FOR OUR SINS
First, if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth (“King of the Jews”) was the Messiah, or that he awoke from the dead, and that our sins have been forgiven through his sacrifice, you're not really, in any meaningful sense, a Christian. And there are millions of “actual” believers, the countless numbers living today (and many millions more dead) who would insist that you don’t deserve membership into the most important club in the universe (or, naturally, the Kingdom of Heaven either.)
Second, scapegoating is a foundational concept within Christian theology. I mean, it would not be unreasonable to summarize the whole of the Bible to one well-known phrase: “He died for our sins.” So if you’re going to label yourself Christian you must also accept the legitimacy of scapegoating. There's simply no getting around it that I can see. And yet, scapegoating is likely the most unjust, unethical idea to ever masquerade as morality. This seems obvious. In any sane world, guilt and punishment, if they must exist (which is questionable), simply cannot not be transferable.
If you believe in the Christian God, as He is commonly understood, then you must also believe that He knowingly and willingly produced damaged goods, then condemned His creation, for all time, precisely for having been created in this damaged state. If that wasn't bad enough, He demands His creation undo or rewire this state of being, His manufactured corruption, and become well. And then, just to top it off, the believer's inevitable, preconditioned failings are framed as their own fault; and that atonement for this sin was paid in full in the blood of His only child – something believers and nonbelievers will remit in this life and for the remainder of eternity.
Come up with a similar metaphor for the Christian faith that makes any sense at all. Just try it. I can't. This is how I see it: Your mother chose to drink heavily during her pregnancy, knowing fully that if you were born at all you would be guaranteed to have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Upon being born, with FASD, your mother then demanded that, solely because of your FASD, you should receive special additional punishment from her. And that, further, if you cannot overcome your developmental deficits on your own, and do so perfectly, still more extreme punishments will be doled out and for all time.
Genius!
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