One of the accusations made by Christians towards atheists that I find most annoying is that we are obsessed with God. I have been accused of this by my own family several times myself. Their reasoning is that for someone who claims a non-belief in God we sure put a lot of time and dedication into disproving his existence.
There are several reasons why accusations such as these do not hold water. I personally am not on a mission to demonstrate that the biblical god or any god for that matter exists at all. Belief in God is a personal choice and matter that each and every individual must make for his or herself. I know as well as any other thinking atheist that you cannot prove a negative. As it stands now we cannot prove or disprove conclusively the existence of God or gods, anyone who claims to be able to do so is a fool.
But at the same time it does not mean that with the evidence we do have, or lack thereof we can't make logical conclusions based on observation and investigation. Theists point to the order of the universe or the laws of nature to demonstrate that this world was intelligently designed or created by a higher power. But they neglect to mention all of the chaos that is also evident in nature, for instance there is no design in the extinction of plant and animal species. This suggest that it is rather a result of evolution through the process of natural selection.
The only reason I am so "obsessed" with religion and God is because it is relevant in our society. It holds positions of power amongst the elite and the poor in such things as politics and the advancement of scientific research. Religion permeates almost every fiber of our society here in the United States and it spills over into the secular realm as well where in my opinion it does not belong.
If you choose to believe in the myths and tales perpetuated over 5,000 years ago if you include the new testament then that is your choice as an individual. But when you try to force your beliefs upon the rest of society by manipulating politicians and impeding science then you are stepping out of the boundaries of your personal beliefs. The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution make it abundantly clear that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," this rule should apply both ways.
Theists want government to stay out of matters of religion but at the same time they want to manipulate and impede government. That is what you call having your cake and eating it too. Our laws should not be subject to those of any religions idea of what their god of choice has established. Instead our laws should be based on the betterment of our society and its inhabitants.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Thank God?
I think that one of the most used terms in the English language is "thank God".... personally, I think this is one of the most undeserved expressions of gratitude known to man. I have oftentimes caught myself saying it from time to time but now when I say it, it is more as a result of habit than of genuine gratitude.
One of the things I hate most about Christianity is that you are not allowed to achieve anything in life without giving any credit to the fictional guy in the sky. In fact, the bible reinforces this belief over and over throughout the scriptures.
For example, you are ready to sit down and enjoy a meal when someone decides that we should say grace. Grace for what? God did not put that food on the table, you did! If it were not for you getting up each morning and working for a living then you would not have anything to eat at all. The theist might say something silly like "but it is God that gives you the health and the strength to work", what a crock of shit!
This biblical God does not give a shit about you, and he can't, simply because he does not exist. The quicker you realize this the easier life becomes, once you realize that you have to pave your own way in this world then life becomes a lot easier. Life is about adversity, sacrifices, and struggles there will always be challenges and opportunities; some will be good for us and others will serve to our detriment.
In an earlier post I mentioned that once you look at the world naturally you have no reason to believe in God. There is no reason to acknowledge the existence of a mythical being. People love to be praised at home or at work for a job well done, it's in our natures to be that way. But when you serve God you have to give that up too, everything that is you must be surrendered to this mythical deity that you are to fear and praise for doing nothing at all. It seems like he is entitled to your praise simply because you choose to believe in him!
When you look at life and all of the baggage it hands us in our own individual and personal journey's from a natural perspective it makes so much more sense. Life is impersonal, it does not know race, or color, nor does it discriminate age. A child dies in a crib you don't need to ask God why when you realize that these things happen in life.
So theists, when you face adversities that seem too much to bear keep in mind that it is not Satan or God nor is it a test of your faith. It is just life and you can choose to let those things keep you down or you can stand up shake them off and continue your journey bravely and determined never to let life keep you down.
One of the things I hate most about Christianity is that you are not allowed to achieve anything in life without giving any credit to the fictional guy in the sky. In fact, the bible reinforces this belief over and over throughout the scriptures.
For example, you are ready to sit down and enjoy a meal when someone decides that we should say grace. Grace for what? God did not put that food on the table, you did! If it were not for you getting up each morning and working for a living then you would not have anything to eat at all. The theist might say something silly like "but it is God that gives you the health and the strength to work", what a crock of shit!
This biblical God does not give a shit about you, and he can't, simply because he does not exist. The quicker you realize this the easier life becomes, once you realize that you have to pave your own way in this world then life becomes a lot easier. Life is about adversity, sacrifices, and struggles there will always be challenges and opportunities; some will be good for us and others will serve to our detriment.
In an earlier post I mentioned that once you look at the world naturally you have no reason to believe in God. There is no reason to acknowledge the existence of a mythical being. People love to be praised at home or at work for a job well done, it's in our natures to be that way. But when you serve God you have to give that up too, everything that is you must be surrendered to this mythical deity that you are to fear and praise for doing nothing at all. It seems like he is entitled to your praise simply because you choose to believe in him!
When you look at life and all of the baggage it hands us in our own individual and personal journey's from a natural perspective it makes so much more sense. Life is impersonal, it does not know race, or color, nor does it discriminate age. A child dies in a crib you don't need to ask God why when you realize that these things happen in life.
So theists, when you face adversities that seem too much to bear keep in mind that it is not Satan or God nor is it a test of your faith. It is just life and you can choose to let those things keep you down or you can stand up shake them off and continue your journey bravely and determined never to let life keep you down.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Faith is not a fact !
Despite what many religionist would like for the rest of us to believe, I am here to declare once and for all that faith does not equal fact. No matter how you spin it, faith is believing in someone or something for which there is no objective or empirical evidence whatsoever.
For the purpose of this article I will be quoting from the New Jerusalem Translation of the scriptures. The bible defines faith: 1 Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen. 6 Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:1,6 (NJB). The biggest flaw with this definition is that you cannot “prove” the existence of the unseen you can only hope that he is there. In other words you only believe it because you read it and the bible said it.
According to the teachings found in the bible no man has seen God, and it is best that way since the bible states that if you did see him you would die! The bible states that Moses knew God face to face Exodus 33:11 and Deuteronomy 34:10 but then it turns around and says that no man can see God not even Moses in Exodus 33:20-23! The best look of God that Moses got according to the bible was a look at his back. Here is a problem, recent scholarship has come to doubt the very existence of Moses, outside of the biblical myths he is nowhere to be found!
It’s incredible that even in today’s modern era Christians, Muslims, and Jews insist on their beliefs as unequivocal fact! Nothing could be further from the truth. Religious beliefs skew the mental process to the point where up is down and down is up. There is no logic or reason for a belief in god or any other deities. It’s funny how Christians like to use the old “ where did everything come from, nothing can exist from nothing” argument. I am content to acknowledge that when it comes to origins neither science nor faith has the answers. But I am not willing to accept faith as a valid means of discovering facts or truths. There is a natural explanation for all of this as has been proven through the theory of evolution by the process of natural selection. We may never know how this all began, but saying some fictional deity invented 6 or 7,000 thousand years ago by some nomadic tribe is the source of everything is outright ludicrous and insane.
Christians in particular, speak about their faith as a fact. Everyone else is wrong and only their book and doctrinal beliefs are correct. Every other religion is of Satan and of pagan origins and everyone who does not accept their beliefs is a heretic. What they fail to realize is that the origins of Judaism and Christianity are derived from those same previous religions and myths that they condemn. Judaism and Christianity borrowed a lot of things from Babylonian myths and other cultures that they came in contact with. This is a known fact among those scholars and people such as myself who have studied comparative religion.
In particular I like Hebrews 11:6 which states that in order to please God you must “believe that he is”. It sounds a lot like the tale of Santa Clause doesn’t it? “If you don’t believe in Santa you won’t get any presents for Christmas little Timmy.” Even the fictional Jesus had issues with this in the N.T. where on one occasion he returned back to his home town and it states that he could not perform many miracles there because of the unbelief of the people.
In other words, God’s power is limited to how much you believe in him! How stupid is that? If you don’t believe he can’t show you anything because you have not submitted your will, mind, and reasoning skills to him. The bible literally requires that you suspend your critical thinking skills and take everything that is said there as fact. I guess as long as there are people with limited intelligence or great minds who refuse to use them there will always be religion.
For the purpose of this article I will be quoting from the New Jerusalem Translation of the scriptures. The bible defines faith: 1 Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen. 6 Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:1,6 (NJB). The biggest flaw with this definition is that you cannot “prove” the existence of the unseen you can only hope that he is there. In other words you only believe it because you read it and the bible said it.
According to the teachings found in the bible no man has seen God, and it is best that way since the bible states that if you did see him you would die! The bible states that Moses knew God face to face Exodus 33:11 and Deuteronomy 34:10 but then it turns around and says that no man can see God not even Moses in Exodus 33:20-23! The best look of God that Moses got according to the bible was a look at his back. Here is a problem, recent scholarship has come to doubt the very existence of Moses, outside of the biblical myths he is nowhere to be found!
It’s incredible that even in today’s modern era Christians, Muslims, and Jews insist on their beliefs as unequivocal fact! Nothing could be further from the truth. Religious beliefs skew the mental process to the point where up is down and down is up. There is no logic or reason for a belief in god or any other deities. It’s funny how Christians like to use the old “ where did everything come from, nothing can exist from nothing” argument. I am content to acknowledge that when it comes to origins neither science nor faith has the answers. But I am not willing to accept faith as a valid means of discovering facts or truths. There is a natural explanation for all of this as has been proven through the theory of evolution by the process of natural selection. We may never know how this all began, but saying some fictional deity invented 6 or 7,000 thousand years ago by some nomadic tribe is the source of everything is outright ludicrous and insane.
Christians in particular, speak about their faith as a fact. Everyone else is wrong and only their book and doctrinal beliefs are correct. Every other religion is of Satan and of pagan origins and everyone who does not accept their beliefs is a heretic. What they fail to realize is that the origins of Judaism and Christianity are derived from those same previous religions and myths that they condemn. Judaism and Christianity borrowed a lot of things from Babylonian myths and other cultures that they came in contact with. This is a known fact among those scholars and people such as myself who have studied comparative religion.
In particular I like Hebrews 11:6 which states that in order to please God you must “believe that he is”. It sounds a lot like the tale of Santa Clause doesn’t it? “If you don’t believe in Santa you won’t get any presents for Christmas little Timmy.” Even the fictional Jesus had issues with this in the N.T. where on one occasion he returned back to his home town and it states that he could not perform many miracles there because of the unbelief of the people.
In other words, God’s power is limited to how much you believe in him! How stupid is that? If you don’t believe he can’t show you anything because you have not submitted your will, mind, and reasoning skills to him. The bible literally requires that you suspend your critical thinking skills and take everything that is said there as fact. I guess as long as there are people with limited intelligence or great minds who refuse to use them there will always be religion.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Blood sacrifice
Isn't it odd how the biblical deity like the many deities believed before him share so many things in common? But the one thing they all seem to share is that most of them desired blood sacrifices. For some of the so called pagan deities the blood of animals was enough to appease them temporarily, this was also true of the biblical deity as well. For others the sacrificing of people was the only thing that satisfied them.
When God decided to institute the system of sacrifices he laid out specific rules that had to be followed by the people and the priests. The animals could not have any blemish whatsoever and they had to be of a specific type of animal, there were what God considered clean and unclean animals. They had to be sacrificed at specific times of the year for specific purposes. But according to the N.T. these sacrifices only temporarily covered the sins of those that made them. It did not wipe away the sins completely.
In order to wipe away sin completely the sacrifice had to be perfect and without sin. Christianity provides for this through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once and for all. They even refer to the O.T. system of blood atonement as a type of what was to come in the most perfect sacrifice of all: Jesus Christ the son of God. But if you read your bible carefully you will find out that Jesus was not the only human sacrifice the deity accepted.
In the O.T. there is a tale of a man named Jephthah who made a vow unto God where if he was given the victory over the Ammonites the first person that met him upon returning to his house he would sacrifice. It turned out to be his only daughter and in the end he had to do as he had vowed. You can read all about it in Judges 11:30-40. At times the bible mentions other groups whose deities required blood sacrifices.
All of this points me to believe that the institution of religion and the concept of God itself are all rooted in myths based on ignorance and superstition. People refer to the idea of God evolving but apparently he has not evolved much. He still loves the fragrance of blood. And even in Christianity it is only through the mythical blood pact of Christ that you can be saved.
When God decided to institute the system of sacrifices he laid out specific rules that had to be followed by the people and the priests. The animals could not have any blemish whatsoever and they had to be of a specific type of animal, there were what God considered clean and unclean animals. They had to be sacrificed at specific times of the year for specific purposes. But according to the N.T. these sacrifices only temporarily covered the sins of those that made them. It did not wipe away the sins completely.
In order to wipe away sin completely the sacrifice had to be perfect and without sin. Christianity provides for this through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once and for all. They even refer to the O.T. system of blood atonement as a type of what was to come in the most perfect sacrifice of all: Jesus Christ the son of God. But if you read your bible carefully you will find out that Jesus was not the only human sacrifice the deity accepted.
In the O.T. there is a tale of a man named Jephthah who made a vow unto God where if he was given the victory over the Ammonites the first person that met him upon returning to his house he would sacrifice. It turned out to be his only daughter and in the end he had to do as he had vowed. You can read all about it in Judges 11:30-40. At times the bible mentions other groups whose deities required blood sacrifices.
All of this points me to believe that the institution of religion and the concept of God itself are all rooted in myths based on ignorance and superstition. People refer to the idea of God evolving but apparently he has not evolved much. He still loves the fragrance of blood. And even in Christianity it is only through the mythical blood pact of Christ that you can be saved.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Myth vs. Religion
Before I begin I would like to take a moment to define the words myth and religion. I will be citing both definitions from the Merriam Webster online dictionary. Let's look at the definition for myth: 1.a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. 3. a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence. Now let's look at the definitions for religion 1b: the service and worship of God or the supernatural. 2a: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.
Quite frankly I personally don't see the difference between religion and mythology. In fact mythology at one time served the same purpose as religion, it was a means of understanding the world around us as being the result of divine creation. At one time those same beliefs that we now call myths were just as real and believed by the populace of the various cultures from which they originated.
As the title of my blog implies the biblical god is in fact a myth, it's just a myth that many in our culture happen to believe in. Out of the two definitions I used above several characteristics stand out, one is that myths were a way for a people to explain some of their practices or beliefs (worldviews). Religion likewise refers to a certain set of beliefs and practices and also are in place to explain a similar worldview ( that God created everything).
Today's myths are nothing more than yesterdays religions and beliefs just as today's beliefs are nothing more than today's myths. In myths the definition states that it involves a person or thing of imaginary or unverifiable existence (that sounds a lot like god). You can't prove or disprove the existence of the biblical god just like you cant disprove the existence or non-existence of Zeus, Thor, or Loki.
Many of the ancient myths were polytheistic, they had many deities to worship and as is demonstrated by Greek mythology they seemed to have a deity for every natural phenomenon to the then known world. Sort of like the Catholic church seems to have a saint to intercede for just about any specific need. The only difference between myths and religion is that myths are religions that we no longer believe in and religions are myths we do believe in. But who is to say that today's religions wont be tomorrows myths?
Through the process of anthropomorphism man has created his mythical deities of yesterday and his deities of today to suit his religious beliefs.
Quite frankly I personally don't see the difference between religion and mythology. In fact mythology at one time served the same purpose as religion, it was a means of understanding the world around us as being the result of divine creation. At one time those same beliefs that we now call myths were just as real and believed by the populace of the various cultures from which they originated.
As the title of my blog implies the biblical god is in fact a myth, it's just a myth that many in our culture happen to believe in. Out of the two definitions I used above several characteristics stand out, one is that myths were a way for a people to explain some of their practices or beliefs (worldviews). Religion likewise refers to a certain set of beliefs and practices and also are in place to explain a similar worldview ( that God created everything).
Today's myths are nothing more than yesterdays religions and beliefs just as today's beliefs are nothing more than today's myths. In myths the definition states that it involves a person or thing of imaginary or unverifiable existence (that sounds a lot like god). You can't prove or disprove the existence of the biblical god just like you cant disprove the existence or non-existence of Zeus, Thor, or Loki.
Many of the ancient myths were polytheistic, they had many deities to worship and as is demonstrated by Greek mythology they seemed to have a deity for every natural phenomenon to the then known world. Sort of like the Catholic church seems to have a saint to intercede for just about any specific need. The only difference between myths and religion is that myths are religions that we no longer believe in and religions are myths we do believe in. But who is to say that today's religions wont be tomorrows myths?
Through the process of anthropomorphism man has created his mythical deities of yesterday and his deities of today to suit his religious beliefs.
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