A FEW CHRISTIAN MISPERCEPTIONS

The Rapture
Out of all who were ever born, only 144,000 will be ‘raptured.’ And they’ll be chosen from the Tribes of Israel. On any given day over 2,000 people go missing in the U.S. alone. Sometimes no one notices for weeks. There are approximately 7 billion people alive today; 144,000 would be about 2%. But that doesn’t even take into acccount all the people who have ever lived (estimated to be approximately 110 billion - of which 144,000 would be 1.3%). So much for the world being left ‘empty.’ And if you’re not a Jew, you needn’t bother applying at all. These lucky ones will have never ‘known’ women, so I think we can take it that there aren’t any women in their number. To that guy who has a bumper sticker saying “Caution: Driver Will Be Raptured,” I guess you’re a virgin male Jew. Good to know. It’s entirely possible that the ‘rapture’ has already occurred, and we just missed the whole thing. Who would miss a few virgins?

The Pentacost (Speaking in Tongues)
There are three aspects of The Pentacost that Christian Fundamentalists seem to have overlooked:
1) A flame appeared above the head of each person who spoke in tongues
2) Those who spoke in tongues spoke in other languages, such that everyone who heard them could understand, even if they were from another country. Anyone can talk in gibberish, and the brain seems to like this vacation from having to make sense, for it gives us a reward feeling not unlike those of childhood. Why would God bless you with the ability to be understood by NO ONE?
3) Falling down in a fit was no part of early Christianity. It never happened while Yeshua was around. Even when he brought someone back from the dead, they didn’t swoon or seize.

The Church Is Not Only Not "Holy," It's Not Even Moral.
In fact, you could once (and in some places still can) PURCHASE forgiveness from the church for whatever sin you have committed, are thinking of committing, or are thinking of continuing to commit. This allows the rich to sin without penalty, while those who can’t afford it cannot. This type of bought forgiveness was once called an Indulgence, and is now known as a ‘Papal Blessing.' Either one will reduce the time you must spend in purgatory for your sins. The church taught, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the troubled soul from Purgatory springs!” Pope Leo the Tenth is quoted as saying, “The fable of Christ has been quite profitable to us!”

When the church collects “tithes,” with which to do the ‘work of God,’ how do they end up owning such valuable pieces of property as the “Mona Lisa?” In what way does this help the suffering?

Although doctors legally providing abortions are often murdered by the religious, no religious people have been murdered by abortion doctors. And by the way, how many unwanted/accidental children have the religious taken into their homes to raise as their own (the answer needs to be; all of them)?

The Catholic church also took upon itself to invent the cruelest tortures ever devised, including tying someone to a stake and burning them alive.

Sex scandals involving the church are not a new phenomenon, they’ve been going on for CENTURIES. The church kept slaves (right up until the turn of this century; see Magdalene Houses) and in the Middle Ages even ran brothels on ‘holy’ ground.

Next time: What the Ten Commandments really say.