Some of you may not know this, but I am a loving father. I have two young children at home with me and like all loving parents I only want the best for them. So over the weekend, I demanded that my 3 1/2-year-old son kneel before me and worship me. I even allowed him to see me, which is more than I can say for parental deities.
I love my son and I really want him to love me back so I gave him the choice. If he kneels before me and worships me completely with all of his heart and mind, I will give him cookies and cake for every meal forever. But if he disobeys me even in the slightest, he will be beaten continuously for every day of his life. Sounds fair, right?
Even though I know my son very well, I was shocked that when I commanded him to go to bed, he rebelled against me. He knew the consequences and he still rebelled. But since I love him, I gave him a way out. I gave him a chance to be forgiven. I could put his 10-month-old sister in harm’s way and allow her to be tortured and killed and then I can have my son worship her as well as me from here on out. That makes sense, right?
If he doesn’t accept my sacrifice of his little sister (my only begotten daughter) I will have to go ahead and beat him continuously for all eternity. I am after all a just father and those are the rules. If I let my son get away with rebelling against me at bedtime and not worshipping me and the sacrifice of his sister, then I wouldn’t be a very just and loving father, would I?
This is of course a ridiculous scenario and because I actually do love my son, I would never beat him nor would I give him cookies and cake for every meal. I don’t support any form of corporal punishment nor should any kid have that much sugar . I want to make that very clear. I still love my son even though he doesn’t like to go to bed on time and often times disobeys and rebels against me. He is a typical preschooler. But this situation mirrors the situation that Christianity purports to set up.
This is in fact the core of the Christian religion. A so called “loving” God demands that we worship and obey him. He created us and can do with us as he pleases. When we don’t obey him, we are threatened with eternity torture in Hell. Then he changes his mind out of “love” and puts another being in harm’s way (his only begotten son, Jesus). He allows Jesus to get tortured and to die (but only for three days) and then we are told that we must accept his sacrifice and now worship him too or else the threat of eternal torture in Hell is still on because after all, God is a “just” God.
I don’t know how Christians define “love” and “justice,” but I have a very different view of those virtues. This is one of the many reasons why I consider the Christian religion to be immoral and wrong. Of course, I also consider the Christian religion to be bullshit too; so there is that. Not only is it immoral and unjust, it is also fiction.
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