"Do you believe in Jesus?"
"Just as much as I believe in Batman."
"Batman? Batman is a comic book character. Jesus was real!"
"How do you know Jesus was real?"
"The bible says so!"
"The comics say Batman was real."
"But comics are written by people."
"So was the bible."
"God wrote the bible!"
"With a pen or a quill?"
"God inspired men to write the words."
"I see. Who inspired Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel?"
"God."
"And who inspired DaVinci to paint The Last Supper?"
"God."
"So man's creativity is inspired by God?"
"Of course!"
"So, God inspired Bob Kane to write the Batman comics?"
"Yes. I guess so."
"So why is Jesus believed to exist but not Batman?"
"Because God told men to write what they'd seen of Jesus."
"But the bible wasn't written until at least a hundred years after Jesus died. There were no witnesses left alive by then. It was hearsay."
"God wrote the bible!"
"You said God inspired men to write the bible."
"Yes! He did!"
"And you said God inspired Bob Kane to write Batman."
"Ye-es..."
"So what's the difference?"
"The difference is that God wrote... had the bible written... to tell people how to live their lives, so they can get to Heaven."
"No."
"No?"
"No. If that's all the bible was for, then it wouldn't have all the explanations of the universe and all those silly stories. It would just be a book of rules.
But it isn't just a book of rules. It is from start to finish, a book whose sole purpose is to rationalise its own rules.
It is a book about propaganda."
"God doesn't need propaganda!"
"God IS the propaganda! The bible is a book of rules meant to control people. God is the means to get people to follow the rules."
"No!"
""In the beginning, God created..."
That phrase right there is the first sentence because it is necessary for the reader to believe that above all else. Without complete belief in that sentence, the rest of the book is up for doubt."
"You make it sound so contrived!"
"Any writer will tell you that the first line must draw the reader into the book. It's called a literary hook and it's been around since cavemen told nightime stories by the light of fires."
"Why do you hate God so much?"
"I don't hate what you call God because there never was such an entity. I hate the propaganda called God because it uses fear to control people and make them do bad things."
"That's just crazy!"
"And one of those bad things is to blind people to reasonable thought about gods and replace it with a vile, disgusting idea called faith."
"I love my faith! Without it I'm nothing!"
"I just wish you could see beyond it."
"I don't need to. No amount of proof could ever shake my faith!"
"And that is exactly the response the bible was written to elicit... blind, unquestioning faith."
"Faith can move mountains!"
"But it doesn't. Faith just stops questions. There are no answers without questions."
"God is the answer to all questions!"
"I rest my case."