Hunter Peterson
Prof. Miller
ENG 102
February 17, 2020
Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion
an analysis on the in-depth research of the false assumptions within Christianity
Christianity. The world’s largest religion for hundreds of years with 29.81% (around 2.4 billion individuals) of the worlds population following its beliefs. The story of Jesus, King of the Jews, the son of God, and his life of devotion to God, love for all walks of life, and, most notably, his murder and resurrection as a sign from God that he loves all people is compelling to people of the faith. Confronting Christianity’s author Rebecca McLaughlin dives into not the amazing stories of Jesus and his works while he walked this earth, but rather the questions people have about the faith and most importantly the Christian Bible.
Christianity is a monotheistic religion, however many people in the world believe that it is not. Christianity believes in three representations of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Judaism and Islam alike don’t agree with this. They think that God is too divine to be represented in a human form like Jesus. But, these are still surface questions that are asked of Christianity. McLaughlin dives into the deeper questions including: Doesn’t Christianity crush diversity? Doesn’t religion hinder morality? Does religion cause violence? How can you take the Bible literally? Isn’t christianity homophobic? Throughout her book she discuses these “hard questions”, as she puts it, in great depth both in the literal sense and the theological sense. To the average person these questions might raise answers of vague stature, but too McLaughlin she takes on this challenge and clears away any possible questions that night arise.
When tackling into each chapter she starts with a question, which happens to be the chapter title, and include the questions mentioned before. For example, chapter five is title “Doesn’t Religion Cause Violence”? This chapter had the most impact on my views of all religions not just Christianity. She starts the chapter with a claim by a British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1930) which states,
“ Religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old frieze doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age: but, if so, it will first be necessary to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion” (75).
Her choice of quote to start her answer on if religion causes violence seems to lead you down a path of the unexpected. She then makes a point that “people of every major religion have engaged in horrifically violent acts, often appealing to divine mandates for their violence” (75). So is it really religion that cause violence or people that cause violence? Most notably, she references Hitler’s “Christianity” which wasn’t Christianity at all. Her arguments about Hitler drive home the fact that it is unremarkably humans that cause violence rather than religion. Most religion based violence wasn’t religion based, religion was just an avenue for hate filled people to manipulate people into doing what they believed was the right thing.
Each chapter follows this same pattern of question, related but unsuspected claim, examples, and finally her well planned answer. The chapters flow seamlessly and compliment each other even with conflicting questions. McLaughlin’s most effective writing tool is her compelling sway of her arguments from unanticipated claims all the way back across the playing field to her final more philosophical conclusion. This writing tactic keeps the reader on edge because you never know which way she will side. Overall, McLaughlin has a firm analytical and educated argument for each question she approaches.
However, this book is not for everyone. To those who enjoy learning new things about the world and how people live, this is a great book. If you are not interested in world religions and ford affairs, this probably isn’t the book for you. To read this book I recommend having interest in this topic to get anything out of it.
Creative Minds 