Christianity is a superstitious belief system

In this post I would like to take the time to address one of my claims regarding religious beliefs in general and  in particular the three religions of the book: Judaism, Christianity, and  Islam. Often when I am engaged in discussions or debates about Christians and their beliefs I refer to those beliefs as ancient myths and superstitions. Before continuing let me go ahead and define those two key words for the sake of argument and then begin to lay out my case.

Myth

Superstition

Now that we've defined these words let's look at why I personally think that god beliefs in general are based on myths. According to the definitions I have taken from the Merriam Webster dictionary online a myth has several characteristics.

1. tradition
2. stories
3. unverifiable history

The three religions of the book are based entirely on stories collected in a book known to us as the Bible. In fact the word Bible according to its etymology actually means book. These stories in the Bible contain a large amount of fantasy and occurrences which we know from our own life experiences to be impossible events. For example the sun and the moon standing still in the sky and not going down for the length of an entire day! 

So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. Joshua 10:13

Now when you read this it obviously doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this story also reflects the beliefs of the period in which it was composed; that the we lived in a geocentric universe. In other words, that the earth was the center of the universe and that all the other planets and heavenly bodies revolved around it. The science of astronomy has shown us that this view is outdated and in fact incorrect. This is just one of the many impossible events that are narrated in the Bible. 

Finally, the believers of the religions of the book refuse to recognize the fact that because of these so called fantastical and miraculous events that allegedly occurred, make a lot of the so called history in the Bible unverifiable or at least falsifiable through archeology. One example of this is the destruction of Egypt when God allegedly hit them with his plagues to demonstrate his power to the ancient Hebrews and liberate them from slavery. 

If the above mentioned story were true then Egypt would have perished and been a complete waste land. The Bible says that God killed the Pharaoh and his entire army in one fell swoop! That he killed all of the livestock of the Egyptians including all of the plant life. He also killed all the first born sons of Egypt, so based on this tale there would be no successor to the throne after the death of Pharaoh. But yet history has shown that Egypt is a culture that goes back for thousands of years and still exists even today. 

Now let's move on to the element of superstitious beliefs and how they relate to the three religions of the book. According to the definition given for the word superstition, there are several elements that make a belief a superstition.

1. ignorance
2. fear of the unknown
3. trust in magic
4. false conception of causation

As I pointed out in the previous section ignorance about how things work is one reason why people believe some things that would be otherwise irrational and formulate erroneous beliefs. In today's world science has helped to dispel many of the worlds  erroneous beliefs due to a lack of knowledge and understanding. Fear of the unknown is another important force that drives religious beliefs. In an age before science was established and had managed to collect the innumerable amount of discoveries it has to this point, people lived in fear. They believed in magic and the supernatural was quite natural. They believed in gods and other supernatural deities, good and evil forces working in our world, etc. 

Even as late as 1692 right here in the United States in Salem Massachusetts there were actual witch trials being conducted! The people were driven by religious fervor and they were ignorant and afraid of the world around them and how things worked in nature. They attributed their misfortunes to devils working through the medium of witches in Salem. All this is due to a false conception of causation. 

For all the followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam it is important to know that your "God did it" claim for everything that is unknown at this time even for science is itself a false conception of causation. You're still living in the dark ages full of magic, ignorance, and fear. What you call truth is nothing more than ancient myths and superstitions imagined and invented by man himself. 

Note: All definitions used were taken from the online Merriam Webster dictionary. The links to my sources are contained within the text itself.

Things Christians don't agree on

Considering the fact that there are literally about 35,000-45,000 Christian orgnizations or sects around the world. It is quite obvious that believers don't seem to agree on what it is that their so called holy book actually says about God and many other things. This is mostly due to hermeneutics (methods of interpretation). The most commonly used methods are the literal and allegorical methods of interpretation.That being said here are some common points of contention amongst Christian denominations.

1. The trinity: Some believe that God is somehow manifested as three separate entities; the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Some churches reject the idea of the trinity altogether while others regard the whole matter a mystery that somehow we cannot fully comprehend or know. I personally believed that the three were separate entities but that they were one in plan and purpose.

2. Baptism: Some churches baptize children while others don't believe that children should be baptized till they reach the so called age of accountability where they can conciously choose to worship God through accepting Christ as their Lord and saviour. Other churches only baptize older kids and adults and believe that if a child is not capable of making a decision for Christ and dies that he/she will automatically be saved through God's grace.

3. Miracles: Not all churches accept the idea of God working miracles through his believers as he allegedly did in the Bible through his disciples. Some believe that the miracles were only necessary to establish the church and that once that had been accomplished that they were no longer necessary.

4. Idols: Many protestant churches don't believe in the so called veneration of idols and they equate it with idolatry. Catholics call it veneration but many Catholics I know of actually pray to these idols for favors etc. I personally think that it is nothing more than idol worship and that it is clearly condemned in the scriptures.

5. Creation story: Depending on which church you belong to and what denomination they represent you will find that some consider the creation story to be allegorical and not a literal and actual historic event.

6.Adam and eve: Were the first pair according to the scriptures actual historical figures or were they fictional? I personally believe that the author or authors of the narrative believed that they were literally historical figures. Adam is given an age of death and a geneology why would someone do this if they were not historical figures? Also, the author of Romans and other New Testament writers also believed in a literal Adam. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned--" Romans 5:12 

7. Paradise: Some believe that paradise will be here on a renewed earth after the so called tribulation and judgement. Others believe in an eternal abode in some heavenly spiritual realm.

8. Predestination: Some believe that not everyone will be saved that some are predestined to salvation while others are not. Others believe that salvation depends on your acceptance of Christ and faith in his redeeming act. The latter believe that everyone has an equal opportunity of being saved. 

9. Faith: Some believe that all you have to have is faith to be saved while others believe that faith is just one part of salvation. They believe that you have to also do good works and make some life changes that reflect what you believe. 

10. The rapture: Some believe that we will all be caught up into heaven literally. Others believe that the verses referring to the rapture are not to be taken literally.

11. The resurrection: Some believe that Jesus rose from the dead bodily (physically) while others believe it was a spiritual resurrection. 

These are just some of the many contentions that believers have about the scriptures and what they mean. Religionfacts.com has a nice list of some of the more common Christian churches and what they believe here.  

Notes: Biblial citations are taken from the New International Version of the scriptuires. All other citations have been hyper linked in the text itself.