Christianity has shaped the worldview of its followers for thousands of years. Naturally, the more progressive humans become, the more they start to question the legitimacy of religion and go deeper into its roots to find out the truth. Therefore, it created a lot of arguments used by atheists against Christians. However, the two most used ones are whether the Bible can be trustworthy and legitimate, and if God created humans, why would he punish them all the time.
The Bible holds an essential part of the life of a Christian. It is perceived as the Word of God and referred to as a canon. The question is why so many people would put their beliefs under the authority of a book. Phillips et al. (2008) claim that “all worldviews operate with no provable assumptions” (p. 114). The Bible is a trustworthy source because it was written during the 1500 years and includes stories of the lives of thousands of ancient people. It is a historically accurate book as many events and personalities from the Bible have been confirmed to exist in reality. The substantial historicity of the Bible is also proved by different records from other civilizations, which confirm the truth of biblical accounts.
Another most used argument against Christianity is why God punishes people if it is claimed that He loves them. If God loves humans unconditionally, then why does hell exist? God created people as creatures having a free will to love Him. He wants the best for humans, however, God is love and good, therefore, He hates evil. When God created humans, He wanted us to co-exist in love and peace. However, a human is flawed and unable to reach perfection. Indeed, God loves people as His children, but He is also a just father who tries to teach people a lesson and discipline them, putting them on the right path.
Although the Bible was written for many years by dozens of writers, the main message remains coherent and consistent, which makes the Christian worldview justified and grounded in history. The Bible shows that God always rewards those who are not sinful and believe in Him and punishes those who are disobedient. In other words, if there were no God’s punishment, the world would have been more chaotic and out of control. It’s His way to make us try to be the best version of ourselves.
References
Phillips, W., Brown, W., & Stonestreet, J. (2008). Making sense of your world: A biblical wordlview (2nd ed.). Sheffield Publishing Company.