What if You’re Wrong?

I have been asked, "What if you're wrong? What if God exists and you are indeed bound for hell because you don't believe? You are risking an eternity of punishment and the loss of infinite reward, simply for refusing to have faith." There are a great many flaws in that argument, but more on that...

Evangelizing, as a Hypothetical Christian

I think Christians generally do an inadequate job of evangelizing. I did poorly when I was an evangelical. That’s partly because Christian mythology is incoherent and confusing. If I believed in the Christian god now, and were trying to win over the unsaved, here’s what I would tell the potential convert: There is no hell....

Enjoy the Magic Show

I've been told that I should just shut up and go away. Well, not in quite such blunt terms, but that how I understand the reaction I sometimes get to my well-intentioned words of wisdom, especially in religious settings. I’m as welcome in a Christian Bible study as a skeptic at a magic show. You...

God, Goodness, and Death

This is a special way of being afraid No trick dispels. Religion used to try, That vast moth-eaten musical brocade Created to pretend we never die . . . ~ Philip Larkin, Aubade I used to fear death. No matter that my faith instructed me in the nature of the afterlife, and in my assurance...

Hellfire

It suddenly occurs to me that religious groups that persuade their members to stay loyal by threatening them with hellfire for questioning doctrine are very similar to child molesters who persuade their victims to keep quiet by threatening them with bodily harm. That is a sobering thought. Many child molesters use threats as part of a range...