As the story goes, God looked down upon his human subjects and was distressed and angered by their sinful ways. As punishment for disobeying his word, God shuttered the gates of Heaven. That meant that no matter how good or virtuous a person lived, when they died they would be barred from entering Heaven. Instead, they would spend the afterlife in a place called Limbo. The evil would still be condemned to Hell, but the good would be denied entrance into Heaven. That hardly seems fair.
At some point God took pity on us poor, weak humans. He decided to send his son, Jesus, down to earth to die for our sins, thus allowing the gates of Heaven to reopen.
It is an interesting story and the cornerstone of Christianity. But let us examine it in greater detail, using our intellectual gifts of reason and logic. This story, like so many bible stories, is rife with implausibility and illogical behavior.
The first implausible aspect is the idea that God would close the gates of Heaven to bar entrance to new souls. Why would He punish the good, the innocent, those who obeyed His commandments? He was upset with the sinful humans, yet all humans were not sinful, so why would He punish the virtuous? What sense does that make?
The second implausibility is the idea of God sending His only begotten son to die for our sins so that Heaven could once again be open. This concept is completely devoid of logic. How does condemning His son to death atone for the sins of humanity? It would be the moral equivalent of having a next door neighbor who is a serial killer. But instead of punishing your neighbor for his crimes, you turn your son over to the authorities so that he will be punished for your neighbor's crimes. Make sense? Of course not, yet that is what the bible would have us believe God did.It is, in fact, a moral abomination.
The third implausibility deals with Jesus and Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples.Since biblical times, one of the worst things a person could be called is a "Judas," a term for someone who betrays a friend. Why Judas? Because the bible tells us Roman authorities were searching for this itinerant preacher named Jesus, and were offering a reward of gold coins for his capture. Judas, being one of his 12 apostles, knew exactly where he was, and informed the Romans in order to obtain the reward. For this act of betrayal, the name of Judas has been vilified for the past 2000 years. But does Judas deserve his shameful reputation?
I would argue that it is totally unjustified. Remember the whole point of Jesus coming down to earth was to die for our sins so that humans could be forgiven,.What Judas did was to set the wheels in motion. For this he should have been lauded throughout history for helping facilitate the reopening of Heaven. I would suggest that Judas was actually a hero.
Like most bible stories, when the spotlight of logic and reason are shone upon them, they are revealed to be totally devoid of reason, logic and plausibility. And for good reason. These ancient stories were created by ancient minds that lacked our knowledge of science and nature. These writers were part of a culture steeped in superstition and myth as a way of explaining the world around them. The real mystery is why these mystical tales are still regarding as unassailable truths in the 20th century.
