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Christians always say how the life of Jesus is the greatest story ever told. One of the main parts of the Christian faith is that Jesus was the son of god and he was also god himself, in the form of a man. Because he was god, he was perfect and free of sin. As opposed to everyone else who just can’t stop sinning because they’ve been cursed with original sin. And Jesus allowed himself to be crucified so that he could suffer the punishment for all the sins of humanity, essentially taking our place. And he died, and stayed dead for a couple of days and then he brought himself back to life and this means that regardless of what we do, we all have the opportunity to go to heaven, providing we believe in Jesus. So the story goes.
And even if we believed this wasn’t merely a story, but something that actually happened, there are some parts that just don’t make sense to me, and here they are. That idea that Jesus could be punished for our transgressions allowing us to avoid being punished, runs counter to every meaningful concept of justice. Punishing someone for a crime they didn’t commit, is clearly unjust. If we executed an innocent person for murder and then later discovered who the real murderer was, this would be horrifying. And that’s exactly the kind of situation our justice system seeks to avoid. We wouldn’t tell the murderer “Hey, someone died in your place, you’re free to go!” That’s just insane. But apparently, God’s sense of justice is not so well developed. His wrath must be satisfied with blood, and whether it’s the blood of the guilty or the innocent makes no difference to him. As long as someone is sacrificed, that’s good enough for god. But that doesn’t make it right. And then of course, the death of Jesus wasn’t that much of a sacrifice on his part, to be sure, death by crucifixion is obviously awful but the significance of giving up your life in this manor is really diminished when you come back to life a few days later. Christians like to talk about how Jesus gave his life for us, and yet he faced death, knowing he would return to life. And then he resurrected himself, so what did he really give up? What’s the point of dying as a sacrifice in someone’s place if you don’t stay dead? Ultimately, nothing was sacrificed. And then, there’s the questionable existence of Jesus himself. Was it really necessary for god to reincarnate himself as his own son and sacrifice himself, to himself, in order to appease himself? Instead of orchestrating this whole convoluted plan, couldn’t he have just chosen to just forgive us for our sins, after all, he can do anything, he IS god. So what’s stopping him? And again, this is a god whos sense of justice is so indiscriminate; the execution of an innocent person was completely acceptable to him. So if god is satisfied by punishment, and without guilt, why would he object to guilt without punishment? What’s the problem with simply forgiving us, without insisting that someone be sacrificed in the process? By setting this plan in motion, god was choosing to forgive us anyway, that was the ultimate goal, so why not just do that? The entire life of Jesus was nothing more than a superfluous contrivance. And considering the fundamental injustice of his sacrificial death, that was neither sacrificial nor death, this wasn’t even worth contriving. Remind me again how this is the greatest story ever told?
And even if we believed this wasn’t merely a story, but something that actually happened, there are some parts that just don’t make sense to me, and here they are. That idea that Jesus could be punished for our transgressions allowing us to avoid being punished, runs counter to every meaningful concept of justice. Punishing someone for a crime they didn’t commit, is clearly unjust. If we executed an innocent person for murder and then later discovered who the real murderer was, this would be horrifying. And that’s exactly the kind of situation our justice system seeks to avoid. We wouldn’t tell the murderer “Hey, someone died in your place, you’re free to go!” That’s just insane. But apparently, God’s sense of justice is not so well developed. His wrath must be satisfied with blood, and whether it’s the blood of the guilty or the innocent makes no difference to him. As long as someone is sacrificed, that’s good enough for god. But that doesn’t make it right. And then of course, the death of Jesus wasn’t that much of a sacrifice on his part, to be sure, death by crucifixion is obviously awful but the significance of giving up your life in this manor is really diminished when you come back to life a few days later. Christians like to talk about how Jesus gave his life for us, and yet he faced death, knowing he would return to life. And then he resurrected himself, so what did he really give up? What’s the point of dying as a sacrifice in someone’s place if you don’t stay dead? Ultimately, nothing was sacrificed. And then, there’s the questionable existence of Jesus himself. Was it really necessary for god to reincarnate himself as his own son and sacrifice himself, to himself, in order to appease himself? Instead of orchestrating this whole convoluted plan, couldn’t he have just chosen to just forgive us for our sins, after all, he can do anything, he IS god. So what’s stopping him? And again, this is a god whos sense of justice is so indiscriminate; the execution of an innocent person was completely acceptable to him. So if god is satisfied by punishment, and without guilt, why would he object to guilt without punishment? What’s the problem with simply forgiving us, without insisting that someone be sacrificed in the process? By setting this plan in motion, god was choosing to forgive us anyway, that was the ultimate goal, so why not just do that? The entire life of Jesus was nothing more than a superfluous contrivance. And considering the fundamental injustice of his sacrificial death, that was neither sacrificial nor death, this wasn’t even worth contriving. Remind me again how this is the greatest story ever told?