The case against the trinity

Proponents of any theory tend to accept even weak evidence as vindication for their theory and dismiss even the strongest of evidence against their theory.

People in general also are more impressed by evidence confirming a theory (positive evidence) as opposed to evidence against a theory. This is a very well known phenomenon.

Nearly all people accept things which are part of their environment, customs and heritage uncritically. People are also caught up in trends and fashions and tend to mindlessly follow the herd, even though the herd may be palpably wrong. There are a great many examples of this. Communism lead to widespread poverty and living in fear of the authorities, yet the majority of its victims were adherents of communism.

When someone is dressed in the garments of an expert, his word is accepted as the gospel truth by the majority of people. From about 2001 to 2007 England was in the grip of an MRSA scare which was a 100% scam. Undercover journalists took swabs from window sills, stairwells and many other places in public hospitals. They got positive results for MRSA from just one "laboratory" - the garden shed, unaccredited laboratory of Dr Chris Malyszewicz PhD, and they ran with it. The word spread that this was the place to go for positive results and soon all specimens were submitted to this "laboratory." The newshounds got what they wanted - positive results. Thousands of reports on this MRSA scam were published in the UK in those years. The PhD held by Chris Malyszewicz was from a non-accredited correspondence course in the USA. He had no qualifications whatsoever in microbiology. He had never published anything in a peer reviewed scientific journal. Some people noticed this early on, but not the newspapers. He was soon Britain's foremost MRSA expert in the newspapers, as is shown by this article in The Guardian. When his specimens were examined by other real laboratories they found MRSA only in single specimens, and MRSA shown by DNA typing to not occur in the UK, but only in Australia from where Chris Malyszewicz also got work - yes, he was world famous by then. The vast majority of the specimens showed no sign of MRSA at all. Some showed bacilli which could even with a 100x magnification of a cheap, child's microscope be distinguished from a staphylococcus. When the newspapers could eventually not hide this anymore - they did ignore all reports of it for as long as they could - they cried foul and held themselves out as the innocent victims of this fiend. The evidence was there from before the first article was published. The trinitarian dogma relies on many such experts and many such gullible spreaders of the word.

As the trinitarian dogma is under the spotlight here, one has to ask, what exactly does this dogma claim? Let's look at just a few of this dogma's claims.

• The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all three fully god
• These three are equal
• Despite the fact that there are three of them and each is fully god, they add up to only one god

This is not all that the trinitarian dogma claims, but these three claims are essential to it. If only one of them can be shown to be false, the whole thing falls.

A unique theory

The trinitarian dogma is unique, as far as I know, in that only in stating its claims, before one has even started to examine the evidence for and against it, it contains a serious irrationality. It claims that 1 god + 1 god + 1 god = 1 god and that 1/3 = 1. Note that they don't claim that Jesus god + Father God + Holy Spirit god = family god, like father Smith + mother Smith + Johnny Smith = family Smith. Or something else like 4 + 4 + 4 = 1 dozen. No, they claim that the entity type right throughout the equation remains the same - god. One doesn't even have to go beyond primary school arithmetic to know that this is nonsense.

Right from the start of this dogma this has been a problem for trintirians. As there is no rational way of getting past this, they invoke magic. They quote Isaiah 55:8,9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says Jehovah. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. That does not say that God endorses pure nonsense. To claim that 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 and 1/3 = 1 is pure nonsense. Ask yourself, what cannot be made acceptable by invoking magic to get past its absurdities? If one has to invoke magic, one is dealing with hocus-pocus. That's what 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 and 1/3 = 1 are.

The above is enough to do away with the trinitarian dogma as a position that makes any sense. Anything more is just burying it deeper.

The evidence

What makes evidence weak or strong? Let's look at strong evidence.

• It is unambiguous, clear and straight to the point
• It is clearly relevant to the position it supports or contradicts

There is not one piece of evidence used in support of the trinity that passes those two tests. You are welcome to send on any you think passes those tests. We'll look at a few of the most commonly used passages and show how they fail the test.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. This is how it is in most English Bibles. Point one, as it's translated it doesn't make any sense unless "the Word" and "God" are one and the same entity. Look at this: in the beginning was A and A was with B and A was B. The only way that is possible is if A and B are two names for one and the same entity. That is one way some see it; Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit just three expressions of one being. That's called modalism and very few trinitarians subscribe to that. But that's the only way it can make sense. And what's more, it doesn't even come straight out and say "Jesus is god."

Point two, as it's translated is not the way it appears in the Greek of John 1:1. Here's a transliteration: In a beginning was the word and the word was with the god and a god was the word. Greek has the definite article, "the," but not the indefinite article "a." To get past it the "a" is assumed whenever "the" is not used. In the translated versions God is a proper noun - a name. In the Greek the word is "theos" and it is a common noun, like the words fish, human, apple and more. Theos can also mean a human of high position, an idol or even the one True God. Having so many meanings it's not a very useful word to determine exact meaning. Preceding theos with the "the" makes it one specific god, the Father. To get away from the fact that the Greek seemed to ascribe godlike qualities to Jesus - in fact, that's how some translations render it - the Colwell rule was invented. Not even all trinitarians say it can consistently be applied. John didn't use it as it didn't exist in his time. There is disagreement over how John 1:1 should be translated.

Taken together, the fact that John 1:1 doesn't make sense as translated, that the Greek seems to say something different, that there is disagreement over how it should be translated and that it doesn't come straight out and say Jesus is god makes it impossible to see John 1:1 as strong evidence in support of the trinity.

[ACV] John 10:30 I and the Father are one. Come on, that's an idiomatic expression. It does not even start to say that Jesus is god, unless you're a modalist. It's not even evidence supporting the trinitarian dogma.

John 8:58 Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I am. There is so much wrong with this verse as strong evidence, I'd better put it in a list.

• It does not come straight out and say that Jesus is god
• It's supposed to map to Exodus 3:14
  • Exodus 3:14 was written in Hebrew
  • John was written in Greek
  • Jesus spoke in Aramaic
  • To say that the translations could only have been to those words to make the mapping 100% sure, is ridiculous
  • The translation of Exodus 3:14 is by no means clear
• The exact Greek word translated here as "I am" is used many times elsewhere in John and the New Testament as well, but only here translated as I am. "I have been" would make more sense. Nowhere else is it seen as a claim to deity.

Acts 5:4 ...Thou have not lied to men, but to God. Lie to my emissary, and you lie to me. That's a valid understanding of the text. It makes sense. It does not unambiguously say the Holy Spirit is God, as it can be legitimately understood in other ways without adding or subtracting anything or changing it in any way. That's not strong evidence. In any case, if the Holy Spirit were God one would have expected something as important as that to have been mentioned more than once and very clearly, at that.

Please note that one can show up the weaknesses of the so-called pro-trinity evidence without changing them in any way. One does not have to add unspoken conditions or leave out or add anything.

The evidence against

Speaking to the Father, Jesus says: John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they should know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou sent. Now that's clear. If there's only one "true God" and that "true God" is the Father, there can't be any others. Jesus didn't qualify this statement. Trinitarians try to. They say it was just when Jesus was here on Earth that the Father was the "only true God." But what about the Holy Spirit, then? That's not what Jesus said. This is very strong evidence against the trinity.

1 Corinthians 8:6 yet to us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. The difference between the quality of this evidence against the trinity and that usually cited as evidence for the trinity, is vast. This is strong evidence.

John 14:28 Ye heard that I said to you, I go, and I come to you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced because I said I go to the Father, because my Father is greater than I. This speaks directly to the much vaunted equality of the members of the trinity. Where's this equality now? Yes, I know, blah, blah, blah. Jesus didn't introduce any conditions for this statement, but the trinitarians do.

Note that this is by far not all evidence in the Bible making rubbish out of the trinitarian dogma. To examine all evidence held as pro-trinity evidence, and that against it, will take a book, not a blog post.

Prophecy

Here I'm going to be a prophet and prophesy that this post won't change the mind of one staunch trinitarian. Isn't it amazing? They believe in the trinity despite the overwhelming strength of the evidence against it. That doesn't say much for the intelligence, or is it intellectual honesty?, of Christians.