Christianity is a gun to our head

Christianity is like God putting a gun to our head: if you believe, you will be saved, if you don’t, you go to hell. Where is the righteousness in this story?

The existence announcement in John 3:18 is even worse: ‘He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already‘.

The unfair part is result of the idea of ‘neutral ground’, where I don’t have a gun to my head. There arrives Christianity, puts the gun to my head; believe, or die, worse: be condemned. Not to mention the people who never hear this message.

Why is it so hard to see the message as a lifebuoy, instead of a gun? Why is it so hard to believe that our swimming pool is a relative calm peace of water in the midst of a mighty ocean?

1. Because we know better. If I don’t believe this message, I know better. I am not doomed. Period. I have an alternative explanation for my existence, my idea of right and wrong, my idea of afterlife, the origin of forgiveness, heaven, God, etc.

The only problem is that the riddle of life stinks; it is still unsolved:

• Our existence is -despite all means- an unsolved existential riddle. Where do we come from? What is human purpose? Does afterlife -hell, reincarnation, heaven, nothing?- exist? Does God exist? Etc.

Bottomline: what solid evidence do we have for our chosen alternative?

2. Second reason for seeing a gun instead of a buoy must be the conflict of interest between what I want, and what I must do in order to be saved: believe in Jesus. There must be consequences to it. There are:

• I loose my perspective of living on neutral ground (where my desires, ethics, goals and worldview are accepted, neutral or just arbitrary)
• Instead, my ideas are suddenly the reason of going to hell (the idea, the brutality to condemn my ideas)
• But I only escape this route by accepting and believing in Jesus (what an arrogance, what a scam)

3. Maybe reason number one: when we look at the pool, it is absurd to assume there is an ocean, one we cannot see, suspect at most. Absurd to believe that we are condemned. Absurd to believe that we need a savior. Maybe it is just a feeling, without any evidence at all, it is just absurd.

This feeling of absurdity corresponds to what the disciples said in John 6 verse 60: ‘This is an hard saying; who can hear it?’

When did the disciples say this? After Jesus spoke these words in verses 53 until 58:

‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.’

I think I finish this blog at this point. But apparently we all must decide: are we condemned, or not?