I am so sick of hearing from theists that god is everywhere and in everything etc. All of those fallacious assertions just prove that your beliefs are as pliable as a fictional novel. You can make the main character be what you want him to be. The thought of a personal deity that cares about your needs and listens to your prayers is absolutely ridiculous. By stating that prayer changes things then you are in essence stating that gods plan is changeable. It is arrogant to believe yourself above all other species on this earth simply because according to your scriptures god chose you above all of creation.
Your god is everywhere because you believe that he is and what you believe is entirely subjective and not evidential. From an objective point of view god does not exist and cannot exist due to the impossibility of one creature or being having so much power and absolute knowledge about everything. People point to the complexity in nature and the so called order of all things but in reality there is lots of chaos in the universe along with the apparent order you claim to see and attribute to god.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Jesus Myth
In this blog post I would like to also explain one of the main reasons for my not only disbelieving in the existence of the biblical god or any gods, but the very existence of Jesus Christ the so called messiah. Simply put, my main reason for not believing in Christ is because there is no archaeological evidence whatsoever of him having ever walked the earth.
Outside of the scriptures the evidence for the existence of Christ what little there is of it is flimsy and unreliable. There were historians that existed around the time of Christ's so called ministry days and his alleged death and resurrection. My question to all the readers of this blog is if Jesus was such a great man and did so many wonders before the eyes of thousands, then why hasn't any secular historian of the day taken any interest to write one iota about him? You would think that for a man whom the bible claims did so many signs and wonders and who was continually thronged by large multitudes someone outside of the scriptures would mention him.
Another aspect of this investigation leads to that of the likeness of Christ. It was only a little over two thousand years ago that he allegedly existed, yet Christian art from his time to now show very different images of Christ indicating that no one knew what he really looked like. Even today we have so many depictions of what people thought he looked like and to me for such a great man who made such an enormous impact on the world that is inconsistent with the beliefs. We have likenesses of Pharaohs of Egypt and great emperors of China who predated Christ by several thousands of years, yet we don't even have a bust or image drawn on a cave wall. I think that the reason that many scholars cannot find the historical Christ is simply because he never existed.
The Jesus of the bible in my view is nothing more than a conglomeration of pre-Christian myths. There are many similarities with the cult of Sol Invictus (sun worship) that was practiced by the Romans at the time and the tale of Christ. And like so many god men before Christ he conveniently ascended up to heaven so that outside of the the oral and written traditions there exists no evidence that he ever was a real person.
Outside of the scriptures the evidence for the existence of Christ what little there is of it is flimsy and unreliable. There were historians that existed around the time of Christ's so called ministry days and his alleged death and resurrection. My question to all the readers of this blog is if Jesus was such a great man and did so many wonders before the eyes of thousands, then why hasn't any secular historian of the day taken any interest to write one iota about him? You would think that for a man whom the bible claims did so many signs and wonders and who was continually thronged by large multitudes someone outside of the scriptures would mention him.
Another aspect of this investigation leads to that of the likeness of Christ. It was only a little over two thousand years ago that he allegedly existed, yet Christian art from his time to now show very different images of Christ indicating that no one knew what he really looked like. Even today we have so many depictions of what people thought he looked like and to me for such a great man who made such an enormous impact on the world that is inconsistent with the beliefs. We have likenesses of Pharaohs of Egypt and great emperors of China who predated Christ by several thousands of years, yet we don't even have a bust or image drawn on a cave wall. I think that the reason that many scholars cannot find the historical Christ is simply because he never existed.
The Jesus of the bible in my view is nothing more than a conglomeration of pre-Christian myths. There are many similarities with the cult of Sol Invictus (sun worship) that was practiced by the Romans at the time and the tale of Christ. And like so many god men before Christ he conveniently ascended up to heaven so that outside of the the oral and written traditions there exists no evidence that he ever was a real person.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Atheist persecution
One of the many things I have a problem with is the persecution of atheists. Although it is not as prominent today as it was in the 1600's it still exists in many subtle and pernicious ways. Atheists at one time were not allowed to testify in a court because of his/her lack of belief in the Christian god. The reasoning being that since he could not swear to tell the truth by god that his testimony was invalid. The Christians like to promote how they have been persecuted and many of their ranks have been and I would not doubt that it still happens today have died as martyrs for their faiths. But what they fail to mention was that as soon as the balance of power shifted in their favor with the acceptance of Christianity by the emperor Constantine they began to do that which they themselves condemned.
Atheists have been called Satanists by the ignorant, immoral, in our country unamerican, and a slew of other names. When people think of atheists the first thing they think of is that we are bad and immoral and incapable of doing good, since they believe that we get our morals from the Christian god. But in reality atheists such as myself are as ordinary as you or anyone else for that matter. The only thing is that we are not bound by religious dogma and beliefs, we prefer to thinkk for ourselves. At one time atheists were referred to as free thinkers and I think that that title itself fits us perfectly.
We don't have creeds or doctrines or dogma to direct our lives, we are guided by logic and reason and our morals are dictated by the norms of the society we live in. We love, laugh, and cry with the rest of humanity. We think of one another as human beings not saints and sinners or saved and condemned. We value the lives we have right now and do not look forward to a future life in some eternal state in the great beyond of which no one has any knowledge that it exists. We don't cry out to imaginary beings that reside in the sky or beyond our plane of existence. Life and reality pose enough challenges to last a lifetime to be wasting this short time on Earth trying to please an invisible man in the sky.
Our ranks continue to grow as people begin to see religion for what it is; the greatest hoax of mankind. Many have been made millionaires in the name of the lord and off of the hard working masses whose hearts and gullibility are bigger then the con men of the cloth. Some have sought alternate religions but many have come to acknowledge that they can continue to live a long and productive life without a god in their lives. The actual name atheist means a=without theist=god we don't need god or gods to direct our lives. We make our own fate and dictate the direction our lives will take with careful planning and logical steps to achieve our goals.
Atheists have been called Satanists by the ignorant, immoral, in our country unamerican, and a slew of other names. When people think of atheists the first thing they think of is that we are bad and immoral and incapable of doing good, since they believe that we get our morals from the Christian god. But in reality atheists such as myself are as ordinary as you or anyone else for that matter. The only thing is that we are not bound by religious dogma and beliefs, we prefer to thinkk for ourselves. At one time atheists were referred to as free thinkers and I think that that title itself fits us perfectly.
We don't have creeds or doctrines or dogma to direct our lives, we are guided by logic and reason and our morals are dictated by the norms of the society we live in. We love, laugh, and cry with the rest of humanity. We think of one another as human beings not saints and sinners or saved and condemned. We value the lives we have right now and do not look forward to a future life in some eternal state in the great beyond of which no one has any knowledge that it exists. We don't cry out to imaginary beings that reside in the sky or beyond our plane of existence. Life and reality pose enough challenges to last a lifetime to be wasting this short time on Earth trying to please an invisible man in the sky.
Our ranks continue to grow as people begin to see religion for what it is; the greatest hoax of mankind. Many have been made millionaires in the name of the lord and off of the hard working masses whose hearts and gullibility are bigger then the con men of the cloth. Some have sought alternate religions but many have come to acknowledge that they can continue to live a long and productive life without a god in their lives. The actual name atheist means a=without theist=god we don't need god or gods to direct our lives. We make our own fate and dictate the direction our lives will take with careful planning and logical steps to achieve our goals.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Myths
I recently borrowed a book from the NY public library on Mythology. I just started the book but I have many books written by atheists scholars regarding the similarities between many ancient mythological stories and that of Jesus Christ. I am of the opinion that Jesus never existed as an actual person but I believe that Christianity and most of its stories are nothing more than plagiarized myths revamped.
Mythology is pretty interesting because as it states in the book it shows us what man believed and how he thought about the gods. The book credits Greek mythology for making the gods in the image of man. Before the Greek myths the gods were hideous monsters that on many occasions were portrayed as half animal and half human. But as man progressed he began to equate himself with the gods. Even today man has what is called the god complex.
Man feels that he is the crowning glory of all of gods creations. This is best illustrated through Christianity. According to them man was created in the image of god, the world was created to sustain human life, and the universe was made to accommodate the Earth. Anything and everything that exist are here for the benefit of mankind. Christians are too proud to acknowledge what science has established as fact: that evolution by natural selection is true. That mankind was not created by some being who exists outside of time but rather that he evolved from the simplest form of life and is in fact a part of the animal kingdom.
What man fails to realize is that although they pride themselves in being so advanced they are also the deadliest beasts that ever walked the planet. Only man has the power to destroy the world and environment we live in with his many inventions. His so called modern mind ignores the frailty of human life and in fact aids in its early destruction.
Mythology is pretty interesting because as it states in the book it shows us what man believed and how he thought about the gods. The book credits Greek mythology for making the gods in the image of man. Before the Greek myths the gods were hideous monsters that on many occasions were portrayed as half animal and half human. But as man progressed he began to equate himself with the gods. Even today man has what is called the god complex.
Man feels that he is the crowning glory of all of gods creations. This is best illustrated through Christianity. According to them man was created in the image of god, the world was created to sustain human life, and the universe was made to accommodate the Earth. Anything and everything that exist are here for the benefit of mankind. Christians are too proud to acknowledge what science has established as fact: that evolution by natural selection is true. That mankind was not created by some being who exists outside of time but rather that he evolved from the simplest form of life and is in fact a part of the animal kingdom.
What man fails to realize is that although they pride themselves in being so advanced they are also the deadliest beasts that ever walked the planet. Only man has the power to destroy the world and environment we live in with his many inventions. His so called modern mind ignores the frailty of human life and in fact aids in its early destruction.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Scriptural unreliability
I remember that when I was a kid I used to have one of those bibles that had the so called words of Jesus highlighted in red. But when you come to think of it, if Jesus existed, what were really his words? The reason I ask this question is that for those of us that have taken the time to study the origins and formation of the Bible as a whole and specifically the New Testament, they will immediately begin to question the authenticity of the scriptures.
Most scholars agree that the alleged time of death of Jesus was around 33 or at the latest 35 A.D. but the earliest gospel written is believed to be the gospel of Mark and that is dated from 65 to about 70 A.D. This puts a minimum of 35 to 38 years between the alleged death and the first biography of the life of Jesus. Another thing to note is that none of the gospels namely: Matthew, Mark, and Luke are first hand accounts of the life and times of Jesus Christ. The gospels when they began to make their first appearance were presented as anonymous works whose authors were unknown. It wasn't until the mid second century that the names were later attached to the gospels as they are presented to us today.
Another fact that works against the authenticity of the scriptures is that none of the original documents are extant (exist) today. In other words what we have are copies of copies of the so called original versions of the gospels and other writings included in the N.T. This opens up the possibility of human errors in transcription, not to mention the other problem of translation from one language to the another. Let's not forget that also there is the influence of the beliefs of the scribe himself.
Another issue is the many contradictions of the gospel stories of certain key moments in the life and death of Jesus. For example how can the gospel writers tell us what were the last words of Jesus as he hung on the cross when the gospel accounts state that they all fled? Or how can anyone write about what Jesus was thinking or praying about when he was in the garden on the mount of olives when the gospels state that they were all asleep when he had finished his prayers? The three gospels differ greatly when they recount the resurrection morning scene. Also, there is the manner or method in which the church later decided what books were considered inspired by god or not. The various councils that were utilized to authenticate the scriptures were decided by votes by bishops of the church etc.
One last final thing before I close this post is that many people did not know that one of the requirements for a book to be chosen as inspired was that it had to be written by an apostle of Christ or a disciple of an apostle. It was common practice in those days for people to add the name of someone else to their works in order to give it that sense of authenticity. Because of this many of the writers of the N.T. books are to this day anonymous or unknown.
Most scholars agree that the alleged time of death of Jesus was around 33 or at the latest 35 A.D. but the earliest gospel written is believed to be the gospel of Mark and that is dated from 65 to about 70 A.D. This puts a minimum of 35 to 38 years between the alleged death and the first biography of the life of Jesus. Another thing to note is that none of the gospels namely: Matthew, Mark, and Luke are first hand accounts of the life and times of Jesus Christ. The gospels when they began to make their first appearance were presented as anonymous works whose authors were unknown. It wasn't until the mid second century that the names were later attached to the gospels as they are presented to us today.
Another fact that works against the authenticity of the scriptures is that none of the original documents are extant (exist) today. In other words what we have are copies of copies of the so called original versions of the gospels and other writings included in the N.T. This opens up the possibility of human errors in transcription, not to mention the other problem of translation from one language to the another. Let's not forget that also there is the influence of the beliefs of the scribe himself.
Another issue is the many contradictions of the gospel stories of certain key moments in the life and death of Jesus. For example how can the gospel writers tell us what were the last words of Jesus as he hung on the cross when the gospel accounts state that they all fled? Or how can anyone write about what Jesus was thinking or praying about when he was in the garden on the mount of olives when the gospels state that they were all asleep when he had finished his prayers? The three gospels differ greatly when they recount the resurrection morning scene. Also, there is the manner or method in which the church later decided what books were considered inspired by god or not. The various councils that were utilized to authenticate the scriptures were decided by votes by bishops of the church etc.
One last final thing before I close this post is that many people did not know that one of the requirements for a book to be chosen as inspired was that it had to be written by an apostle of Christ or a disciple of an apostle. It was common practice in those days for people to add the name of someone else to their works in order to give it that sense of authenticity. Because of this many of the writers of the N.T. books are to this day anonymous or unknown.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
How I became an atheist
Many of my views on religion are easily accessible on youtube.com where I have posted a series of videos on various topics relating to religion, particularly to Christianity. When you go to youtube just type chatpilot in the search window to view my commentary videos. I have been an atheist for about 15 years now, but I was not always this way. I at one time used to be an evangelist for the Spanish Pentecostal movement. My ministry ran for about 4 years until I began to have doubts about my cause and what I had been doing.
One requirement for you to be a good christian is to never question god nor his motives. You must exercise blind obedience to the scriptures and any doubts are quickly considered to be the influence of Satan upon your mind and life. Any thirst for knowledge outside of what is taught by the church is considered either subversive or heretical. Delving too deeply into the "mysteries" of god can get you into trouble fairly quick. What led me away from god was precisely that thirst for knowledge,that yearning to know more.
Anyone who has tried to read the bible in its entirety could tell you that once you finish, the bible has more questions than answers. The problem lies in that everything you want to know lies beyond objective knowledge and is unattainable at the moment. You can't prove that god exist nor disprove it, but I think that if you were to put the pros and cons on a scale and weigh the two you would come to the conclusion that it is highly unlikely that god exist. Come back tomorrow and I will tell you more about it.
One requirement for you to be a good christian is to never question god nor his motives. You must exercise blind obedience to the scriptures and any doubts are quickly considered to be the influence of Satan upon your mind and life. Any thirst for knowledge outside of what is taught by the church is considered either subversive or heretical. Delving too deeply into the "mysteries" of god can get you into trouble fairly quick. What led me away from god was precisely that thirst for knowledge,that yearning to know more.
Anyone who has tried to read the bible in its entirety could tell you that once you finish, the bible has more questions than answers. The problem lies in that everything you want to know lies beyond objective knowledge and is unattainable at the moment. You can't prove that god exist nor disprove it, but I think that if you were to put the pros and cons on a scale and weigh the two you would come to the conclusion that it is highly unlikely that god exist. Come back tomorrow and I will tell you more about it.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
God is a myth!
Just some thoughts on why I feel that God as we know him to be here in America is a myth. But wait! That also applies to all gods and goddesses throughout history. My reason for my current view is that I personally believe after having been a former Christian myself, and diligent study that gods are man made. Believing in god helps to stave off the fear of dying,and for some people it gives meaning to their lives. I consider myself to be a strong atheist because I am firmly convinced in my belief,or at least in this case non-belief.
I view religion from many different points of view and I could not help but notice that the biblical god is nothing more and nothing less than a bully,a tyrant who seems to enjoy tormenting humanity. You are not given a choice in life, either you believe in him or you will pay for it eternally in the Christians imaginary hell. They the religious folks would love to subvert the search for true knowledge by instituting the ludicrous idea of faith. I have always said that faith is voluntary ignorance since in order to believe in god you have to cast all reason aside and just believe that he is.
Religion has been the cause of much strife and mayhem in the world from ancient to modern times. Millions if not billions have been murdered throughout history to promote the spread of a particular religion. Many have been tortured and slain in the name of religion and even in today's world religion dominates the hearts and minds of many. I will post my thoughts on religion daily that way I can keep a sort of journal on such things. Till next time and I hope to be hearing from you all soon.
I view religion from many different points of view and I could not help but notice that the biblical god is nothing more and nothing less than a bully,a tyrant who seems to enjoy tormenting humanity. You are not given a choice in life, either you believe in him or you will pay for it eternally in the Christians imaginary hell. They the religious folks would love to subvert the search for true knowledge by instituting the ludicrous idea of faith. I have always said that faith is voluntary ignorance since in order to believe in god you have to cast all reason aside and just believe that he is.
Religion has been the cause of much strife and mayhem in the world from ancient to modern times. Millions if not billions have been murdered throughout history to promote the spread of a particular religion. Many have been tortured and slain in the name of religion and even in today's world religion dominates the hearts and minds of many. I will post my thoughts on religion daily that way I can keep a sort of journal on such things. Till next time and I hope to be hearing from you all soon.
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