Educated Christian
An “educated Christian” is just as much of an oxymoron as “Christian science.” It sounds rude, but I can back it up.
The proclamation dribble of most churches of: the Bible’s inerrancy, it being written by God, and its many delusional claims on the Bible, e.g., “All mankind are sinners, inherently from Adam and individually (by choice), and are therefore subject to God’s wrath and condemnation,” and delusions of granduer “Those who do not believe in Christ are subject to everlasting conscious punishment, but believers enjoy eternal life with God.”
The problem is that it leaves no room for science and education of psychological self-efficacy. The Bible undermines Christian theology because the religion has take it out of context and ignores the thousands of clear contradictions that cannot be disputed. The science of psychology alone crumbles the House of God to the ground.
Religious ideas are not exempt from academic criticism. Avoiding contrary facts just so you do not have to use critical thinking, assess your beliefs and possibly restructure them goes against academic/personal integrity, honesty and learning.
“Creation Science” and Christianity discounts contrary evidence for faith. Faith – which is not based on knowledge, experience or rational thought arising from doubt – replaces the search for truth.
The fact of the matter is that Bible inerrancy and the refusal to acknowledge contrary evidence creates a serious roadblock in using science to prove the Bible to be inerrant and it creates a raodblock in Christians being educated in real facts and Bible theology. This can be proven with one simple fact, but can also be supported by a large amount in Bible verses and science. Christian theology is morally corrupt.
Christians claim that humans are inherently sinners because Adam and Eve disobeyed. This is false.
Genesis Chapter 3 tells us that God deceived Adam and Eve by not telling them the full consequences of eating the fruit of knowledge and it also tells us that death by sin did not come into fruition by disobedience.
It was the desire for knowledge and the gaining of a conscience that caused Adam and Eve to “become like God”. This threat to his omnipotence caused him such a big scare that he cursed them and denied them eternal life. (The bible never explains why he changes his mind and makes eternal life mandatory for everyone.)
The irony of this story is that God put this on himself by creating Adam and Eve, the consequences of which he should have foreseen. God’s plans often go awry in the bible. God also placed temptation in the Garden in the form of trees and was responsible for putting all the circumstances in place that led to the fall from grace. A perfect God who foresees the future and creates an imperfect world has acted irresponsibly.
If humans were to be responsible, fairness and justice requires that God gave Adam and Eve knowledge and a conscience – the tools needed to make informed decisions, understand consequences, be less susceptible to deception, give them free will, enable them to build their own character and be responsible for their own thoughts, emotions and actions; and able to manage their own personal behavior. The fact he had not intentions of doing so and cursed them for gaining this ability is odd for a deity so hung up on behavior patterns.
The bible tells us to rely on faith, not reason. Faith – which is not based on knowledge, experience or rational thought from arising doubt, replaces the search for truth. Faith is a cop out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith then you are conceding that it cannot be accepted by its own merits. Ignorance is content to stand with its back turned to the truth.
Belief in God & Jesus as Savior is the only way for man to escape damnation, but Paul claims that it is impossible to comprehend God, which makes it impossible to understand him. This makes studying the bible, going to church, asking for clarity & proselytizing useless. This image of a humanity incapable of grasping concepts is a fit companion for the Christian requirement that people accept it on faith alone. Hunger for knowledge caused the downfall of humanity. Intelligence leads to hellfire and Paul writes several times that God destroys & confounds the wisdom of the wise. The bible tells us that the “gift of reason” which apparently makes us higher than animals maybe be the match that lights the fires of hell for all who dare use it, since whatever is not faith is sin.
The putdown of intelligence & any use of the intellect is so woven into the Bible that it must be concluded that one must strive to be dumb, gullible, unquestioning & imprudent (lacking discretion, wisdom, or good judgment) to accept Christian theology & that those who are not are doomed.
An “educated Christian” is as much of an oxymoron as “Creation science”, “Christian scientist” and “Christian scholar.”