The story of Jesus Christ is immoral and unjust in its core.

"Welcome to a (debate) of faith based humor, and Christian conversation. "~Bill Maher :-P First off, let's define the 2 key terms. Immoral: Violating moral principles; not conforming to the patterns of conduct usually accepted or established as consistent with principles of personal and social ethics. Unjust: Not based on or behaving according to what is right and fair. Now, in order for us to debate the morality of the Jesus story, one must first understand the purpose for his presence. Why did Jesus walk the earth? According to the bible, (Matthew 1:21-23) "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins. " And according to Luke (Luke 1:78-79) "Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; {79} To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace. " I can go on and on with the redundancy but it's fairly obvious. For those who believe, God sent Jesus Christ of Nazareth to forgive the sins of the people, show them that it could be done to live life pure, and be the light to which one must follow to get to heaven. It is precisely on these three issues that I find my stance of immorality and unjust practices. Contention 1: The omnipotent and omnibenevolent God was Immoral for burdening a man with such a task. The bible makes it very clear that God is Love & God is powerful. In fact it states, (John 4:8 NIV) "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. " And (Luke 1:37) "For nothing is impossible with God. " Problem is, this story is everything but. God sent a mortal to the earth, 'his son,' in order to lead his people to a more prosperous life, a life in heaven. By way of blood loss resulting in hypovolemic shock, sepsis, dehydration, and asphyxiation while nailed to a cross. All of this after being beaten, mocked, spat on, and flogged. I raise the question: Is it immoral for a being who loves his creations, and can literally do anything, to allow for something like this to happen? Of course it is. When you can snap your fingers or clap your hands and create the sun, it is very plausible for you to make a route where your creations can make it to heaven without such cruelty. Thus resulting in the story of Jesus being an immoral one. But how is it unjust? Contention 2: The story of Jesus violates the principles of forgiveness, unjustly. I can accept your jail time for you, but I couldn't rid you of your natural guilt. I also could say sorry for you to someone else, but they wouldn't feel like you were. Vicarious redemption through sacrifice is unjust, because it attempts to takes away personal responsibility. There is no sense of accomplishment and betterment is to be reached from a 3rd party forgiving you for something you've done to someone else. This is the reason for personal apology, and the principle behind forgiveness. The intent of an apology is not just to console the speaker-- it's two-fold. Apologies are for the person you've wronged as much (if not more) than for your own conscience. Jesus, however, taught that the true forgiveness does not resonate among the people in the altercation, but between the wrong doer and himself/God. The principle behind forgiveness is that it deals with both parties, not an involved person and an outside person. Vicarious redemption is unjust. It rids us of our personal responsibility to deal with real life scenarios, especially when the altercation is between a Christian and a non-Christian. Now, they can, of course, apologize. I'll even grant that they are told not to violate the personal freedoms of others to begin, but that doesn't eliminate vicarious redemption if/when they do. Christians are taught that they don't have to, God will handle it, Jesus will rid you of your sins. Taking away the charitable language, it's scapegoating. Pile all of the sins of your tribe on a goat, drive the goat into the desert to die of dehydration and starvation and you feel you've washed away the sins of the tribe. An abolition of personal responsibility. Contention 3: It's an unfair standard. Unjust, not based on or behaving according to what is right and fair. Jesus, a man sent to lead a perfect lifestyle and sacrifice to a grueling end to set the standard on how life should be lived. There is a reason no one sets their goals for the one mile at 60 seconds. There is a reason no one is determined to walk around holding 10,000 lbs in their arms. And there is a reason that no one is determined to flap their arms until they fly across the room. It's an impossible and unfair standard to hold someone to, and it isn't right to expect it accomplished. If someone told you to try it every day of your life, ridiculing you when you couldn't achieve it, it would be considered immoral and unjust― exactly for the same reason the Jesus standard should be. To make something sick and order it to be well an unjust solution to an unfair problem. An immoral, unjust impossible standard sent to earth by the impossible, immoral, unjust author of sin―God. A debate inspired by the words of Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins.