WOTM: Christians Have To Lie

追加: 2026-05-27

[00:00:04][music] >> One of the biggest differences between make-believers and non-believers is that make-believers have a a massive tome of a book which they claim is either the literal or inspired word of an all-knowing super being.

[00:00:21]>> [clears throat] >> This commits the make-believer to an almost never-ending slew of propositions, truth claims about our world and the existence of character, commands, and acts of that all-knowing super being. For most of Christian history, your average everyday Christian did not have access to this book, the Bible. Most people were illiterate and couldn't have read the Bible even if they'd had access to it. Books were also incredibly expensive before the advent of movable type. Later, translating the Bible into the vernacular where any literate person could read the book in their own language became illegal and could bring severe penalties like death. Now, we can all read the word of God and in our reading, we can all discover if we have the honesty and integrity to do so that this holy book is all over the place.

[00:01:18]As Bible scholar Dan McClellan points out, it is anything but univocal.

[00:01:23]>> All right, let's see it.

[00:01:24]>> Meaning there is no single, unified, coherent narrative but rather a patchwork of disparate ideas and messages which which is what one would expect from a book written by dozens of authors with their own agendas over a thousand year period. Right?

[00:01:41]Because it's written by this myriad of different authors over such a long period of time, each presenting different ideas and messages, there are all kinds of contradictions.

[00:01:53]Meaning you have to bring something to the reading of this book.

[00:01:58]A particular way of interpreting what the book is saying which almost by definition is going to force you to ignore or de-emphasize the parts of the book which are misaligned with your way of interpreting that book and what it's saying. And since there is no one evidently true underlying narrative or even a path to a true narrative, the make-believer has to make choices about which interpretation they're going to favor and which parts they're going to ignore or de-emphasize.

[00:02:30]Most people do that by attaching themselves to the interpretation favored by the denomination into which they were born, settled, or have chosen after some consideration of the text. The choice of this interpretation then becomes a huge, often primary, foundational source for the make-believer's identity.

[00:02:52]It also provides answers to life's big existential questions.

[00:02:57]Who am I? Is there a purpose to life?

[00:03:00]What happens to us when we die? What should I do with my Sundays? Is dancing okay?

[00:03:07]It also answers very specific theological questions. Is God good? What can I do to be saved? Is the Bible the inherent word of God?

[00:03:17]Is dancing okay? For the make-believer then, there is so much riding on their holy book being true or at least true adjacent.

[00:03:27]There is no equivalent for the atheist who can think whatever he or she wants about any of those big existential questions beyond God's existence.

[00:03:38]This frees up the atheist or agnostic to examine claims and ideas without needing them to be forced to fit within some presiding pre-existing dogmatic structure imposed on their thinking by their favored biblical interpretation. This puts the make-believer in the position of constantly having to put square pegs into round holes.

[00:04:00]Is God all good? Yes, of course.

[00:04:05]Did God approve of slavery and command genocide?

[00:04:10]Um no or yes, but and that no or yes, but really depends on who the Christian is talking to in many cases. If a Christian is asked this question in front of Christians, that Christian is likely to outright lie because he or she knows that the audience doesn't care about what's true, only what feels good and aligns with their favored interpretation. For instance, watch Frank Turek lie his ass off about slavery in the Bible and then listen to his Christian audience applaud those lies. First of all, Old Testament slavery was not race-based for servitude. It was voluntary means of working off debt or keeping captives from mustering a rebellion. Secondly, slave trading is condemned in the Bible both in the Old and the New Testaments. Thirdly, the Bible teaches that all men are made in the image of God. Slave and master are equally human, protected, and one in Christ. That's throughout both Old and New Testaments.

[00:05:15]Thirdly, Jesus or fourthly, Jesus came to set the captives free.

[00:05:19]>> Well, Frank, if if Jesus came to end slavery and set the captives free, did he achieve that goal?

[00:05:29]Frank knows that Yahweh allowed chattel slavery, the lifelong owning of other humans as property.

[00:05:36]He knows it was based on tribal affiliation, what we might today call race.

[00:05:41]He knows that being made in God's image and owning other humans as property are entirely compatible in his holy book.

[00:05:49]>> No! And he knows that Jesus never CONDEMNED SLAVERY. NO! NO! BUT BOY, listen to that applause. The other big factor here is what? Because a make-believer's belief in this holy book suppresses the existential angst we all naturally experience given this world and what we know about our mortality.

[00:06:11]Make-believers don't just believe, they want desperately for their beliefs to be true.

[00:06:19]Most atheists I know have no desire for their beliefs to be true.

[00:06:23]Yeah, we'd like to live in some paradise after this life as well.

[00:06:28]We'd love to be reunited with our family, friends, and loved ones, animal friends, after death. We just see no reason to believe those stories about our existence in some future world are anything but stories made up by people who who were desperate for consolation and hope.

[00:06:47]Likewise, we see no reason to believe there's some all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving being watching over us.

[00:06:54]Not when this world is filled with so much evil and suffering.

[00:06:59]My observations tell me that if there is a creator, he is clearly a sadist.

[00:07:06]And there's just no making up for that in some future life. When your identity, hopes, and wishes are wrapped up in believing a book is the word of an all-knowing God which tells you to love your neighbor and also tells you you can own your neighbor as property, well, there's really nothing you can do but lie to yourself and to others if need be.

[00:07:31]Whatever it takes to maintain that sense of identity and keep that cognitive dissonance from tearing down the wall you've built up to keep that existential angst at bay.

[00:07:43]Once again, I'm me.

[00:07:45]Thanks for watching. [music] >> [music]