THE NINETEEN QUESTIONS FOR CHRISTIAN CLERGY
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CONGRATULATIONS!
By opening this book you have shown that you have the
courage to critically examine your faith. These 19 questions
are directed toward you, the educated Christian. This is one
in a series of books that examine the major religions,
Islam, Christianity, and Atheism which we also consider a
belief system.
Throughout history believers have simply followed the crowd.
Children have grown up believing what their parents and
their priests said instead of making their own decisions. By
reading and attempting to answer the questions in this book
you are proving that your faith is based upon your own
thought and convictions. You are no longer a passenger on
the "bandwagon" of religious fanaticism, but a pioneer in
the search for truth.
Breaking the atoms into pieces
Discussing any religious faith on the basis of logic and
knowledge is a difficult task for two reasons. First, the
majority of "believers" inherit their religion from their
parents, and most of them do not use their intellectual
faculties to question the status quo. Second, any criticism
at a logical fallacy can be countered with a logical shield
such as: "We cannot comprehend God" or "We cannot understand
God's wisdom."
So, throughout history, questioning minds have created
tension in traditional religious circles. Asking "Why" and
even sometimes "how" is considered a threat. "Close your
eyes, have faith and enter our tunnel; then at the end you
will see the light" is the ultimate invitation. Many
corrupted religions and cults use "personal experience" to
maintain their survival.
Einstein, having had a hard time with bigoted scientists,
expressed this attitude in terms of physics: "Removing fixed
misconception from the people's mind is as difficult as
breaking the atom into pieces." Nevertheless, when you
remove a fixed misconception from someone's mind, it starts
a chain of reactions which can ignite intellectual
explosions and revolutions in the walls of bigotry.
One God, one religion
There are many examples of intellectual revolutions in the
history of religion. All of them were triggered by
unpopular, intellectual revolutionaries, such as Abraham,
Moses, Socrates, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad. All of them
fought against clerical exploitation, idolization of humans,
and blindly following parents. Their common struggle was to
stop leaders from abusing the name of God and to prevent
professional religionists from oppressing people mentally,
politically, and economically. They invited people to One
God and one religion.
Ironically, whenever those brave pioneers passed away, they
became popular and their "followers" started idolizing them
and putting them in competition with one another, making
claims such as, "Buddha is the Lord; he is the savior," or
"Jesus is the Lord; he is the savior," or "Muhammad is the
greatest; he is the savior."
Further, leaders and religious scholars started to abuse the
pioneer's names in order to make money and gain authority
and power over people. The Crusades, the Inquisition, papal
indulgences are just a few words from that rich "holy"
history!
Today, there are more than half a million clergy members of
all faiths in the United States. All of them make money from
their religious preaching or service. The U.S. Department of
Labor estimates a $38,000 average annual income for
Protestant ministers, in contrast to the fact that neither
Moses nor Jesus, neither Buddha nor Muhammad asked for or
made money for their teachings. Indeed, in the USA alone,
hundreds of thousands of clergy members make quite a bit of
money from preaching doctrines that has been falsely
attributed to Jesus.
Though we directed our challenging questions to clergy
members, our real audiences are the sincere followers. We do
not expect the clergymen to evaluate these questions, or the
Pope to answer them. Very few people can accept the truth at
the expense of losing their jobs and followers. If you are
making money from Christianity; if you are a respected
member of a religious corporation, you have many reasons to
defend falsehood.
P.S. If you have religious friends and relatives, I suggest
you to read the chapter titled "Arrow Test" on page 93,
before reading the questions.
Moslem Questions on Christianity Edip Yuksel P.O. Box 43476, Tucson, AZ 85733-3476 U.S.A. Tel/Fax: (520) 323-7636
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