2004-02-28 - 6:03 p.m.

Here is a small list of questions about the religion(s) that I have never got a satisfactory answer to. If you believe you have answer(s), feel free to add them to the comments sections.

1) Why did the god of the christians have jews as their chosen people?

2) Why is god male (in all major religions that give a sexual attribute to a god)?

3) Can you explain the original sin for me? Why is everybody "guilty" for the fact that they exist?

4) Can you explain why jesus died because of anybody who lives thousands of years AFTER he is dead?

5) Which parts of the bible have been taken away during the history, and which have been added or modified? I know the parts regarding rebirth and incarnation have been removed 300 AD by a roman emperor and his mother, in order to keep the romans faithful to their emperor.

6) How can you trust a book that has been translated and translated and translated during the history?

7) The word meaning "virgin" in connection to Mary could have been translated instead of the stirct meaning of "virgin" as well to "young woman", "bride", "girlfriend" etc. If the translation would have been for instance "bride", how different would the western culture be? Why is there attached such mystic power to the fact that she had supposedly not have a sexual relationship prior to the birth of jesus?

8) If original sin = sex, and virginity of Mary was a prerequisite for the divinity of jesus, can we say that the children born with artificial semination or any techniques that do not require sex, are born sin-free and have more pre-requisites for divinity and liberation than the "common people"? I assume if there is such a re-birth of jesus, it can happen again only in a jew family and with such requirements.

9) Can you explain to me what was before we were born, and after we die according to the religion(s)? Bible gives no satisfactory answers. And the priests etc neither.

10) If bible and all priests always talk about the "eternal life", why are all the christians I know so depressed when anyone dies? If they have an eternity in front of them, why do they have to be so sad of anyone going to that eternity?

11) Instead of satan or demons, could possibly some part of human suffering be caused by such things as selfishness, greediness, desires, ignorance, egoism etc?

12) Could you explain me the origin of god, AND of devil or however you want to call it negative power? "Eternal" is not a satisfactory answer.

13) What is your impression of Harmageddon? It is the only part of bible I have read voluntarily and as adult, and to me it looked frankly like it was written under substances.

14) If the god of christianity, jewish and islam is the same (Islam having also many christian and jewish prophets the same), why is the western history so full of wars because of religion? Can you explain to me especially why a war can occur between protestants and catholics? If the god is the same, how is it possible?

15) What did jesus do between his childhood and the time he satarted to act, that is roughly when he was 30 years old? How can his life be so erased in bible? Did he work? Did he stay in his home city or country, or did he perhaps travel to far east to study religion etc? Did he know about other religions such as hinduism or buddhism, and if so, what was his opinion after them? Was he married, and did he have any kids? I have heard stories he was married and had kids - why is there nothing about them? What happened to his kids?

16) If god has teen hundreds of billions of people .. how could he choose ONE? And to choose one, why did he want to make him suffer? Why was his chosen one a jew, and male?

17) If jesus had no need for any gods, how far would he have got? Would he have reached even a deeper illumination?

18) Why do you think that the majority of the religions before jewism (ie. about 10-6,000 years ago) had their gods and deities attributed female rather than male charachteristics to?

19) If the god "creates" or "preserves" life, why does it have male attributes? How can a male deity "create" life?

20) Why is the fact that martin luther was very anti-semitistic a fact that the lutheran church is very quiet about? He used the bible to proove that the jews were "wrong" and that he was right. Do you think such thing would make that part(s) of christianity seem a bit less respectable?

21) Luther was supposed to clean the bad aspects of catholic hurch. Look on what he was supposed to be correcting, and then look at the actual lutheran church itself. Can you say what it is now, is any better than when he started his work/protests?

22) Jesus was probably born in august, and under the star sign of leo. When the actual christmas is celebrated, the romans and the nordic populations (above rome) used to celebrate "yule". In the north the darkest days of the year seem quite meaningful to celebrate (passing them), even without religion. It was again one of the roman emperors that decided to re-attribute the meaning to the existing celebration. So the romans could keep celebrating their yule, and the new generations of people would celebrate it still, but call it different. Do you know anything about the original meaning of yule, before it was re-attributed and attached the new christian meanings?

23) If there was such a thing as a human-god (ie. jesus, muhammed etc) why did they need a woman to become to this world? Wouldn't it have showed a lot more skill of the god if he created this god of his himself, without having to use a human female for this purpose?

24) Why, according to your religion do you exist?

25) According to you, is that explanation satisfactory? Why do you think we exist?

26) Why do some people live more than once, and aim on not being born ever again, and some live only once and gain an "eternal life" after this one? So does a hindu need to be reborn always as a hindu, or if he is born once in a christian family, do you think he goes to this eternal life after, or does he still want to liberate himself?

27) Name any three or more questions you have ever wondered, and that your religion does not answer you. Whether it is if harmageddon is meant litterally, jesus having any syblings, the relation of your gods and the gods of other religions etc, if you fail to have at least three unanswered questions, I don't think you have thought enough.

28) Name some religions that appeal to you, excluding the one(s) that you were taught as the ultimate truth during your childhood. List also the religions that make no sense to you. What do these (that you like, or that you don't like) in common? If you chose another for yourself, what would it be?

29) What would you rearrange in the current church or belief system you belong to?

30) I rather have people who try to get enlightened themselves, and not having a church or other intermediate institution telling them what is right or wrong, that is I would remove this intermediate institution. Can you explain in the world of today, what is the purpose of the institution tellign people what is right and wrong, when most people can read and write and think themselves? And instead of people giving a fixed percentage of their income to their chosen church, wouldn't it be better to the people themselves to think about their important questions about their live themselves, and to do something good to other people personally rather than never having anything to do (ie. when the 'good' is taken by law away of their salary, it lacks the energy of being a chosen action towards the co-living people)?

31) What do you think is the "free will"?

32) What do you think is the purpose of suffering?