Freethought-Now

On Feb. 6, I participated in a debate at Restoration Church in Rowland, Texas, on the topic “Does the God of the Bible Exist?” against Christian philosopher Elias Ayala. The debate was part of a weekend conference sponsored by “The Gospel Truth.” This was my 10-minute Opening Statement.

OPENING STATEMENT BY DAN BARKER

On Easter Sunday in 2008, 11-year-old Kara Neumann of Weston, Wisconsin, died at home after suffering from horrendous pain for many days from easily treatable diabetes. She died because her Christian parents refused to treat her or take her to the hospital. They trusted the God of the Bible, who promised in James 5:

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. (James 5:14–15, NIV)

Because of the bible, a talented and vivacious young girl lost her life on the day Christians celebrate their lord’s victory over death.

Kara’s parents were convicted of second-degree reckless homicide—but they remain unrepentant. They still believe they did the right thing because, in fact, the bible god does promise that prayer will heal the sick. Jesus said in Matthew 21:22, “all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” He didn’t say “maybe,” or “if I feel like it,” or “if you have been good.” He said “all things.” That word “all” means . . . “all.”

Other passages confirm this:

Matthew 18:19 “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” 

Mark 11:24 “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

These and other verses guarantee that believers will experience miracles. Christ and his followers reportedly performed healings and miraculous deeds, and Jesus specifically promised in John 14:

John 14:12–14 “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these . . . . If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” 

There is no way to misinterpret this: “I will do it.”

Kara Neumann is not the only victim of bible belief. Rita Swan of Children’s Healthcare is a Legal Duty documented hundreds of other cases in America alone where children have needlessly suffered and died because their Christian parents put their faith over their love.

Clearly, the god of the bible does not tell the truth.

This is simple logic: The bible god says he does not lie and keeps his promises. He promises to answer prayers. But prayers are not answered. Therefore, the bible god does not exist.

In fact, every time you pray a petitionary or intercessory prayer, you are proving his nonexistence. Why should a loving god even have to be asked?

Suppose I saw my daughter drowning, and I just stood and watched. And you ask me, “Why didn’t you jump in to save her?!” And I say “You didn’t ask,” or “You didn’t have enough faith” or “Not enough people prayed hard enough.” You would think I was a callous psychopath! The bible god says he is a loving father, who will not give a stone for bread (Matthew 7:9–11), yet he ignores the cries of his children whom he has promised to love. Look at the Holocaust.

Walk into any children’s hospital, and you know that the bible god does not exist. Good Christian parents are praying desperately for their children, and their success rate is no better than that of modern medicine and random chance. Prayer might offer temporary comfort, but it makes no practical difference.

And that is my main argument. The absence of miracles proves that a god of miracles does not exist.

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But there’s more. A being with mutually incompatible characteristics cannot exist. Like a “married bachelor.” A is not equal to not-A.

— The bible god says he is good, yet he created, commanded and committed evil. Can a good tree bring forth evil fruit? [Matthew 7:18]

— He said “Thou shalt not kill,” but then said, “Kill, kill, kill!” Including merciless genocides, cannibalistic slaughter and innocent children. Believers should be happy to dash babies against the stones. (Psalm 137:9)

— He says he is just, yet he commits unjust acts, punishing children for the deeds of their ancestors and punishing David’s adultery by having his wives raped (II Samuel 12:7–14). He sentences all wrongdoers, regardless of the severity, to the same hell.

— He says all are created in his image, but then treats slaves and women as property. He boasted that he rapes women in Jeremiah 13 — “I myself will lift up your skirts.”

— He says he is merciful, then commits merciless acts.

— He says he is unchanging, yet he changed his mind. (See Exodus 32:14, Jonah 3:10, 2 Kings 20:1-11, Amos 7:1-6)

— He says he is wise, yet he was sorry he made Saul king (1 Samuel 15:11) and regretted creating humans (Genesis 6:6), so he drowned them all and started over.

— He says no one is blameless, yet he said some, such as Noah and Job, were blameless.

— He says no one can see his face, yet he says some did see his face.

— He claims he is perfect, yet his perfect creation, Eve, did something imperfect. 

— He says he is all-powerful but could not defeat chariots of iron. [Judges 1:19]

— He claims he is all-knowing yet says the sun orbits the Earth, the moon is a light and the stars are holes or little lights in a solid bowl called the firmament placed upside-down over a flat Earth.

— He claims he is all-loving, yet he created mosquitos! He failed to tell us about parasites, pathogens and germs. Jesus did not wash his hands before eating.

— He is confessedly intelligent and benevolent, yet he was unable to write a book that is clear enough to keep his followers from killing each other, fracturing into divisive denominations, bickering beliefs and feuding philosophies.

To presuppose the existence of such a shambolic character is to build your house on the sand.

I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking: “I can explain! Context, metaphor, free will, hermeneutics, the broader picture, the New Covenant,” and so on. When a woman catches her husband in bed with another woman, what does the man often say? “I can explain.” Well, maybe he can, but he is still in bed with another woman. Any criminal can “explain” their actions.

But why should the perfect word of a loving god have to be explained at all?

If the bible is God’s revelation to the human race, I am the intended reader, with the right to judge it as I see it. If I can’t grasp its “true meaning” without squabbling sectarian experts “explaining” what it really means, then God is inept. He’s a bad communicator.

He is also immoral. In my book God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction, I document more than 1,500 horrific deeds and cruel words of the bible god showing that even if he did exist, he would not be worthy of my admiration, much less worship. [All of those passages can be found at https://unpleasantgod.ffrf.org]

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying the reason he doesn’t exist is because he is unscrupulous and capricious. Such a preposterous monster could theoretically exist. The reason he does not exist is because his words and his deeds cancel out, like matter and anti-matter, like a married bachelor.

Maybe some other god exists—and that is a different debate—but since the bible god is described as honest, loving, just, merciful, all-knowing and powerful, and since he is depicted as dishonest, unloving, unjust, merciless, ignorant and impotent—unable to perform as he promised—he does not exist.

Kara Neumann would have been almost 30 now, possibly with children of her own, beautiful children whose existence was aborted because their gullible Christian grandparents believed in the actual existence of the fictional god of the bible.

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You can watch that entire debate at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeucoXcUE7c

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