as a non-Christian. This is called “The Christian Good News”.
Questions to Christianity
How does God cursing all the humanity for the disobedience of two individuals Adam and Eve, justified?
Does God have command over Satan? Does God know about the movements of Satan? If yes, why didn’t He stop Satan from talking to Eve and influence her? If no, then who created Satan and why?
We now know that there is life on Earth for several lakh years. Why did it take lakhs of years for God to realize His mistake of cursing the whole of Humanity for the mistake of Adam and Eve, that too under the influence of Satan, His own creation? (God sent Jesus only 2000 yrs ago but humanity existed on earth at least for the past 2, 00, 000 years.)
What is Jesus’ sin to have gone through all the suffering during crucifixion? Why can’t it be said that Jesus, even after being His own Son, was used by God as a scapegoat for His mistake?
Could have God abolished Original Sin, had He wanted? If yes, why didn’t He do that? It would have avoided so much pain to Jesus. If no, then does God also have limitations? If have limitations, does He know about them at the time of cursing Adam and Eve along with their progeny? If yes, then why could not He stop Himself? How can someone with limitations and short temper be God?
God loves man so much that He created Adam in his image. What about Eve then? In whose image was she created? Does God love females as well? If yes, why didn’t He create Eve as well along with Adam? Why was Eve created from the ribs of Adam? Was it not the primary reason why the Church was reluctant for gender equality? Was it not the reason why Church could not decide whether or not females have souls, which in other sense means whether or not females are human beings till 1700s?
God loves man so much that he created him in His image and also created the whole of nature including animals for His pleasure. Does it mean that even females are created for man’s pleasure? If not, why does it not mean so, as female is neither created by God directly nor is she created in the image of God.
God creating all the nature along with animals is understandable. Then why does He give pain to the animals, which they have to undergo while humans and other animals kill them to eat. What mistake did the animals do that God made them to undergo so much pain for the pleasure of His loved one, the man? Why didn’t God made the animals pain free?
We now know that nature along with several animals existed long before man. Dinosaurs and humans never existed at the same time and various herbivorous animals were living long before man, that were being killed for food by other animals. If the whole nature is created just for man to enjoy, what is the purpose of creating them lakhs of years before creating man?
If the whole of nature and animals is for the enjoyment of human being, why did God create so many lakhs of varieties of animals and plants that are not useful to human beings at all? Even when we sneeze, thousands of micro organisms die in pain. If it is to maintain certain environmental conditions, then God would have decided to maintain it even otherwise, for God is the one who decide the laws of nature and not follow them
What is their mistake? Why is God so unfair to them, while He can easily relieve them of pain atleast, had He wanted?
The reason for Virgin Birth is said to be to avoid Jesus being affected by Original Sin. Why didn’t Mary’s Original Sin affect Jesus?
What about the crores of people who lived and died before Jesus? Why should they suffer in eternal hell, for whatever Adam and Eve did?
What about those people who are dying in those parts of the world to which Christianity didn’t go, like Bharath to which Christianity came after 1700s (It was there from 400 AD but was very limited). How can God throw all of them who don’t even know about Christianity into eternal hell for not converting to Christianity? What about those who are born with mental disabilities and die the same? What about those who are deaf and dumb by birth? What about those who die as a child?
If those who don’t know about Christianity are exempted, then what is the need of Jesus at the first place? Also what is the need for the missionaries to do what they are doing, as any way all of us go to heaven as we don’t know about Christianity? If in a village 100 people die every year, before missionaries came all were going to heaven. After church came only Christians go to heaven and the rest to eternal hell. If the purpose of the missionaries is to redeem the human beings from Original Sin and send them to eternal heaven, that is better achieved by not propagating about Christianity Good News at all. If those who don’t know are not exempted, how is it justified?
Why only a few are born in Christianity, who doesn’t have to worry about all these?
Whether we like it or not, the place where we take birth, the parents who give us birth, the time we take birth, decides 80% of most of our lives, with a few exceptions. Why is God being unfair to 90% of the humanity right at the time of birth? Why a few are born rich and not all? Why a few are born with physical ailments? Why a few are talking birth in a country with ample opportunities to grow and a few in places like Afghanistan or Somalia or Zimbabwe or Sudan where kids dies just because they don’t have food to eat. How can God be favorable to a few while being unfair to many?
Why does God discriminate at the time of birth?
If it is a fact that, just because dying a non-Christian can end up some one in eternal hell, is it not the responsibility of the God to make it very clear to the entire humanity that it is the case? Right now, there is no evidence what so ever to believe this myth.
Why shouldn’t I conclude that the so called God, as was being propagated by Missionaries is grossly unfair, where he created a world in which majority of human beings end up being burnt in hell forever after death, for no mistake of theirs? Can there be God like that at all? Did they misunderstand the God completely and also misguiding all of us?
I had put these questions to many but none answered. A few came up with a strange theory that it is God’s creation and we cannot understand it. For me this is a stupid logic. On one had God created a world in which if you don’t understand it properly, you will end up being burnt in eternal hell and on the other hand He created this world so complex that human beings cannot understand it. It seems that God created this world to make sure that he can push most of the human beings into eternal hell where he can burn them forever.
I really don’t understand how God can punish someone eternally just because he/she didn’t die as a Christian. If that is true, what is the difference between the Christian concept of God and a sadist who burns a female with acid just because she refused to love him?
A few might wonder, what is the purpose of such an article? The following are the reasons
If at all there is Brahman/Ishwar/God, there can be ONLY one. There cannot be multiple and all the Dharmic as well as Abrahamic religions accept this fundamental aspect. The ultimate aim of every theist is to reach that ONE. Each religion prescribes a different path for the same. Though Sanathana Dharma accepts the fact there are many paths to reach the same goal, it is applicable only to those paths that at the first place, understand the nature of Brahman/God properly. But, at least, at this point of time, it seems to me that Christianity got this basic thing completely wrong. As the basic understanding of God itself seems to be completely wrong there is no question of the path it prescribes to reach the ultimate to be correct.
Both Hindu Dharma and Christianity cannot be true. It has to be either that or this. If Christianity is true all Hindus end up in eternal hell. If Hindu Dharma is true, then all the Christians are wasting their human lives, as they are following a path to God that won’t work and continue in janana marana chakra (Cycle of life and death). We never know how many more lives it would take for them to again take birth as a human being. So the risk for both are really huge and so it’s better we sort it out and choose the right path
Also there are various internal security concerns for Bharath as a country arising out of religious conversions as discussed in detail by Sri Rajiv Malhotra in this book “Breaking India”.
I hope this article shall help me get the answers.
I should thank Sri Rajiv Malhotra for his book “Being Different” which completely changed my perspective towards the subject of religion and made me understand the imortantce of understanding the differences between religions
For a more deeper perspective on this subject please also read “Jehovism Deconstructed”
Twitter: @RanjithDharmic
Facebook: Ranjith Vadiyala
Email: ranjith.vadiyala@yahoo.com
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