This post is part of our ongoing series examining The Problem of God by Mark Clark. Each installment applies The God Question’s core philosophy: we begin not with belief, but with curiosity. We pursue clarity over certainty. And we never grant authority to claims that are unproven, incoherent, or morally compromised—no matter how loudly they are repeated. If a religion is true, it should welcome questions. If it is not, questions are the way out.
“The Bible Isn’t About You” — And That’s the Problem
Mark Clark closes Chapter 3 of The Problem of God with an emotionally charged appeal: the Bible may seem like a burden, he argues, only because people mistakenly believe it’s about them. The liberating truth, he insists, is that the Bible is not about you—“it’s about what Jesus has done.” His version of Christianity is one in which humans are completely incapable of doing good on their own, utterly unworthy of saving, and only redeemed when God chooses to act in spite of them.
This is not a message of liberation. It’s a message of psychological abuse wrapped in theological language.
Let’s examine what Clark claims—and why it falls apart under the light of reason.
1. A Gospel of Inherited Guilt
At the heart of Clark’s argument is this:
“Everybody fails at these things. That’s why you needed someone to succeed for you, and I am that someone.” (Jesus, paraphrased)
This idea—rooted in what theologians call penal substitution—is that Jesus died not to inspire us, or to awaken love or compassion, but to be punished in our place because we are incapable of moral success. Clark echoes this when he writes:
“You and I are not brave like Moses or David or Samson—so God had to be brave for us.”
Notice the subtle cruelty here: the assumption that you are fundamentally defective, that you deserve punishment, and that the only path to being “loved and saved” is by accepting that someone else had to be tortured and killed because of your failures.
This is not justice. It’s not love. It’s a doctrine of inherited guilt—one that strips you of agency, dignity, and worth apart from obedience to an ancient blood narrative.
2. The Disempowering Psychology of ‘Not About You’
Clark writes:
“The point is that the Bible isn’t about you. It’s not about what we can do so God will love and save us. It’s about what Jesus has done.”
To a weary believer, this may sound comforting. But let’s be honest: the same Bible that supposedly isn’t about you also commands you to obey, believe, submit, suffer, evangelize, tithe, forgive your abuser, and deny your own reasoning whenever it conflicts with divine decree. You are told the Bible isn’t about you—yet if you fail to accept its story, you are the one who will burn.
This isn’t humility. It’s gaslighting.
It says: You don’t matter. Your conscience doesn’t matter. Your questions don’t matter.
Only God’s script does.
3. A Story That Demands You Be the Villain
Clark tells a dramatic conversion story: as a young man smoking outside his school, he read the Bible, encountered Jesus, and was transformed. He credits “the Word behind the word” for saving him—not church or people, but the Bible itself. It’s powerful testimony—but notice how it depends on the same narrative spine:
- You are broken.
- You deserve punishment.
- You are incapable of saving yourself.
- So trust Jesus to do it for you.
This framing turns all moral and spiritual questions into one binary: submission or rebellion. You’re not invited to evaluate truth claims. You’re told that you are the problem, and that the solution is surrender to a cosmic scapegoat.
Even if it feels emotionally moving, this is still theology by threat.
4. But What If the Bible Is Actually Wrong?
Clark never considers this question. His entire defense assumes that the Bible is not only correct, but divinely inspired. He doesn’t examine the violent commands in the Old Testament, the contradictions in the Gospels, or the ethical incoherence of eternal punishment. Instead, he insists:
“They speak, and if we will listen and heed them and let them take us over, they will transform us, forever.”
This is not curiosity. This is indoctrination.
What if the reason people walk away from Christianity isn’t because they misunderstood the Bible—but because they understood it perfectly well, and found it morally bankrupt?
What if the real act of courage is not submission—but walking away?
The God Question’s Closing Thought
We are not villains in need of a cosmic rescue.
We are thinking, feeling beings capable of goodness, growth, and moral clarity without fear-based religion.
The Bible is about you.
Because it demands your belief.
It threatens your soul.
It claims authority over your life.
You are allowed to ask: What if the story is false?
And when you do…
You may find that the truest liberation isn’t being saved in spite of yourself—
but being free because you finally trusted yourself.
God or Delusion? 