With very little prompting, most American Christians will tell you that their God is all‑knowing and all‑powerful, and that He created the universe and everything in it. That would mean when He made the world, He had no limits, no restrictions, no rules to follow, and nobody shaping His decisions. Everything that exists came directly out of His own mind, and is exactly as He wanted it.

Many Christians call anything they were not expecting a test of their free will, or part of God’s plan. But when you slow down and look at what those explanations actually mean, none of it holds together. Giving creatures the freedom to choose, already knowing exactly what they will choose, and then punishing them for choosing it anyway is not free will. And an omniscient god would not need to test anyone’s loyalty — they would already know the outcome before the test even began.

And then there is the world itself. It could have been created without parasites that blind children, tectonic plates that bury cities, or cancers that kill infants. But those things exist, so they must either be part of God’s plan for humans, or He is too weak to prevent them. Most Christians seem to act as if pain and suffering are mistakes in their lives, instead of features of the world that God created. But how can they be a mistake if, according to their own beliefs, they are intentionally built into the world by God?

If this world, with all its hardship and preventable harm, is what an all‑powerful and all‑knowing creator thought is best for us, then here is exactly where our questions should begin. Because when the Christianity we are presented with does not look like what we were promised, we are told not to look too closely at it. Almost no one else is shielded from scrutiny the way American Christians are, and we rarely extend that kind of protection to any other group or institution.

So, if they seem more upset over being asked questions about Christianity than the harm their faith causes, how often do you think they examine their own thoughts and actions?