Someone asked me, point blank, if I were happier as an atheist or as a Christian.

As an atheist, I was but a rational animal with no immortal soul. I was destined to die and turn to dust, whereupon, a short while after, have all I knew and loved, as well as my name and fame and everything about me, also turn to dust and be forgotten. And even if I were remembered after death, what good would that do me then?

Then I became a Christian. I drank from the Holy Grail and became as immortal as a Highlander, but more invincible. A king even more noble than Caesar adopted me as His beloved son, and spoke to me in visions. I was granted the super power known as prayer, which can fend off demons, disease, and disaster. I was called to sainthood.

And, suddenly, the nine tenths of all the world around me, who had been madmen believing in Santa Claus and Flying Spaghetti Monsters, suddenly become sane, and saints in the making, anointed with grace and shining with light. Every southern baptist hellfire preacher became my friend. Every holiday became my holiday. The Calendar became a stained glass window repeating the story of the fall and salvation.

All men became my brothers.

The secret to happiness was shown to me. The secret is thanksgiving. Be grateful.

That is all. It is simple and it is hard.

I hurled down a gauntlet at a reader named Mr Jones, asking him harshly if he could come up with factual and reality-based objections to Christianity rather than emotional objections. He was a man of honor (which I regret to report is a rare thing among atheists, and getting more rare) and responded immediately and forthrightly.

Here are the points he raises:

1) God as conceived by Christianity is not consistent with the evil of this world. You may say “free will”, but what has free will to do with a helpless baby being born deformed before dying a prolonged and painful death from an inadequately-formed heart over the course of several days? Then, assuming said baby was not baptized, being plunged into hell (or limbo) for the crime of inheriting original sin?

2) Partially a continuation, as a father I would never consider allowing my sons to juggle chainsaws if I were physically capable of stopping them. Yet juggling chainsaws is the smallest of small potatoes when compared to the infinity of fiery torture in hell, yet humanity’s Father seems perfectly content to allow naive children to stumble through life without even the vaguest awareness of what could await them at the end of it. This is inconsistent with the notion of a God who cares for us.

3) Christian doctrine promotes attitudes contrary to reality and prudence, such as the notion of pacifism being a desirable thing. Even if for largely pragmatic reasons a theory of “just war” has developed, the notion that pacifism – not peace, but pacifism – would ever be morally desirable is contrary to reality. If attacked, it is morally imperative to fight back if at all possible rather than submit to unjust violence. To fail to fight evil when one can is to reward it.

4) Christianity teaches submission to the civic authorities, not because of practicality, but because all of their authority derives from God. It maintains no doctrinal right of justified revolution. If Romanians thought like the Apostle Paul, we would still be ruled by a tyrant today. Instead, we rose up and shot him down like a dog, and thereby won our freedom.

5) The argument that the church is an eternal institution with immutable and infallible teachings runs contrary to reality, where it has made several dramatic about-faces over the centuries, then found weasel words to justify how doing the precise opposite of what it used to do somehow does not represent a change of church teachings. From the crusades to kissing a koran, for instance.

6) The inconsistencies in the Bible itself do not point to a book that is divinely inspired.

I promised I would reply when time permits, and it permits now.

A word before we begin: Please note that I am a Roman Catholic. Hence, I do not regard it as legitimate to quote to Bible to heathens. Biblical language includes parable, poetry, psalms, riddles, or in apocalyptic images. Catholics believe that the Church wrote the New Testament, and has sole authority to interpret it.

I myself, for that matter, do not believe any atheist or agnostic has the ability to read the Bible and understand what is being said. As well describe the rainbow to the man born blind. I will not argue with unbelievers over the meaning of Bible passages. I am not qualified to do so.

However, when some dispute in the paragraphs below arise concerning what is versus what is not official and traditional orthodox Christian teaching, the document we use for instructing children, heathens, and others unfamiliar with the faith is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In no case am I quoting the Catechism in order to show the truth of the matter. That is another argument for another day.

I here quote it only to show what is it Christians in general, and Catholics in particular,  actually believe. I quote it to dispel the straw man argument forming the foundation of Mr Jones’ edifice of words.

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A question from an abbreviated reader named, or, rather, lettered MC:

Mr. Wright, I have some questions that come from a sort of alt-right and evolutionary perspective that maybe you could provide a possible answer for. I’ve thought about some of these questions after spending considerable time on some alt-right blogs and channels, and they have me wondering.

If God exists, why do you think He would create some races with such a low average IQ, that also look very different, and are different in so many other ways to the point that they can’t even accept organ transplants from outside of their race?

Doesn’t a godless evolutionary theory offer a better explanation of these differences?

If God does exist, wouldn’t it be accurate to then assume that he favors some races over others, and not all people are even necessarily created in his image?

Well, it is rather difficult to take this question seriously, but I will give it the old college try, and try not to be droll or quick in answering.

My first remark, that God made the Jews with higher average IQ’s than Alt-Righters in order to teach humility would perhaps be too droll and quick an answer.

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