As an Anti-theist (technically I'm an Ignostic, but I can scarily imagine a deity - as the term is commonly understood - or religious faith that I would not be strongly opposed to people believing) it is very easy to pick on the Old Testament when dealing with Christianity. Even many Christians deny the Old Testament, choosing instead to claim that "Jesus changed all that". Frankly, as Yhwh is the supreme being in both testaments, I doubt that a Christian could reasonably deny the Old Testament without committing blasphemy.
That said, for this Sunday Sermon, I will set aside my objections to the rejection of the Old Testament, and assume that Jesus really did change many of the Old Testament teachings. Instead I will focus solely on the New Testament. What's more - to sidestep some Christians' objections to the writings of Paul - I will focus solely on the words of Jesus, as reported in the Gospels.
Consider then, the following three passages:
"Then Jesus told them, 'I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more... You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” ~ Matthew 21:21-22
“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." ~ Mark 11:23-24
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works... You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!" ~ John 14:12-14
Based on these passages, we can see that there is consensus among three of the gospels that Jesus specifically promised his followers that they would be able to miracles that surpassed those that he did, and that they would receive anything that they asked for in prayer.
Bearing these passages in mind, consider the following statistics:
There are approximately 2.18 Billion Christians worldwide.
Meanwhile:
Over 33 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS
Another 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981
It is estimated that over 1.6 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2014.
Over 585,000 people will die of cancer in 2014.
5.2 million people have Alzheimer's in 2014.
500,000 people will die of Alzheimer's in 2014.
Obviously, the list goes on and on, and this is by no means meant to be comprehensive. That said, the fact remains that on any given day there are millions upon millions of people suffering from physical and mental illness in this world.
Based on the above passages and the above statistics, we can determine at least one (and possibly all) of the following conclusions to be true:
1) Christians are incredibly cruel and inhumane people.
If Christianity is true and the Bible is the infallible word of an infallible deity, it follows that Christians have the power to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and even raise the dead with nothing more than a touch, or a few words. What's more, their miracles should outshine those of Jesus himself! Because these illnesses do exist, it therefore follows that - while Christians have the ability to heal all people - they elect not to. When presented with the option to relieve an unfathomable amount of human suffering, what other conclusion could be reached from their refusal to do so, other than that Christians are beyond measure in wanton malice?
2) Someone is lying.
The most obvious person to be lying is Jesus, since he's recorded in three (and arguably all four) of the gospels promising miraculous powers and answered prayers to his followers. Since Christians apparently do not have these powers (or they attribute the most blatantly minor stokes of good luck to divine providence), it stands to reason that Jesus lied about his divinity, his miraculous power, and/or the miraculous power of his followers.
The somewhat less obvious (though equally plausible) option is that the gospel authors were all lying. It may initially seem implausible that three (and possibly four) independent authors would've all come up with the same lie; however, this seeming implausibility is easily overcome when we consider what is known as the "Synoptic problem". In brief, of the roughly 11,000 words found in Mark's gospel (the first gospel to have been written), 97% of the gospel - entire paragraphs and stories - is copied, almost word for word in Matthew's gospel, and 88% is copied in Luke's gospel. This copied material makes up roughly half of Matthew and Luke's gospels. Conversely those areas in which Matthew and Luke are most different from each other are those are those episodes that were not present in Mark's gospel (i.e. everything that happened prior to Jesus' baptism, and after his tomb was found empty) and therefore could not have been copied from Mark. This indicates that we are not dealing with three independent sources, but one source (Mark) and two other sources (Matthew and Luke) who read Mark and set out to improve his story.
Similarly, John's gospel (which was the last gospel to be written, some 25 to 45 years after Mark's gospel, and some 60-80 years after the events of the gospel supposedly took place) is radically at odds with Mark's gospel as well as Matthew and Luke's revisions and expansions of Mark. While it clearly borrows some material from the other three gospels, it also omits well-known episodes that all three synoptic gospels share, inserts previously unknown stories that the previous authors apparently had never heard of, among other things. Bearing all of this in mind, it is plausible (and in fact even likely) that the gospel authors lied (or plagiarized the lies of others), at least about the above passages and possibly about Jesus' very existence.
Obviously, if Jesus and/or the gospel authors lied and Christians do not have the ability to relieve the suffering of others through miracles, then they cannot be held morally accountable for their failure to do so. However, if Jesus and/or the gospel authors lied then the entire foundation of the Christian faith crumbles very quickly.
3) Christians are "closet-atheists"
To avoid this conundrum of having to admit either to being an evil person, or to following a false god, many Christians will typically respond "Do not put god to the test!" (quoting both Deuteronomy 6:16 and Matthew 4:7). This is a somewhat clever response, but it doesn't hold up under scrutiny. "Testing" god implies that one does not have faith in Yhwh, and is doing something to prove Yhwh's existence and/or trustworthiness. However, all three of the above passages include belief or faith as a prerequisite. Therefore - according to the Bible - if a Christian is doing something because they have faith that Yhwh will do it (and not to prove to themselves that Yhwh will do it) they are not testing Yhwh at all! As such a Christian's objection that they should not "put go to the test" only stands up if said Christian admits to having no faith in Yhwh or Jesus. Further, if a Christian admits that they have no faith in Yhwh or Jesus, one can only ask them why they don't simply admit to being Atheists.
To recap briefly, Jesus promised his followers miraculous powers that would surpass anything that he did on the Earth. Despite the prevalence of Christianity in the world, hundreds of millions of people across the world currently suffer from physical and/or mental illness. This can only be reconciled if these Christians are 1) the most cruel and inhumane people on the face of the Earth, and/or 2) following a false religion and a false god, and/or 3) closet-atheists who simply aren't willing to admit their lack of faith to themselves or others.
There is no other way to reconcile the widespread illness in the world today, with the promises of the power of healing and other miraculous works.
This has been your Sunday Sermon, go without god.
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