Talking about faith is made so difficult when you have to explain away the same distracting, overbearing caricatures before any real discussion can even start.
“If you believe in God, how can you believe in modern science/evolution?”
The idea that science and faith can’t coexist is a tired argument pushed by a vocal minority. There is an overwhelming number of Christians out there that love learning about how God’s creation works.
Many branches of modern science were founded by men of deep faith who didn’t feel any conflict between what they saw in their laboratories and what they saw in the Bible.
And asking me to justify my basic intelligence, because I pray every Sunday, grows extremely tiresome.
“You only go to church and follow these rules because you need a psychological crutch to get through life”
Suggesting someone’s whole spiritual framework is just a way to handle life’s difficulties is a massive oversimplification of both faith and what dedication truly entails.
Following Christ isn’t comfortable. Moral purity isn’t a comforting loophole that you can use to escape real life. In fact, it often requires serious self-denial, hard choices and regular service to other people even when it’s wildly inconvenient.
It requires upping your standard when everyone else is sliding down theirs. It requires letting messy humans into your heart and holding yourself accountable to a community.
That kind of daily engagement is anything but relaxing.
“You must be super privileged/ super judgmental of people who don’t live their lives exactly how you do”
Walk into a church these days and you’ll find people from every walk of life, every job, and every background. They live in society’s real world just as much as you do.
Most church-goers know exactly how broken and flawed they are on the inside, and that’s exactly why they go to church in the first place.
Expecting someone to be completely prideful and self righteous because they have conviction about right and wrong is such a huge barrier to having a conversation.
“If God is supposedly so good and powerful, why does He allow bad things to happen to innocent people?”
Yes, the problem of suffering is a huge, real philosophical dilemma that theologians have been trying to grapple with for centuries. However, avoid posing it as some superior “gotcha” question meant to score points.
Christians deal with crappy stuff just like everyone else. We have watched our friends die horrible deaths, gotten cancer diagnoses, gone broke, had our hearts broken, and we have cried ourselves to sleep asking those very same questions.
Making light of something so genuinely painful and human diminishes the real hurt.
“You guys are just obsessed with fundraising and trying to guilt people into giving the church all their money”
I know televangelist scandals are flashy and popular on the news, but most churches are simple, community organizations running on shoe-string budgets.
That’s where tithes and offerings come in, supplying local food banks, keeping addiction recovery centers running, aiding disaster relief, and providing free counseling for those in need.
Christians aren’t pressured into giving; they give because they know their money is going towards very real, concrete good happening right in their community.
To believe that every church is just out to get your money mocks the quiet kindness of everyday wage earners.
“You must hate fun and must be living a completely boring life because of all the rules you have to follow”
Let me list off a few things Christians love: singing, friendships, hobbies, creating art, birthday parties, weddings, chocolate chip cookies, chicken nuggets, Thanksgiving dinners, Disneyland, and much, much more.
Jesus has given Christians permission to enjoy life to the fullest. Actually, many Christians say their faith helps them find deep happiness.
Jesus defines boundaries for a reason: so that we can experience life to its fullest in a way that is healthy and safe. Thinking that complete freedom from any limits is the key to happiness really misses the point of what happiness actually is.
“You only care about other people and helping them because you don’t want to go to hell”
Christianity doesn’t say that good works save you, or earn you favor with God.
You help your neighbor because you care about them, you volunteer at the homeless shelter because you want to serve Christ, and you help your friend in need because it’s the kind thing to do.
To imply that a person who’s quietly spent their life helping others is motivated by anything less than genuine goodness is mean-spirited.
“You worship a book written by ignorant men thousands of years ago. You’re just blindly following it”
This annoys some Christians because it assumes religion is blindly accepted. Many Christians haven’t accepted their faith blindly ever. They’ve spent years reading scripture, learning about history, asking tough questions, and struggling through parts that don’t make sense.
Just because the Bible is a really old book of texts doesn’t mean it’s automatically uninformed or pointless. We still read ancient philosophers, historians, and authors because something isn’t right or wrong because of its age. Christians view the Bible this way too.
Most Christians actually spend their time learning the original languages, and delve deeper into the history and culture of the time to seek truth. To suggest all of those scholars are stupid and ignorant because you view scripture as some silly children’s fairy tale is utterly disgusting.
“I had a Christian friend who was a hypocrite, so Christianity must be a fraud”
It’s incredibly tiresome to be held responsible for every awful, manipulative, or cruel person who has ever associated themselves with Christianity.
You don’t walk into an ER and demand to know why the entire medical field is incompetent just because one doctor was rude. We don’t let one mean barista Starbucks ruin our coffee experience for life, but people who’ve had a negative encounter with religion are forever labeling every believer as “just like them.”
At its heart, Christianity understands that humans are flawed and prone to mistakes. And it simply doesn’t make sense to dismiss a faith based on the failings of its adherents.
“All religions basically teach the same thing anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you call it”
Many Christians find comments like this offensive. Even with the best intentions, Christians might feel like their deeply held beliefs, built on years of study and soul-searching, are being belittled.
Sure, almost all religions promote being kind, telling the truth, and giving to others. However, dig deeper than general virtues and it becomes difficult to say that all religions teach the same thing. Religions differ in how they describe God. They aren’t consistent about what happens after death or even why we need saving. Religious views change on how man can be made right with God.
Christians don’t view their faith as simply a suggestion on how to try to be a good person. It’s about Jesus living, dying, and rising from the dead. Regardless of whether people accept this truth, Christians hold it as the core of their faith.
So when someone says that “all religions teach the same thing,” it can come off as insulting because it ignores the central belief of Christianity.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
