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Criticism of Christianity has a long history which stretches back to the initial formation of the religion in the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings as well as Christian actions, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The arguments against Christianity include the suppositions that it is a faith of violence ...
- Christians are hypocrites. A hypocrite is an actor, a person who pretends to be something she isn't. Jesus' harshest words were reserved for hypocrites.
- What about the atrocities Christians have committed? Some blame Christianity for religious wars, the Crusades, burning witches, the Inquisition, slavery, even the Holocaust.
- Christianity is a crutch. Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto, said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." Critics such as Marx have charged that religion is an invention designed for people incapable of coping with life's pressures.
- It's narrow-minded to think Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus claimed he was the only way to God (John 14:6). Such a claim is either totally true or totally false.
- 10Emperor Julian
- 9Guibert of Nogent
- 8Marcus Cornelius Fronto
- 7Sossianus Hierocles
- 6Isaac of Troki
- 5Ibn Hazm
- 4Porphyry
- 3Galen
- 2Mosheh Ben Maimon
- 1Celsus
Like many a Roman emperor, Julian was concerned with keeping the integrity of the Empire together, and one of the ways the officials did that was public ceremonial sacrifices. Though Judaism was granted certain privileges in Roman society, thanks in part to its historical practice, Christianity was not given the same regard. The Christians had a du...
Though not criticizing Christianity as a whole, nor condemning the religion, Guibert of Nogent nevertheless had clear and succinct problems with parts of it. His book On the Relics of Saintsfocused on one topic in particular. A nearby monastery, only 15 kilometers (10 mi) from his home, claimed to have a baby tooth of Jesus Christ. Regarding the cl...
Marcus Cornelius Fronto was Roman orator in the second century and a tutor of Marcus Aurelius. His critique of Christianity illustrates several items typical to the pagan portrayal of the religion. Alleging that Christian ranks are made up of the “dregs of society,” Fronto complained of the secrecy and clandestine nature of their rites. Cannibalism...
An aristocrat and official in eastern Rome, Sossianus Hierocles roundly criticized Christians in a tract known as Lover of Truth, a work he wrote sometime around the beginning of the fourth century. The work was lost to history but was preserved in fragments through the work of the Christian apologist Eusebius. So well-versed in the ideas of the re...
A 16th-century scholar and polemical writer, Isaac of Troki is perhaps most famous for his book titled Hizzuk Emunah (“The Strengthening of Faith“). Written as a response to the conversion of a large number of Lithuanian Jews to Christianity, the book was designed to educate the Jewish community about their own religion, as well as to refute the cl...
Widely regarded as the father of comparative religious studies, Ibn Hazm was an 11th-century Spanish scholar. Among his enormous library of written material, which some say contained as many as 400 works, was a book entitled Kitab Al-Fasl (“The Book of Distinction“). The book examined the varied claims of different religions, often comparing them t...
Maybe the most learned of the ancient critics of Christianity, Porphyry was a student of the great philosopher Plotinus, as well a pretty good one himself. Proof of his intelligence, as well as his stature in the world, was that several generations of Christians felt the need to refute his claims. Emperor Constantine took it one step further and bu...
Born in Pergamum, Asia Minor in A.D. 129, Galen was originally going to have a career in medicine, though his tendency toward religious matters was evident before he went to school. He attributed the specialized functions of the organs of the body to the hand of God. He condemned any religion that required its followers to rely on faith alone. Spea...
Sometimes referred to as the acronym RaMBaM or Maimonides, Mosheh ben Maimon was a Jewish rabbi in the 12th century, as well as a philosopher and astronomer. Strongly regarded as his greatest work, the Mishneh Torah (“Repetition of the Torah”) contains, among its many passage on Jewish law, the assertion that Jesus Christ only imagined Himself as t...
Celsus’s most famous literary work The True Word is now lost. But nearly all we know of it (up to 90 percent of the original) is included in Origen of Alexandria’s Contra Celsum (“Against Celsus”). Highly critical of several specific facts in Christian theology, the philosopher sought to unravel the religion by pulling at the errors he saw. For exa...
Mar 4, 2021 · March 4, 2021. Illustration by Na Kim. It was among the most jarring scenes of the Capitol invasion, on January 6th. As rioters milled about on the Senate floor, a long-haired man in a red ski cap ...
The eighteenth century is sometimes called the “Enlightenment” or the “Age of Reason” and described as a secular era. However, research of the last half century has demonstrated that more vital Christianity flourished within that century than commonly supposed. Nonetheless, the rise of biblical criticism did contribute a secular strand ...
Criticism of Christianity has a long history which stretches back to the initial formation of the religion in the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings as well as Christian actions, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The arguments against Christianity include the suppositions that it is a faith of violence, corruption, superstition, polytheism, homophobia ...
