This argument states: Whatever begins to exist has a cause; the universe began to exist; therefore, the universe has a cause (God). But this argument doesn’t withstand a serious critique.

Where can objective morality come from without God? The first problem is proving that objective morality exists since nothing needs objective morality to explain it. Answering questions of morality, purpose, and meaning then becomes like Dorothy’s ruby slippers—we’ve had the ability to find our versions of these all along.

Is something good because God says so, or does God say so because it’s good? One way, morality is arbitrary and God could’ve made it something else. The other way, God isn’t the source of morality but is simply reporting to us. Neither makes God look good.

Many Christian apologists make historical arguments for Christianity: we have thousands of New Testament manuscripts, there was a small time gap from Jesus’s death to the original gospels, there was a small gap from original to our oldest copies, and so on. But if you find those truly compelling arguments, you should become a Mormon, since Mormonism handily beats Christianity’s record on every point.

This seems like a trivial omission from the Bible, but it illustrates how the Bible provided no new science or technology. Soap is easy to make and, combined with basic principles of hygiene, it would have improved the lives of ancient Israelites. This illustrates how improving lives apparently wasn’t God’s goal.

During the American Civil War, the Southern pastors had the stronger slavery argument. American slavery had indentured servitude (temporary slavery) and slavery for life, and so did slavery in the Bible. God even set the rules.

The Design Argument sees a designer behind the complexity in DNA, but mere complexity doesn’t demand design. Designers follow a small number of guidelines—a design might need to optimize strength, minimize weight, be fast, and so on. One trait you’ll never see in a design is deliberate junk, but you find plenty of that in DNA. The Design Argument fails.

Christianity claims to answer the Big Questions: Why are we here? or What is the purpose of life? or What happens after we die?

Yes, Christianity has answers, but where’s the evidence backing them up? Contrast with Science—it can’t answer everything, but when it does have answers, they’re worth listening to.