John 3:16-18 among the worst bible verses??

John 3:16 is one of the most popular bible verses, often referred to as 'the gospel in a nutshell', but it's arguably one of the worst bible verses, especially if you read forward to John 3:18.

Jesus said that people who believed that he was the son of god could have eternal life in God's kingdom, and those who didn't believe would be condemned by God.

This is a strange requirement. It simply is not reasonable for God to expect anyone to believe that Jesus is God's son.

There is absolutely nothing morally wrong with not believing. No good, all powerful god would condemn people because of it.

God gave people free will and the ability to think critically. He wouldn't punish people for exercising those abilities wisely and in good faith. Thinking intelligently - exercising logic and reason, is not a sin. God would not punish people or even fail to 'reward' them for it.

Believing that Jesus is the son of God is literally impossible for many people who are being honest and principled and engaging in critical thinking. Someone can't just lie and say they believe in something. If God is all knowing, they wouldn't be fooled. God would not condemn people for failure to do something that is impossible for them to do.

The requirement that people need to believe that Jesus is the son of God should be enough to destroy any credibility that Christianity has as a religion inspired by God. Christianity is most certainly 100% man-made.

At the time that Jesus is purported to have lived, people were scattered all over the world. However, according to Christianity, God and Jesus only revealed themselves to a relatively small number of people, and these supposed interactions were only documented by people [not by God or Jesus] decades after the events they describe were to have taken place - they were not first hand accounts. The initial written accounts were imperfectly translated into different languages multiple times by different groups of people over the centuries, resulting in multiple versions of the bible.

If Jesus truly wanted people to believe in him or follow his teachings, he would have revealed himself to everyone. He would have had his teachings written down while he was alive. The son of god should have been able to manage this. A wise, all powerful God should have been able to manage what people were capable of at that time.

Even people who lived at the time of Jesus, who followed him around, listened to his teachings, and witnessed miracles shouldn't be blamed for not believing that Jesus was the son of God.

People in other parts of the world certainly had no reason to believe he even existed.

People living over 2,000 years later absolutely have no reason to believe in him. It shouldn't matter if they were introduced to his teachings in a good-faith, positive manner.

Many christians suggest that once someone comes in contact with Jesus's message, they should believe in him as the son of god. This is not a reasonable expectation.

Being exposed to the supposed works of Jesus isn't reason to believe. Jesus wasn't the first good person, he wasn't the last good person, and he isn't the greatest person of all time. There have been plenty of other good people apart from Jesus, and they didn’t expect people to believe that they were the son of God simply because they did good things. When someone threatens condemnation by God for not believing in them, they are disqualified from being considered to be a good person (or god).

Reading his teachings in the bible isn't enough either. There are plenty of written works that directly or indirectly discuss human principles and morality that are as good or better than Jesus's teachings. The bible is a poorly written, difficult to understand, contradictory book with many immoral teachings that has been used as a basis to control and harm people. The fact that most of Jesus's teachings are in the bible doesn't help with credibility.

According to Jesus, the kindest, most loving, caring, selfless, intelligent people that humanity has ever known have been condemned by God and may have ended up in hell (according to most Christians). Not because they did anything wrong. Simply because they failed to believe something for which there was no reasonable basis to believe.

Some of the people who were condemned by God included Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, sweet little old grandmothers, etc.

The God and Jesus of Christianity are not anyone I would respect or want to follow. I certainly wouldn't want to spend eternity in their Kingdom. I doubt it would be very heavenly.

Behavior that would widely be considered to be immoral or unprincipled if it were done by a person gets accepted as divine or mysterious if it is done by God or Jesus in the bible. The bible's path to an afterlife as described in John 3:16-18 and similar verses rewards or punishes people based on their thoughts.

It's one thing to have belief in God without proof - there's nothing wrong with that. It's quite another to tie your faith in God to religions and beliefs that are objectively immoral, harmful, or nonsensical.

You can believe in a higher power without following a corrupt religion.

Setting belief or non-belief aside, the bible's own description of Jesus and God is objectively pretty bad. It portrays them as immoral, unprincipled, unreasonable, incompetent, etc. Many people just look the other way and ignore this or find disingenuous ways to explain it or justify it. If you don't explain it away somehow, then you are left with the options that God and Jesus are not all that great, or they were completely fictional and created by man.

Being fictional is the most likely answer. If there's a supernatural inspiration for Christianity, then the more likely author would be Satan, rather than God. Making false promises, getting people to give him their souls so they can spend eternity in what they think is heaven, but the reality ends up being quite different.

A decent, god-inspired religion would focus on what is important to people - living a principled life, being honest, thinking critically, and caring for each other and the world we live in. It would be a guideline for society to help them ensure everyone had enough food, shelter, medical care, etc.

That's not what Christianity is. Not by a long shot.

Christianity couldn't be content with people simply loving a higher power and leading good lives. People had to worship their God and obey their teachings. Otherwise the Church couldn't be used to control people and profit from them. If the overall Christian message was simply to love God and to try to be a good person, then people wouldn't need Christianity.

To make their religion a success, the creators of Christianity had to introduce aspects that were specific to Christianity. By introducing the story of Jesus as the son of god, requiring belief in him in order to get to heaven, and threatening condemnation by God if people don't - - it compels people to follow the Christian faith and be members of the church. It also creates a false moral mandate to spread Christianity.

Probably the most harmful bible verses are not the ones that overtly support things like violence, bigotry, misogyny, slavery, etc. The most harmful verses are the ones that steer people exclusively towards christianity and the worship of their God and Jesus, and away from freewill, critical thinking, and principled behavior.

Even the most principled, decent, well intentioned Christians will fail to recognize just how immoral and disqualifying John 3:16-18 and similar verses are.

Christianity forces otherwise good people to be complicit in bad actions supposedly which are either done by God or in the name of God.

The world would be better off if people stopped supporting man-made religions and false gods, and instead focused on principled behavior and supporting each other and the world we live in.