Why do people think that the concept of religion and God is a problem? I understand that many evil examples by apparently religious persons have turned people away.\u00a0Still, I don’t fully understand why they think it’s something that needs to be eliminated.<\/p>\n\t
“He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, but he who is devious in his ways despises Him<\/em>” (Proverbs 14:2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Few people enjoy having their flaws pointed out. They would much rather pretend there are no flaws. If that doesn’t work then these people will attack what is showing their flaws to claim that the messenger is the one actually the one in the wrong.<\/p>\n
The wicked desire to control their own lives. They don’t want anyone or anything telling them what they can or cannot do. “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties<\/em>” (Jude 8). The very idea that there is a standard above them to which they are held accountable gives them nightmares. Thus, any code of belief that holds standards they find unacceptable is ridiculed and removed.<\/p>\n
The wicked believe they are superior but Christianity teaches us to be humble and serve our fellow men. “He who despises his neighbor sins, but happy is he who is gracious to the poor<\/em>” (Proverbs 14:21). Those given over to evil lie to themselves about their own importance. Thus, when they run across people who don’t support their view, everything about them has to be destroyed. The confidence of righteous people in their God and His teachings is a barrier to the wicked’s view of his own greatness. (Proverbs 14:26-27). Their arrogance can’t allow them to ignore the righteous — they have to destroy it so that they can continue to tell themselves they are great. Haman exemplifies this in Esther 3:5-6; 5:11-14.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Why do people think that the concept of religion and God is a problem? I understand that many evil examples by apparently religious persons have turned people away.\u00a0Still, I don’t fully understand why they think it’s something that needs to be eliminated. Answer: “He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, but he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[90,1514,238,987],"class_list":["post-30761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-god","tag-religion","tag-righteousness","tag-wickedness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27298,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-would-someone-not-like-the-esv\/","url_meta":{"origin":30761,"position":0},"title":"Why would someone not like the ESV?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why would someone not like the ESV? What is wrong with the ESV? I saw \"Which Translation Should I Use?\"\u00a0concerning\u00a0I Corinthians 7:15: \"The ESV is the clearest that it is talking about slavery\" I Corinthians 7:15 seems to be talking about marriage to me, not slavery. Answer: \"But if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47748,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/flaws-found-in-moderate-drinking-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":30761,"position":1},"title":"Flaws Found in Moderate Drinking Studies","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: Alice Walton, \"Moderate Drinking May Not Be as Healthy as We Thought,\" Forbes, 2016-03-23 In reviewing past studies that seemed to indicate that moderate drinking had some health benefits, researchers found that former drinkers were being included in the categories of \"abstainers\" or \"occasional drinkers.\" The problem is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-you-call-joseph-smith-a-liar-then-you-are-calling-the-prophets-of-the-bible-liars-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":30761,"position":2},"title":"If you call Joseph Smith a liar, then you are calling the prophets of the Bible liars too","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Sir, I must protest your accusation that Joseph Smith was a liar. You have oversimplified the meaning of those passages of the Book of Mormon and others. Can you not see that during every conversation, the perspective of meaning changes? If you call Joseph Smith a liar, do you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7091,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-you-have-an-article-about-john-hus\/","url_meta":{"origin":30761,"position":3},"title":"Why do you have an article about John Hus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why would the La Vista Church of Christ have an article about John Hus? Answer: Because it gives some history of religious beliefs and practices. In particular, it shows that many of the ideas from the New Testament that we often think died out with Catholicism only to reappear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24866,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-finding-flaws-in-my-denomination-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":30761,"position":4},"title":"I’m finding flaws in my denomination and I don’t know what to do","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. As a fellow believer of the true gospel, I thought I'd ask you for some personal advice. I apologize if this gets a little long. This is a problem I haven't been able to receive any real help with and had to battle by myself for years, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90736,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/design-flaws\/","url_meta":{"origin":30761,"position":5},"title":"Design Flaws?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"The design of our shared tubes for eating and breathing causing people to choke to death on their food proves the designer was an utterly incompetent halfwit.......or we evolved\" [NF]. I would say to NF that this argument is ridiculous! That is like saying that if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}