Why I am an Atheist and Freethinker

1. Why I am an Atheist and Freethinker By Ed Hensley Presented at Christian Academy of Louisville November 10, 2008

2. Religious Background • Grew up in a fundamentalist Southern Baptist Church • Baptized at age 9 • After doubting, baptized again at age 18 • Went on BSU and other missionary trips • Assisted a street preacher in Dallas • By 20 I doubted God wrote some texts in the Bible • By 24 I knew the Bible was man-made

3. Introduction • How Freethinkers differ from Fundamentalists • The Bible is not the literal word of God • The God of the Bible is evil • The Bible contains bizarre nonsense • Many contradictions in the Bible • The Bible is unreliable • Why I am a freethinker • Why I am an atheist • Is there an atheist world view? • Do Atheists have morals? • But what about Hitler?

4. How Atheists and Freethinkers differ from Fundamentalists

5. Applying Free Thought God created the first man from dust approximately 6,000 years ago in the garden of Eden which was located in what is currently Jackson County, Missouri. Only Mormons believe Eden was in Jackson County , Missouri. Fundamentalist Mormons can not practice free thought and question Eden’s location. Freethinkers are permitted to question each phrase of this sentence. Non-Mormon Christians are permitted to ask for evidence that Eden was located in Jackson County, Mo. People are able to apply free thought to other religions. It is difficult to apply free thought to your religion.

6. Applying Free Thought God created the first man from dust approximately 6,000 years ago. Only young earth creationists believe the world is about 6,000 years old. Free thinkers have no problem with evidence for an old earth.

7. Applying Free Thought God created the first man from dust. Theistic evolutionists do not believe man was created from dust. Freethinkers have no problem with the evidence that shows man was not simply created from dust.

8. Applying Free Thought God created the first man. Most Christians are bound by dogmatism not to doubt this statement. Other forms of theism agree with this statement. Freethinkers are able to ask for evidence that God created man.

9. Applying Free Thought God created. Freethinkers are permitted to doubt this statement and all other prior statements.

10. Fundamentalist Presuppositions Biology for Christian Schools is a textbook for Bible-believing high-school students. Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling. This book was not written for them. … The same encyclopedia article may state that the grasshopper evolved 300 million years ago… These statements are conclusions based on "supposed science." If the conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong, no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them. http://www.bjupress.com/product/187021?path=12762&samplePage=10#lookInside

11. Fundamentalist Presuppositions The authority of the Bible is the main emphasis of Answers in Genesis. We don’t try to ‘prove’ the Bible with science; rather, we accept the Bible’s propositions as true without proof, i.e. as axioms or presuppositions. Genesis … unambiguously teaches that: The heavens, Earth and everything in them were created in six consecutive normal days, the same as those of our working week (Exodus 20:8–11). Earth is about 6,000 years old, since Jesus said mankind was there from the ‘beginning of creation’, not billions of years later (Mark 10:6). God judged the world by a globe-covering Flood God then judged the people by confusing their language at Babel

12. Fundamentalist Presuppositions Using this framework It’s important to realize that all ‘facts’ of science do not speak for themselves, but are interpreted within a framework. Creation Magazine 22(1):39–42 Dec 1999 http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v22/i1/creation.asp

13. Presuppositions Can be Extreme http://www.fixedearth.com/ TheBible teaches scores of times that the sun and stars move, not the Earth. Then spake Joshua.... Sun, stand thou still upon Joshua 10:12,13 So THE SUN RETURNED ten degrees,by which degrees it was gone down...(Isaiah 38:8) The Christian Compromise with Copernicanism established the one and only criterion needed for the success of Satan's evolution myth … Scripture can and must be reworked to match the claims of "science falsely so-called".

14. Creationist Presupposition – Ape or Human, but never transitional Kenneth Miller, Only a Theory, p. 95 Drawn from James Foley at TalkOrigins.org

15. Sources In Previous Chart

16. Presuppositions Leading to Wrong Results at the Creation Museum

17. Based on Evidence or Presupposition?

18. Scientific Presuppositions • explanations should deal with as much of the evidence as possible; • explanations should avoid contradictions, both internal and with the evidence from the physical world; • explanations should be logical; • explanations should make predictions that can be tested; • explanations should have some utility in addressing new evidence.

19. Apply Free Thinking to the Following Statement When a person dies – or when a thetan abandons its physical body – they go to a "landing station" on the planet Venus, where the thetan is re-implanted and told lies about its past life and its next life. The Venusians take the thetan, "capsule" it, and send it back to Earth to be dumped into the ocean off the coast of California.

20. Apply Free Thinking to the Following Noah Was 500 Years old when he fathered 3 sons. Noah was 600, and his sons each 100, when they built an ark around 2400 B.C. that was 300 cubits long (no more than 450 feet). It contained animals of every kind on earth. The world was completely covered by water around 2400 B.C.

21. Applying Free Thought to the Bible Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived. - Isaac Asimov

22. The Literal Word of a Perfect God? • The remarkable structure of the Bible should also be stressed. Although it is a collection of 66 books, written by 40 or more different men over a period of 2,000 years, it is clearly one Book, with perfect unity and consistency throughout. • http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t003.html • What I was taught and believed.

23. The God of the Bible is evil

24. God Kills a Man for Gathering Wood - Numbers 15:32-36   32 While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp." 36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.

25. Jephthah Burns His Daughter for God -Judges 11  29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah …And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." 34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, …36 "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised…39 … her father and he did to her as he had vowed

26. Genocide of the Midianites – Numbers 31 1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. 7 They fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every man. 14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army…15 "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. 17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

27. God Sends Bears to kill 42 children – 2 Kings 2  23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

28. 1 of God’s Laws on Slavery • 10 Commandments in Exodus 20 • Exodus 21:20 If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, 21 but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property. • Many other slavery laws in Ex 21

29. Another Law from God on Slavery • 44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. 46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

30. Bizarre Laws and Stories in the Bible

31. Lot and His Daughters (Gen 19) 5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."  6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them… 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father."

32. The Old Levite and his Concubine • Judges 19:22 While they [an old Levite and his host] were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. … "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him." •  23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, don't be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing." •  25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. • 29 When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.

33. David pays 200 foreskins for a Wife 1 Sam 18:25 Saul replied, "Say to David, 'The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.' " Saul's plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.  26 When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, 27 David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented the full number to the king so that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.

34. Test for a cheating wife Num 5:16 " 'The priest … shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 ... he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands … the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath … "If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have defiled yourself by sleeping with a man other than your husband" ..."may the LORD cause your people to curse and denounce you when he causes your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your thigh wastes away."       " 'Then the woman is to say, "Amen. So be it."

35. Noah Gets Drunk and Curses Grandson to Slavery Gen 9: 20 21 When he [Noah] drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.  24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers."  26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem!  May Canaan be the slave of Shem.  27 May God extend the territory of Japheth … and may Canaan be his slave."  28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years.

36. Genocide of Laish Judges 18:1 … the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle… 2 So the Danites sent five warriors from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. 7 So the five men left and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians, unsuspecting and secure. … 27 Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a peaceful and unsuspecting people. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city....       28 The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. 29 They named it Dan after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. 30 There the Danites set up for themselves the idols, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land.

37. Sons of God Impregnate Women Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

38. Cut off her hand – Show her no pity Deu 25:11 If two men are fightingand the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, 12 you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

39. Stone Rebellious Children Deut 21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." 21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

40. The Bible Says Bats Are Birds! Deut 14:11 You may eat any clean bird. 12 But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 13 the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon, 14 any kind of raven, 15 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, 17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, 18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

41. Zombies and Earthquake at Death of Jesus is only in Matthew Matt 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.  51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

42. Problems With Biblical Chronology

43. Genesis Was Written 1000s of Years After Events Occurred Gen 14:14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. Judges 18:28 The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. 29 They named it Dan after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. Dan did not exist until Judges 18:29 immediately after Samson’s death (Judges 16) around 1050 BC. Therefore, Gen 14 could not have been written until 1050 BC, over 800 years the events of Gen 14 in 1916 BC and 2850 years after the creation in 4000 BC. Timeline Used: http://www.abiblestudy.com/index.html

44. Genesis Was Written 1000s of Years After Its Events Occurred Gen 36:31 These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned: Gen 36 could not have been written until after Saul became king (Judges 16) around 1050 BC. Gen 36 timeline (Jacob, Esau) occurs around 1720 BC according to the bible, over 600 years prior to any Israelite king. This means Genesis 36 could not have been written until at least 1050 BC. This is 2850 years after the creation in 4000 BC.

45. Who Was King First? Joram in Israel or Jehoram in Judah 2 Kings 1:17 …Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoramson of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 2 Kings 8:16 In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah.

46. Contradictions in the Bible

47. Ezra and Nehemiah Census Data

48. Ezra and Nehemiah Census Data

49. Genealogy of Joseph Matt 1:16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.  17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. Luke 3:23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24the son of Matthat…