A Brief Guide to Christian Theology for Non-Christians (Especially atheists who argue with Christians)

One of the few benefits of having been a fundamentalist Christian is that I understand Christian theology better than most atheists or believers in other religions. This is important in discussions with religious people because it improves your arguments and helps you to understand a Christian's mindset. I think some atheists feel like Christianity is silly so there isn't any benefit to be derived from understanding it. On one level, that is true. I certainly don't think people should spend time studying fairy tales simply so they can argue with believers in those fairy tales. That does seem a waste of time. However, every atheist probably understands the feeling he gets when a religious person says "If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?". There's so much stupid in that question, you don't know where to begin. Well, if you are going to argue with a Christian, you want to actually argue against what he believes. To that end, here is what they believe.

Before I get into this, it's important to note that what I am about to describe is a generally accepted Christian theology based on the assumption that the Bible is the word of the one true god. There are many people who call themselves Christians who are simply making up their religion as they go. They like some parts of the Bible but not others. Obviously, I can't know what they believe. There are also millions of Christians who don't know all of their own theology. But calling yourself a Christian should mean something, and this is what it means most often. 

Reality According to Christians

A very long time ago, the Hebrew god (Yahweh) created the entire universe in six days. This is important. Some Christians believe these are six literal days. Some believe that "days" were not 24 hours in this context because such a day is only a day on Earth, and we are talking about the whole universe here. It is also believed by some people that evolution can be consistent with the creation story because the mechanism of creation is not very specifically discussed. This seems like a monumental stretch to me (god could easily have told us from the beginning how evolution works), but it satisfies many Christians who are otherwise intelligent people but don't want to  or can't dump their religion. Yahweh also created humans in this time. There were two originally. God put them in a lovely garden. Everything was awesome. God also put a tree in the garden called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. NOTE: It is not just a tree of knowledge alone. God told the humans to eat from every tree (including the tree of life) except from this tree. Christian theologians have never been able to explain why a god who isn't a total asshat would do this, but that is not for lack of trying. Nevertheless, a serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit (it is never specified to be an apple) from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and she does. Then she gives it to Adam to eat, and he does so. They both then know how to be bad, and god kicks them out of his garden and condemns them to a life of misery. He also leaves the garden guarded by angels with flaming swords. You would think this would be rather conspicuous, but nobody in the modern world can find it. NOTE: Many Christians do not believe this story is literally true. However, if you don't, then it is utterly inexplicable that there is so much misery and suffering in this world when it is governed by a nice god. Even with this "original sin" story, the explanation is pretty weak, but at least it's something. 

Now, this is the really important part that many atheists get wrong. People do lots of bad stuff, and god decides to wipe everyone out with a flood. After the flood, he chooses a guy named Abraham to be the progenitor of a people that will re-establish the nice relationship with god. He makes a covenant with Abraham that he will do lots of nice things if Abraham's people (the Hebrews) will follow god. This is where all of the laws come in. The Old Testament law dictates how the Jews show obedience to god. Of course, they screw up all the time, and when they do, God generally sends some prophet who nobody listens to. Then god makes something terrible happen to the Jews, and they suddenly get obedient again. This cycle repeats itself over and over because for whatever reason the Jews never seem to catch on. This is god's justice. You break laws, you get punished. This is where Jesus comes in. It's pretty clear that people are always going to rebel from god, but god can't just say "forget the law" because that would not be just. He also can't wipe everyone out again because God already promised Abraham that he would not to do another massive, genocidal flood. So what to do? God decides to pay the penalty for mankind himself. He becomes a man who does nothing wrong (the only such person in history) and then allows himself to be killed. He rises from the dead and promises to come back soon (oops). It is unclear why this event is not the end of history except that of course, the game would be up if Jesus had said that the world was over and it actually kept going. 

Here's the important thing for people who want to mock Christians. Jesus FULFILLED the law by dying on mankind's behalf. The new law is that people have to believe in Jesus to be saved from death. The old law is no longer necessary. Therefore, mocking Christians for eating shellfish makes no sense. They don't believe that you can't eat shellfish. The Bible, unlike the Quran, is not one, single contemporaneous revelation. It is a history. Slavery used to be legal in the United States. It isn't now. Shellfish used to be forbidden. They aren't anymore. Now, the one thing that nicer Christians get wrong in this vein is the idea that homosexuality is only condemned in the Old Testament, and therefore Christians can be accepting of homosexual behavior. This is not the case. Homosexuals are explicitly named as people who will not go to heaven in the NEW Testament. 

There are many many many legitimate ways to mock Christianity, but telling its adherents not to eat lobster is not one of them. The same goes for comparing Old Testament violence to that advocated in the Quran. Jesus (who is also god, remember) is a total pacifist. He counseled meekness and allowed himself to be executed. That is the standard Christians are called to emulate. They believe that god can fight for himself, and their evangelizing is dedicated to warning people that god will lay the smack down on the unbelievers. Christianity does not hold that Christians themselves should do the smacking down. Yes, the Jews commit an endless stream of butchery under god's direction in the Old Testament, but those are specific situations where god is telling the Jews what to do. It's history. Jesus, who sets the example for all future people, does not allow for violence. There is no license for a Christian to claim that god demands violence in any circumstance. So if you tell Christians that their religion counsels violence, it's a red flag that you don't know what you are talking about. 

Those are the basic points. Of course, if you have any questions, or you think I'm wrong about some point I've made, feel free to comment below.