The Problem of Instruction in Christian Belief

Christianity's fatal flaw lies in its inconsistent communication of divine messages, undermining the notion of an all-knowing God.

### The Problem of Instruction: A Critique of Christianity's Communication Failures
* 🤔 The primary reason for atheism stems from a **lack of sufficient evidence for the existence of a god**, while rejecting Christianity involves numerous **critical issues within the Bible and its interpretations**.
* 📖 Christianity's fatal flaw is the "**problem of instruction**," which questions how an **all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God** would communicate **essential truths** to humanity.
* 💬 In a hypothetical scenario with an omni-god, one would expect **perfect and clear communication** tailored to human understanding, avoiding **ambiguity and confusion**.
* 📝 However, the reality of religious texts, including the Bible, reveals a history of **inconsistencies, errors, and a lack of divine clarity** that contradicts the nature of a **perfect deity**.
* 📜 The Bible's compilation occurred over centuries, with stories passed down through generations and rife with contradictions, such as **missing verses and later additions** that have **muddled its original message**.
* ⚖ Despite claims of divine perfection, the Bible has been used to justify **morally reprehensible practices**, and its teachings have often been **misinterpreted or ignored**, demonstrating a **significant communication failure** on God's part.
* 🌍 Furthermore, the spread of Christianity has often relied on **fear and coercion** rather than clear, accessible communication, leading to **widespread indoctrination without genuine understanding**.
* 📚 Ultimately, the convoluted nature of the Bible and the multitude of interpretations highlight a **fundamental problem with the clarity of God's message**, raising **doubts about the validity of the Christian faith**.

If you were to ask me to give you just one reason why I'm an atheist, I could probably condense it down to a lack of sufficient evidence for the existence of a god or gods. But if you were to ask me why I'm not a Christian, it would be a

lot harder for me to give you just one answer, because the Bible and most Christian interpretations are packed with a plethora of fatal problems. Any one of them is enough to bring the entire house of cards crashing down, but one of them stands above the rest as the most

damning catastrophe for the Christian faith, and you don't need a PhD in history or extensive knowledge about science, religion, or philosophy to see why. And no, it's not the problem of evil or suffering; this is the problem of instruction. Christianity's fatal error

[Music] The god of the Christian faith is often referred to as an omni-god because he's believed by most Christians to be omnipotent, or all-powerful; omniscient, or all-knowing; omnibenevolent, or all-loving;

and omnipresent—he's basically everywhere at once. Some apologists prefer the term 'maximally great god.'  It can be defined as a maximally great being, and in order to be maximally great, a maximally great being would have to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and morally

perfect in every possible world. If you assume that this kind of god exists, then you're left with a major problem: the problem of instruction. To understand this conundrum, we first need to start with a hypothetical, a thought experiment. Forget everything that you know about the Bible for just a moment and pretend

That you're in a hypothetical alternative universe with a different omnigod. If this deity is all-loving, all-knowing, omnipresent, and all-powerful, and is trying to communicate the most important message in the universe to his or her children, how would they

communicate this vital message? And conversely, if this god either didn't exist at all or turned out to be limited in knowledge, love, power, or locality, what would you expect to see instead? In the first scenario with the omni-god, you would expect perfect communication. Any

decent newspaper editor knows that the average person reads at or below the 8th-grade level, and they tailor their paper accordingly so as to be widely accessible and easily understood. They avoid technical jargon and ambiguous words as much as they possibly can, and

they provide clarification and define and explain what they mean when they need to. We should expect that an all-knowing god of the universe, who created the brains of their target audience, would know this, would know our cognitive and linguistic shortcomings, and would craft this critical message

with similar precision. Now, there's a number of reliable ways that this message could be perfectly transmitted. At first, I thought maybe God could place enormous, divinely protected plaques all over the world with very literal, extremely clear instructions on them. These plaques would be indestructible

and tamper-proof, since what good is a divinely inspired message without divine preservation? As society and language change, the messages could update to ensure maximal clarity, keep up with current events, and meet the needs and answer the questions of God's children; sort of like God's message board, or He

I could write a message for all of us to see in the sky, or even on the moon. But then I thought, not everyone's literate, or speaks the same language; some people are blind, etc. But remember, no challenge is too big for an all-powerful and all-loving God.

God would care enough to overcome this challenge. If God is everywhere at once, He could just tell us His message in person and coach us directly. But some people might argue that His presence would overwhelm us, and while I think that's kind of a cop-out, I do

acknowledge the objection. So, what if instead each person received God's message in their own language, hand-tailored for them such that it's perfectly communicated in a way that everyone would understand and reach the same conclusion? A message pre-loaded into everyone's brains; mental firmware,

that we're all born with. It would come straight from God, not through human authors. It would be directed to all mankind from the get-go, not just to a tiny handful of self-proclaimed chosen people. And there would be no internal inconsistencies in the message, no

historical contradictions or scientific inaccuracies. And unlike with a conscience, what we deem as right and wrong wouldn't change from culture to culture, and you wouldn't have psychopaths who lack one altogether. This would be a ubiquitous, accessible, clear, and perfect message, because the

communication of a perfect God should be perfect. But what if the alternative were true? What if there's no God at all, or the god/gods who do exist aren't omni-gods like the God of the Bible? Well, we'd expect to see a very, very different

As a result, we would expect to find wildly different religions popping up all over the world, written by scientifically ignorant ancient authors desperately trying to make sense of their tiny, myopic view of the universe around them. You wouldn't expect to find any supernatural insights about germs,

neurochemistry and mental health, heliocentrism, DNA, any knowledge of other galaxies, or any information not already available to their primitive cultures. At best, you might occasionally get a few lucky guesses here and there. Many, if not most, of these holy books would place

humanity at the center and contain stories about human experiences: violent warlords, superstitions, wild legends, human heroes, and unseen monsters lurking in the dark. Morality would vary from culture to culture, with some even sacrificing animals or even fellow humans to the gods. But strangely,

no gods would step in to correct these gross misconceptions about their bloodlusts or mentor humanity on right and wrong. Is he asleep? No, no, I'm pretty sure he's dead. Instead, cultures would have to progress morally on their own because these holy books

would be chained to the morality of their time, justifying barbaric practices like slavery, witch burning—because yes, they would still believe in witches—homophobia, sexism, genocide, etc. Of the many religions springing up everywhere, some would fizzle out while others might be more relatable and would spread more

rapidly. They may contain more contagious ideas with stronger sticking power. If you haven't realized already, Christianity is described perfectly by the latter scenario, in direct conflict with its insistence on the existence of an omni-god, a claim on which the truth of the Bible is entirely contingent. But

It gets even worse for Christianity. For those who don't know the history of the Bible, it was concocted millennia before the printing press, video cameras, or the internet; in a small, rural, mostly illiterate backwater by otherwise insignificant goat herders searching for

spiritual significance. Its contents were compiled and molded over time like a patchwork of stories, with centuries between the events described and when they were actually written down—a multi-generational game of telephone. Centuries more passed before they were finally copied onto our oldest surviving

manuscripts. None of our original documents have been divinely preserved. For example, the story of the Exodus, if it did occur, would have happened sometime between the 15th and 13th century BCE, but most scholars don't think it was actually compiled into its

current written form until centuries later, sometime between the late 6th and 4th centuries BCE. And our oldest surviving, albeit fragmentary, manuscript of the Exodus dates to no earlier than 250 BCE—about a thousand years after the events described. And it's even worse for

the older stories in the Bible contained in, say, the Book of Genesis, like Sodom and Gomorrah, or the flood and creation myths. And even the various later manuscripts that have survived are riddled with copying errors, mistakes, and changes between them. Passages have been

added and removed. For example, Matthew 18 jumps straight from verse 10 to verse 12. That's weird. And just one chapter earlier, Matthew 17 skips from verse 20 to verse 22. These missing verses weren't in our earliest manuscripts, but

were added later and were considered part of the Bible for centuries before we discovered these older manuscripts and edited these verses back out. The same is true for the ending of the Lord's Prayer, although some translations like the King James Version still leave this later edition in, while others don't.

By contrast, Matthew 12:47 also isn't in our earliest New Testament manuscripts and was added later, but unlike these other examples, this one was never removed. The same is true for the story of the woman caught in adultery. These are just a few of the many known

examples of how the Bible has changed over time, and we'll never know the exact number of edits that have occurred since we don't, and probably never will, have any of the original texts. The Bible is riddled with scientific inaccuracies, internal contradictions, and mistakes where it deviates from the historical

record. I've done in-depth videos on all of these things, and that's not to mention the addition of all of the horrifically immoral sanctions contained in its pages. Sure, it's easy for apologists to say that these are all misinterpretations of God's intended

message, but doesn't that speak to God's failure as a communicator? Does God not understand the minds of His creation, or the importance of clarity? Or is He not capable of clear communication? Unless He doesn't exist, isn't present, or doesn't care. No matter how you look at it, this

is strong evidence against the God of the Bible. But imagine for a moment that the Bible is true, but all of the verses on, say, slavery in the Bible aren't meant to be taken literally. After all, a benevolent God would never condone something so utterly atrocious, but it's

Written literally, it's taken literally. And for thousands of years, God sits back and watches, arms folded, as millions of people are enslaved, with His words used as the primary justification for it. And He offers not so much as an amendment or a clarifier during this time. It would

take centuries of Old Testament laws before this perfect, inerrant message would finally get an update—a New Testament. But even with the New Testament, after a thousand years of beta testing His laws, when God could have patched the system with some type of a

clarifier about not owning another human being, we would instead get, 'Slaves, obey your masters,' leading to centuries more of religiously sanctioned atrocities. And even if none of that was the case, and this message was completely perfect and had been communicated perfectly, much of the world still doesn't have access to

it. Human translators have painstakingly tried to translate the Bible into every language on Earth, and after thousands of years, their job's still not done. And all the while, linguistic metaphors and figures of speech have inevitably been lost in the process, unintentionally changing the meaning of the text, which

is why, in English alone, there are dozens of different versions of God's inerrant message—a message so nebulous that countless interpretations have emerged from those versions, splintering Christianity into tens of thousands of denominations, with entire wars being

fought over who's reading it correctly. With all the clarity and precision of a Jackson Pollock painting, core doctrines had to be voted on by people interpreting a loose collection of translations of copies of copies of copies, which happened hundreds of years after the stories allegedly took place.

And even after all the books in the Bible were finally finished, for centuries there would be no consensus on which of these books were even canonical and should be included in the Bible, and which shouldn't. Even today, there's still some disagreement over this.

Theologians, pastors, and apologists have dedicated decades of their lives to desperately attempting to somehow salvage this wreck, crafting books, sermons, and lectures filled with mental gymnastics and riddled with logical fallacies. Although one thing that most

of them agree on is that we don't actually know who wrote most of the books of the Bible; they're anonymous. Now you might be wondering, with a communication problem this massive, how has this disaster spread so far and wide? Well, one way is through emotional trauma

and fear; instilling in people the fear of eternal damnation, teaching them that they have a problem before attempting to sell them the cure. It's also been spread at the tip of the sword, forced upon the conquered, on natives and slaves. Generation after generation has

indoctrinated their children, teaching them to believe baseless assertions on faith, teaching them that faith is a virtue. Entire countries have adopted Christianity as part of their culture, making it part of a collective identity, fearing that the alternative was divine wrath here on Earth in

addition to the eternal, torturous hellfire of the hereafter. Fear is an extremely powerful tool, and as for the skeptics who dared to doubt, well, for centuries non-believers have been denigrated from pulpits everywhere, shunned, demonized, ostracized, and

Sometimes, people are even killed for simply being honest enough to point out a few of these glaring problems. To the atheists watching this telecast: if our belief in God offends you, move. There are planes leaving every hour, on the hour, going everywhere on

planet Earth. Get on one; we don't want you, and we won't miss you, I promise you. And the cherry on top of all of this is that the Bible is so long, so convoluted, archaic, and cryptic that most believers have never even read it through cover to

cover. Because if they did, they would see for themselves exactly what I'm talking about. If this idea is new or interesting to you, or you find some value in the videos that I make and the way that I present them, you can support my work with a per-video pledge on patreon.com,

HolyKool-Aid, a monthly pledge on SubscribeStar, or a one-time donation on PayPal. Your support is what allows me to do this full-time, to pay my editor, to cover all my equipment costs, my travel costs, research, and all of the time that

it takes to make these videos. Without you, this wouldn't be possible. Thank you guys so much for your ongoing support of the show, and as always, dare to be curious, but don't drink the Kool-Aid. [Music] [Music]

Christianity's Fatal Error

Holy Koolaid

Lack of Evidence and Problems with Christian Doctrine

The speaker's atheism stems from insufficient evidence for God's existence.

The Bible and Christian interpretations contain numerous fatal flaws.

The central issue discussed is the problem of instruction in Christianity.

The Problem of Instruction: An Omni-God's Communication

The Christian God is often described as omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and omnipresent.

A maximally great being would possess these attributes in all possible worlds.

A thought experiment explores how an omni-god would communicate the most important message.

Perfect communication would be expected from an all-knowing, all-powerful God.

The speaker proposes various methods of perfect communication, considering human limitations.

Contrasting Expected Communication with Reality

In the absence of an omni-god, diverse and flawed religions would emerge.

Religious texts would lack scientific insights and reflect the limitations of their authors.

These texts would focus on human experiences, morality varying across cultures.

Gods wouldn't intervene to correct misconceptions or guide morality.

Christianity aligns with the alternative scenario, contradicting its claim of an omni-god.

Historical and Textual Issues in the Bible

The Bible's creation predates modern technology and involved numerous authors and revisions.

Significant time gaps exist between events and their written record.

The oldest surviving manuscripts are centuries after the events they describe.

Manuscripts contain errors, additions, and omissions.

Examples of missing or added verses in different manuscripts are given.

The Bible contains scientific inaccuracies, contradictions, and moral issues.

Apologists' explanations of these issues point to God's communication failure.

The example of slavery and its religious justification is highlighted.

Even with the New Testament, centuries of religiously sanctioned atrocities continued.

Translation issues and differing interpretations have led to numerous denominations and conflicts.

Fear, violence, and indoctrination have contributed to Christianity's spread.

Cultural integration and fear of divine wrath have reinforced belief.

Skeptics have faced persecution and denigration throughout history.

A provocative statement is made to those offended by the speaker's views.

Many believers haven't read the entire Bible, preventing them from seeing the problems.