50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God by Guy P. Harrison Page A

well beyond prejudice and actually kill gay
men (see Leviticus 20:13). Obviously the vast majority of Christians
wouldn't do this even if they read it and even if they considered themselves to be Bible literalists. Fortunately they have enough moral
sense to resist murdering a gay person or even condoning it. But this
is a problem for them because it seems to suggest that they think they
know better than their god. Doesn't their refusal to kill gay men
demonstrate that they have higher moral standards than the god they
believe in? By refusing to pick up stones, aren't they admitting that
their sacred book is wrong?

    Some Christians claim that the bad stuff in the Bible is limited to
the Old Testament and can be excused as historical content. But,
according to Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that he did not come to abolish
or change any of the old laws. One also can't forget that, according to
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Jesus and God the Father are onethe same god who killed children by the thousands in the Old Testament. Even more troubling, how is the idea of Jesus sending everyone
to hell who doesn't believe in him-the majority of humankind-anything but immoral? Does a child born in Agra, India, and raised by
devout Hindu parents deserve to be punished in this way just because
she trusted in what her family and society taught her?
    As a nonbeliever I am not obligated or inclined to ignore the ugly
parts of holy books. Some might suspect, however, that I only focus
on the bad to use as ammunition against religion. Not so. For example,
I admire Jesus's call for people to sell their belongings and give the
money to the poor. Imagine how different our world would be if
middle- and upper-class believers did that. There is a line in the Koran
(5:32) that suggests that the taking of a single life is like killing
everyone and saving one life is like saving all. How nice it would be
if everyone embraced that attitude. Yes, there is wisdom and beauty in
the world's holy books. But none so remarkable that it could not have
come from human writers.

    There is really only one way to respond when a believer claims
that a sacred book such as the Bible is so special that it is proof of their
god's existence. I encourage them to read it. If they have, and still
think it is perfect, morally pure, and convincing evidence for their god,
I encourage them to read it again. But this time I tell them to try to
imagine themselves as one of the babies their god drowned in a flood
or as one of the people who will be punished forever for the crime of
having been born into the wrong religious family.
    Believers may be negligent about reading their own holy books but
they are even more so about reading the books that are important to
other religions. Very few people investigate even the handful of more
popular religions today. I have lived my life in societies that are dominated by Christians and I am repeatedly shocked by how many bright
people I encounter who know little or nothing about Islam, Buddhism,
Hinduism, Judaism, and animism. Those belief systems account for
more than half the people on earth yet they are a virtual blank for most
of the Christians I meet. To many, Hinduism has something to do with
cows; Buddhism has something to with meditation; and Islam has
something to with Osama bin Laden. It really is that bad. Believers
should know that this lack of general knowledge about popular religions means they can't possibly make informed decisions about which
belief system makes more sense or which one is morally superior. How
can anyone be confident that they believe in the real god and worship
that god in the correct way when they know so little about the many
alternative gods and rituals that billions of other people are equally
confident in?
    Another problem with holy books is that they lure many believers
into a bizarre loop of circular reasoning. Here is how it goes:
    (1) How do I know my