According to most religions, God deemed it necessary to provide humanity with a user manual—a set of guidelines for leading a righteous life and understanding that we are here to be tested. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that one of these religions is true and that our existence is indeed a test.
The Problem of Religious Indoctrination
If adherence to this divine manual is indispensable and the consequences of failure are eternal damnation, why does God allow the majority of children to be indoctrinated with beliefs that are obviously not true? Why let children be threatened with hellfire for not following teachings that are fundamentally wrong while, in reality, obeying those teachings will cause want to Hell?
As things are, God must allow, if not encourage, the spread of falsehoods, which would ultimately lead to the eternal punishment of many innocents.
The Issue of Inconsistencies and Doubt
If following the divine manual is so important, why did God include so many inconsistencies and points of doubt within religious teachings? For instance, if Islam is the true religion, why would God first tell His subjects that His word is susceptible to human alteration and, in fact, it did happen multiple times before but not have Muhammad inscribe the Quran on endurable tablets, ensuring its integrity and providing absolute confidence that it has remained unchanged, unlike the previous ones?
Instead, the Quran was compiled from memory long after Muhammad’s death. We are expected to believe in its unaltered state simply because the Quran itself claims so. If it had been altered, it is unlikely that this alteration would be acknowledged within its own text.
The Question of Christian Foundations
If Christianity is the true religion, why did Jesus not leave behind a clear and unequivocal user manual? Instead, we are expected to place our trust in Paul, who never met Jesus in person yet made significant changes to Christianity. These changes were so profound that Christianity could no longer be considered a sect of Judaism, which is how Jesus originally presented it. Why expect the subjects to rely on the interpretations and teachings of someone who did not directly know Jesus but had the authority to make changes in his teachings?
The Problem of Identifying the True Religion
If sending this divine user manual was so crucial, why does God not help people clearly identify the true religion? Despite claims of signs and miracles, religions primarily grow through reproduction rather than conversion, indicating that God deliberately used signs that did not work.
The Takeaway
Given these points, it appears that God, as depicted by many religions, must want the majority of people to fail the test and burn in Hell eternally but have a clear conscience, saying to Himself that He had sent the user manual that the subjects should have followed.
Despite the presence of a divine manual, the inconsistencies, indoctrination, and ambiguity suggest that these manuals are not divinely inspired, which does not necessarily prove the non-existence of God but strongly indicates that there is no rational reason to believe that any of the gods introduced by any religion is the true one.
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