God is a myth!

My Personal Quest

2012-01-28T10:48:00.001-05:00

To my knowledge I am the only atheist in my entire family who is honest and open about his non-acceptance of the bible as divine and Christianity as being the "ultimate truth." From fundamentalist believer to atheist is a radical and big leap from the perspective of most, but it was the journey I had chosen and I decided to see it through to the end. I have been an atheist for the past 18 years, and to date I have lost a lot of so called friends and have received discredit and outright disdain from members of my own family. My rejection of Christianity and its traditions has made me an army of one amongst those who knew me in a different time and place in my life.

Even though I have been an avowed atheist for the past 18 years my interest in Christianity and religion in general has not waned. In fact, it has grown stronger than ever, and continues to fuel my passion for following reason to the end no matter what the conclusions may be. I have been accused by members of my family as being obsessed with religion and Christianity, but I don't consider myself obsessed with either. If anything, I am obsessed with finding out the truth and whatever that entails.

I am on a lifelong journey of discovery, and it is that thirst for knowledge that fuels my passion for truth. I have taken the route of faith only to find it lacking in providing a true understanding of my life and the world that I live in. The many wonders of nature and the universe fascinate me to no end, but I found that faith had no answers for me that would satisfy my craving for wanting to know as much as I possibly could.

I did all that faith required of me. I submitted my will to the all powerful and supposedly loving father figure in the sky. I preached in a street ministry every single weekend and at the time believed that this powerful man in the sky had filled me with his Spirit and the powers that came with it. I prayed and fasted often, immersed in the scriptures as I prayed for spiritual understanding and wisdom from on high.

In those days I firmly felt within body what I thought to be the awesome power of God flowing through me. I believed that when I prayed for the sick, the troubled, and the weary that my imaginary guy in the sky would have mercy on them and take care of whatever was troubling his believers. All the while at the same time when things did not work out I had this nagging feeling deep inside that told me something wasn't right. It was this very feeling that led me to put aside what I had learned in church and through my own studies that had led me to dig deeper.

I read the bible for myself in its entirety and was later surprised to find out that I had come to the same conclusions on my own of some of the greatest free thinkers and atheists of our past. I was fearful at first, but I had decided to ride this train to the final stop. I found out eventually that the more I learned, the further away I got from Christianity and the less I believed anything that was in that so called holy book.

Eighteen years later and I am still on this journey, and based on what I have learned I can tell you that Christianity and religion have now become a thing of the past for me. I no longer see religious belief as logical, and knowing now what I did not know then I can say with certainty that I could never convert to any Christian religion ever again. In fact I could never believe in any religions that rely on their truths from ancient texts, traditions, or supernatural sources of knowledge. I am not out to destroy Christianity, this is my personal quest for truth.

On Christian Persecution

2012-01-25T19:27:00.000-05:00

One of the things that I find very annoying about Christianity is that they always like to make themselves out to be victims of religious persecution. They have been doing this for years and they continue to do it even today. If you go to a bookstore and look at the Christian section you will most likely see several copies of books on martyrdom etc. What they don't tell you is that before they were recognized as the state religion by Rome they were persecuted severely both by the state and competing religions of the region. But once they had become the state recognized religion of choice things changed.

The Christian religion has so much blood on its hands that one could probably fill up the Nile with it! The history of the Christian church is violent and bloody, it is filled with war and conquests and torture and death. There is pedophilia, illicit sex, hidden and illegal abortions, murder, etc. As a former theists myself, one of the things that turned me off to Christianity was its violent past and how the O.T. portrayed its God. Although I don't believe in the bible if some of the tales were true this God was nothing but a celestial tyrant who did not deserve worship at all. Instead all he deserved from me was curses.

I was debating a theist not long ago who said that I did not know my church history, because the Catholic church is not a Christian church! When I attributed the longevity of the existence of the church to its acceptance by the Roman empire, I then got the ridiculous response above.He claimed that if the bible were not true the church would have not been around today, it would have been exposed as false a long time ago. Protestants try to disassociate themselves from the Crusades, the various inquisitions, and witch hunts carried out by the church. But this is in fact impossible to do.

Although the Crusades were launched to squash the takeover of the Holy Land by the Muslim's and Islam, they took advantage of that situation to promote their beliefs by using military might. The Roman empire had its armies and the church raised an army of mostly peasants to help carry out the Crusades. The Church used this situation to destroy and obliterate the existence of competing religions. If Christianity had not been victorious most likely we would have been Muslims and Islam would have been our national religion. It's hard to imagine and I find the thought horrific as I am even writing about the notion. In the end I guess I could honestly say that we got the lesser of two evils. The ideal situation would be that all religions be wiped off the face of the earth.

You'd think that a religion that was born in turmoil, torture and persecution would know better but I guess that they did not learn a damn thing. It's like a slave who after being a slave for many years is granted his freedom and then he turns around and buys a couple of slaves for himself later on! The church is where it is today because of military might and its various conquests during the Crusades, this was no gospel of peace. During those days church and state were one and the same and that is why our constitution prohibits that. But there are countries where the church has a strong hold on the populace and the situation is not that different.

Even here in the U.S. in the so called "bible belt" region we have laws in our books that although they are not active prohibit blasphemy and other beneficial laws for the church. In Delaware in 1776 a politician had to take this oath before taking office: 'I,_____, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and inthe Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures ofthe Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration'." Whatever happened to separation of church and state in this instance! Here is a good link on laws that benefit Christianity both old and new: http://www.religioustolerance.org/lawmenu.htm

In today's world atheists, gays, women who have abortions, and a slew of others are targets of the religious right. Although they say it's illegal in our constitution to discriminate against anyone for such things as race, sex, religion, and even a criminal past what actually happens is completely different. There are many convicted felons that can't even find a job due to a criminal past. We are the persecuted ones not the Christians.

The only thing being persecuted by us atheist is Christian ideals, we don't want to see the slogan "In God We Trust" on our money, in our court houses, or any state funded facility. We don't want to recognize Creationism/Intelligent Design as a science or an alternative theory of creation based on the bibles bogus version of creation. It is not science and it does not belong in our schools.

There is nor never was such a thing as Christian persecution after Rome took in the church as its own. The church has been the one guilty of all the persecution and although they can't go around hanging, torturing, or burning us at the stake anymore they are trying to use politics to get their way in this country. We atheists and other so called "minority" groups stand in the way and we simply wont allow religion to force itself upon our lives and society.

Christians Are Not Listening To Jesus

2012-01-23T02:28:00.001-05:00

This is an awkward post but I got the idea from a theist who verbally tried to belittle and attack me on my youtube email. He was responding privately to one of my videos where I discount the bible as a book of ancient plagiarized myths among many other things.

He claimed to be a "real" Christian, whatever that means. We had some pretty heated exchanges where we stooped down to the level of two uneducated assholes arguing about scripture complete with personal attacks and a boat load of swear words. It baffles me how to this day not all but some who claim to be Christians can stoop to this very low level of evangelizing, and I use that term loosely.

After I got tired of toying around with him I decided to send him an email where I quoted the following scripture: 'But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you' Matthew 5:44 KJV. If you're a Christian who claims to walk in the footsteps of Christ and seek righteousness then why are you not doing it.

In fact according to the scriptures when Christ sent out his apostles to preach the good news about the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth he said the following: ¹⁴ 'And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet.' Matthew 10:14 NJB This is not what we are seeing today, contrary to what Jesus preached and taught Christians are trying to shove the gospel down everyone's throat against their wills by extreme evangelizing and by trying to seek legislation in government that support their beliefs.

Instead of preaching to the masses in peace they become hostile and confrontational whenever someone like myself disagrees with them. I'll take this admonishment for the church a little further using their own bible. ' Make sure that no one captivates you with the empty lure of a 'philosophy' of the kind that human beings hand on, based on the principles of this world and not on Christ.' Colossians 2:8 NJB You're not supposed to be confrontational you say what you have to say and leave.

Where in the bible do you see Jesus arguing ardently with unbelievers? In fact he would admonish them and move on. When Jesus went back to his home town the bible states that he did not many works there because of their unbelief. You can read it in Matthew 13:54-58 He did not stick around and fight with the unbelievers he simply ministered to those that did believe and moved on. I guess this is one of those big cherries Christians like to leave on the tree.

I don't know about you but when I was an evangelist 18 years ago it was truly all about love for my fellow man. I preached with compassion and even understanding, but when I saw that I was not getting through to someone I would leave them with a verbal God bless you and I will be praying for you. I never got into arguments about the word with unbelievers it just went against everything I believed back then.

Just for the record, I am and have been an atheist for about 18 years now and don't believe in God, nor do I accept the bible as the word of God nor divinely inspired in any way. I don't believe that Jesus was the son of God, in fact I don't believe that he was even an historical figure. I am just using my knowledge to point out an obvious fact based on my years of observation debating Christians online and in person.

Why did Jesus Have To Die?

2012-01-21T12:04:00.000-05:00

If you really want to have some fun with theists then this is the question you should ask each and every one of them that you encounter: Why did Jesus have to die? You'll probably get the standard replies about him dying for our sins, to save mankind from eternal damnation, or to restore mans relationship with God. The bible in one way or another actually supports all these responses but the real reason is more mundane and outright stupid. So I will patiently attempt to break down this mythical tale and bring it to its inane and ridiculous conclusion.

According to the scriptures God created man in his own image and likeness which also means he created us perfect and sinless. Genesis 1:26 states that God made man to rule the Earth and everything in it. As God was the ruler of the heavens and all of creation, man in a similar role was given the task of subduing the earth and all living creatures within it Genesis 1:28. It's funny how the things on earth mirror the things in heaven!So after God had finished the creation phase he took a look at all that he had done and saw "that it was good." He was so tired from speaking things into existence for six days straight that the bible says he rested on the seventh day. I could see the Lord kicking back on a cloud with a cold beer patting himself on the back for a job well done.

The only problem that God did not foresee was that in the garden there was this snake that could talk! And it says that he was the most subtle of all the wild animals (the wiliest). Here is an interesting point to make. In Genesis the snake is presented simply as a snake from the wild, there is no mention of this being Satan in disguise or anything of the sort. You never hear of any connection between Satan and the serpent till the book of Revelation 12:9. I am led to believe that this was a later addition to the myth. Christians like to take the above mentioned text and interpret it as a past event rather than as a future prophecy by tying this event to the serpent in the garden tale.

After man is duped into disobeying God by partaking of the forbidden fruit in the garden which in my opinion should not have been there in the first place he is cast out of Eden and is separated from the presence of God. He now has to make sacrifices to atone for his sin which apparently God is never satisfied with and continues to be angry at mankind. The old testament laws as given to the Hebrews were replete with different sacrifices for all sorts of things. If you are interested in this just read through the book of Leviticus.

One of the most important requirements when it came to animal sacrifices to the Lord was that the animal must be as pure and perfect as possible. According to the old testament things were purified by blood and so as an atonement for the soul it was necessary that blood be shed before the Lord Leviticus 17:11. Here is the irony; the author of Matthew states that God commands men to forgive our fellow man so that he may forgive us in like manner Matthew 6:14,15. So my dear theists why couldn't God keep to his own rule and forgive mankind and let us start over with a clean slate without requiring the sacrifice of animals and finally his son? Doesn't the bible teach that with God all things are possible? Matthew 19:26. All things that is, except the forgiveness of man by God making the conscious decision to forgive us. Could this thing called forgiveness be God's kryptonite?

So according to the scriptures without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin Hebrews 9:22. Note that this is God's own rule and in my opinion it's a stupid rule that could have easily been changed. Jesus echoes this same sentiment about blood and sin in Matthew 26:28. So if you follow this illogical form of logic that is Christian theology Jesus had to come down to earth to be sacrificed simply because there was not one man on the earth who was qualified to do so for we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

Because of Adam and Eves sin our natures were made corrupt and thus there was no man on earth that could through the sacrifice of his own life and blood appease God or atone for the sins of mankind. Jesus on the other hand was the supposed incarnation of God and thus a perfect sacrifice that was untouched by sin. In Romans 5:19 and the rest of the chapter it tries to explain that through one man we were all condemned so it is that through one man (Jesus Christ) we are all justified to life.

In conclusion, Jesus had to die because God was too much of an ass hole to go against a rule he instituted. He couldn't simply forgive, so many animals had to die to temporarily appease his blood lust till the time was right for him to send Christ the perfect sacrifice to redeem us forever. But this came with a catch. You have to accept and believe that you are a sinner in need of redemption and then surrender your life to God through Christ and live a life according to his will. Which quite frankly is impossible because God is simply unable to forgive. He has been offended and we are to sacrifice our lives to him forever or pay the consequences in hell. As far as I'm concerned if God did exist (which he doesn't) then he could go fuck himself while he pouts in a corner in heaven. Instead of being called the greatest story ever told it should be called the dumbest myth ever told!

Why I Cite The Bible

2012-01-20T19:01:00.001-05:00

In response to a comment by Lost Blogger I have decided to write a post on why I often cite and use the bible as a tool to refute arguments made by theists. One of the things I learned when I was in the military was that the best way to win a battle or war was to know your enemy. While in boot camp we learned about weapons used by the enemy, the capabilities of those weapons, and more importantly how to disable those weapons and sometimes even use them against the enemy himself.

Although this is not war at least in the traditional sense, that axiom has stuck with me my entire life. As many of my followers are aware I myself was once what we now call a fundie. I was taught that the bible was the inerrant word of God and that its authors were all inspired by the Lord in some way to compose the various books within its pages. I believed every word as literal and did not accept all of these modern day interpretations of scripture. When I encountered contradictions and was challenged I would simply reply that those were mysteries which today we did not understand but as the apostle Paul said that one day we would know and understand all things clearly 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NJB).

I have read the bible in its entirety three times when I was a theist and once in Spanish, so that I may compare it to the English translation. The more I read the less I believed what I was reading and the more I was shocked to discover that I had been duped! I saw the mythological nature of the scriptures and the very concept of God himself. It struck me as odd that the biblical deity seemed to be not much different than your garden variety tyrant. He had a bad temper, was jealous, changed his mind often, and was swift to mete out punishment usually in the form of death to thousands of his followers as told in the Old Testament.

He was supposed to be just but I found his judgement lacking both in morals and rationality. I came to the conclusion that the bible did not present God in a very good light, but more than this I saw in God a reflection of man himself. The biblical deity is a myth that has been described mostly through the process of anthropomorphism. The Sage dictionary defines this word as: 'the representation of objects (especially a god) as having human form or traits. Christians refer to God as ineffable which means that he defies expression or description, but they don't cease trying to describe him.

It is my conviction that in order to argue with a theist, in this case a Christian you must inform yourself about what they actually believe in. Otherwise you are going to look like a total ass when you try to argue with them about things they don't actually believe due to your lack of knowledge. I pride myself in knowing the bible more than most theists and use it often just to bring home a point or refute a doctrine.

One practice that theists love to utilize is that of quoting scripture out of context to try and back up their ridiculous claims. If you are not aware of this then you will not only be able to rationally destroy their argument but you will not be able to point out to them how their beliefs based on misquoted verses of scripture are wrong. Many of the so called prophecies about the coming of Christ in the Old Testament fall in this category.

I also use the bible to point out absurdities and show them the many contradictions within the texts themselves. In this case I am using their only weapon against them. I challenge them to try and reconcile what I know to be irreconcilable without performing some sort of mental gymnastics.

On Christian Arrogance

2012-01-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

One of the most common accusations that theists love to hurl at atheist/unbelievers is that we are all arrogant. They generally base themselves on the persistent rejection we display towards their ridiculous beliefs. But what they fail to see is that we reject their beliefs not because we are stubborn, but because we require proof. Faith in the mind of an atheist is not a viable means of obtaining knowledge of any kind and is thus discounted as such. I have often called faith the ultimate equalizer in that it, on the other hand does not require evidence of any kind, just an acceptance of its propositions.

Theists in general have a different conception of proof than those of us who are not believers. They allow subjective experiences to count as evidence of their beliefs. These range from the tingling sensation they may feel when they read the bible or sense God's presence, the so called "small voice" in their heads that guides their every action, or what the rest of us may call a gut feeling. Based on all of these fallible experiences they claim that they have an inside track to knowledge that is not accessible through any other means than through the acceptance of the concept of faith. This is the source of their arrogance!

According to the Mirriam Webster online dictionary arrogance is defined as : 'an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions' http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arrogance based on this definition atheists cannot be considered arrogant for several reasons. The main reason is that what we claim is not based on faith but known facts gathered through science and just our everyday observation of how things work in the natural world. We can explain most natural disasters through natural means without trying to rationalize why a god would do or allow such a thing to occur.

Natural disasters are not God's way of punishing idolaters or unbelievers nor is it a way of testing his faithful flock. We don't try to make sense of the world through the use of ancient superstitions and myths. On the other hand Jews, Christians, and all other religious believers all claim to be right about their beliefs basing themselves on faith and what they believe through subjective evidence to be true. Christians and Jews in particular take it a step further by demonstrating that they have a superiority complex based on their special status as believers. The bible backs this up in both the New and Old Testaments.

In Psalm 14:1 it says: ' The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' Their deeds are corrupt and vile, not one of them does right.' According to this verse and many others like it all unbelievers are corrupt and vile in deed and since we don't do right I guess that would also make us immoral. The New Testament says in 2 Corinthians 6:14,15 that: ¹⁴ Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers; how can uprightness and law-breaking be partners, or what can light and darkness have in common?¹⁵ How can Christ come to an agreement with Beliar and what sharing can there be between a believer and an unbeliever? This text and many others like it apply to fraternizing with unbelievers and relationships.

⁶ Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is such behaviour that draws down God's retribution on those who rebel against him.⁷ Make sure that you do not throw in your lot with them.⁸ You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; behave as children of light, ⁹ for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth. Ephesians 5:6-9 (NJB). Passages like these help to pinpoint the source of the prejudice displayed by believers against atheists and also demonstrates why many believers think that there is no such thing as morality without God. It is just one of the many examples of intolerance shown by believers towards those that don't share their beliefs. Those of us that don't believe as they do walk in darkness and could not possibly see till we accept those beliefs and submit our lives to the imaginary Lord of creation. In conclusion, I think that I have demonstrated that Christian arrogance is a fact and that it is also supported by their source of their beliefs the bible. It is this special position of prominence that is given to them by their imaginary guy in the sky that gives them this feeling of superiority properly defined as arrogance.

The Concept of Sin Is Ridiculous!

2012-01-18T14:24:00.000-05:00

I have often argued with theists that the word sin is not even a real word or concept outside the realm of religion. Sin is strictly a religious idea and outside the context of religious dogma it is entirely meaningless. I feel the same way about words such as divine, holy, etc. I recently went to dictionary.com to attempt to find a dictionary definition of the word sin without all of the holy hoo ha that believers like to add to it. This is what I came up with: 1.'transgression of divine law: the sin of Adam. 2.any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.'

In the definition above the first thing you may notice is that the word sin is immediately tied to religious ideologies. It is interesting to see that in the end of the first definition it uses the sin of Adam as an example. What exactly was the sin of Adam? Well, according to the creation story as narrated in Genesis it was in the simplest of terms his disobedience to a direct command from God. ¹⁶ Then Yahweh God gave the man this command, 'You are free to eat of all the trees in the garden.

¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for, the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die.' Genesis 2: 16,17 (NJB).

Although Adam was induced by Eve who herself was enticed by the serpent to eat of this forbidden tree, They both directly disobeyed a direct command of God. Regardless of how theologians and apologists try to spin this word into some mysterious concept it is nothing more than simple disobedience. There is no mystical meaning to the word or concept of sin, contrary to what an Christian church may tell you.

Why was disobeying God such a bad thing? Well, when you think of it it demonstrates defiance, rebellion, and discord between man and God. But...was this so bad that it could not be repaired and that the sin of this couple would lead to the infection of the entire creation, not just the human race? Absolutely not! According to the bible the one who determines what is moral, just, bad, or good is God, and as is demonstrated in the scriptures he has changed his mind from time to time. Here is an example: ¹³ 'You shall not kill. Genesis 20:13 one of the ten commandments. ¹⁷ So kill all the male children and kill all the women who have ever slept with a man;¹⁸ but spare the lives of the young girls who have never slept with a man, and keep them for yourselves. Numbers 31: 17,18.

As you can see, although one of the ten commandments specifically prohibits killing others when Israel went to war against the Midianites under God's direct command and through the leadership of Moses it was okay to kill. In the end sin is what God says it is when he says it is, but it is always subject to change from time to time. That is why when I think of all the atrocities committed by the church against humanity I am not surprised nor do I hold it against them because all they are doing is what they learned from their bible.

My biggest problem with the concept of sin is that of accountability. Our own human laws make everyone accountable for his or her own crimes and offenses against society. But God doesn't work that way apparently. He is more like a military boot camp drill sergeant, if one recruit screws up a marching drill the whole platoon pays for the offense. How Christians with this knowledge can continue to call their fictional God perfectly good and just is beyond me.

The bible attributes our sinful natures to the single act of disobedience by Adam and Eve. As a result we are all born in sin and in need of salvation. In closing the idea of sin is stupid, comical, and at the same time outright illogical. We have all fallen short of the impossible standards of this fictional god that only through the fictional incarnation aka Christ can we be made whole again. Sin is not a disease, it's not something genetic, it's not tangible, it's nothing more than a stupid concept.

A real god that was just and true would forgive every man/ woman their transgressions and make everyone accountable for their own shortcomings. He wouldn't condemn an entire creation to utter destruction and torment for all eternity because he was offended by the actions of a few.

Christian hypocisy towards science

2012-01-16T18:54:00.001-05:00

It always irritates me to no end how Christians love to debase science, yet they have no problem using it when it suits their needs. My wife was watching a television show something like 20/20 in Spanish, and they did a piece on a man who underwent a new surgical procedure that helped partially cure some of the symptoms he was experiencing from Parkinson's disease.

They showed the man trying to draw a circle around a spiral paper maze, and as expected due to his involuntary and uncontrollable shaking he was unable to complete the task. After they did the surgery they once again show the man trying to do the same thing he was asked to do in the beginning and he was finally able to do it with little effort.

The interviewer asked the wife of the patient what she thought about the results of the operation. And her reply was... and I quote: " It was a miracle from God!" What a goddamn hypocrite! Theists have no problem using modern technology yet they love to slam science when it contradicts their beliefs. The wireless microphones they use on television and in most churches are there no thanks to God but to science.

No thanks to religion we have managed to survive and even live longer in this day and age than in ages past. No thanks to prayer and faith in prayer we have managed to find cures to many of our physical and even mental ills. Science has made life easier for all of us atheist and theist alike and has made a huge impact in our society and culture. Through the internet we are brought closer together making the world a much smaller place.

I am tired of seeing athletes of fighting and other sports thanking and praising the invisible guy in the sky for doing nothing for them. When will athletes, actors and musicians learn to take credit for their various talents. You won that fight because you trained hard, you won that Oscar or Emmy because you took the time necessary to hone your natural talents. Stop thanking God for putting food on your table when you know full well that if it was not for your getting up every morning or evening and heading out to work you wouldn't even have a roof over your head.

Science was never meant to destroy the fallacious foundations of religion, its main purpose was to discover more about us and the world we live in. Religion was just collateral damage, and having been the predominant ideology of the day happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I am of the opinion that science and faith are two very distinct ideologies that could never be reconciled. The former relies on objective evidence and observation and the latter relies on faith based on myths and subjective experiences.

The Resurrection is a lie!

2012-01-15T16:15:00.001-05:00

¹² Now if Christis proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you be saying that thereis no resurrection of the dead?¹³ If there is noresurrection of the dead, then Christcannot have been raised either,¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, thenour preaching is without substance, and so is your faith. 1 Corinthians 15: 12-14 (NJB)

According to the apostle Paul in the above cited text, the entire gospelhinges on the so called “fact” of the resurrection of Christ. The above citedletter was written to the church of Corinth and it is dated approximatelyaround 54 CE, an amazing 21 years give or take a year or two from Jesus allegedcrucifixion and subsequent death! Based on the content of the letter at thetime of its composition, it was rumored that the church of Corinth had alreadybegun doubting the historical “facts” of the resurrection of Jesus. In this article I will try and uncover what weknow about the resurrection of Jesus based almost entirely on the gospelaccounts which relate to this alleged event.

The first question that we have to ask was who discovered the empty tomb on resurrectionmorning. Well, all of that depends on which gospel you read. According toMatthew it was Mary Magdalene and the “other Mary which he does not bother todistinguish of whom he is referring to. According to Matthew an angel came downand rolled away the stone and gave the women instructions for the disciples tomeet Jesus in Galilee. It also says that as they went to relay the message thatthe Lord himself met them and repeated the same instructions. Later in thechapter we are told that they met with Jesus in Galilee but that there werestill some that were in doubt Matthew 28:17. Feel free to read the entirechapter to help put this narrative in perspective.

According to the gospel of Mark the first to discover the empty tomb was MaryMagdalene, Mary the mother of James, and finally Salome. According to theauthor of Mark after the women arrived at the tomb the stone had already beenrolled away and a man in the tomb told them to go tell his disciples and Peterthat he had risen and would meet them in Galilee. But the narrative then say’sthat the women told no one for they were afraid. Later Mary Magdalene is met byJesus himself and is told the same instructions she had received earlier fromthe young man in the tomb, who we are to assume was an angel. You can read thisnarrative in Mark chapter 16 and compare it with Matthew just for kicks.

Luke on the other hand says that on resurrection morning it was MaryMagdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Joanna and some other unnamed womenthat found the tomb and later told the disciples what they had been instructedto say. Not by one but get this two men (angels?) in brilliant clothes. Jesuslater appears to two of his followers and then to the eleven. I invite myreaders to read Luke chapter 24 for this very different narrative of Jesus postresurrection appearances.

The author of the gospel of John has a very different story to tell aboutwhat happened on that early morning visit to the tomb. He states that only MaryMagdalene went to the tomb and found it empty and told Simon Peter and anunnamed disciple that Jesus body was not in the tomb and she did not know whathad happened to it. John completely fails to mention the angelic appearancesand the fact that Mary was informed by these various angelic beings that Jesushad risen from the dead and that he would meet the disciples in Galilee.

The narrative states further that Mary went back and informed Peter andanother disciple that Jesus body was missing. They came and saw that he wasgone and went home not yet realizing that the scriptures had been fulfilled.Mary stayed at the tomb and then two angels appeared in the tomb and so didJesus himself! At first she did not recognize him and thought he was thegardener. She then told the disciples that she had seen Jesus and then Jesuslater presented himself to them as well. Thomas doubted but 8 days later Jesusshowed up again and let him touch his wounds to prove that it was him.According to John he appeared to the disciples 3 times after his resurrection.John then leaves the narrative there and goes no further.

The book of Mark 16:19 states that Jesus ascended up to heaven right aftergiving his disciples their final instructions to proclaim the gospel to theworld. Luke 24:51 states something similar to what Mark narrates. Matthew andJohn don’t even mention the ascension of Jesus and the other two books statethat it happened at a particular time within the narrative. None of themmention Jesus hanging around for 40 days or ascending to heaven in the sight of500 witnesses as told by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:6.

It is important to know that Paul was not a witness to any of the allegedoccurrences regarding the resurrection of Christ. He had learned what he didthrough the testimony of others. He is the only one that claims that fivehundred people had seen Christ ascend into heaven but this is obviously indisagreement to the synoptic gospels telling of this tale. Apologists love todisregard the discrepancies in the various narrations of this tale and statethat they are irrelevant. They claim that the “fact” that Jesus rose from thedead is all that matters. But I disagree.

When I read the various narrative regarding this matter I am led to believethat the reason that these stories contradict each other so blatantly is thatsince they are based on oral traditions they never did happen. Keep in mindthat none of the narratives of the gospels are firsthand accounts of the eventsthey claim to report on. All four gospels are anonymous works trying to conveyoral traditions and myths as fact.

This story would never hold up in a court of law and from a logicalstandpoint it makes no sense at all. You would probably get a more reliablewitness of a crime from a crack head than you would from the gospels. Not tomention that any mention of the resurrection of Jesus outside of the gospelsare also admittedly based on hearsay and not actual historical documents thatwould attest to them as facts. I invite all my readers to read the fournarrations of the events of the gospels and compare them one to the otherdetail for detail. I guarantee that you would find it an insult to yourintelligence to be expected to believe this nonsense.

There is no evidence outside of the gospels that provide strong enoughsupport for the resurrection. The bible narratives all contradict themselvesblatantly and the earliest of these was Mark and it was written approximately65 to 70 CE about 32 or so years after the alleged event. Feelings of thepresence of Christ etc. do not count as evidence since subjective evidence isnot evidence of anything at all.

The Witness of the Spirit and Christ's Return

2012-01-11T10:49:00.000-05:00

⁷ Still, I am telling you the truth: it is for your own good that I amgoing, because unless I go, the Paraclete will not cometo you; but if I go, I will send himto you. ¹³ However, when the Spirit of truth comeshe willlead you to the complete truth, since he will not bespeaking of his own accord, but will say onlywhat he has been told; and he will revealto you the things to come.¹⁴ He will glorifyme, since all he reveals to you will be takenfrom what is mine. John 16: 7, 13, 14 (NJB)

The above are what Christians generally believe to be some of Jesus lastwords to his apostles before his trial, crucifixion, and death. As you can seeby reading the above text these words contain yet another promise to theapostles specifically from their Lord. The word Paraclete is just anotherappellation for the Holy Spirit or as it is called in the King James translationof the scriptures the comforter. This is what many modern day believers referto as the inner witness of the Holy Spirit that confirms to them the truth ofwhat they believe. As I pointed out in an earlier post noted apologist WilliamLane Craig and others put much stock on this inner conviction over actual objectiveevidence.

According to the scriptures the Holy Spirit was sent by God and Christ toserve as a sort of intermediary between Jesus and his believers. His job was tocomfort, lead, and instruct believers to all truth regarding the teachings of Christand matters of a spiritual nature. As promised by Christ the Spirit was receivedon the day of Pentecost according to the book of Acts 2: 1- 4. As a result ofthis event, the apostles begin offering this so called “gift of the Spirit” toall those who would repent, and be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38, 39).

One thing that is made clear by Christ in the gospel of John chapter 16: 17is that he would be back soon. He also makes this abundantly clear in all threesynoptic gospels that there were some among his apostles that would not tasteof death before witnessing his return. You can read all about it in Matthew16:28, Mark 9:1, and Luke 9:27 specifically don’t forget to read the context soChristians can’t accuse you of misinterpreting what is said.

Not too long ago I had a debate with a couple of theists on the meaningbehind these verses. Their pathetic defense for the failed prophecy was thatChrist was actually referring to the transfiguration. They come to thisconclusion because immediately after he speaks those words he takes Peter,James, and John with him to a mountain and is transfigured right before theireyes. The only problem with this interpretation is that that is a far cry fromJesus coming down on a cloud surrounded by angels. In its proper context allthat occurred was that those particular apostles were given a glimpse of Christ'strue divinity.

Following the above line of reasoning in the book of Matthew 24:34 Jesus is recordedas having said these words: ‘In truth I tellyou, before this generationhas passed away, all these things will havetaken place.’ A generation was believed to be around 35 to 45 years in thosedays but if this is true it also means that Christ’s promise of returning inall power and glory never came to pass.

After the alleged death of Christ and the day of Pentecost it is evidentthat the apostles and their converts believed that Jesus would return duringtheir lifetime. They preached repentance and the imminent coming of the kingdomof God. Two thousand years later the Church has utilized one passage ofscripture to try and make up for this huge and damaging discrepancy. In referenceto his return Jesus states in Mark 13:32 that: 'But as for that day or hour,nobody knows it, neither the angelsin heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.’ If you believe and cling tothis verse and others like it hard enough, then you can dismiss the fact byfaith; that Christ’s prophecy about his return has failed.

Two thousand plus years later Christians cling to the so called witness ofthe Holy Spirit to convince themselves that despite these discrepancies Jesusis coming back soon. They don’t see the absurdity of their beliefs, and chooseto ignore the evidence against their beliefs as outlined in their own holybook. It should be of no surprise because I can tell you from experience thatthese are the symptoms or side effects of faith. Faith relieves you of yourability to reason and to think for yourself.

Being led by faith in any and all matters is a detriment to all those thatchoose this path. It’s akin to being blind folded and led by the hand by a completestranger through a maze of uncertainty. It is delusional and untrustworthy as asource of information or facts, and keeps you from seeing and appreciating thereal world for what it is.

I want my readers to know that although I cite the so called words of Christoften, it does not mean that I believe that Christ was an historical figure. Infact, I actually believe the contrary. I think that Jesus Christ was amythological fabrication of the church and never actually existed nor walkedthis earth. I have my reasons for believing this and I will discuss that in thenear future in another post.

In conclusion I have proven through the very texts used by Christians thatChrist is not coming back, and that he was not talking to the church of todaybut rather directly to his apostles and their generation not ours. Also, I have shown that the so calledwitness of the Holy Spirit is not real nor trustworthy. In fact this “divine”experience is nothing more than a subjective and emotional response to thewords of the bible inspired by ones own personal convictions and beliefs.

The Curse of Cain

2012-01-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

In the book of Genesis chapter 4 verses 11-14 we are given a description of God's alleged curse that he put upon Cain as punishment for slaying his brother Abel. This citation is from the New Jerusalem Bible translation of the scriptures:

¹¹ Now be cursed and banned from the ground that has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood at your hands.
¹² When you till the ground it will no longer yield up its strength to you. A restless wanderer you will be on earth.'
¹³ Cain then said to Yahweh, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear.
¹⁴ Look, today you drive me from the surface of the earth. I must hide from you, and be a restless wanderer on earth. Why, whoever comes across me will kill me!'
¹⁵ 'Very well, then,' Yahweh replied, 'whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.' So Yahweh put a mark on Cain, so that no one coming across him would kill him. Before I get into dissecting and debunking the veracity of this text I would like to point out that the bible does not describe what was the mark that God put upon Cain. The mark of Cain has been written about extensively but quite frankly there is not a man alive who can tell you what that was, and if he is so inclined to do so be aware that anything said or written about the mark of Cain is nothing more than mere speculation. Now let's begin with an analysis of the above mentioned texts and its final conclusions. According to the story when Cain had murdered his brother Abel he was later confronted by the omniscient (all knowing) God. But by reading the text we are given the impression that God did not know that Abel had been murdered yet. So much for omniscience and while we are at it we could add omnipresence (everywhere present) as well, because if he did not know then it also means that he wasn't there either. This is made abundantly clear when God confronts Abel in verses 9 and 10: ⁹ Yahweh asked Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' 'I do not know,' he replied. 'Am I my brother's guardian?' ¹⁰ 'What have you done?' Yahweh asked. 'Listen! Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground. Now that that is out of the way let's break down the the curse of Cain as pronounced upon him by God. According to verse 12 there were two specific things that this curse entailed; the first was that he was not going to be able to live off of the land because it would not yield up its crops to him no matter how much he tilled. Secondly, he would be doomed to a life of wandering the earth unable to settle down. After having received his curse Cain states his concern to the Lord that someone would find him and kill him. In response to this God put a mark upon Cain to let anyone know that killing Cain was off limits. Verses 14 and 15 reveal a very important contradiction to the creation story: that there were more people on the earth and that Adam and Eve obviously were not the first. Note that the bible teaches that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel and doesn't say that they had any more children till later on. Now this is where the bible as it tends to do contradicts itself yet again. If you keep on reading chapter four a few more verses we are finally told what was the fate of Cain. Verse 16 say's: ¹⁶ 'Cain left Yahweh's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.' So much for the wandering part of the curse. Not only did Cain settle down in the land of Nod but he also met his wife there! Verse 17 say's he had a son named Enoch there and also founded a city which he named after his son! Not bad for someone who was cursed by God huh? Chapter four goes on to tell us about Cains lineage through his son etc. But before chapter four closes it can't leave without giving us one more contradiction to silence the skeptics regarding how many boys Adam and Eve had. Let's read it together: ²⁵ Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she gave birth to a son whom she named Seth, 'because God has granted me other offspring', she said, 'in place of Abel, since Cain has killed him.' Yeah, you read right. Eve was granted a replacement son in Abel's stead.

The Witness Of The Holy Spirit

2012-01-06T10:24:00.000-05:00

“Should a conflict arise between thewitness of the Holy Spirit to the fundamental truth of the Christian faith andbeliefs based on argument and evidence, then it is the former which must takeprecedence over the latter, not vice versa.” William Lane Craig ‘Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (1984).

I was sitting around today trying to come up with a topic to discuss in this post, and then it hit me! I posted the above quote on a previous post from noted christian apologist William Lane Craig and I realized that I had a lot to say about it. First off it always amazes me at how much trouble atheists are having with refuting the claims of WLC for his arguments for the resurrection of Christ specifically. But this also extends to all of his other arguments in defense of theism.

The first thing we have to ask ourselves is what exactly does WLC mean when he refers to the so called "witness of the Holy Spirit?" From my experience as an ex fundamentalist I can only say that he is referring to that wonderful tingly sensation that you feel in your body when you read an inspiring passage of scripture or feel that somehow through that scripture you have been given a revelation as to its meaning. Christians refer to this as being led by the Spirit and it is usually applicable to every aspect of your life depending on how much of a fanatic you really are.

Immediately after I left the church and renounced my faith in the teachings of Christianity, I began to research possible explanations for the so called feeling of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I have come to the conclusion that it is actually a psycho emotional sensation that you get that is akin to being inspired or moved by an emotional scene in a movie. The same feeling can be attained through music and various other forms of the arts and especially when you contemplate the beauty of nature. It is that same feeling of awe you may feel as you look down into the Grand Canyon or are amazed at the beauty that is Niagara Falls.

I then began to try and bring that feeling up through the process of meditation, and not surprisingly I was able to duplicate that emotion just by concentrating on feeling energy flowing through my body. Because of my martial arts background I am an adept at Daoist meditation and am able to even meditate in motion (for example in a sparring match).

In the case of WLC and others who are convinced in the veracity of the Bible and its various tales it is no surprise that he would feel the way he does. But to compare the so called witness of the Holy Spirit to "beliefs based on arguments and evidence" is an insult to reason. In actuality a gut feeling or emotional response can never take precedence over actual objective evidence.

These emotional sensations or responses to the so called truth of the Christian faith are nothing more than subjective evidence that is powered by the believers presuppositions of the truths he has chosen or been conditioned to believe in.

This demonstrates clearly that Craig's arguments are not based on facts at all but are rather based on faith. Even his evidence claims that he chooses to call facts are not fats but his belief that they are based on his own convictions. Outside of the bible there is no objective evidence to verify that Jesus existed, the he was executed under Pontius Pilate or that he rose from the dead.

The Great Divine Dictator

2012-01-04T16:41:00.002-05:00

' See now that I, I am he, and beside me there is no other god. It is I who deal death and life; when I have struck, it is I who heal (no one can rescue anyone from me).'

These are the words attributed to the Hebrew God of the Old Testament, specifically in the book of Deuteronomy 32: 39. These are not the words that you would expect to hear coming from the mouth of loving and compassionate deity. Christians love to compare their God to that of a father figure who cares and loves his creation. Upon close analyses of these words they come off more as a warning and a threat, thereby solidifying my beliefs that this god is no better than any of the worlds worst dictators.

For those of you who want to see what an evil deity looks like I invite you to read Deuteronomy 32: 39 in its entirety. It's vindictive and full of hate and blood demanded by God of all those that oppose him, or as he refers to them; his enemies.

Christians might argue that this is God in the O.T. under the dispensation of the law but now through the sacrifice of Christ we are living in a different era, a different dispensation; the dispensation of grace. But in my opinion the highest threat that you can use against another man is that of taking his life; the threat of death. But this bloodthirsty fiend known as Jehovah is not happy with death, he has to punish you even after death with the threat of eternal torment in hell. This is made abundantly clear in the book of Matthew 10:28 through the second person of the trinity Jesus the Christ himself: 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.' Obviously, the only one who can do this is the biblical monster known as God.

Many of your more modern and conservative Christians try to smooth this over by stating that the bible does not teach that hell is a literal place etc. But as you can see there are texts in the N.T. that do refer to hell as a literal place that awaits those of us who refuse to bow down and submit to the demands of the celestial Hitler. The book of Revelation 20:13,14 speaks of the final judgement in which hell and death will give up their dead and all will be judged according to their works. In the end hell and death would be cast into the lake of fire. Of course it is obviously allegorical because it speaks of hell and death as if they were actual people (anthropomorphism). But then again this is just one of the many inconsistencies with the bible.

The bible and its texts is a mixture of ancient plagiarized myths that include greatly exaggerated accounts of historical facts that through this process convert history into fiction. This is why it is so difficult for those who take the bible seriously to interpret its teachings. This is also why it is so easy to pick apart and reveal its many inconsistencies.

Despite these facts the bible does a very good job on its own of revealing the true nature of this fictional deity and his cruelty. If any gods existed or even this God of the bible existed he is definitely not worthy of thanks, praise, nor worship. On the contrary he is worthy of disdain, disgust, and outright rejection. The bible itself demonstrates that there is nothing good about God, I personally have known people with more love and compassion for their fellow man than God could ever have and I include myself with those people.

Note: As always all biblical citations are from the New Jerusalem Bible translation of the scriptures.

Reason vs Faith

2012-01-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

This morningI was sitting around thinking about why it’s so hard for theists to see thattheir beliefs are nothing more than culturally motivated myths. When I speak oftheists in this article I am specifically addressing Christians, because thatis the religion that I am most acquainted with. Why is it that no matter howmuch evidence you show them to the contrary, they still cling tenaciously totheir shaky beliefs?

Believe itor not I think that Adolf Hitler knew the answer to this question better thanmost. He is quoted as saying: “Itis always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.”Nothing could be further from the truth! When it comes to arguing aboutreligion it is always a battle of faith versus reason. It has been myexperience from countless arguments and debates with theists online and inperson that their reason is tainted by faith. Faith knows no reason; it onlyknows that it must conform.

WilliamLane Craig a noted apologist and Christian philosopher stated: “Should a conflict arise between thewitness of the Holy Spirit to the fundamental truth of the Christian faith andbeliefs based on argument and evidence, then it is the former which must takeprecedence over the latter, not vice versa.” This quote comes from a bookironically entitled ‘Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics’ andclearly demonstrates the mindset of a dedicated and devoted theist to his/herbeliefs.

For practicalpurposes I would like to define the word reason from my Sage dictionary: ‘Thecapacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination.’ It seems to methat when one commits themselves to the tenets of faith they tend to lose theirability to reason. The few times that they try to reason it is always withinthe confines of their faith and they are restricted by their preconceived beliefs.The battle against faith in my view is like the unwinnable war against drugs,it is an exercise in futility.

Mostformer theists who have become atheists have done so on their own because theydared to think. You hear time and time again that all it takes to become anatheist is to read the bible in its entirety, if that does not do it thennothing will. No evidence presented, no demonstration of biblicalcontradictions, nothing will convince the faithful of how erroneous theirbeliefs may be. They employ every trick in the book to hold on to their inanefaith.

Thisreminds me of the slogan coined by the NRA: “I’ll give you my gun when you pryit from my cold, dead hands.” Lol This is the attitude that most fundamentalisthave about their faith and their beliefs in the invisible guy in the sky. Let’sjust repeat this slogan to make it more suitable for the theist: “I’ll give youmy bible when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.” Too funny but true!

When itcomes to battling faith it’s like trying to fight an uphill battle whilewearing roller skates! But for the sake of human progress and the betterment ofsociety as a whole, we atheists have an obligation to keep our feet plantedfirmly on the ground and defend our freedoms. We are not going to let ourrights be trampled by faith or have those ridiculous beliefs turn this nation intoa theocracy. Remember, the last time that happened did not work out too well,and those times are known today as the dark ages.

Science trumps faith every time!

2012-01-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

It neverceases to amaze me how theists constantly deny the many contradictions in thebible. Not just self-contradictions, but contradictions to known and provenscientific facts. One example is in the field of astronomy, and it is myopinion that no manner of circular reasoning or apologetics can change the factthat the following story in the bible demonstrates clearly that its authorswere no more divinely inspired than the imaginary personage of Christ himself.

In the book of Joshua chapter 10: 12-14 it says:

¹² Joshua then spoke to Yahweh, the day Yahwehdelivered the Amorites to the Israelites. In the presence of Israel, Joshua said: Sun, standstill over Gibeon, and, moon, you too, over the Vale of Aijalon! ¹³And the sun stood still, and the moon halted, until the people had takenvengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of the Just? The sun stood still in the middle of thesky and delayed its setting for almost a whole day.¹⁴There was never a day like that before or since, when Yahweh obeyedthe voice of a man-- for Yahwehwas fighting for Israel. (NJB)

According to this mythical tale which Jews and Christians take as literal,the sun and the moon both stood still in the heavens for almost an entire day!!Now considering that this was written a few thousand years ago and was thecurrent belief of the time that the planets revolved around the earth it isunderstandable that this mistake was made. But if the authors of the bible weretruly inspired by God wouldn’t you think that the good Lord would use this asproof of his divine inspiration and his existence?

I am led to believe by the facts that we know from astronomy today thatthose people did not know that the earth revolved around the sun. They believedin geo-centrism and it is not hard to see from a spectator’s perspective on theearth, how this mistake could have come about. Every day we are treated to theoptical illusion of the sun rising in the East and setting in the West and ifwe observe for a few hours we can see its apparent traverse across the skiesgiving the illusion that the sun is revolving around the earth. So for thetimes in which this chapter was written it is a forgivable mistake. But tobelieve that these things are true in today’s world is insane and irrational.

When I ask Christians about this inconsistency I am told that this was notan error on God’s part but rather an error on the author’s part. If this is thecase then we must ask what happened to divine inspiration. It seems that thecherry picking believers simply accept what is convenient for them to believeand what they can’t account for is simply ignored and left to rot on thewayside. Or they try to defend it by calling it a miracle on God’s part or oneof those many mysterious ways in which God works. This is nothing more thancircular reasoning that makes no sense.

Just for the record if the sun and the moon were to “stand still” in theheavens as the bible states it would simply mean that the Earth would be nomore. In fact, we would never have read that tale and I would never havewritten this post. For the sun to stand still would require two things tohappen. The first would be that the Earth would have to stop moving in itsorbit and the second is that the Earth would have to stop spinning on its axis.The sun would just continue doing what it has been doing for billions of yearsthe same goes for the moon. It doesn’t take a genius to see that if this wereto really happen that it would lead to a disaster of epic proportions thatmight even affect other nearby planets in our solar system.

Once again, this demonstrates one of many ways in which faith isincompatible with science. When this situation arises Christians seekalternative ways to interpret their scriptures to fall in line with thediscoveries of science. Christian apologetic literature is chock full of reinterpretationsof things in the scriptures that science has disproven. After all of theircircular arguments for their insane beliefs they come to one conclusion: Goddid it! Many more liberal churches now accept evolution as a fact with onetwist. God used evolution as a means of creation! No matter how much reason youpresent to a theist you just can’t win. The blinders of faith know nothing oflogic.

Questions for believers (Christians)

2011-12-28T22:34:00.001-05:00

Not too long ago a poster apparently from the Netherlands who was reading my blog asked me if I could post a link he had provided with a list of questions he thought that every Christian should attempt to answer. I personally went to his site and began to read the list of questions and found that they were indeed logical and reasonable questions to ask. So as per my readers request I am providing the link to his site and urge all of my readers to review this list and feel free to comment here and on his site what you think about these questions. Also, I would appreciate it if theists actually try to provide rational responses to some of these questions. I am very familiar with the bible and would love to hear what you theists have to say about this. So without further ado here is the link for the English version: http://www.freethinker.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=10033 and here is the link for the same site in Dutch: http://www.freethinker.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=8382 Enjoy!!

It's all about fear

2011-12-26T22:36:00.002-05:00

As a formerfundamentalist Pentecostal preacher I struggled daily with a crazy situation. I hadbeen preaching for four years and had a ministry which I shared with the publicon the streets on the weekends and with other churches by invitation. I wasbecoming quite well known in the Christian community, but at the same time Iwas beginning to question many aspects of my faith.

The bibleteaches that as a believer you are to fear the Lord in Matthew 10:28 ²⁸'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear himrather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”(NJB). There are many threats like this throughout the entire bible and it isthese very threats that kept me hanging on to my faith as long as I did. Yousee fear is the driving force behind Christianity especially fundamentalistgroups. They constantly remind you about the consequences of doubt andbacksliding as they like to call those that turn their back on the faith.

During thosedays I was a literalist, and so the threat of hell was not allegorical butrather a very real threat for me. Back then I did not even dare think why aloving god would even create a hell or permit such an inhumane form ofpunishment for someone not believing in his existence or just living theirlives to the fullest without God. As an atheist I demand proof of the existenceof God especially when there are believers trying to influence the U.S. government to make this evil deity’scommandments the law of the land.

We as believers were taught that it was far worse for us because of the factthat we have “known” the truth and willfully turned it down. ²⁶ If,after we have been given knowledge ofthe truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice forthem.
²⁷ There is left only the dreadful prospect ofjudgement and of the fiery wrath that is to devour your enemies.
²⁸ Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses isruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three;
²⁹ and you may be sure that anyone who tramples onthe Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified himas if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit ofgrace, willbe condemned to a far severer punishment. (NJB)

After having read the bible in its entirety and having researched as much asI could regarding the scriptures, I became convinced that not only was thebible not true but that it was a work of fiction. I realized after reading myway through the O.T. that this God was far from loving. The bible is full oftales of this “loving” monster and his so called mercy. The biblical God hasbeen the cause of more tragedy and death and destruction according to the talesof the bible itself. God is far from good, and judging by the standards of menhe is no better than Hitler, Stalin, or Mao put together.

This goes to prove once again that Christians don’t read the bible theyprofess to believe in, and when they do they just ignore what they choose todeny. How can anyone call God good after reading the Old Testament? And evenafter reading the O.T. the N.T. doesn’t make God look any better. The N.T. hasGod punishing people with eternal torment in a hell he created for such sillythings as not believing in him. In fact, living a life without God is a sin nomatter how good of a life you live here on earth. This is what is referred toas coercion through fear and is not what you would expect from a loving god.

Man has many fears, but what fear is greater than the fear of death? Man has been searching for the fountain of youth from time immemorial and has been trying to find ways to prolong life as long as they can. The bible promises eternal life to all those that believe and live their lives according to God's good will. And then to sweeten the pie you are promised a whole bunch of imaginary door prizes for worshiping God and committing your life to him.

The fear of death is made much worse through Christianity through the use of threats of eternal torments that will follow you even after death. Christians believe that they will be resurrected to eternal life and live a perfect existence in the presence of the Lord forever and ever and ever. Now if you ask me, that is worst than hell.

My greatest fear is eternal life in a heavenly realm stroking God's great big ego and telling him how great and wonderful he is. All of this knowing that in all reality if he did exist and if what the bible says he said and did is true would actually make this deity a cruel, vindictive, and maniacal devil. Before I bow down to an eternal dictator I would much rather suffer the torments and flames of the imaginary hell.

God and Birth Defects

2011-12-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things that have alwaysnagged at me was the subject of birth defects. I remember a few years ago thatmy eldest sister and I had a discussion regarding the existence of God. Shesaid that the miracle of birth was evidence of the existence of God, and Iresponded by stating that it was not a miracle and that it was just a naturaland very normal occurrence.

When I was a believer peopleattributed birth defects to several causes and quite frankly none of them made anysense to me. Some said it was demons interfering with the pregnancy whileothers stated that it was God either testing the parents to be or punishingthem for some hidden sin that they have not yet confessed. The bible does infact teach that God punishes the rebellious or sinful man, but it does not getinto the subject of birth defects specifically.

In the book of Deuteronomy 5:9 itstates: … “I punish the parents' fault in the children, thegrandchildren and the great-grandchildren, among those who hate me;”(NJB) or asit says in the KJV to the third and fourth generation. Could this punishmentaside from misfortune in life refer to birth defects as well? Children are bornwith missing limbs, all sorts of congenital disorders, heart disease, mentalillnesses and even conjoined. Does a belief in God a sufficient explanation toaccount for all these different types of phenomenon? I don’t think so.

I thinkthat genetics explains the many causes of these issues a lot better than thebible ever could. Although those of us that are familiar with the scripturesknow that God has no problem with killing children 2 Kings 2:23-24. He killedKing David’s son for his father’s transgression against Bathsheba’s husband. Demons and God’s wrath are silly superstitionsinvented by men who during a pre-scientific age could not explain these thingsin any other way. Myths are important because they give us a peek into the mindof post modern man. As a result of this fact when you read the bible with thisin mind the beliefs of these people are better understood and do not seem sopreposterous.

TheU.S. Center for Disease Control state in their website that there are severalcauses for birth defects but the most common are listed as follows:

Women who take certain drugs, smoke, or drink alcohol during pregnancy.
Women with certain medical conditions, such as diabetes or obesity.
Women who take certain medications that are known to cause birth defects, such as isotretinoin (a drug used to treat severe acne).
Women who have someone in their family with a birth defect. To learn more about your risk of having a baby with a birth defect, you can talk with a clinical geneticist or a genetic counselor.
Women over the age of 35 years.

Considering these facts we begin to see a clearer cause forbirth defects and even some possible ways of prevention when that option isavailable. The site goes on to break down these cause to the following mixtureof factors: Most birth defects are thought to be caused by a complex mix offactors. These factors include our genes, ourbehaviors, and things in the environment. For some birth defects, we know thecause. But for most, we don’t.

Anotherissue that I think is related to this one is that of fertility, if there was aGod then why would he allow women who He Knows would be unfit mothers to havechildren? The hospitals are filled with abused children, crack babies, andchildren who have been found abandoned and left for dead. It seems that also inthird world countries the women are very fertile as well. One woman having tenchildren in the middle of the goddamn desert with no means of supporting themis a very common occurrence, while there are couples all over the world who forwhatever reason can’t have children and have to resort to adoption.

In thebook of Genesis 20:18 we read in that God closed the wombs of all the women inthat town because Abraham had lied to Abimelech by telling him that his wifeSarah was actually his sister. As a result of this lie Abimelech was going totake Sarah to himself. Now if God could do this to an entire town, then whydoesn’t he do this to unfit mothers, crack heads, or abusive parents? I meanwhat is the sense of a child being born only to die at the hands of the neglectand abuse of their parents? The bible has no answer for these questions.

Sources

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/index.html

God loves to play games!

2011-12-13T10:39:00.002-05:00

As an atheist I have always wondered why the bible is full of stories of God testing the faith of his followers. Christians read these same stories and all they see is the rewards that God's faithful obtain after proving themselves worthy but they never ask themselves why the good Lord would have to test anyone in the first place. The answer is that he likes to play games with peoples lives like the little kid burning ants with a magnifying glass!

The bible say's that God knows our innermost thoughts and intentions, so if this is the case then why is he constantly testing peoples faith in him? In fact the bible takes it a step further by stating that "¹⁶ Your eyes could see my embryo. In your book all my days were inscribed, every one that was fixed is there."(Psalms 139:16 NJB). Before you are born and formed in the womb he supposedly knows you and according to this scripture your days on earth are fixed. With this text alone you can forget about free will and living day by day because God has your days planned out in his daily planner lol.

Abraham almost sacrificed his son to God and Job withstood the most arduous tests of any of the biblical characters. Job lost his livestock, all his children in one day, was afflicted with boils all over his body, and had to put up with his wife trying to make him curse God and die, let us not forget his friends who kept blaming him for his calamities! And why did Job go through all of this? So that God could show the devil that even if Job was not blessed and had it all that he would be faithful to the end! It was a wager between God and Satan!

These are not the acts of a personal loving and caring father figure! They are the acts of an insecure little petulant child or unreasonably jealous lover who thinks that everyone wants to steal their mate. If ever there was someone or in this case something or being that abused and abuses his power it has to be the biblical God. He demands complete submission and absolute obedience from those he created to live only to worship and stroke his ego not just in this life but for all eternity.

For those of us who question this deity, who require evidence for his existence and dare to oppose him we are threatened with an eternal place of torment known to the sadistic Christians as hell. This alone makes this god a monster and a sadist. In closing it is my opinion that he does not deserve worship but instead the very mention of him should be greeted with disdain.

How is God merciful?

2011-12-09T09:10:00.001-05:00

This post is in response to an anonymous commentator who stated that although his God was merciful that he/she did not think that he would tolerate blasphemy. So before we get started let's take a look at the dictionary definition of merciful and see if God measures up. According to the free dictionary online mercy is defined as:

1. Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power; clemency.

2. A disposition to be kind and forgiving: a heart full of mercy.

For illustrative purposes I will use one example from the Old Testament that will demonstrate without a doubt that the biblical deity is not merciful; in fact, he is a tyrant! Our story takes place in 1 Kings chapter 18 and I invite all theists and non theists to read it for themselves. According to this tale there was a great famine in Sumaria at the time, and God had sent his prophet Elijah to speak to Ahab regarding the people and their worshiping of a false god called Baal.

Elijah basically told Ahab that they had brought this famine upon themselves due to their infidelity towards Yahweh. He then ordered that all of Israel (the people not the nation) gather on Mount Carmel where Elijah would be. Elijah then issued a challenge to the prophets of Baal which numbered at 450 and basically set the terms of the challenge. Two altars were to be set up with sacrifices for their respective gods. They were to call on their respective gods and the one that responded by fire would be recognized as the one and only true god.

The prophets of Baal spent all day calling out to their god to no avail, but when Elijah called on Yahweh he responded with fire from heaven and all the people fell on their faces and cried "Yahweh is God." As soon as the challenge was over the bible says that: ⁴⁰' Elijah said, 'Seize the prophets of Baal: do not let one of them escape.' They seized them, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon, and there he slaughtered them.'

You read right, they slaughtered all 450 prophets of Baal. Now here is my problem with this, why weren't they given the opportunity to convert after having seen a demonstration of God's power? Where was God's mercy then? Where is God's mercy towards humanity now? It is nowhere to be found. My argument is if God is loving, merciful, and kind then why could he have not just forgiven mankind and all living things as a whole for the transgressions of Adam and Eve? I mean he is supposed to be omnipotent yet he can't with a word restore man back to his original state without going through the ridiculous and lengthy process of redemption through Christ.

This is not the only occasion where God was lacking in compassion, the bible is full of stories like this one and the biblical tyrant is responsible for more deaths in the Old Testament alone than all the mass murderers and tyrants that have ever existed on Earth. It's actually worse in the New Testament where God is not just satisfied to punish the so called "wicked" in this life, but for all eternity in hell. This God is nothing short of evil and not even worthy of worship or respect.

It's funny how God in the O.T. was willing to demonstrate his powers to the people of Israel upon Elijah's request but in the N.T. Jesus admonishes his listeners with these words: ⁷ 'Jesus said to him, 'Scripture also says: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' It's actually a sin to request a demonstration of proof from God! The only means he wants to be known is through blind faith and thus he remains hidden to all the rest of us who ask for proof of his existence first.

The N.T. doctrine of hell demonstrates clearly that the god of the bible is nothing more than a tyrannical dictator who rules with an iron fist. His motto: "Worship me or suffer eternal pain and torment." He requires complete and unwavering submission from his followers who he gladly labels servants a fancy word for slaves.

What was the point of the flood?

2011-12-06T14:11:00.001-05:00

According to Genesis man had fallen from God's graces due to the disobedience of Adam and Eve. If we are to believe the scriptures between chapters 3 and 6 man continued to decline morally and lived only to satisfy the pleasures of his flesh. After some time God became weary and decided: ⁵ Yahweh saw that human wickedness was great on earth and that human hearts contrived nothing but wicked schemes all day long.

Now before we move on I would like to point out that this verse alone challenges the so called claims regarding the attributes of God. Namely, omniscience (all knowing/ infinite knowledge). The reason I say this is that upon closer examination of the text it seems that God was surprised at how man had turned out. So much so that the very next verse says: ⁶ Yahweh regretted having made human beings on earth and was grieved at heart.

The Sage dictionary defines regret as: sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment. Why would God be sad if he already knew that this would be the outcome? If he was truly omniscient he would have known that his so called "good" creation was going to be a bust.

Now what was Hitler ooops I meant God's final solution? Well in the very next verse he makes it known: ⁷ And Yahweh said, 'I shall rid the surface of the earth of the human beings whom I created -- human and animal, the creeping things and the birds of heaven -- for I regret having made them.' Again he emphasizes that he regrets having created not just mankind but all living things.

If we were to use the allegory of disease in regards to sin and a corrupt nature then I could see the logic in destroying all forms of life and starting from scratch. If you had a deadly plague spreading rapidly across a region and was able to contain and exterminate the infected to eliminate further spread and infection then I could agree with such an action and it would make perfect sense. But this is not what the great and knowledgeable God did. For it says in verse 8 that: ⁸ But Noah won Yahweh's favour.

Now here is the kicker, how could one man gains favor with God is he also inherited the curse of God upon all of mankind? Since the fall of man in the garden man was cursed and so were all the future generations. God's curse was like a genetic disorder and as such would not just disappear.

The purpose of the flood was to cleanse the Earth from all wickedness, yet he does not fulfill this by sparing on of the "infected" and his family. And as expected his descendants did exactly like their previous ancestors had done. They ended up going back to their sinful ways and pissing God off once again.

Now in verse 13 you find a huge contradiction in motive for God: ¹³ God said to Noah, 'I have decided that the end has come for all living things, for the earth is full of lawlessness because of human beings. So I am now about to destroy them and the earth. Notice that he said that not only will he destroy all living things but also the earth! If this was his plan then why tell Noah build yourself an ark? In fact why spare Noah at all since as I stated earlier he was infected with God's curse against humanity through the fact that he was part of the human race?

So I have to ask, what was the purpose of the flood? He killed every living man and beast on the face of the earth, except those he let live on the ark. Only to end up back at square one. Then he waited thousands of years before he sends his son the perfect sacrifice to redeem man and begin a new covenant with man.

This chapter undermines the so called omniscience of God. It demonstrates that he does not know everything nor how things will turn out in the future. God is a bad planner and basing ourselves on the Old and New Testament a bully and a tyrant. Luckily for us he does not exist, and these tales are nothing more than myths and legends that have no objective means to validate their claims.

The blame game

2011-12-03T18:09:00.001-05:00

I have been an atheist for nearly 18 years and have debated many a theist. One of the things I find most annoying about debating theists about matters of morality etc. is that they love to play a silly childish game I like to call the blame game. Atheists themselves have been known to also fall into these stupid arguments that in my opinion are completely irrelevant to the issues that matter.

The bible actually contains a very good version of the blame game in Genesis 3:11-13 after having eaten from the tree of knowledge and attempting to hide from the presence of the Lord, they are asked by God why they had disobeyed his commandment. Adam blamed the woman and the woman blamed the snake, but in the end God made all three of them accountable for their individual part in the fiasco.

I have heard Christians blame atheism for atrocities committed against humanity by Communists or other tyrannical forms of government. Atheists on the other hand like to pull out all the dirt that they can find on theism from their own atrocities committed against humanity such as the crusades, inquisitions, etc.

What we all forget is that these acts are not the result of a particular belief system, but rather the result of the acts and beliefs of individuals. You can't blame an entire belief system or lack thereof for the acts of certain men who claim to be proponents of those systems. This also applies when they don't claim to represent any system of belief as well. People have the bad habit of labeling others by their actions or former beliefs.

In the end we as individual are all held accountable and must suffer the consequences or rewards of our own actions. That is part of being an adult, taking responsibility for the things you do in this life in the here and now not in some imaginary afterlife. I am not moral because the bible tells me to be moral and to love my neighbor etc. I am moral because society has taught me that there are rules that we all must abide by.

I didn't learn right from wrong from the biblical god, but rather from my parents. The society I came up in has laws that one must abide by or else suffer imprisonment or in some states the death penalty. When I debate theists I try to avoid playing the blame game because it draws attention away from the real issues that need to be discussed. I can't blame the person I am debating for his religious institutions immoral and brutal actions that happened in the past and in some parts of the world continue to happen when he personally had no part in it.

I personally have a felony on my record from 2003 for resisting arrest one night and injuring a police officer in the process. But society labels me a felon and puts me in the same category as a rapist, murderer, pedophile, etc. What happened to me could've happened to anyone but I have and continue to be judged as bad because of the label felon. It is difficult for me to find a job and I am discriminated against for being a felon. Although I have never stolen anything or robbed anyone or committed any major crime in my life.

In conclusion my fellow atheist, when dealing with theist try not to make blanket statements or label and discriminate against them for the things that other rotten apples of their religious institutions have done. Not all theists are bad, and some are very open to reasonable discussion regarding matters of their faith. Sometimes in the end you just have to agree to disagree and let them go on with their delusion. And remember always to be responsible for your own actions whether they be for better or for worse.

Adam and Eve literal or allegorical?

2011-12-02T00:40:00.001-05:00

One of the latest ploys that the theologians have been using to try to explain all of the inconsistencies of the tale of the Adam and Eve story is to state that those events described in Genesis were not meant to be taken literally. They have been saying that Adam and Eve were not real people and that the entire story of the fall of man was meant to be interpreted allegorically.

There are several problems with this form of interpretation but I will start with the most damaging one first. If Adam and Eve did not exist and the tale of the fall of man was an allegory then that would mean that man never sinned and Jesus died for nothing! If there was no fall and the story is not true then how did man come to be? Where did we come from? Religion has no answer to this question except that God created man out of mud and the woman out of one of mans ribs.

Now here are the reasons that I believe that the author or authors of the story in Genesis meant for it to be taken literally. Genesis 4:1,2 state that Cain and Abel were the first couples two sons, it makes no mention of daughters. In the same chapter we are given a short genealogy of Cain and his family after he was ejected from the garden. Genesis chapter 5:5 says that Adam lived to be 935 years old and fathered a son named Seth at the ripe old age of 130! We are then given a genealogy of Seths family tree in the subsequent verses.

Now if this tale was mean to be an allegory and Adam and Eve never existed, then why go through all the trouble of giving us genealogies and even telling us of Adams death etc.? These things alone contradict the apologists beliefs that this story was not supposed to be taken literally. The author/authors of this tale meant for every word to be taken literally as they wrote it.

The Bible condemns God as a monster!

2011-11-28T01:25:00.001-05:00

Contrary to what some of the readers of my blog may believe, I did not discard my beliefs because of my disillusion with my particular religious sect (Pentecostalism). It wasn't the pastor or the rest of the congregation or what this or that person did or how they conducted themselves towards me. My disillusion began when I first sat down and decided to read the Bible in its entirety.

When I read the bible for the first time I was literally disgusted that I had unknowingly submitted my life and devotion to what I believed was a benevolent deity. The O.T. deity was not the God I thought I loved and worshiped and who at the time I thought loved and looked after me with an even greater love than I could ever imagine. It has been my experience that man has demonstrated more morality throughout our existence than the biblical god has.

You would think that the Hebrews would try to put their god in a more favorable light, but instead they have created a monster who is to be feared and worshiped unconditionally. We are supposed to be forever thankful for his having created us and given us life, we are supposed to remind him through worship how grateful we are for his mercy etc. It's akin to someone lending you money in a time of need and expecting you to thank him for it even after you have paid him back on a daily basis. Not only that, he must remind you to thank him and make sure that you never forget his generosity!

It was not the church or the religion, but rather the testimony of the scriptures regarding this god. It was the crimes against humanity, the complete annihilation of entire races and the usurping of their lands in order to give it to the Hebrews. On some occasions men, women, children, not even the animals or livestock were spared the wrath of God. He punished them for worshiping false gods but he never presented himself to them. Here are some of the great things that the bible contains: fratricide, incest, polygamy, mass murder, ritual killing, massacres, genocide, slavery, etc.

The worst criminals in human history can't hold a candle to the biblical God! Mao and Hitler put together couldn't match the evil and ferocity of the biblical deity. It has been my opinion that if God were a human he would be tried and executed for crimes against humanity. Christians who don't read the bible are given the watered down version and even when they are shown some of God's acts of cruelty they are convinced that the victims brought it on themselves! If God were real then all he had to do was make himself known to mankind through every generation in such a way that his existence would never be in question. But instead the fictional deity only exists on the pages of some ancient texts and the heart and minds of those fools who choose to believe in them as being his word or revelation without learning more about the texts themselves.

I personally despise all religions that require man to debase himself and grovel on the ground to some invisible vainglorious deity that requires worship and praise under the threat of eternal damnation, and through the use and manipulation and fear.

In summation my position is simple: I do not accept the existence of a biblical God or any other gods, the fact that the origins of religious beliefs are rooted in ancient fears of the unknown through the creation of myths and superstitions is telling. I see gods as the creations of man and not the other way around, and feel that the God of the Bible not only does not exist but his existence in and of itself is an impossibility that stands outside the realms of reason. I don't differentiate the biblical deity from all the other thousands of deities that man has created for himself the world over. Basically, if you've seen one myth you've pretty much seen them all.

I honestly don't understand how anyone could read the bible in its entirety and come to the conclusion that God is love. The Jesus tale in the N.T. was an offshoot of the old and anyone who had read both would immediately recognize that it was written in order to make Judaism more palatable to foreigners also known as gentiles in the scriptures. They dropped some of the older Jewish traditions and made the gentiles also acceptable to God through the fictional story of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.

Check your brain at the door

2011-11-21T09:47:00.001-05:00

According to the scriptures faith is a virtue while the quest for knowledge is looked upon with disdain. The New Testament book of Hebrews extolls the virtues of faith in chapter 11 and goes as far as saying : 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 defines faith as: ¹ 'Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen.' According to the scriptures, contrary to reason, we must accept its claims without a prerequisite of evidence. Faith is basically hope in the unknown or the unseen, and what are we supposed to base this hope on? a 2000+ year old collection of writings by a group of for the most part unknown authors.

The first sin according to Genesis that mankind committed against God was that of disobedience. Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (sounds mythical to me). It is interesting to note that this particular tree would open up the eyes of the first couple and make them aware of many things about the world that in their ignorant state would have otherwise remained unknown. This suggests to me that God's original intention was that man remain subservient to him for all eternity.

If you read the story though, you will realize that curiosity brought on by Satan eventually got the best of Eve and Adam followed suit. From the beginning knowledge was a curse, a condemnation that carried the penalty of death! (Gen. 2:17). After the "fall" the only way to truly obtain knowledge was to revert back to the original state of subservience to God. (Proverbs 1:7). According to the cited text knowledge comes from God.

On the other hand, those who refuse to bow down to this imaginary deity are considered fools and corrupt. ⁷ The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; fools spurn wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7). You ever wonder why Christians associate atheism with being morally handicapped or lacking morals altogether? Well, we have the bible to thank for that misconcpetion: ' The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' Their deeds are corrupt and vile, not one of them does right.' (Psalm 14:1). This is state in various places of the bible and theists love to quote it as much as they can.

According to the scriptures without God's guidance all knowledge is a delusion. We are basically taught in the bible to despise our own minds and distrust our powers of observation for faith, submission, and unquestioning loyalty. As a believer you are not allowed to question God, in fact, you are instructed to praise and glorify him in the good as well as the bad times. In the midst of calamity you are supposed to praise God the entire time knowing through faith that some how he will deliver you!

As a former Christian myself I can attest to the fact that once I denounced my beliefs and accepted atheism, the first and hardest lesson I had to learn was to think for myself and be self reliant. The imaginary guy in the sky was no longer a factor in my life. Atheism has taught me to take responsibility for my own life and actions. There is no Satan or devils to blame in my world for my setbacks or failures. My morals are not of divine origin but rather they stem from a sense of right and wrong that I have learned through life and observation.

In closing if you really want to be saved and experience true freedom you will never achieve that sense until you are willing to discard your mythical beliefs and delusions and see the world the way it is. It's a harsh place that is unforgiving and unpredictable but it is the world in which we live in and we have to learn to overcome adversities and adapt to it the best we can. Make your own choices in life and own up to them if you are called upon to answer to them. Waiting on the invisible guy in the sky for an answer will only lead you away from reality and deeper into the path to superstition.

Stop validating religious beliefs!

2011-11-15T08:57:00.001-05:00

Ever since I renounced my religious beliefs over 17 years ago, I have been of the opinion that the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, and any other religious so called sacred texts should be filed in the library or anywhere else in the section labeled mythology. America's academic community has been giving the Bible in particular way too much undeserved attention.

It is an insult to a rationalist such as myself that in today's society in order for you to be heard regarding matters of religion you now have to have a doctorate in philosophy and biblical studies. You don't need to learn Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic to see through the false nature of the Bible and similar texts or so called divine origin.

All it took me in order for me to reject my former beliefs was a thorough reading of the bible in its entirety. I read it from the book of Genesis all the way through to the book of revelations not once but four times. And just to make sure I was not missing something I read it in its entirety in Spanish as well noticing differences in translations from the English versions. The more I read the more absurd the biblical tales became, and the more disgusted I became with myself for having given four years of my life practicing and promoting those implausible and ridiculous beliefs.

I have always had trouble with authority in the sense that I would not tolerate my civil rights being violated nor bow down to any form of tyranny. I have always said that before I would ever let myself be subjugated by any authority, I would prefer death. Living life under oppression is a life that in my view is not even worth living. But fundamental Christianity is just that; a life in oppression. You are subservient to an imaginary deity who demands obedience and worship.

The more I delved into the Old Testament the more it became apparent to me that this deity was no god but rather a monster. The bible is chock full of atrocities committed by God against humanity and most of the time for something as trivial as stealing a scarf, where the offender alone was not punished for the crime but his entire tribe as well. In short the sin was always disobedience in some form of another. But God was not content to punish just the offender but his entire tribe all the way to the 3rd and 4th generation of his family. Exodus 34:7

I think by giving the Bible in particular precedence in our secular universities and institutions of higher learning such precedence all we are doing is validating it as worth consideration. You don't need a college degree to see that the bible not only is not true, but can't be true. The various fields of scientific studies has proven the bible false a hundred times over. Archaeology has proven it false as well, and so have many other disciplines of knowledge.

It's time people stop giving this book so much damn attention and they put it where it belongs; right alongside all of the other ancient books that propagated beliefs in bunk and superstition. The bible is written by fallible men and is not inspired by no deity, it is an ancient superstition like all the other religious beliefs that preceded it, and is not even worthy of all the time an energy that has been put into it in serious studies conducted by academics.

Giving the Bible this prestigious place in academic circles inadvertently validates it instead of debunking it. Our government has and continues to assist Christianity in maintaining its prominent place in our society by allowing its influence to corrupt even our governments and our laws and policies. It's high time that our government puts its foot down and starts making the church subservient to the laws of the land. They should make the church pay taxes like everyone else and take away their so called "non-profit organization" status. If you as an individual or institution want to worship and believe in superstitions then be my guest. But you should keep your damn beliefs from infringing on my rights as an unbeliever.

Separation of church and state should be enforced to the fullest in every aspect of our society, there should be no exceptions regardless of religious affiliations. In my state the clergy can violate parking laws with the permission of the state by putting up their church business plaque on their windshield. They don't pay grocery taxes since they carry a tax exempt card with them and all they have to say is that its for church purposes etc. They are not obligated by the IRS to report their finances and it's because of laws like these that we see such abuses committed by the church and many of its representatives. It's high time that the church be treated like the rest of us, and that these exceptions be taken away from them.

Jesus Is Late!

2011-11-12T14:32:00.001-05:00

In this article I would like to point out to Christians and Atheists alike that Jesus did not fulfill his most important promise. In order to do this I will be using a couple of biblical references regarding the return of Jesus Christ. I will use the scriptures to demonstrate how the early church expected the return of their Lord in their generation and not 2,000+ years later. With that being said let's begin with what Jesus had to say about his return.

Since the book of Mark is believed to be the first gospel, let's take a look at chapter 9 verse 1: ¹ And he said to them, 'In truth I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.' In the previous chapter Jesus called his disciples and other people around to listen to his sermon. Obviously he was speaking to them and not to our future generation.

Because of the fact that immediately after this verse it goes into Christ being transfigured before the eyes of Peter, James, and John people assume that this is what Jesus was referring to. But the transfiguration is a far cry from the coming of his Kingdom. The book of Matthew confirms this in chapter 16 verse 27: ²⁷ 'For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his behaviour. He then follows with the same statement made by Mark cited above.

Luke also confirms that the apostles and followers of Jesus expected his return in chapter 9 verse 26: ²⁶For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. And like Matthew followed this verse with the citation I used from the book of Mark. In the book of Mark chapter 13 verse 30 regarding the end times say's this: ³⁰ In truth I tell you, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place.

Apologists like to use Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32 which both say the exact same thing: ³² 'But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.' These verses and others have been used as a means to defend the fact that 2,000+ years later Jesus has not yet returned.

It's a clever ruse because when taken out of context these verses and this type of mentality can go on forever and continue to perpetuate the myth for generations to come. This just goes to show how desperate Christians are for their ridiculous beliefs to be true. In order to accept this inane faith you have to be completely in denial of the truth, and intellectually dishonest with yourself. If you put the Christian belief of the second coming into perspective you would see how insane it really is.

A man/god who died over 2,000 years ago and rose from the dead three days later, and depending on which text you read, hung around for 40 days before floating back up to heaven before the eyes of 500 unknown witnesses and will one day return. If it sounds stupid, that's because it is! Not to mention the fact that this Jesus fellow is nowhere to be found outside of the scriptures conclusively. Even if he did exist, he is definitely not coming back because he was not a god, nor the son of a god, but rather a man just like you or I.

Do as I say, not as I do!

2011-11-09T07:54:00.001-05:00

If you took the time to read the bible from cover to cover as I have done, the first thing you will notice is the recurring theme which is the title of this post. In the end, it all boils down to obedience; from mans first test in the garden of Eden to his final breath on this earth. But according to the scriptures there is a catch to all of this. Just like the traffic cops instructions at the intersection supersedes the written traffic laws, so does God's direct commands supersede his written laws. There are many examples of this in the scriptures so I will only demonstrate a few.

The next rule requires that you don't ask any questions just do what "God" commands of you even if it makes no sense to you at the time. Job when he was going through his trials received a pretty good tongue lashing from his god for asking to many questions. This admonishment lasted from chapters 38 to 42 where the deity asked Job a bunch of impossible questions and pretty much established his authority over mankind. Job then repented was supposedly restored before the site of God and rewarded for his faithfulness.

I know that these stories are myths but I am just trying to briefly establish my first too points regarding these two main themes that are prevalent throughout the entire scriptures. The first example of do as I say and not as I do is the following: Exodus 20:13 'You shall not kill.' That is the sixth of the ten commandments. But look what good old God commands them to do later on to the Midianites: Numbers 31:7,9 ⁷ They made war on Midian, as Yahweh had ordered Moses, and put every male to death.⁹ The Israelites took the Midianite women and their little ones captive and carried off all their cattle, all their flocks and all their goods as booty.

I am convinced that it's passages like this one and many others in the scriptures that motivated the various inquisitions. The Churches biggest threat was Islam and so they fought for power and control of the world through military might and the subjugation of its people through fear and intimidation through the forced acceptance of myths through pain of death if you refused.

The next example of the first theme was the famous story of Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice his son to the Lord to demonstrate to God his absolute loyalty and obedience. Although the Lord did not let him go through with it at the very last moment, he was rewarded for his loyalty. Christians try to brush this off as just a test of Abraham's faithfulness to God, but test or not he was willing to kill his child for the Lord. If this was a true story which I completely doubt it was, then that poor kid must have been traumatized for the rest of his life.

Finally, in the ten commandments God says in Exodus 20:3,4 ³ 'You shall have no other gods to rival me.⁴ 'You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth. Yet later on in the scriptures he commands Moses in Numbers 21:8,9 ⁸ and Yahweh replied, 'Make a fiery serpent and raise it as a standard. Anyone who is bitten and looks at it will survive.'⁹ Moses then made a serpent out of bronze and raised it as a standard, and anyone who was bitten by a serpent and looked at the bronze serpent survived.

This was done to stay a plague of poisonous serpents that the good Lord himself started! There are many similar stories in the bible in the O.T. as well as in the N.T. that illustrate what I have spoken of in this post. To me this is all the more reason to not believe, much less worship such a cruel and merciless tyrant that is the biblical God.

It's funny how we as a species tend to forget all the good an individual has done in his life for one single act of evil. But when it comes to God he can do no wrong no matter how evil his acts or deeds this is just another one of the many Christian double standards.

Giving Up Your Beliefs In Fairy Tales

2011-11-07T18:38:00.000-05:00

It is incredible and hard to believe that with all the advances in human technology and the sciences that we still cling to beliefs in myths. The whole idea of some being that is undetectable who lives outside of our known time and space is ridiculous. When someone talks out loud to themselves he is thought to have lost his mind, but when someone prays to an imaginary friend he is perfectly sane. That's what you call a double standard and it's not accurate nor fair to live by it.

Recently in the news I saw a story on how our nations government was debating whether to keep 'In God We Trust' as our nations motto or whether we should discard it altogether. Not surprisingly the votes for this motto were overwhelmingly greater than those against it. Congress voted 396 for the motto and only 9 representatives voted against it while two others abstained from voting. Part of the bill encouraged that the motto be displayed in all public schools and government buildings! There goes the separation of church and state!

Before you know it we might have to be forced to become Christians in order to obtain government jobs. The U.S. makes me sick to my stomach sometimes with their hypocritical acts. A portion of our taxes go towards supporting certain religious institutions although we individually might be opposed to that. We can't even pull out a coin or any other currency without seeing the stupid affirmation of false beliefs that this nation clings to.

If you really want separation of church and state then you need to start by removing that stupid motto from our currency and public places. That is one of the many reasons that you have all of these Christian fanatics saying that the U.S. is founded by Christian principles when in fact it was not. We as a nation have done pretty good without God. The only thing we have in common with God and religion is that we too have committed heinous acts of murder to obtain this land and our so called freedoms.

The bible and its god has proven himself to be absolutely useless and unnecessary to our nation and our individual selves. Many people use religion to mask who they are and cover up their idiotic acts. How many have sat in a court room and blamed the devil for their crimes?

Come on people, the dark ages are over! It's time we get our heads out of our asses and recognize religion and religious beliefs for what they are. God does not exist, in fact he was an invention of man. There is only one verse of scripture that I like although Paul was talking about something completely different, I think this saying applies here and is completely relevant to unproven beliefs in fairy tales. 'When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.' 1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)I know that the King James Version of scripture is not the best but I love the way it's worded.

Christianity has been called by many Santa Clause for adults for a reason. There is for example no evidence outside of the biblical narrative that Jesus Christ even existed. And what evidence some think there is has been proven to be false or left up to individual interpretation. Does anyone know what Jesus real name was? Christ is not a proper name, it's a title that means the anointed one or the chosen sort of like Neo from 'The Matrix.'

It's time people take their bibles and put them to good use for such things as holding the door open or paper for your pets to defecate on. I am good without God and it was actually liberating for me to break free from those ancient superstitions. We've learned so much from science and discovery to continually turn back to myths. We need to eliminate God, the bible, and those silly beliefs altogether in order to progress and move forward as a nation. As long as we keep being slaves to superstition we will be stagnant and non progressive.

Hell is for everyone!

2011-11-03T13:45:00.000-04:00

Many Christians who do not take the time to study the scriptures they so diligently believe to be true, don't realize that the bible teaches that hell is not only for the wicked. You hear them say it all the time regarding murderers, rapist, pedophiles, dictators, etc. "I hope he rots in hell!" But upon closer examination of the scriptures could it be possible that even a good person could go to hell? If this is true then what are the conditions that would lead him there in the first place?

According to Ephesians 2:8,9 you are saved by faith: '8 Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;9 not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.'(NJB) But it takes a combination of both works and faith for you to earn your place in the kingdom of God. James 2:14,17,18,24 '14 How does it help, my brothers, when someone who has never done a single good act claims to have faith? Will that faith bring salvation?17 In the same way faith, if good deeds do not go with it, is quite dead.18 But someone may say: So you have faith and I have good deeds? Show me this faith of yours without deeds, then! It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith.24 You see now that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified.' (NJB)

According to the above cited scriptures faith/belief is a prerequisite to salvation. If this is true that means that anyone who does not believe in God is on the highway to hell so to speak. This would include atheist, agnostics, those that have different religious beliefs, etc. You can be the best person in your lifetime in the eyes of your family, children, wife, friends, and neighbors, but if you are an atheist you are going to hell.

Christianity is a religion that is based on coercion, obedience, and fear. 7 'The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; fools spurn wisdom and discipline.' Proverbs 1:7 makes this quite clear and so does Luke 12:4,5 4 'To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.5 I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, he is the one to fear.'(NJB)

So based on the scriptures hell is for all those that do not believe regardless of his/her works. Submission through repentance is the main requirement and without it no matter what good deeds you have done in this life you are going to hell. If you're one of those hypocritical Christians that have faith but don't have works then you will also be joining me in your fictional hell as well. Tough break huh?

This article and the bibles own admission proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the biblical God is a tyrant and a prick who deserves to be executed for his crimes against humanity. Even if he did exist, I would not worship a tyrant so hell would be awaiting my entry with open arms.

Practical Atheism

2011-10-23T09:44:00.000-04:00

One thing can be said about atheism and that is that simply put it is the rejection or non-belief in gods and this means all gods. I have read literature on atheism from many perspectives and the one I find the most useless and ridiculous is the philosophical one. I am of the opinion that philosophy is not the appropriate discipline to argue the existence of the biblical God.

“I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one less god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” —Stephen F Roberts

This now famous quote expresses my form of atheism, although I have been accused by theists of being too simplistic. But I feel that in defending my atheism I should not have to go through the trouble of trying to define for example the so called attributes of God. The question I ask is basically; attributes, what attributes? Christians can't even define the attributes of their god because they are too busy trying to interpret what the bible says they are and in what sense they are meant to be understood.

Christian apologetics try to use modern as well as classical philosophical arguments to defend their beliefs, but in doing so all they end up doing is confusing themselves as well as others with circular nonsensical arguments. For example to argue that everything that exist has a cause for its existence and then name that cause God is nothing more than special pleading which in and of itself is classified as a logical fallacy.

Regarding the beginning of all things I am simply content with the idea that it is still a mystery that science has yet to solve. We may never know in fact, but I am okay with that. But to use the God of the gaps argument to plug up the holes or mysteries that science has yet to resolve is inane. Besides the onus of proving the existence of God falls on the believer entirely. The atheist in this situation has nothing to prove. Basically I don't believe in the biblical God or any other gods because the idea of supernatural beings ruling the universe is insane and outright ridiculous.

The greatest challenge to the theist is that of trying to prove the existence of their God. Anyone who has taken the time to study the bible profoundly and without bias is bound to come out a nonbeliever. Everyone knows that proving the existence of God objectively is an impossible task I am of the opinion that whoever achieves this monumental task will undoubtedly win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Belief in God takes faith for a very good reason, the reason being that his existence cannot be proven. In other words you must accept that he exists without the requirement of evidence. God is and always will be the creation of man and a figment of the imagination.

The Bible Is Outdated

2011-10-14T17:21:00.000-04:00

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

The above cited quote exhorts believers to study but even in today's world this is quite impossible. There are several challenges that a Christian faces when he/she takes the initiative and decides to delve into the scriptures even further than your typical church Sunday bible study. The first of these challenges is that of translations, and which one you should use for the purpose of studying. In the English language alone there are over 500 translations!

The next hurdle is that of interpretation. Depending on which Christian church you are a member of will determine how you interpret what you read. Unless you approach your bible with an open mind then your interpretation is already biased by your denomination of choice. You must also keep in mind that none of the original texts that comprise the bible exist today and that what you are actually reading are copies of copies.

Another major problem is that the bible is outdated. When studying the bible you must read it while taking into consideration its cultural context and the time period in which it was first written and refers to. Even today it is evident that there are huge cultural differences between the U.S. and the Middle East. Many people read the bible and forget that the events described in its pages supposedly happened from 2 to 5,000 years ago. You simply cannot apply some of the bibles so called moral and legal teachings to the modern world.

Putting your faith aside you will see that by modern standards the bible is chock full of inconsistencies and outright absurdities. There is nothing holy about the Holy Bible. Contrary to what many Christians think about their god it will only take a reading of the O.T. to see what a cruel and vindictive deity they serve.

The laws in the scriptures as allegedly given to Moses whose existence is questionable are cruel and seem communistic. I have always and continue to refer to the biblical god as a dictator. These are just some examples of the insanity that are biblical laws. God was very fond of the death penalty as demonstrated by these texts. In Leviticus chapter 20 it states that you shall be punished with death if you worship other gods, curse your parents, commit adultery ( have sex with someone other than your wife or husband), if you have sex with your step mom, if you have sex with someone of the same sex, if you blaspheme the name of the Lord etc. Don't take my word for it give that chapter a read for yourself.

The bible is and always has been a book of myths and is nothing more than a collection of a cultures paranoid superstitions. This is my opinion and it applies to all of the so called holy books out there.

Learned believers? LOL

2011-10-06T09:33:00.002-04:00

One of the things that I find hard to believe is how far Christianity has come from its birth to its current state. Whoever thought two thousand plus years ago that this myth would be taken so seriously in some parts of the world that people would need college degrees and doctorates to qualify as authorities on the scriptures?

In my opinion when it comes to Christianity and the scriptures all it takes to understand them is common sense. I have no respect for a minister who holds a doctorate in theology, that is the same to me as holding a doctorate in astrology; utterly useless! Becoming an expert on superstitions and myths does not equate being an expert in the more mundane practices of the various disciplines of science such as medicine, math, astronomy, etc.

When it comes to the bible the fact that outside of those scriptures none of those fantastic tales can be verified makes the case against most of them being untrue. I am of the opinion that there is some history mixed in the scriptures but that they have been cleverly interwoven with myths. For instance, it takes a huge stretch of the imagination to believe that Samson singlehandedly slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass (donkey) as described in Judges 15:15.

It takes an even greater stretch of the imagination to literally believe that the tribes of Israel brought down the great walls of the city of Jericho by walking around the city for seven days silently and then finally blowing trumpets! The absurdities in the bible both in the old and new testaments are too many to count and too unbelievable to be taken seriously. But despite all of these absurdities there are many fundamentalists out there that swear by the veracity of these tales on nothing more than faith.

When theists tell me that history and archeology confirm the biblical narratives it just tells me that they are ignorant and ill informed about both disciplines. Christians have their own version of science and archeology which consists of fabricating evidence to fit their stories. In other words, their idea of science is first establishing on faith that their tales are true and then finding evidence that fits what they believe. This methodology is the complete opposite of how scientific study is approached and conducted.

In closing I would like to end with the quote from Carl Sagan which states that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” To date the church has utterly failed to prove conclusively one single story of the biblical narratives. Their so called evidences have been proven many times to be fraudulent and faulty. Unfortunately for them subjective evidence does not qualify as evidence for the naysayers and non-believers such as myself. Let’s face it, without the bible you would not have even known of the existence of any of those tales nor held any beliefs about the divinity of such tales. The fact that these tales only exist as told in the bible make these tales all the more incredulous.

Cognitive dissonance and theism

2011-10-04T09:26:00.000-04:00

As a former Pentecostal fundamentalist who has lived the life of a fanatic, I can say that the process of de=conversion is frightening and stressful. It is different for everyone but the deeper your commitment to God the harder it is to wean yourself from those deeply rooted beliefs.

In 1990 I was a Pentecostal evangelist who had an outreach ministry that consisted of preaching on the streets on the weekends and in churches during the week. My particular ministry was what is known as a deliverance ministry which basically meant that I specialized in exorcisms. I dealt often with the so called demon possessed and used the bible and my so called believed authority in Christ to overcome the powers of darkness.

During those years I believed that I had God’s spirit residing in me, guiding my every move and delivering the possessed, healing the sick, prophesying, etc. I thought I felt God’s presence constantly in and around me. I mentally talked to myself everyday and all day long believing I was having a conversation with God.

I was at a local atheist meeting recently and several of the guests were interested in hearing specifically about what made me turn my back on God and my religious beliefs. At the time as now I can’t quite pin it down to one motive but rather to a collection of experiences. One of the things I did as a fundie was that I did not listen to so called worldly music and I did not even watch television unless it was Christian programming. I did not read anti-Christian books but I read all books that I thought would strengthen my beliefs and inform me about my ministry and how I could perform my duties to the best of my abilities.

When I was in seminary there was one issue that really had my curiosity and it happened to be the theory of evolution. I remember how I eagerly awaited the day that we would reach the chapter in our textbook that dealt with alternative theories of origins. When the day had finally arrived I recall that the instructor of the course paused when he got to the theory of evolution and there was a silence of about a few seconds. He then looked up at the class with this silly grin on his face and said: “ if you believe that you came from a monkey go right ahead, as for me… I am a child of God and was created by him.” With this statement he closed the book and dismissed the class!

To say that I was upset was an understatement, but this was the reason why I personally took it upon myself to read everything I could get my hands on regarding the theory of evolution. This included reading all of the works of Darwin and some of the then popular books on the subject. Then next thing that happened to me was that I was challenged by my pastor to read the bible in its entirety at least once so that I could understand God’s plan better.

I took up this challenge and I ended up reading the bible four times and it seemed that the moe I read the more disgusted I became. The God of the O.T. did not seem anything at all like the god I worshiped. He was a tyrant and evil to the nth degree. The biblical God was racist, endorsed slavery, got angry often over the most petty offenses, etc. He was nothing like the God of love I believed in who took upon himself the ultimate burden of liberating us from sin to save us all from eternal damnation, a fate which in reality he created lol but that is another issue altogether.

The bible also led me to question my own practices and beliefs regarding the workings of the Holy Spirit its use in the ministry and in the church etc. brought a lot of questions and doubts to my mind regarding what I had experienced in my church and ministry. Then I read a book that changed my entire life, although I don’t think that it was the authors intent to lead me into atheism since he was a Christian himself. The book was called ‘Charismatic Chaos’ by John F. MacArthur. Since I was having issues with the use of the Holy Spirit and I was a charismatic myself of course when I saw the title of this book in a Christian bookstore I was stopped dead in my tracks and bought it on the spot.

The author basically stated that the gifts of the Spirit were no longer needed or active since their only purpose was to help the church during its infancy to establish itself. By the time I was reading this book I had already come to the same conclusions and was already doubtful regarding my own experiences with the Spirit. This was the hardest part of my de-conversion for me and I was very afraid where these ideas would lead me. I was so impressed with this book that I wrote the author for advice regarding which church affiliation I should seek out. He wrote back to me with a list of churches he was affiliated with in my area although I did not visit any of them or follow through with his advice.

By the time he wrote me back a couple of months later I was already starting to pull out of my church and only attending service on rare occasions. My heart was no longer in it and my beliefs were in serious question. Because of my deep seated beliefs my fear of God haunted me for about 6 years after I left the church and it took about as long before I openly admitted that I was an atheist.

As an atheist I love reading everything I can get my hands on regarding Christianity and religions in general but it is more for informational purposes. I refute what I believe now to be nothing more than superstitious lies and false beliefs. I don’t hate Christians but I do hate Christianity and religions in general. I personally feel that they do more harm than good and that the more fanatical that you are the more prone you are to doing and believing stupid things.

In closing my point here is that it’s not easy for some theists to abandon deep seated religious beliefs. John Loftus mentioned in his book that this is because of cognitive dissonance: "Cognitive dissonance is the mental conflict that people experience when they are presented with evidence that their beliefs or assumptions are wrong." Montier (2002)

It is because of cognitive dissonance that theists have such a hard time letting go of their beliefs despite the evidence presented against them. Apologetics is a perfect example of this and demonstrates that this is true not only of the less intelligent but even among the elite. There are theists that despite their religious beliefs demonstrate a higher than average intelligence in other areas of knowledge. It is not about intelligence or lack thereof as some assume but rather about culture and upbringing.

Anthropomorphism and God

2011-09-26T07:27:00.000-04:00

Normally I hate using big words on my blog to describe religion or Christianity in particular, but... I have had this topic on my mind for quite some time and have finally decided to write about it here. I believe that this is one of the tell tale signs that man created gods and not the other way around. When I read the bible I do not see any imprint of the divine, in fact it all looks like a product of human fabrication.

I generally attack Christianity because it is the number one religion in the world with the most adherents, and because it is what I know. But the analyses contained in this article is relevant to all religions past and present that worship some form of deity that is similar to man.

So let's start this article by defining that big word that is included in the title of this article in the simplest way possible. According to the Sage dictionary that I have on my system it is defined as: 'The representation of objects (especially a god) as having human form or traits.' It is important to understand that this definition is needed to understand not just today's religions but those of antiquity as being of human origin.

It is interesting to note that our gods, from the beginning of time have always been described as having some sort of human form or traits. Many ancient gods are also described as gender specific by his/her (goddess)followers. The Greeks and the Romans religious beliefs were a perfect example of anthropomorphism. They generally believed that everything in the universe, including random acts of nature were determined by the gods. Disasters were the physical display of a gods displeasure with his/her adherents.

The biblical God is said to be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent (everywhere at once), and finally ineffable (defying expression or description). Yet, the bible is chock full of descriptions of this god and coincidentally he seems all too human for my taste. In fact, all of those divine traits are overshadowed by his human traits. This God displays both positive and negative human traits that if we are to take the bible at face value betray the sacredness of God himself.

Most of the time we hear from believers that God is love but we seldom hear that he is also jealous and a consuming fire as described in Deuteronomy 4:24. God hates certain acts or deeds, he is jealous of other gods, he punishes and curses those that oppose him etc. All of these negative traits in my opinion don't belong to a deity who is supposed to be holy, perfect, and without sin. When you think of it doesn't the bible teach that hating and cursing people is a sin? The bible teaches that you should love your enemies and bless them that curse you (Matthew 5:44). Yet God can't seem to adhere to his own Word.

Why is this disparity so contradictory to what we hear about God from his adherents? Because it is not the word of God but the word of man, it's as simple as that. God is said to be holy yet his words and deeds as ascribed to him by the many authors of the bible betray this assumption.

The bible teaches that we were created in His image Genesis 1:26 when in fact the truth is the other way around. We created God in our image and I believe that if we were any other species capable of worship our god would look just like us as is illustrated in the 2001 movie 'Planet of the Apes.' In this film the apes were awaiting the return of their chimpanzee messiah Semos. Many have stated that God is the creation of primitive man in a pre-scientific age. In closing I second this opinion.

Why Jesus could not tell his own story

2011-09-12T12:40:00.000-04:00

A couple of months ago on an atheist blog I participate in often another atheist asked the following question: "Did Jesus even know how to write?" I replied in the affirmative basing my reply on the gospel according to John 8:6-8.

6 They asked him this as a test, looking for an accusation to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger.

7 As they persisted with their question, he straightened up and said, 'Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her.'

8 Then he bent down and continued writing on the ground. (NJB)

To my knowledge this is the only place in the N.T. where you hear of Jesus writing anything at all. In fact, in this particular text it does not even bother to say what it was he supposedly wrote on the ground.

This question got me to thinking about why if the message of Christ was so important and so dire did he not write his own autobiography or doctrinal texts? I think this is a legitimate question that needs a reply. He is supposed to have been the son of God or God incarnate depending on which branch of Christianity you choose to subscribe to. Because of this lack of foresight we are left with a bunch of anonymous works that have been altered through time and are nothing more than a collection of nonsensical contradictory expressions of their authors personal beliefs and interpretations of doctrine.

One of my favorite works is 'The Age of Reason' by Thomas Paine. Although he was a deist and a believer in a God, he did not subscribe to any written text claiming divine origins or inspiration.Paine believed in nature as the unmistakable language of God. For those of you interested in reading this book for free you can access an online version at http://www.ushistory.org/PAINE/reason/index.htm. Here is a direct quote from that book:

"It is only in the CREATION that all our ideas and conceptions of a
word of God can unite. The Creation speaketh an universal language,
independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and
various as they be. It is an ever existing original, which every man
can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot
be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not
depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it
publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches
to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man
all that is necessary for man to know of God."

Although I am an atheist and do not subscribe to a belief in gods or a God of any kind I agree with Paine that the written word is an unreliable means for any deity to reveal himself to mankind. The fact that it is subject to translation, editing, suppression, and the manipulation of mankind makes it nothing more than useless.

The history of the church has proven these statements time and time again. The church decided which books or works they considered divinely inspired or not. If they did not like what the author had to say his book was rejected and not included in the Canon.

In conclusion to this short essay I believe that the reason Jesus did not write his own autobiography or any doctrinal texts is because he simply couldn't, because he did not exist.

On miracles

2011-09-08T08:22:00.000-04:00

One of the issues I have encountered numerous times with my discussions with theists is that they believe what they believe on faith, therefore, facts to the contrary are not relevant. The whole idea of faith is basically to accept in this case the alleged writings of the so called prophets and apostles of the bible without any evidence to corroborate their stories.

Another big issue is that of miracles. You simply cannot put the gods or in this case the biblical God to the test. Since miracles and God belong to the realm of the supernatural they are completely outside the reach of the scientific community. There is obviously no way to verify whether Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, walked on water, ascended to heaven like a bird etc. All of these tales in my view are just that tales that completely fall under the classification of myth.

One question that nags me from time to time is why doesn't God do those same kinds of miracles today? Sure there are many amongst the more charismatic branches of Christianity claiming all sorts of miracles but like the bible authors they have no evidence to corroborate their extraordinary claims.

Instead what we see in today's day and age is a bunch of charlatans on television and radio getting rich off of the gullibility of believers. In fact these same charlatans claim that it is a sin to question them most of the time regarding miracles.

Anyone could write a mythological tale and place it in the setting of an actual existing place to give it that feel of authenticity. It's called fiction writing and we have been doing it for at least a few thousand years. I've had Christians try to argue that archeology confirmed that such and such a place existed as evidence that the bible tales in question and the events it claims transpired there must be true! The fact is that all archeology can confirm is that the place existed at one time or another. As to the alleged miraculous events ascribed to that place nothing can be said.

The Bible in its entirety describes some extraordinary miraculous events that defy logic and are an obvious contradiction to what we know about nature and its workings. But as far as today goes we don't tend to see those same kinds of miracles. You never hear about someone who was born blind, death, mute, or missing a limb being completely made whole again. Instead what you see today are a bunch of cheesy so called miraculous occurrences fabricated by the many charlatans calling themselves representatives of God.

Today's churches don't hesitate to label anything a miracle when in fact they are nothing more than coincidences or in some cases of apparent relief from pain etc temporary relief from psychosomatic disorders. Miracles if they ever occurred as described in the bible or today cannot be proven or verified conclusively. it is a matter of acceptance by faith

There is an interesting tale in the gospel of Mark 5:18-20 where Jesus meets a man who was possessed by a legion of demons. The story relates that he was well known in his community for being a lunatic and a violent man who lived in caves and in the cemetary. When Jesus arrived and had cured him of his possession he begged him to allow him to go with him. But Jesus sent him back to town to show and tell the people what God had done for him.

The point here is that this man was known in his entire town by pretty much everyone. He was sent back to testify to those that knew him and would have little doubts regarding the truth of his tale. I have never considered a miracle claim by a stranger without verification. To date there has been none found by objective investigators anywhere. There are occurrences that defy logic from time to time but calling these events miracles in my opinion is a misnomer. I prefer to call them strange occurrences or coincidences.

Irresponsible Fundies

2011-08-30T20:54:00.001-04:00

Recently my older brother had some sort of domestic dispute with his wife and ended up getting beat up by his step daughters boy friend. In the end he ended up going to jail that night and was charged with 3rd degree assault and disorderly conduct. He is a fundamentalist Pentecostal and the true definition of ignorant fanatic. He like myself in the past is a member of an hispanic church who tend to take christian beliefs to the extreme.

These people seem to be living in the dark ages still and tend to see the influence of Satan in everything and everywhere. They are also what I like to call miracle mongers, they tend to gravitate towards people that can make them "feel" the presence of God or the Holy Spirit. If you demonstrate that you can heal the sick with a touch, cast out demons, prophesy,etc. then you will be highly successful and sought after.

The problem with this is that it tends to promote gullibility, and makes them easy marks for con artists and scammers. Another negative aspect of this sort of belief is that it also fosters hypocrisy and lack of responsibility for ones own actions. My sister is also a member of the same type of Pentecostalism and has been for about 10 years. She claims to receive messages from the Lord and to be guided in her life by his Spirit.

If you would look up the definition for hypocrite in the dictionary you would probably see a picture of my sister. She can talk about holiness and dedication to God etc. but her life does not reflect her beliefs. This is a woman who abandoned all of her kids who are now all grown, discarded her entire family for some female member of the church whom she refers to as her "spiritual mom." Meanwhile her real mom has not heard from her much and she has neglected her as well. She is a glutton, and a poor excuse for a human being. Her own children despise her and now that she needs help from her family again she has returned to find that none of us give a shit about her and are unwilling to help her in any way.

Before she left and gave her life to the Lord she came upon a million dollar settlement for losing her husband to carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment they shared. She was in a coma for about a week, but when she got her money she moved to the Dominican Republic with her "spiritual mom" and has not been heard from till recently. She has called my house several times and spoken to my wife but I refuse to speak to her. I let her know through my wife that I don't have time for hypocrisy and that I hate hypocrites.

My brother on the other hand told me today that he drank a few wine coolers and lost his head. He then went on about how if you give the devil a chance he would devour you up. I told him the devil did not shove the bottle down your throat that choice you made all on your own. He attributed his latest arrest to Satan's meddling and refuses to take full responsibility for his actions and the consequences that followed.

This is the sort of Christianity that makes me sick to my stomach, but at least I let my family know where I stand. Everyone that knows me knows that I am an atheist and I am very outspoken about my unbelief and my reasons for being this way. Comparing my life now to the way it was when I was a theist I would have to say that I am good without God.

I guess I am just ranting, so if this bothers any of my readers I apologize and hope that you will keep checking back to my blog for more informative information about my experiences as a former fundie and Christian hypocrite lol. Sorry, I had to throw that in there. I hate hypocrisy.

Ten reasons why the Bible is not the word of God (updated)

2011-08-12T09:57:00.001-04:00

1. The bible was written and created from the fertile imagination of man. Whether you choose to believe that it was “inspired” by God is a matter of faith entirely and not fact.

2. There are no firsthand accounts of the life of Jesus in the entire New Testament.

3. The earliest gospel (Mark) was not written till about 40 years after the alleged death of Jesus.

4. Many of the sayings of Jesus in Mark are supposedly copied from a hypothetical document called Q which has not been found. The existence of Q is nothing more than speculation.

5. The authors of the synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke and of the gospel of John were unknown and the names attached to these gospels did not appear till late in the second century. This was done in order to add authenticity to the work in keeping with the apostolic tradition which required that in order for a work to be considered inspired it had to have been written by an apostle or one of his followers.

6. Many of the so called historical accounts of events in the scriptures could not be corroborated with actual evidence outside of the scriptures themselves.

7. There are no extant (existing) copies of the original gospels, what we currently have are copies of copies that have been substantially edited by numerous scribes and the Church itself.

8. All the books of the bible were voted upon as inspired or uninspired by the clergy and bishops through several councils. Just another part of the editing process.

9. The bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. This leaves plenty of room for human error in transcribing ancient languages to modern day speech. It is difficult even today to translate from one modern language into another accurately and still be able to maintain the authenticity of the message. Imagine what it’s like to do it with ancient languages that have changed or evolved over time.

10. The abundance of embellished stories that mix superstition with facts make it impossible to accept these stories as authentic or trustworthy.

Religion: A profitable business

2011-08-11T22:56:00.000-04:00

Recently I received an email from an investment company out of the UK asking if I would be interested in sharing an article that they put together regarding an investigation that they have conducted on the financial gains of religious institutions. Of course after having read the article I thought it would be nice to share it with my readers as well.

The article takes a look at Scientology, Catholicism, Televangelism, Freemasonry, and The Church of England. It tops this all off with a short list of religious billionaires. When required it gives you a short history of the religious movement being examined, and then it goes into their reported earnings and scandals related to those earnings. They also provide hyperlinks within the text that will take you to their sources if you want to obtain a little bit more in depth information.

The following is an excerpt:

Established in 1952 as a successor to dianetics, the Church of Scientology has always been a controversial entity. It has been criticised for taking money from vulnerable people, and reports of suicide and financial ruin caused by the extortionate fees incured as a Thetan are not unheard of. Rumour of harassment and covert surveillance of its followers are also rife.
Scientology

Number of followers: The Church of Scientology claims to have over 8 million followers worldwide and 3.5 million in the United States alone, but a 2008 survey showed that just 20,000 American individuals identified themselves as Scientologists.

Read more: http://www.money.co.uk/misc/the-business-of-religion.htm#ixzz1UmO3RuB9

Feel free to post your comments on this article and as always this topic is open to discussion from atheists and theists alike.

Christian greed and hypocrisy

2011-08-01T23:22:00.000-04:00

‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’

Those are the exact words as presented in the U.S. Constitution’s first amendment. It gives everyone the freedom to practice their religion, not specifically Christianity; but any religion. It also gives everyone the right to practice freedom of speech and the right to assemble peaceably.

This is all well and good and I am in complete agreement with this amendment, but contrary to what many think, Christians don’t see this in the same light as the rest of us. They want the right to preach, teach, and practice their beliefs but they refuse anyone who opposes their views those same rights. Christians want to have their cake and eat it too.

Just like their predecessors the so called church fathers and the Roman Catholic Church who instituted the bloody inquisitions, today’s theists demonstrate the same hatred for freedom of thought and speech. Just like their predecessors they seek to silence those that expose the myths, lies, and folktales behind their beliefs.

They want the rest of the world to accept and respect their myths yet they refuse to do the same with all other religious or non-religious groups. They claim absolute truth based on faith in ancient works composed over two thousand years ago mostly written by anonymous authors. These works are comprised of folklore, ancient myths, and oral tradition and have no supporting evidence whatsoever.

They want the state to stay out of their affairs but like their ancestors they want to tell the state what to do and how to run this country. Being a majority group here in the states they manipulate politicians and through them influence politics and legislation. They want to impose their so called divine morality on the rest of mankind.

The methods may have changed but the goal remains the same, world domination. The church would love to make the U.S. a theocracy although we have already tried that and seen where it has gotten us. The inquisitions, witch hunts and many persecutions suffered at the hands of the Church should be enough to warn us of the horrors of giving the Church the power of the state. It has done nothing but hold back the progress of science, knowledge has been curtailed in the name of religion.

It is time that we put religion in its place and not let it influence our private lives and affairs. I am all for freedom of religion but those same freedoms that they claim should be available to everyone regardless of what your beliefs may be. As an atheist I cannot accept the Bible as the inspired word of any god. Nor can I let it be used as a means to regulate my life and dictate to me what is “moral” or not. Freedom of religion or lack thereof is a two way street and it should never be compromised for any reason.

Whether I believe in the biblical god or not should not be a criterion for me to swear in a court of law, run for a position in public office, obtain a job, or to judge whether I am a moral person. I should be able to stand on my own merits as a citizen in good standing with the state in which I reside. I should not have to endure being discriminated against or called crazy, immoral, or untrustworthy simply because I refuse to accept a belief in god.

The U.S. implies a separation of church and state in its Constitution but yet we have the words ‘In God we trust’ on our currency and in our court rooms. We have state holidays that are based on religious high days. We have bans on scientific research based not on morality but on religious beliefs about morality. Laws prohibiting same sex marriages; claiming that marriage is a sacred institution, but this sacredness comes from what the church believes not from secular beliefs. In this hypocritical country the state has always been in bed with its whore the church, and as distasteful as this may be I don’t see that bond dissolving anytime soon.

On fundamentalist threats

2011-07-29T10:13:00.000-04:00

Recently I received a message from an anonymous commenter who basically attacked me for expressing my beliefs or opinions regarding theism. This person then went on and threatened me with their imaginary deity and how he would "deal with me after I'm dead."

Nothing irks me more than Christians threatening me with their fairy tale god and the imaginary consequences I will suffer for simply questioning the veracity of their beliefs. This demonstrates clearly as I have implied many times that Christianity is a religion that is based mostly on fear rather than love. Their god is not a benevolent loving father as they try to portray him, he is a cruel maniacal dictator that stands in the same category as Hitler, Stalin, or Mao.

Christians call themselves "servants" of the Lord, they must surrender their will to their god;"not my will but thy will be done." When it comes to the free will argument the only free will you have as a believer is to become a servant or suffer the consequences for your refusal for all eternity. Just like their god Christians are hypocrites and underneath that superficial layer of love lies a deep dark hatred and resentment for all those that oppose their views. The bloody history of the church itself attests to this.

When will you theists get it? Your threats about eternal torment are mute and inconsequential when they are directed at atheists. It's like threatening Superman with a machine gun; those bullets can't harm him they just bounce off. We, and I speak for all atheists on this one don't believe in your bible or its so called divine inspiration. We don't accept the fairy tales you choose to call truths as facts, when they are nothing more than fictions and myths. In fact, Christianity like all other religions that have preceded it are rooted in ancient myths and beliefs.

One of the things that pushed me further away from church and God was the idle threats. As soon as you stopped going to church and ran into others from the congregation in the streets that was the first thing you would hear. They would remind you how having known God you were held accountable for your rebellion and your punishment would be that much worst. On the one hand you preach how God is loving and merciful and in the same hand you preach how he will punish all those that refuse him. That's just one of the many contradictions in your theology.

For future reference if you want to comment on my blog and all you do is throw idle threats at me, do me the favor and keep them to yourselves. I know them all probably a lot better than most of you know them. I have read the bible 4 times in its entirety which is more than I can say for most Christians.

The Bible is the word of man!

2011-07-10T13:31:00.000-04:00

I have personally heard many arguments in defense of theism in my time, mostly as a response to one of my blog posts or hub page articles. It is interesting to me when I hear a theist attack scientific knowledge and refer to it as the knowledge of man. They state that the knowledge of man is always changing and is unreliable. Since man is a finite and fallible creature their arguments in this regard actually have some merit.

On the other hand, they state that God is infinite, infallible, and all knowing and his knowledge is one hundred percent reliable and true. Note that in this article I wish to address the God of the bible and this work does not address the myriad of deities that currently exist in the hearts and imaginations of their many adherents.

Christian’s claim that the source of this knowledge only exist in several works produced by over forty authors; most of whom remain anonymous to this day. Together this collection of works is known to all of us as The Holy Bible. It is the number one bestselling book every produced and continues to this day to draw believers in its many extraordinary claims.

Theists claim that the bible is without a doubt the word of God and as such it is inerrant, infallible, and the absolute truth. They even go so far as to claim that the human race as a whole derives its objective morals from the bible and that without God there would be no such thing as objective morality.

Objective knowledge is knowledge that is true whether you believe it or not. For example if you jump off of a building our knowledge of gravity tells us that you will fall fast and hard and will most likely die as a result of it. Whether you believe it or not gravity is true and it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it exists and that all things are subject to its forces. Subjective knowledge on the other hand is “subject” to an individual or in this case a groups interpretation of evidences that cannot be proven objectively. One example of this is the existence of God or so called spiritual experiences by believers of the many religions the world over.

I have one problem with this argument. The one objective fact about the bible is that it was written by men. The very people whose knowledge Christians condemn and refer to as fallible and finite. The bible states that: “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; fools spurn wisdom and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:7 NJB). Keep in mind that this statement is written by a man who claims to be inspired by God. The bible refers to the knowledge of man as the knowledge of fools. In other words according to this text without a fear of the Lord there is no knowledge since knowledge comes from the Lord.

One of the many accusations that atheists and other nonbelievers in the bible make is that the bible actually advocates the suppression of knowledge and the advancement of society. I completely agree with this accusation because the church has lived up to these principles historically as well. The various wars such as the inquisition, the laws and legislations written under the influence of the church and biblical principles, the pressure on political figures to favor religious laws and agendas, etc. Examples are the banning of birth control, abortions, cloning, stem cell research, only because these things were at odds with what they believed were Gods laws.

The Christians favorite rebuttal to an atheist is found in Psalm 14:1 or Psalm 53:1 they both actually say the exact same thing so let’s look at 53:1 The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God!' They are corrupt, vile and unjust, not one of them does right. (NJB). So this leads me to the purpose of this post. What makes theists believe that the bible although it is written by men is inspired by God? Well, first of all because the bible says so itself in the N.T. in 2 Timothy 3:16 in black and white: ‘All scripture is inspired by God and useful for refuting error, for guiding people's lives and teaching them to be upright.’ There is no refuting that claim there. In fact, even Jesus allegedly gave his endorsement of the O.T. Law and the books of the prophets in Matthew 5:17 ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.’

So in the end what makes theists differentiate the wisdom of man from the so called wisdom of God? My favorite culprit: faith; or as I affectionately refer to it as the ultimate equalizer. In order to accept that the bible is the world of God you must have faith that the men who claim it is, were telling the truth about their experiences, that while they wrote they were somehow being led or inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that considering the many edits, and translations that the bible has gone through that what we have available to us are accurate and true to the originals. In the end the bible is nothing more than the words of men. Faith which in and of itself is not a reliable means of obtaining knowledge is the only thing that determines whether you believe what you read or reject it outright.

The God of the gaps theory

2011-07-04T15:21:00.000-04:00

One of the many errors committed by Christianity that in my mind I think blatantly goes against the scientific method, is that they first start with a conclusion and seek the evidence to support it. For instance, in all of the more traditional arguments in defense of a belief in the biblical God or any god for that matter, they state with certainty that God created the universe and everything in it. The most famous and popular of all of their ridiculous arguments is the argument from design. Basically the argument from design falls back on the complexity of life and the universe and concludes that there had to be a designer. Their most popular analogy is that of someone wandering around in a beach and finding a watch, upon examination the watch has many cogs and mechanisms that obviously indicate that there was a designer and that it was designed for a particular purpose. Theists then take this analogy and try to make it applicable to life and the universe and all that that may entail.

The scientific method on the other hand has four steps
1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.
2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation.
3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations.
4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

Once you have reached your conclusions you are to report your findings in details so that they may be reproduced, confirmed, or denied by your peers. In other words, other scientists should be able by following your instructions to come up with the same conclusions as you have. In some cases they may find that the tests were not fair or inadequate and your hypothesis is either scrapped or expanded upon.

Now the one element in my view that tips the scale in favor of the theists is faith. Faith is what I have called many times in my blogs, articles, and videos the ultimate equalizer in any and all arguments. The one thing that faith has going for it is that it does not require any evidence whatsoever and anyone can use it to support any argument. This reminds me of the fundie Christians that state with vigor when referring to the scriptures and its many ridiculous assertions: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it!”

Christians in particular have found many creative ways to use faith in all arguments in defense of their beliefs. The most popular to date is the God of the gaps theory. What this fallacy states is that basically any gap in our knowledge, specifically scientific knowledge has only one explanation: God did it! Let me demonstrate their greatest flaw when arguing from the God of the gaps theory combined with the argument from design. They first put down the premise that anything that is caused to exist must have an initial cause because it is impossible for there to exist an uncaused cause.

They later then go on to declare that it is also impossible for there to exist an infinite regress of causes therefore there must be a prime mover, an initiator of all the causes in existence. Can you guess what that initiator is? Of course, God! Now here is where it gets dicey, God is an uncaused cause therefore based on the initial premises of this argument the argument itself breaks down.

Thanks to faith the breakdown of this argument does not faze Christians one bit because faith does not require evidence and so god being the prime mover and not needing a cause for his existence does not apply. The bible actually has an explanation that concords with the Christians conclusions based on this argument.

8 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Revelations 1:8 (NJB).

We don’t know for sure what started the Big Bang, or how exactly man came to have such a developed brain and intellect but we are content in the knowledge that we don’t know. We may never know but that does not mean that that gives us the right to fall back on ancient beliefs and superstitions and tout them as truth beyond all knowledge because of faith and so called divine revelation. Even if you are a theists who does not accept the bible and its deity as the prime mover you are still falling back on superstitions by clinging to an untenable belief that whatever did create the universe is a god of some kind or other.

Maybe whatever created the universe was an impersonal force and creation was just a random unintentional effect of this unknown force. Calling it God does not make the search for it any easier, nor does looking for supernatural causes. At least in my mind a random universe created by some unknown force unintentionally makes a lot more sense to me than to state that some fictional creation myth of man did it. God did it just doesn’t cut it for me and I would rather wallow in my ignorance than fall asleep in some false bliss.

Reference

Introduction to the scientific method. (n.d.). Retrieved July 4, 2011, from http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html

Why I think there is no God

2011-07-02T19:15:00.000-04:00

As an atheist one of the questions I get asked the most from theists is how can I be so sure that there is no God. I know that no answer I give will ever convince them of anything, but I am convinced to my own satisfaction that there is no God. Although I don't believe in any gods of any religion I am capitalizing the word God here to single out the traditional deity of Judaeo-Christian mythology.

Theists like to point out that by simply seeing all of the wonders of nature and the so called natural order of things one cannot help but come to the conclusion that there was a creator. I think that this is a very weak argument and I beg to differ as to the conclusions. When I see our natural world without the glasses of faith and folklore I see amidst all of this apparent order plenty of chaos.

Our planet for example is constantly bombarded by asteroids and comets and all other sorts of space debris on a daily basis. The insane weather patterns are far from orderly as well. Natural disasters are best explained naturally because we know how they occur. There is no need for some angry deity to be called into the explanation of some random event that costs the lives of many.

Everyday I am reminded why I think there is no God. I am surrounded by tragedy at all times and no matter how horrible or devastating an event may be; life goes on. Every day thousands of people die and as has been displayed in the past, like disease death does not discriminate. You are never too young or too old to die, just the fact that you are alive makes you a perfect candidate. When you finally realize that despite what you have been taught in the bible about your special place in the universe,you will come to see that you are nothing more than just another part of a larger picture.

Mankind has demonstrated that they have a penchant for vanity since the beginning of their existence on this planet. Until the theory of evolution came along we were all content to believe that we were God's special creation made in his image. That we were above all other species on Earth. Nothing could be further from the truth; when you realize that you are just another cog in this machine called life then you will see the world as it is. The world is a natural place with natural occurrences that happen daily despite who you think you are.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and other natural disasters just happen and when you realize this you will see that this explanation makes a lot more sense than trying to explain everything with God. God did it does not work in a natural circumstance and neither does it work to explain the unexplainable. Death,nature, destruction, love, joy, life, and many other things confirm to me that there is no God and that the world is a better place without one.

Finally, there is no why question as to our existence. Why ask why? It is so much easier if you found purpose in life itself. This life we live right now at this very moment is worth much more than any promised life of eternal bliss derived from ancient myths. All I know is that I was born, I am living now and trying to make the most of what is my life and what life itself has to offer. I am sure that one day sooner or later like all other life forms on this planet death will finally come for me, but until then I will make the most of what I have. When mankind can put aside their ridiculous myths then and only then will they be free to enjoy this life and enjoy the here and now.

Atheism vs. New Atheism

2011-06-20T10:41:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about this subject for quite some time now and finally I have decided to write a post about it. Ever since I declared myself an atheist 17 years ago, I have always been a voracious reader of classical books on the subject. One of my first "idols" was Robert G. Ingersoll. I have a great admiration for those that stood up against religious beliefs during a time when their rebelliousness could lead to a long prison sentence and in some instances even death.

One of the things I admire most of the classical works on atheism or biblical criticism was that they were straight forward and did not beat around the bush. I was pretty astounded to read in these books that many of the same sentiments I held towards religious beliefs, Christianity specifically were held by some of the greatest minds of the past. There were times where I would share with my family members a paragraph from one of these books and would say with pride and enthusiasm: "I could have written this book!"

The very first written works from an atheist prospective that came out were not cluttered with theology, and philosophy. They were no nonsense interpretations of what the bible said and were scrutinized by what was read in the scriptures as they were written. I personally favor this approach because I honestly don't think that everyone back then and even today that have subscribed to Christian doctrines bothered to study theology before they accepted the bible as the word of God or the doctrines contained within its pages as absolute, inerrant, "truth."

Today's atheism or as some like to call it the new atheism is nothing more than a lot of fluff. Atheists are letting the Christians dictate how these debates should go by giving them way to much space. Apologists for instance have brought philosophy onto the playing field, or should I say their idea of what philosophy is. It's actually nothing more than Christian doctrine with a twist. They get atheists to argue about the characteristics of God: omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, etc. when in reality even their ideas of this are based on what is written in the bible.

For any of these so called attributes to be valid they have to be agreed upon by both parties involved in the dispute. As an atheist I personally don't accept the attributes of God as described in the bible as valid. In order to do so would require an enormous amount of faith on my behalf. I would have to accept that the bible was somehow inspired by God himself, then accept that what is written in the bibles pages are divine and absolute truths. I don't accept any of these principles and there is not sufficient or even satisfactory evidence to make me think otherwise.

I find theology and apologetics to be nothing more than a complete waste of time and energy. When I challenge Christians on their beliefs I do so based on what the bible actually says and nothing more. I could get caught up in the never ending circular arguments that theists tend to favor to bolster their ego and their position that I can't prove the non-existence of God. But just because it is impossible to do so convincingly does not make it true either. Just because we can't prove the non-existence of God does not automatically make the default position belief in God. The other alternative is we just don't know for sure (agnosticism), but I even have a problem with this as well.

I think that taking a neutral position on a subject of such magnitude that affects so many peoples lives for better or for worse is in fact cowardly. All religious beliefs are based on ancient myths and oral traditions, using this reasoning then the next thing you have to ask yourself is why should the Christian myth be the exception to the rule? Because I can't prove that Zeus does not exist does not automatically make me take the alternative position that he does.

When it comes to discussions about religious beliefs I prefer to argue from what is written in scripture as is as opposed to inventing silly circular arguments that seem learned on the surface but are nothing more than window dressing. Atheists of the past did not have to worry so much about theology and apologists arguments. I personally think that these older arguments were far more superior to the arguments being presented these days using philosophy, so called logic and reason which from a Christian perspective is nothing more than tainted by their bias to believe their falsehoods regardless of the evidence against it.

Nature without God does not need any explanations

2011-06-16T18:55:00.000-04:00

I am often asked by readers of my blogs and viewers of my youtube channel the following question: If I was convinced that Christianity wasn’t true, then why did I also discount my belief in God as well? The answer in my view is quite simple; I did not see the need to continue believing in God when I had found so many alternative explanations to the world and life in general.

I have been an atheist for the past 17 years and have found that life is so much simpler when it is viewed from a naturalistic perspective. One of the things that we as a species cannot control is nature. Nature does not discriminate against person, place, or thing. Nature is random and thoughtless and therefore a more ready explanation in my view as to why natural disasters happen. It explains how so many innocents can be killed in an earthquake, tsunami, and tornadoes among many other natural phenomenon.

Nature reminds us that life is fragile and not something we can control or determine its length. Children are born dead, and in general children die every day as well as people of all ages and races. There is no escaping death since it is one of those certainties that we can never shake. You are born into the world, you live your life for better or for worse, and then you die. Sometimes people die without fulfilling all of their worldly dreams or as they were on the path to fulfillment. Others never even come close to their dreams and live a life of suffering and under achievements.

I think that it is much more difficult to explain the deaths of friends, family, loved ones, and especially children when we include God in the equation. People waste their time looking for some meaning to every tragedy that touches their lives and often find it more difficult to move on in life. It is hard to try to find a reason why your loved one died suddenly and tragically in a car accident, mugging, or even worse, became the victim of a murderer. When you view the world as natural, it becomes self explanatory. There is no why, things just happen and it is in my opinion so much easier to deal with a loss than to try and figure out why God allowed such and such a thing to happen.

Superstition has never helped a person to deal with reality, nor helped a society to progress and excel in science and mathematics. Every once in awhile a brilliant researcher makes an awesome discovery as in the case of Mendel and his study of traits but it was not because he was enlightened by God. It was because he put in the work of a scientist and observer and used his mind to come to what was the most logical conclusions. He relied on experiments and evidence that could be reproduced by anyone willing to put in the work.

Atheism is a personal choice

2011-06-11T13:02:00.000-04:00

1 He called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases,2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 5 As for those who do not welcome you, when you leave their town shake the dust from your feet as evidence against them.' Luke 9:1,2,5 (NJB)

The above quote was the original mandate that Jesus allegedly gave his twelve apostles. Even then he gave the people a choice to either accept him or reject them. He did not instruct them to force their theology down people’s throats or to fight with unbelievers regarding their beliefs. In fact he also stated: 9 But avoid foolish speculations, and those genealogies, and the quibbles and disputes about the Law -- they are useless and futile.10 If someone disputes what you teach, then after a first and a second warning, have no more to do with him:

According to the bible from the beginning in the O.T to the N.T. it has always been a matter of choice to either accept or reject what they preach. Today’s Christians completely ignore this mandate. They try to influence our politicians and legislators in order to make laws that conform with their religious worldview. They openly condemn any action that goes against their beliefs and their so called divine moral codes. The bible states that you shall not judge so that you will not be judged but it seems like that is all that Christians do.

They judge the way we dress, the way we walk and the lifestyles we as individuals choose for ourselves. They are oppressed by their own beliefs yet they want to oppress the rest of us with that nonsense they chose to believe and accept. They contradict the mandate to just leave us to our own “evil” devices.

Theists need to recognize that just as they have made a choice to believe in the fairy tales and myths included in an ancient book, we too have chosen the opposite. I as an atheist who has been a believer and upon closer study and scrutiny of the scriptures has chosen to abandon those beliefs should not have to justify my choice to anyone but myself. I hate it when a theist asks why and then they try to explain to me what has happened by spewing that same doctrinal drivel that they themselves have been deceived with.

Atheism is not a religion nor is it a lifestyle; it is a worldview, one that does not include a belief in the biblical God or any other gods for that matter. Supernaturalism has no place in the rational mind and in the natural world. We have no doctrines or creeds to follow and we don’t congregate to worship nature or nothingness. When we do get together is to discuss the latest scientific discoveries or legislations that threaten our way of life.

One of the things that irritated me the most about theism is the threat of eternal damnation simply for not believing or in their terminology for backsliding (leaving the faith). The threats of what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of an angry God etc. I think that aside from my personal choice to abandon my beliefs based on my own studies and conclusions that this last thing did not help in any way in getting me back.

The biblical God reminds me of some privileged snot nose teen whose dad is the sheriff of a town and feels that that give him carte blanche to do as he pleases without any repercussions. The idea of a tyrannical God just makes me sick to my stomach and in my opinion is not in any way worthy of praise but rather rebellion. I choose to not believe for many reasons some logical and reasonably thought out and some just outright personal. But the way I see it at least in my own life I have no use for gods or deities in my life. Life is hard enough here on Earth to be worrying whether some mythical heaven or place of torment awaits me upon my demise.

Christians don’t leave you be, they insist that you believe. Well I insist that you leave me alone I have no interest in pursuing your myths any further nor bowing down to your imaginary deity. Life is filled with enough challenges on a daily basis for me to waste my time with fairy tales and doctrinal drivel.

Irrational Faith

2011-06-10T00:25:00.001-04:00

Recently I had a discussion with someone on you tube who tried to refute a video I made that claimed that the bible was not the word of God. In this video I cited exactly ten reasons why I was convinced that the bible was in fact like God; a creation of man. My main reason was the fact that the bible contained many human, historical, and scientific errors.

The person who was discussing this with me declared that the bible was the word of God and that this was in and of itself an irrefutable fact! When I prodded him for evidence he shrugged it off and instead insisted that I provide evidence to back up my claims. I told him that I was not the one required to provide evidence since I was not the one making positive claims. In fact, the onus of proving that God existed and somehow inspired the bible was on him.

This discussion led me to believe that theists and non believers see and understand reason, logic, and rationality in completely different ways. Faith as I have always stated is convenient in that it does not require evidence of any kind. All you need to believe a claim on faith is the willingness to accept those claims without question. I am convinced that there is no way that you can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God, although I am myself an atheist. Objectively, religious beliefs and their doctrines cannot be proven.

Because of the demand for evidence by not just atheists but many other non believers theists have been forced to try and make sense of their nonsensical beliefs. From a logical standpoint there is no way this is possible. The only thing left for them to do is resort to their favorite past time: cherry picking. What cannot be made sense of objectively or from a literal sense is then reinterpreted to be an allegory, a parable or some other such nonsense.

When science proves religionists wrong they then try to reinterpret their beliefs to at least be partially in agreement with scientific findings. A perfect example of this is the matter of evolution. Theists generally believed that we were created in 6 days and that the Earth itself was no more than 7,000 years old. But with the overwhelming evidence for evolution some theists have accepted evolution as fact. Of course it is a fact with a little twist of God, they state now that God created man and all living things through the process of evolution! You just can’t win with theists.

I have had many discussions with theists on the advances in medicine and they simply say God gave the doctors the knowledge to save lives etc. It seems to me that no matter how irrational religious beliefs can be theists will do anything to make it fit their worldview. They cling to their beliefs like a drowning man clings to a flotation device that is tossed out to him.

I know that it is a stretch; but I personally would love to see the day when man outgrows his dependency on myths and ancient superstitions. I long for the day when the bible will be shelved in the section labeled mythology in the book stores and local libraries. I yearn for the day when religion loses its death grip on the minds of men, and when we can all rely on our own learning and ingenuity to keep our lives progressive and always moving forward. I actually pity the theists but I personally don’t miss those days when I was once of them. I feel free as an atheist: free of body and mind.

The Rapture Prophecy and Why It Failed

2011-05-23T04:58:00.000-04:00

Once again as expected yet another prophecy of the return of Christ and the rapture has failed to come to fruition. Harold Camping prophesied that on May 21,2011 this incredible event would without fail become a reality, and as we all know this did not happen. So, what went wrong?

The very first thing that went wrong is that since the bible in its entirety is nothing but a book of myths it is logical that myths aren't real and thus we can never expect them to come true. But for this post and for the sake of argument I would like to explain to everyone from a Christian perspective why this prophecy and any others made in the past or in the future will not come to fruition ever!

As always I will be using the New Jerusalem translation of the bible for any and all text citations. In referring to the end times Jesus gave his apostles a list of signs that would indicate to the believers that his imminent return was near and in closing he added :'But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.'Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come. (Mark 13:32,33).

Camping in his justification for knowing when the rapture would be to the date, was based on his clever manipulation of old and new testament texts quoted out of context. He stated on his web site that those that were saved and walked in the spirit would know because of their standing with God. He also stated that because of this the above mentioned quote did not apply to them. But as you can see Jesus was speaking to his followers directly and the very last sentence confirms that this was an admonition to the church specifically.

The specific scripture that refers to the rapture is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 it basically states that the dead in Christ shall rise first and then those that remain shall be taken up to meet the Lord in the air give it a read when you get the chance. Putting aside the stupidity and not to mention impossibility of this event ever occurring let's continue proving that the bible teaches that even the "saved" will be caught unawares.

In Luke 17:33-37 Jesus once again referring to the rapture states basically that two people will be in a field and that one will be taken and the other will remain. Obviously the ones taken are the believers and true followers of Christ. I have shown that according to the very scriptures themselves that the Christians claim to believe in no man be he believer or unbeliever will ever know the date of the return of Christ or when the rapture will occur.

Harold Camping claimed that believers had the inside track on this information but the various texts that he quoted on his website were all referring to so called "spiritual truths" and did not apply to the rapture or the return of Christ. Believers are told in the scriptures to be watchful for the signs of the times and that those signs would signal that he is near but they are never given a specific date.

In closing if you as a believer choose to accept the nonsense that is written in the bible as fact, at least have the decency to read your bible so that you know what it is you are believing in. Stop following so called prophets speaking of things they no nothing about. I was surprised to see on Harold Campings page that he claims to have diligently studied the bible for over 50 years yet he could not get this simple teaching through his head.

'Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come. (Mark 13:33).

Christian intolerance

2011-05-22T04:08:00.000-04:00

One of the many problems I have with Christianity is its absolute intolerance for other religions or worldviews. Christians love to call atheists arrogant and smug etc. but in reality these are perfect descriptions of the christian spirit. The bible is chock full of prejudices based on what the authors believed to be their gods standards of morality. Have you ever noticed how these views reflect those of all views that are common to the middle eastern man? The bible clearly discriminates against women, gays, other religious beliefs, in the case of the O.T. all non Jews, and a slew of other things.

Christianity was founded on intolerance: this is evident from its original source of Judaism. When God supposedly called the Hebrews out of Egypt the first thing he had them do was to conquer the so called promised land and its inhabitants. And one of the first commands on every conquest was to destroy their temples and altars to heathen gods. After the christian church had the support and power of the Roman government they continued the tradition of eradicating any an all other religions that were not Christianity. When they ran out of religions to kill then they began establishing their own theology and began destroying other Christian groups who were not in agreement with their interpretations of the scriptures.

First Kings chapter 18 tells a horrendous story regarding Yaweh (God) and his intolerance for other religious beliefs. Not only this but it also demonstrates how the biblical deity ordered the murder of 450 men for serving as prophets to Baal. The people were given the chance to choose to serve God but the prophets were not. Jews and Christians have carried out this tradition throughout their entire history, yet some try to attribute all the crimes committed by the church not to God but to the men that committed them.

In reality, they are just following the precepts as taught in the scriptures which they believe to be the word of their deity. They are following the examples such as the one I have presented in the book of 1 Kings chapter 18. In the Old Testament it was okay to kill in gods name. The New Testament believers just kept those old traditions alive as they were establishing and building their theocratic empire. Seen in this context one can understand why Christians are so bigoted and intolerant to any an all things that do not fall in line with their prescribed belief system.

In the context of the crusades this same spirit of intolerance was used in a political manner as well. They used the power of the Roman Empire to destroy all those that opposed their teachings and views. In conclusion the Christians were doing what their biblical ancestors the Jews have been doing for thousands of years.

The word of God! Really?

2011-05-14T01:31:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about this issue for the past few days, just tossing around a few ideas regarding the claims to the divine origin of the scriptures. How do we know that the bible is the word of God? Well for starters because its authors tell us so. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that "All scripture is inspired by God and useful for refuting error, for guiding people's lives and teaching them to be upright."(NJB)

As you can see the bible promotes itself. We are supposed to accept by faith that it is the word of God because it says so right there within its pages. How ironic, because all of the books that have ever been written claiming divine inspiration all say the same exact thing. The Old Testament, the Koran, and the New Testament all claim somewhere within its pages that they are inspired by God in some way or another.

The other alternative is to rely on the so called experiences with the divine that many adherents of the three main faiths claim to have had. There is only one problem with this, if this is true then all of these experiences can be categorized as of an subjective nature. Because the experiences don't happen because one religions indoctrination is truer than the others but rather on what you as an individual choose to believe. Or as is most commonly the case was brought up and taught to believe.

All three of the worlds major religions claim to have some sort of divine origin coupled with testimonies by its adherents to having experienced their version of god and divinity. They can't all be true and judging by the many differences within the texts regarding god, heaven, hell, etc. they just go to show that all religious beliefs are nothing more than the creations of man and are entirely subjective.

There is no word of God since in my opinion God or gods of any kind do not exist. I find it hard to believe that people in today's modern age still believe in the story of a dying, resurrecting, and returning messiah. Outside of religion these beliefs would be mocked and laughed at, but in the context of religion they are revered and taken as truth. Man is logical till he accepts religious beliefs once he enters that realm he must abandon his logic and cast away all common sense to make sense of the senseless.

The O.T. borrowed heavily from many Babylonian myths, the Christians borrowed heavily from the Jewish traditions in the O.T., and to this day Christianity continues to transform itself as it faces all of today's modern discoveries in our various fields of scientific study.

I am a positive atheist in that I don't believe in the existence of God or gods of any kind. I don't feel the need to prove or disprove my convictions since I see no point in trying to convince believers that God does not exist. Atheism is a choice and a growing process that you make on your own based on your own convictions and studies. It is a slow process and not everyone makes it through without some residual effects caused by years of indoctrination.

I feel that the Bible, and the Koran do not teach anything at all about life and morals that we as a species could not have learned on our own from our parents and our societies. There is nothing divine in those books nor revelatory, it is rather a reflection of mans joys, fears, struggles, etc. It is a product of the fertile mind of man and thus it has mans fingerprints all over it.

Christianity = Insanity

2011-05-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

I would in this post like to put into perspective what I deem some of the most insane ideas of Christianity. Let's start with the alleged death of Jesus the Christ (whose existence is dubious at best), Christians believe that he is the son of God, and at the same time God himself, in this case incarnate in the person of Christ. He supposedly had a ministry on Earth that was about three years in length and was convicted of heresy and blasphemy. As a result of this conviction he was then sent to be crucified under Roman law for his crimes. After having hung on the cross a few hours he dies and is put into a tomb. Three days later he is found to be no longer in the tomb and it is believed that he has risen from the dead.

The first problem is that Christians believe today that he was buried on a Friday and rose on Sunday. By my count that does not count as three days since the last time I checked three days was equal to 72 hours. Next, several insane things happened immediately after he allegedly died. Others that were known to have been dead rose and were seen walking the streets of Jerusalem by many. Matthew 27:52,53 (NJB). For some reason according to this telling of the tale seeing a bunch of dead people strolling through town in their burial garments did not seem to startle anyone. And you never hear what happened to these people afterwards. Did they go back to their tombs and go back to their eternal sleep, or did they have another chance at living?

According to the scriptures Jesus was seen after his death as resurrected aside from his followers by over five hundred people according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 (NJB). Lucky break for him that they were all conveniently illiterate or else we would have had much more evidence of his existence outside of the scriptures themselves thus negating faith. After having died and resurrected he then promises that he will come back during that age at some undetermined time and warns his followers to be watchful.

The gospel according to Matthew 24:3,14,29,30,34,and 36 if you have the time read this chapter and the verses I have noted. These are all signs of the end times and there is one verse in particular that I think reeks of superstition and is revealing as to how ignorant these people were of astronomy. Verse 29 states that "the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. The verse that follows states that then we will all see him (Jesus) coming on a cloud with great power and glory (somehow we survive all this). These are supposedly the words of Jesus to his disciples in a private little chit chat they had on the Mount of Olives.

Here is the problem: apparently, Jesus had no idea how the sun emitted light, nor that the moon never had any light since its light is just a reflection of the suns light off of the lunar surface, nor that stars themselves were actually suns since they all begin to fall. Even if we were to grant that it meant that there would be solar eclipse where the moon would block out the rays of the sun, it still cannot explain how the stars would begin falling from the sky.

As you can see in order to be a Christian you have to go against established scientific facts about the universe and the world we live in to accept its doctrines as truth. In a normal context anyone who believed in these or similar ideas would be considered insane and delusional. I am interested in seeing what the theistic response to some of the points I have outlined in this post would be.

To be a Christian is to be intellectually dishonest with oneself and at the same time in my opinion to completely abandon your faculties of reason. Faith is the ultimate equalizer in that based on faith nothing has to make any sense at all to be true nor require any evidence to sustain it.

The Exodus story is fictitious

2011-04-12T08:22:00.000-04:00

The other day I decided to read about the plagues that the biblical God allegedly inflicted upon Egypt as told in the Bible. I have always had some big problems with this tale so I will touch on some of the most pressing ones in this post. I will break down the plagues and their aftermath and also point out the many discrepancies with this story both within the text, and the lack of historical and archeological evidence to corroborate this story.

The exodus of Israel (the name given to the Jews by God)out of Egypt can be found in your bible in the book of Exodus chapters seven through fourteen. According to the tale Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for a period of four hundred years. God commissions Moses to go and speak to the Pharaoh and demand that he let his people go. Because Pharaoh did not comply his nation was afflicted with a series of plagues brought on by the biblical deity.

Here is where I have my first problem with this story. In Exodus 7:3,13 and 14:4 and in other places it states that God had hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that he would not comply. Whatever happened to free will, and why did God do this to Pharaoh? Well, the bible is very clear on why. He was introducing himself to his "chosen" people and wanted to demonstrate his power through signs and wonders. The most disgusting and disturbing statement in the scriptures is that God say's that for this very purpose he rose up Egypt to show his power. In short he used Egypt to make an example of them and to strike fear into the hearts of other nations.

The first thing he did was to turn the rod of Moses into a serpent but I did not want to go into that since it was not something that was harming the people of Egypt in general. So we will move on to the next one. According to the story he turned all the waters of the rivers in Egypt into blood. In fact any water they had in their homes in jugs were also turned to blood. As a result of this all the fish of these waters died and the stink and contamination made the water undrinkable. The fact that it was blood should have made it undrinkable in the first place.

The next thing was a plague of frogs that happened to come out of those same rivers in which all the fish died. When the frogs literally blanketed the land, after some pleading from Pharaoh, they all die and were set in a humungous pile. The next thing he did was to turn the dust of the land into lice. Of course more pleading and a promise to comply to Gods demands led to the removal of the plague.

After the lice he then sent a plague of flies which pretty much drove everyone crazy they were more of a nuisance I think. Next, God starts getting down and dirty and what he does is kill all of the cattle and livestock in Egypt. What fault did the cattle have? Here is where the story begins to disintegrate even more. The next thing he does is afflict men and beast with boils. But wait a minute! Didn't he previously kill all the livestock in Egypt? He must've resurrected them and the authors of the book of Exodus forgot to mention it.

He then sent plagues and pestilence and vowed to wipe Egypt off the face of the earth as a nation. Of course, after the plagues that did not happen he took away the plagues and the pestilence and everything was alright again. Next he hit Egypt with a storm of fire and hail or fiery hail and according to this story it killed every man, beast,herbs, and trees in the field. Note this is the second time he killed all the livestock of Egypt.

The plague that followed was that he sent a swarm of Locust upon Egypt. It was so bad that they ate every tree, herb, and fruit in the fields. Another fumble! Didn't the fiery hail already do this? The next plague was three days of darkness all over Egypt. Could this be a solar eclipse that only affected Egypt? What a miracle!!

The next plague came in the form of God sending the angel of death to Egypt to kill every firstborn son of every Egyptian household. And not just the sons but also those firstborn of the beast of the field as well. So for a third time he is killing beast in this tale. Finally, Pharaoh tells Moses go and worship your God and he frees the Hebrews. But wait once again God hardens his heart and he decides to go after them to get them back. He supposedly chases them down with his army which included 600 chariots.

Pharaoh manages to pin them down at the Red Sea or Sea of Reeds depending on which theologian you speak to. And God parts the waters so that the Hebrews can cross it on dry land, but when Pharaoh attempts to pursue them the water closes upon him and his entire army. According to this tale Egypt should have been wiped off the face of the Earth, but as we all know it was not.

First of all this story has so many contradictions which I have pointed out that it is obviously a fabrication. Second there is no archeological evidence or historical records that corroborate this story. There has never been found a single sign of Hebrews enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, or evidence of their 40 year sojourn in the Sinai desert, no sign of the Pharaoh's army which is hard to believe. Those chariots were made of gold yet we have not managed to find a single chariot wheel or remnants of chariots which the tale states there were 600 of them. I find this hard to believe! And finally, the bible conveniently does not mention which Pharaoh endured all of this calamity. In fact there are no Egyptian records that allude to a Pharaoh and his entire army drowning at sea.

Also, it was customary that the firstborn son of Pharaoh would normally be the heir to the throne. But as this tale states all the men of Egypt were killed and all the firstborn sons were killed as well. If this had ever occurred then it would have ended the dynasty of the Pharaohs altogether. As you have seen through this post I have proven that the bible is nothing more than fabricated history. I once heard in a documentary that all of these tales were made up to aggrandize the God of Israel and to lift them up as a nation as well. I firmly believe that there might be some truth to this theory.

The Divine Dictatorship

2011-04-09T14:40:00.000-04:00

I was sitting around the house today thinking of ways to compare religion to a dictatorship. So before I get started I would like to first begin by defining exactly what a dictatorship is according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Dictatorship: 1. A country run by a dictator. 2. absolute authority in any sphere. For the purposes of this blog entry we will refer to the dictator as the biblical god. And instead of having absolute rule over a country he claims and demands absolute rule of the universe.

If you were to subscribe to a belief in the bible and its teachings regarding god and his relationship with mankind you would have to agree that he is demanding. According to the bible from the moment that you are born you have already incurred your first debt. That's right, you have a debt to god for redeeming you through the vicarious death and sacrifice of his son Jesus. It does not matter that you did nothing to god before or that you had nothing to do with the so called fall of mankind.

What people fail to realize is that religion, especially Christianity was used as a political tool to maintain order by the Roman Catholic church. Once they had gained political power as well they were able to utilize the full force of the Roman government to destroy any and all opposing belief systems. The goal was to subjugate the populace as a whole to the Roman church. The very doctrines themselves taught in the scriptures espouse complete and absolute submission to its god and the elders of the church. 1 Timothy 5:17 "Elders who do their work well while they are in charge earn double reward, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching." (NJB)

The catholic church prides itself and claims that it is a direct descendant of the apostles of Christ. Because of this they, like all Christian churches claim to be the true church of Christ. The church wants to control the lives of its members through the use of doctrine. As a Christian you are taught to believe without question, to only thing a certain way, to walk with humility because having pride is a sin. Most of our natural impulses as human beings are condemned in the bible and by the fictional god.

Christianity is nothing more than a modern day superstition that unfortunately has not died out. Religion seems to be a need for a lot of people because somehow it is comforting to know that when things are not going well at least "it's in Gods hands." The bible teaches you to abase yourself and abhor your own flesh because you are only alive today because of the great and wonderful mercies of the dictator in the sky.

Here is a question that is worth asking. What of those people who have had a horrible life, are they supposed to be thankful to the lord as well for giving them that life? I once was discussing this issue with a theist friend of mine from work and he was telling me how we are all supposed to be grateful to his god for sacrificing his son and redeeming us from sin. My reply was that I personally did not offend god in the garden it was Adam and Eve. Moreover I did not ask god for redemption, if it were not for the teachings of the bible I would not have known that I had a need to be redeemed.

Through the scriptures we have all as a species inherited vicariously a sinful nature. It does not even make sense to put that on yourself when I am pretty sure if you has no knowledge of god at all your life would go on just fine. The church through the teachings of the scriptures wants to even carry on their sentence on you even after death. The threat of hell fire is ever present and the only way to avoid it according to them is to buy their product.

There is a saying that states that power corrupts and the church has demonstrated this throughout their bloody and dark history. Popes and clergy in the name of God ordering mass murder, rape, torture all for the crime of not accepting their brand of religion. Ignorant Christians of today long for a theocracy but since they have not taken the time to do their homework they are unaware that we have been there and done that. If you really want to know what a theocracy would be like just read up on the various crusades and witch hunts conducted by the church in 1095.

These so called holy men of God committed the most heinous crimes ever on their fellow man. They made the holocaust look like a picnic. The tales regarding the horrors committed during the crusades pale in comparison. They were gutting people with swords, burning people alive, and they even implemented the use of several home made torture devices and methodologies of inflicting excruciating pain. The most famous of these devices was the rack which was used to stretch out your limbs and disjoint your bones and tendons.

A divine dictatorship is what the bible describes in the Old Testament and the church carried one out here on Earth. Nothing new but as history has taught us it is indeed nothing to be desired.

Theology changes with the times

2011-04-01T09:21:00.000-04:00

One thing I have noticed since being a Christian 17 years ago is that theologians are constantly reinterpreting the scriptures to keep up with the times and go with the discoveries of science. I came from a very fundamental church where we believed that the bible was inerrant (without errors)and that everything contained within its covers was absolutely true.

As a believer who has read the bible in its entirety four times I found that the more I read it the more insane the stories seemed. As an atheist I have found that I am not the only one who has rejected his former beliefs as a result of having read the bible. It's no wonder the Roman Catholic church at its inception translated the works into Latin and did not allow anyone but clergy to read and study its contents. Not to mention that at the time the majority of the populace was illiterate and could not read Latin. The church had suppressed these works for quite some time and went to great lengths to keep these works from the lay person.

Today everyone has the privilege to own a bible and to read it but surprisingly few people do. Most believers I have encountered have never read the bible in its entirety, on the contrary I have found that many atheist have in fact read the bible.

Today's theologians now teach that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not literal nor historical tales but are rather allegorical. It begins with the creation myth and ends with the tale of the tower of Babel where believers once thought that the worlds languages originated from. But what I find most interesting is that if the bible did not mean for Adam and Eve to be actual historical figures why create a genealogy for Adam if he did not exist in the first place? Why go through the seven days of creation in chapters one and two if this never happened?

Why did Cain kill Abel and where did Cain find a wife if according to the myth his family was the first family. Even though Cain was cursed by God to wander the Earth as a vagabond (Genesis 4:11,12) he did quite well for himself by settling in the land of Nod. In Genesis 4:17 it tells us that Cain went on and had a son and built a city named after him called Enoch, not bad for a vagabond cursed by the Lord.

The psuedo-scientific aspects found in Genesis once having been proven false by real science later changed their stories several times to accommodate the latest discoveries. Many Christian groups now accept the theory of evolution with God as its author of course. Some of the liberal churches have even begun to accept gays in their midst and I heard of one church whose pastor is actually a lesbian!

Today the church has moved on from the old traditional hymns to other genres of music, I have heard Christian rock, rap, salsa, merengue, texmex, and even pop just to name a few. A lot of the churches are shedding some of the ritualistic aspects in order to remain relevant in today's society. The only way in my opinion that the church can remain relevant is by accommodating people from all walks of life. Today's church is definitely modernized and they seem to have loosened up the reigns of formality and ritual to keep their coffers full and their pews occupied by gullible and superstitious.

Today's church will pretty much promise you heaven in exchange for your devotion to their lies and the contents of your wallet. Today's preachers and evangelists are generally telling the masses what they want to hear. Their are prosperity gospels that prey on the greed of man, faith healing for a prayer and a few bucks, and the surety of heaven regardless of the life you have led if you would only acknowledge that you believe.

There is no honesty in religion, just the building of one lie on top of the other to keep the masses happy and the churches tax free "donations" flowing in like rivers of living water. If you are so inclined do some searching you will see how radical the changes in Christianity have been since the advent of scientific discoveries. It's definitely an eye opener and worth the journey to discover how bogus these myths are and how they continue to change with the tides of our modern age.

It's not an easy task

2011-03-21T00:37:00.000-04:00

This post was inspired by a friend of mine on youtube who was an atheist for about a year and has recently reverted to theism. She was a Pentecostal like myself and she recently posted some new videos where she tries to explain her journey. I will not identify her here but she reminded me of my initial journey from theism to atheism.

I have come to believe that the journey from theist to atheist becomes harder depending on your level of commitment to your theistic beliefs and practices. The deeper the indoctrination the harder it is to break free of it. I can personally attest to the emotional and mental anguish one feels when they are trying to break free from the talons of religion. My journey from theist to atheist was a long and difficult travail.

I can say that I genuinely had a fear of God in my heart, and I believed fully in what the consequences would be for abandoning "the way." As a fully committed evangelist who preached,cast out demons,and healed the sick, or so I believed the prospect of living without God was very terrifying and very real to me. It literally took me several years to get over my fear of the Lord and all the myths that accompanied my believing in him. The hardest step is the first step and that is the step of overcoming that initial fear. Once you have done that you are then ready to embark on your journey for better or for worse.

Once you make the conscious decision to break free from your fears then the next step is to weigh the evidence. The first thing I did when I left the church was to seek out evidence to explain away the many so called spiritual experiences I personally had in the church. I read books on psychiatry,psychology,hypnosis,auto-suggestion etc. I used to have frightening nightmares that continued even after I left the church that were very real to me. When I was a theist I attributed those to demonic attacks for battling against Satan and his minions on behalf of God. So logically I started studying sleep disorders that I can compare those experiences to. I still have those frightening nightmares today from time to time but now I know that it is nothing more than hallucinatory sleep paralysis, a common sleep disorder.

Eventually, I was able to explain away all of my so called spiritual experiences from speaking in tongues (glossolalia),apparent healing,exorcisms, etc. What I am trying to say is that as in all things knowledge is power. The more you know the more you grow. The churches greatest tool is fear, it is a sin to question God, it is a sin to doubt his word, it is a sin to turn away from the path of righteousness that the good Lord has put you on. Religion is about abasement and degradation and those things are not easy to overcome.

It is like an abused woman who is constantly being told by her abuser what a worthless shit she is all the time, a slut, and a useless whore. An occasional your fat and ugly or you can't live without me etc. If she hears it enough times she begins to believe it. Religious folks endure a similar abuse but they don't even realize it. They are told all the time how they should be grateful that God sacrificed his son for them, that they are nothing without him, that they are as the dust of the Earth. Religious beliefs, especially when they are taken to the extreme are in fact a form of mental and emotional abuse.

The key to breaking this cycle is through overcoming your fears and educating yourself. Keep in mind that as with other addictions such as drugs and alcohol you may need some help, but in the end this is your journey and you make the final verdict on which way you want to go. When you first leave the church keep in mind that there are many resources online where you can find help weaning yourself away from the indoctrination and falling back into it. Like a drug addict in the beginning it is likely that you may have a couple of relapses but you must stay the course.

The best way for me to describe this is like watching a very spectacular magic trick done right before your eyes by a very skilled magician. At first when you see it you may be left in awe, shocked even. But once you learn how the trick is done it loses its veneer, the jig is up. When you go back to church after having educated yourself thoroughly and you understand how all of that charismatic mess works it loses its power over you.

I hope that any recent atheist that has experienced or is experiencing any of the above on this post will be helped by this information. And know that if you need help finding where to turn for help I would be more than glad to point you in the right direction.

The Many Roads to Atheism

2011-03-18T16:02:00.000-04:00

How does one become an atheist? This is a question that is often asked by theists as they try to understand the mentality of those that state that they don’t believe in a personal god or any god for that matter. They assume that a person just wakes up one day and decides to renounce the biblical God and become an atheist overnight. They say that you allowed yourself to be persuaded away from the faith by Satan and that you were led astray because you were not spiritually strong enough to resist the wiles of the “evil one.”

In some cases your quest for knowledge is also questioned since they believe that all knowledge and understanding comes from God. According to Proverbs 1:7; “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; fools spurn wisdom and discipline.” (NJB) So if this is true then even searching for knowledge outside the context of a belief in God is sinful. In keeping with the suppression of knowledge the church conducted several inquisitions and attempted to keep everyone illiterate as long as they could. Later, when the bible was translated into Latin, English, and many other languages; they then tried to suppress the reading of certain books by actually making it illegal to own them.

Humans in general are social animals; we seek out companionship and relationships. We long to meet people that share our opinions and views, especially when it has to do with what we believe. Religion is a societal phenomenon it gives people that sense of belonging. That is why most people don’t look towards beliefs that are going to harm their status within a society or alienate them from their peers. Atheism does just that and more! When you make it known that you don’t believe in God people look at you differently. They see you as a rebel and outsider and in some cases they think you are mentally imbalanced.

Atheists have been associated with evil, immorality, arrogance, unpatriotic, etc. The road to atheism is so varied that there is no set way that one becomes an atheist. Some of the means to which they have come to atheism are irrational or emotional. A lot of people have leaned towards atheism due to having too many bad experiences with organized religions; others have left because religions doctrines could not satisfy their inquiring minds. When they asked difficult questions they were given the old “God has many mysteries that have yet to be revealed,” or the old “We will know all things when we get to heaven.”

Some people were fortunate enough to never have been exposed to religion and so being an atheist comes easy to them. There are no doctrines to unlearn or renounce, there are no so called truths to discredit. They live in a world where science and observation can help them indicate fact from fiction and the word faith does not exist to these few.

There are those that have been so deeply indoctrinated that even doubting that God exists causes them great stress and uneasiness. They lived and breathed according to what they believed to be the word of God. For these individuals the road to atheism is painful and paved with glass, it is hard to change your views and opinions on life after all those many years you have committed to believing and teaching about God. Those that were once clergy and had devoted a lot of time and energy to their beliefs are the ones for whom it is hardest to renounce those beliefs. There is a little joke amongst atheists that basically states that the best way to becoming an atheist is to read the bible. It is almost impossible to read the bible in its entirety and not come away disgusted with its deity and the bibles many obvious contradictions.

The most glaring contradictions in the scriptures are contradictions of historical facts. The bible is wrong about the 400 year Egyptian enslavement of the Hebrews; to date there has been no archeological evidence to support this. Biblical scholars have come to even doubt the existence of Moses! The Red Sea which the Hebrews supposedly crossed on dry land is now thought to be a mistranslation of the Sea of Reeds. Not to mention the outright cruelty which God exercises freely to deal with mankind in the Old Testament. But nothing is crueler than the idea of an eternal place of torment called hell.

According to the New Testament not believing in God is punishable by death and eternal torment in the afterlife! The road to atheism is actually not a single road since there are actually many ways to get there. Every individuals experience is unique and varied; therefore, there is no definitive way that one actually becomes an atheist. Atheism is a learning experience and a sort of growing up and growing out of superstitious beliefs. It is coming into the modern age and embracing change and seeking out knowledge about who we are and where we come from. Most importantly it is about where we are headed.

Many theists demonstrate their blatant ignorance of facts when they state for instance that atheism is a religion! The beautiful thing about atheism is that not all atheists agree on a lot of subjects related to religion and the sciences. One of my favorite terms from the 1600’s is free-thinker and that is what makes atheism so special that fact that we are free to think whatever we want. We are not bogged down by rituals and dogmas or nonsensical doctrines; we are simply searchers of facts and truths. Therefore, atheism is not a religion and does not resemble one in any way.

We don’t need a god to dictate to us what is moral and what is not. We understand that we get our morals from society and our own life experiences. We are not evil; anyone can be evil whether he be a theist or an atheist. We don’t accept the existence of gods, angels, demons, etc. We see the world from a naturalistic perspective and value life greatly because we understand the fragility of life. We live in the here and now, not hoping to live in some imaginary realm after death where the streets are paved with gold and life is eternal. We don’t waste time on delusions we live in the real world and are proud of who we are and what we as individuals may believe.

Life without God makes a lot more sense

2011-03-12T10:09:00.001-05:00

I have said it before but I think that the disasters that have recently rocked Japan are evidence enough of my point: an atheistic worldview makes a lot more sense. In fact, the world makes a lot more sense when you take God out of the equation. A naturalistic worldview sees the world for what it is; a self sustaining natural occurrence. The world is full of apparent order and chaos in the many varied elements of nature. But when natural disasters strike we have only two choices to help us understand them; the natural and the supernatural.

In my view trying to insert a why alongside a deity into a natural disaster just creates more questions than answers. Trying to understand the mind of "God" is an exercise in futility. The bible itself teaches that Jehova is a jealous God, hell it's even in the ten commandments. I've heard fundamentalist's idiots attribute these natural disasters to punishment for violating the commandments where God demands that you worship only him. Paganism and idolatry are the fundamentalist's first choice to try and understand how a nation or country can suffer so much tragedy throughout its history.

The next favorite religious reason is that all of these natural disasters are just signs of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I have stated many times if this were the case then it seems that God must keep changing his plans at the last moment. There have been wars and rumors of wars and natural disasters all throughout the history of mankind and even before we came along this planet still displays the scars of its chaotic past.

Fundamentalists Christians seem to rejoice every time they see these so called "displays of God's power" when in fact they should feel compassion and love for their fellow man. The biblical story of Jonah in my opinion is an allegorical narrative of this idea. Jonah was told to go to Ninevah to tell them to repent or else God would destroy their city. He refused because he did not like the Ninevites and went in the opposite direction on a ship. When the ship was in danger of capsizing due to God's anger at Jonah for not obeying his commands; Jonah informed the superstitious crew about his predicament and they cast him into the sea. He was then swallowed by a large fish ( the bible does not say it was a whale)and carried to the shores of Ninevah where he then carried out his mission. The inhabitants of Ninevah repented and God forgave them and did not bring destruction and disaster to their city. You can read about it in the book of Jonah chapters 1 through 3.

Back to the topic at for I digressed a little in the last paragraph. I feel that natural disasters are just that, natural. There is no need for a supernatural explanation. Scientists know why and in most cases how they occur without the need for something as silly as the wrath of God. Plate tectonics help us understand why earthquakes occur. When they occur at sea the shock waves create huge waves in the water which in turn become tsunami's. Now Japan faces a new threat and this one is entirely man made. The threat to their nuclear reactors and the release of radiation into its atmosphere. We could only hope that this situation will not get any worse and help out in any way we can to help relieve the suffering of our fellow man.

The origins of religious thought

2011-02-19T12:59:00.000-05:00

When I was a theist the question of where did religious beliefs come from never even crossed my mind. I accepted my theistic beliefs unquestionably and although I studied the scriptures diligently, I did so within the confines of my religious beliefs and predispositions. In other words I studied to confirm what I already believed to be "true", much as most believers continue to do today.

I sought answers in scriptures that I could use to refute my detractors, unbelievers, and other adherents of what I termed false religions. I studied other religions looking for gaps in their theology that could be filled with the doctrines of mine. As most creationist believe today that the world began 7,000 years ago through the act of their deity without evidence, I too accepted and believed most of what I had learned from seminary and through independent study as factual without evidence but solely on faith.

I have been an atheist for 17 years and as such I have studied religion and religious beliefs from an entirely different perspective. I am no longer bound by fear, reverence, and dogma. I can look at religion from the perspective of an outsider with the knowledge and experience of an insider. I have found that if you trace the origins of religions as far back as you can through academic research you will realize that religious beliefs are of human origin. In short all religions are based on human invention due to lack of knowledge of the world we live in.

Another thing you will learn is that religion is also a cultural phenomena and every culture as it was true in the past and is evident to this day, had its interpretation of origins and beliefs. Some cultures worshiped many gods and were thus termed polytheists and later cultures disposed of those gods for one supreme deity and were thus labeled monotheists.

Man has pretty much worshiped everything on this earth at one time or another. Earliest religions worshiped the forces of nature, such as lightening, rain, volcanoes. Later we gave them names and made the gods more like us our concepts of god or gods were now more anthropomorphic (made more human like). Our gods were given personalities, genders, and in some cases even domains of which they ruled. Some were characterized as good while others were portrayed as evil, but the one characteristic that they all had in common is that they were feared, and thus worshiped.

From this perspective you can't help but conclude that religions are of a subjective nature. Each culture believed the world was as they themselves interpreted through their own religious myths and tales. Today the three major religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam look at other religions as nothing more than myths and legends handed down from one generation to another. But I think that this view is biased since all three major religions have been spread and perpetuated in the same manner.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in fact have borrowed all of their concepts from those same religions they now condemn as false. The origin of these three more accepted religions are actually ancient myths and legends, and who is to know that if they are phased out sometime in the future they too would later be called what I believe they are; myths.

This brings me to my final conclusion; that all religions are myths that have borrowed from one another for centuries and that the three major religions themselves are not excluded. I would like to end with a quote by Stephen F. Roberts: "When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." I think that this is a logical summation of this article.

Blind faith vs. Reason

2011-01-26T11:37:00.000-05:00

Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen. Hebrews 11:1 (NJB)

Faith is basically believing in something without valid evidence of its existence. It's an inner conviction based on your "gut feeling" that there is such a being called God, a creator of all things great and small. That is all good and well to believe, but at the same time all of it is nothing more than subjective.

Anyone who has been in love or infatuated can tell you that feelings are not a valid criteria upon which to make important decisions or judgments. Feelings are deceptive and at the same time blinding. Decisions based on emotions almost always tend to blind ones reason and cloud ones judgment. Logic demands objective evidence and an understanding before its states anything as fact.

I have always said that faith and reason are, have, and always will be irreconcilable due to the different views and requirements of both ideologies. Faith requires no evidence, it accepts what it has been taught (indoctrination) and what is written as divine. Reason analyzes the origin and history of the so called holy writ, and then judges it by its historical context, its contents, its historical accuracy, etc.

Once you set aside your fear and reverence for the bible and study it as you would any other work of literature, you will see the disparity in its contents. And you will realize that its claims to being divinely inspired are just that. Nothing could be substantiated as facts outside of the biblical texts themselves. There are many questions as to the veracity of the stories contained therein.

As a result of this, theologians are constantly hard at work to try to explicate the various and obvious flaws in the scriptures by coming up with exegesis. Through exegesis everything that is inconsistent with fact can then be reinterpreted in another sense such as allegory, or as a parable to try to take away from the fact that it is a disparity or contradiction.

Christians rejoice every time a so called archeological discovery is made that they believe serves as evidence of the truth of their beliefs (Shroud of Turin, Jesus family tomb, Noah's ark,etc.). Only to find out later on that they have been had, that what they believed were true artifacts turned out to be frauds. This demonstrates the power of indoctrination, it is so strong that no matter what evidence is shown in opposition of it it will never suffice.

Christians seek meaning in life, a reason for being. They refuse to accept that like all other life forms in this world and possibly elsewhere, we are born, we live, and we die. Their desire to live forever is met and satisfied with the false beliefs that they will survive death and live forever in a perfect place where there will no longer be pain nor sorrow. These beliefs are not rooted in fact, but faith and faith based on the bibles definition is nothing more than a delusion.

Justifying God's Cruelty

2011-01-17T10:40:00.000-05:00

One of the many things I find most appalling about Christians is that they go out of their way to justify the cruelty of their deity. I have had several theists try to refute my claims that the biblical god is a tyrant by stating that he is our creator and thus he can do with us what he pleases. In my mind this goes to show just how warped the indoctrinated mind really is, they apparently cannot think rationally nor independently.

Let's see what the "holy" writ otherwise known as the bible has to say about the matter. 20. But you -- who do you think you, a human being, are, to answer back to God? Something that was made, can it say to its maker: why did you make me this shape?21. A potter surely has the right over his clay to make out of the same lump either a pot for special use or one for ordinary use.22. But suppose that God, although all the time he wanted to reveal his retribution and demonstrate his power, has with great patience gone on putting up with those who are the instruments of his retribution and designed to be destroyed; Romans 9:20-22 NJB

As you can see as is demonstrated throughout the scriptures the lord puts his "creation" in their place with the dictatorial tone that is common with him. The next verse goes into how lucky we are that he is merciful and doesn't destroy us outright. In Deuteronomy 32:39 the good lord is more direct: 39. See now that I, I am he, and beside me there is no other god. It is I who deal death and life; when I have struck, it is I who heal (no one can rescue anyone from me). And finally in the book of Luke 10:28 we are lovingly reminded:'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.'

After reading just those few out of the many threats this good and merciful lord makes upon mankind I can't help but feel like he is a mob boss and we are his cronies. Basically, his entire philosophy is do as I say and I will spare your life and reward you in the afterlife. If that is not a tyrant my dear Christian believers than I don't know what is. Saying that the fact that he does not strike us dead makes him merciful and kind is like saying that the lion will not eat you because he has already been fed.

There is no real moral or ethical justification for the cruelty of this fictional deity, nor any reason to believe he or in this case it exists since there is not a Christian alive who has seen him nor can define him. Stop making excuses and acknowledge once and for all that your religion by its own admission is based on fear. That your god is an animal and makes any earthly tyrant pale in comparison to the murders and the cruelties that he has committed by his own admission in your so called inspired word.

I am speaking as if he existed from your scriptures, but I personally do not believe there is a god. In my estimation your god is just like all the other gods before him; a fictional creation of mankind.

Obsessed with God?

2010-12-26T12:47:00.001-05:00

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.

Thank God?

2010-12-16T19:44:00.000-05:00

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.

Faith is not a fact !

2010-12-12T13:39:00.001-05:00

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.

Blood sacrifice

2010-12-10T09:18:00.000-05:00

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.

Myth vs. Religion

2010-12-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

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.

The Indoctrinated Mind

2010-11-29T10:24:00.001-05:00

One of the many things that fascinates me most about Christians, especially the fundamentalist kind, is their tunnel vision. Christians can't seem to see beyond the boundaries of what they have been taught to believe. They literally possess selective hearing and sight, and no matter what may be presented to them that is contradictory to their beliefs they will not be moved.

I have often stated that faith itself is the ultimate equalizer when discussing or arguing with theists about religion. The reason for this is that faith requires absolutely no evidence whatsoever to be deemed true. Believers love to wave the faith flag when they are backed into a corner, and for the most part it works to their own satisfaction.

I can sympathize with them myself because I was very much the same when I was a theist over 16 years ago. There wasn't a man in the world or any evidence that could sway my faith, I was like a stone when it came to my belief in the biblical god. I was unbreakable, immovable, and determined to let everyone know about my beliefs and about the one I served as lord and master of my life. What we must understand as atheists is that most Christians are happy with their beliefs no matter how ridiculous or false they may be.

Many are content to bury their heads in the sand and miss all of the joy and pleasures that life can bring. Most people I know including members of my own family have referred to me as crazy for not believing in the biblical deity they choose to believe in. Many atheists are treated as outcasts by their own families who in some sick way pity them for not accepting the indoctrination that they have.

Even the most atrocious acts committed by God in the bible are explained away by theists with such stupid quips as "he is our creator and he can do what he wants" or "who are you to question God?". Yet if any living man or woman did even half of the horrible things God has done to mankind according to their book of fairy tales he/she would immediately be called a tyrant, lunatic, mass murderer, and a host of other demeaning terms.

When your mind is clouded by faith nothing else makes sense, but the nonsense you spew. Faith makes fairy tales true, through faith it is easy to believe what is known to be impossible. Jesus ascended to the heavens, Moses parted the red sea, the walls of Jericho came down with a unified trumpet blast, etc. You don't need reason to be a Christian, all you need is its opposite: faith.

No God? No problem.

2010-11-23T03:39:00.001-05:00

One of the problems that has been a thorn in the side of most theologians is the problem of evil. They have no way to explain the existence of evil, since according to them God is benevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent. The argument itself basically points out that the very existence of evil, is contradictory to the attributes of the biblical God.

My own take on this argument is simple: when you think about the many inexplicable occurrences that we experience in life, such as death, rapes, murders, birth defects etc. It is easier to explain them when you take God out of the equation. There is for instance a perfectly scientific and sound explanation for birth defects, as opposed to trying to say that the child was born that way because it was God's way of testing the faith of the parents etc.

I call the act of trying to rationalize the existence of God, trying to make sense of nonsense. Christians remind me of that kids learning game where you have to fit certain pieces into a box with various shape cut outs. No matter how much you try you cannot fit a square piece into a circle. But by trying to rationalize the existence of their god this way, they are doing exactly that.

Ancient man was very superstitious and to this day even with all of the knowledge and understanding that we have gained about the world we live in, there are still many who refuse to let go of ancient superstitions. I personally count the existence of God or gods in general as superstitious and mythological in nature.

When you remove the concept of God out of life's troubles and hardships natural disasters, and whatever other calamity you can think of, then you can see them for what they are: natural occurrences. When you come to the realization that life is nothing more than a continuous string of random occurrences, then you will see the world with clarity.

What is God?

2010-11-10T00:20:00.000-05:00

Although I am now an atheist, every now and then I ponder the idea of the existence of God. What interest me most about this topic is the insistence of theists on the existence of God based on faith. There is no objective evidence for the existence of God and I am pretty sure that there never will be any to validate the theists claims.

I would like to share with you a theory regarding the existence of God or in this case non-existence of God. If you think back to ancient times and religions and religious beliefs you will see right away that in those days, most beliefs were based on ignorance and superstition about the forces of nature and the world in general. People interpreted things that they did not understand by calling them gods.

Things such as natural disasters, disease, famine, etc. were all interpreted as a result of a deity being displeased with the tribe or civilization. Gods in the most ancient of religions had to be appeased, and at first such things as fruits and vegetables of the land were sacrificed to those gods in return for their favor. Men throughout religions history have worshiped trees, astral bodies, animals, and in some cultures even other men! In China the emperor was considered a god among men, and the same goes for Egypt's Pharaohs.

As is illustrated for instance in Greek mythology man later began to worship objects within their environment such as the sun, moon, planets, and stars. They later gave all of these objects names, personalities and things that they would control or oversee. This process is called anthropomorphism. Wikipedia defines anthropomorphism as the attribution of human characteristics to animals or non-living things, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts.

The God of Moses is a being that is in objective terms undefinable, and whose existence relies solely on ancient texts that propound the beliefs of an ancient people. Jews and Christians have in an essence followed the path of those that came before them. In order to define God or make him easier to comprehend, they have anthropomorphosized him. They have taken the idea of God and personified it by giving this idea human traits. God gets angry, he hears and see all things, he is defined as a male, he is said to speak.

Here is my theory regarding today's general idea of God (specifically the Judeo-Christian God), I am convinced that this God is nothing more than an abstract concept.My reasons for believing this is simply because this God cannot be defined.Ask any theist what is God and all you will get are dogma or abstract ideas about God. Theists claim that he is unknowable, beyond our human comprehension. If this is so then why are so many theists claiming that they know God and have a personal relationship with God?

What I find comical about this is that at least the ancients were personifying objects that they did not understand, such as Ra or R'e the Egyptian sun god. Jews and Christians don't even have an object to personify, they are personifying an idea/concept. From a logical standpoint this is absurd! Jews and Christians choose to worship a deity they neither know nor can define, now what can be more insane than that?

Using the so called order in the universe as evidence of God would not suffice either because along with that order there is massive chaos as well. Of course we don't fully comprehend what exactly took place at the beginning of the universe, but I can assure you that it certainly was no imaginary guy in the sky!

People of the more charismatic bend tend to claim to feel his presence or hear his voice, but as I state in my video could this be just symptoms of their own delusions? All of these experiences are of a subjective nature and in no way constitute evidence for the existence of God. Therefore based on all of these points made in this post I conclude that there is no God, but in reality the onus is on you my dear theist to prove me wrong since it is you that are making the positive claim that there is a God and that he exist.

Self degradation in the name of the Lord!

2010-11-05T09:53:00.000-04:00

Those that chose to be "servants" of the Judaeo-Christian deity must first acknowledge that you are disgusting to your lord 7. And Yahweh said, 'I shall rid the surface of the earth of the human beings whom I created -- human and animal, the creeping things and the birds of heaven -- for I regret having made them.'Genesis 6:7 (NJB)

In order to serve this deity you must accept that fact that you are nothing and that he is everything, and that there is nothing you can't do without him (John 15:4,5). I personally find the very language used in the scriptures to describe the relationship that man supposedly should have with this god offensive and appalling.

If you have ever taken the time to read the bible regarding these matters you will immediately recognize a pattern. That what the language describes is nothing more than slavery. God is often referred to as the master, and you the ever so humble worshiper is described as a servant/slave. Your whole purpose in life is to please this non-existent megalomaniacal deity.

Within the scriptures there is also a system of punishment and reward for your service to the Lord. If you do good and walk upright you will be rewarded, but if he is not pleased with your performance you will be punished. The very idea of bowing down to some primitive deity who is obviously an invention of man. The bible instead of teaching pride in oneself and ones achievements teaches you that you must remember that you are nothing without God. That because our "first parents" sinned we by default have inherited this sinful nature and now are in his debt forever.

We are according to the scriptures born in debt to God for something we did not have anything to do with. So much for God being loving ands forgiving! And the only way to pay off this debt is to accept the fable that he became incarnate in a man (Jesus) and suffered at the cross as a sacrifice to atone or pay off our debt. If you ever want to make progress in this world we need to cast away all these silly and ancient superstitions and embrace the world for what it is. A natural and wonderful environment which can be both friendly and at times hostile, but would be a much better place to live if God were taken out of the equation.

A violation of free will

2010-10-27T07:26:00.000-04:00

The bible states that men were created with free wills, and that they have within them the choice to do either good or evil. It is also said that the biblical God cannot violate a persons will and so based on this understanding man does as he pleases.Yet,there is one story in the bible where God has done just that! It is the story of Jonah.

When I was coming up this story used to be called the tale of Jonah and the whale, although the bible never says that it was a whale. The scriptures refer to it rather, as a big fish. Like the tale of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit people have somehow with the passage of time turned that fruit into an apple, although again the bible does not specify what type of fruit it was.

This tale is found in the book of Jonah chapters 1-3 in its entirety. Basically, God had told Jonah that he must go to Nineveh and warn them that if they did not repent of their works that their city would be destroyed and they would all perish. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh, so he boarded a ship going in another direction. Because of his actions God brought up a huge storm at sea and if it were not for the crew tossing Jonah into the sea, they would have all perished. When Jonah was in the sea he was swallowed up by a big fish, and he miraculously was preserved from death in the belly of this fish.

After he repented and decided to do God's will he was then spit out on dry land, where he was once again given his instructions by his god to go to Nineveh and relay his message of warning. Now here is my problem with this story besides the obvious stupidity of the "big fish" and his apparently non-functional digestive tract. If God went through all of this just to relay a message to a people why did he not just do it himself.

The way I see it a thundering voice from heaven would have been just as effective, the bible is full of tales where God can manipulate matter and interfere in nature etc. yet for some reason he could not do anything here. Not only that, he forced Jonah to go to Nineveh, this was definitely one situation where Jonah had no choice or free will to deny the lords request. In my view this tale alone throws that whole free will defense to the dogs. It states that Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord, as if this were possible. Since the bible teaches that God is everywhere present or omnipresent.

This is just one but there are many, it is theological inconsistencies like these that let me see the bible for what it is: a fraudulent work by fraudulent men.

God's actions contradict his attributes

2010-10-20T08:04:00.001-04:00

According to most Christians and the bible itself God is omnipotent (all powerful) Mark 10:27, omniscient (all knowing) 1 John 3:20, omnipresent (everywhere at all times) Psalm 139:7-10. If these attributes of God are true then why would God create mankind only to then later in Genesis 6:6 regret having ever created mankind? If he were truly omniscient he would not be surprised that man was a “sinful” creature, yet here he regrets having created man in response to man not meeting his expectations.

If he is omnipresent, then why would he have to “come down” to see if what he heard about man building a tower with the intention of reaching heaven were true Genesis 11:5? This passage and many others puts in question the claim that he is omnipresent, in fact, there are many instances in the bible where he relies on angels to relay messages or give him information about certain things.

If god were omnipotent, then why could he not help Judah dispossess the inhabitants of the plain simply because they had chariots of iron Judges 1:19? Are we to believe based on this scripture that iron is to God as kryptonite is to Superman?

Basically, what I am saying is that if we were to take the bible seriously we would be in some serious trouble. As you can see in this post it tends to contradict its own claims and I believe this is because it was written, edited, and produced by man. There is no divine influence whatsoever in the entire bible. If were to step back and put your reverence aside, you would surely see the reflection of man in all of its pages.

My approach is simple: if you get your concept of God from the bible, and the bible is wrong, then your god does not exist. He is exactly what the bible shows him to be; a creation of man and nothing more. You can sit back and say that when you pray you “feel” his presence but in reality all you are feeling is the result of your psycho-emotional attachment to your imaginary being. You are not thinking with your mind, instead you are trying to interpret with your heart.

All of God’s so called attributes can be placed in some point in time in our history and be put to question based on his inactivity. For instance, where was God while his “chosen people”: the Jews were being summarily exterminated at the hands of Adolph Hitler? I am sure that out of the over 6 million Jews that died there were many pleading for God’s help and intervention.

In mankind’s most dire moments of need God has been absent, and the only reason or explanation I have for this is that he does not exist. It is not that he does not care, it’s because he cannot care. Fictional beings have no emotions other than those that their creators give them. It’s time for man to push these old and silly superstitions aside and stare life in the face and make the most of it, because believe me when I tell you this, it will be over before you know it. Enjoy your life, make the most of it, live long and prosper etc.

The stupidity of Mormons and Mormonism

2010-10-12T09:32:00.001-04:00

I personally do not care for neither Christianity nor Mormonism, I think they are both as true as the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. But one thing I have noticed is that Mormons don’t know a thing about the bible, because if they did they would reject Mormonism outright. When I was a Pentecostal evangelist I found that when I was out witnessing and ministering to people on the streets the easiest religious sect to refute was the Mormons.

It was all in the so called foundation of their church where I found the one major flaw that basically made all the rest of their doctrines obsolete and completely worthless. The founder of Mormonism Joseph Smith claimed that he received a visitation from an angel named Moroni that basically told him that he would lead him to some golden tablets buried under a mountain in upstate N.Y.

Smith also claimed to have received a Urim and Thummim, two seer stones that were supposed to aid him in translating the text of an unknown language on the plates into English. Of course when he was done translating what is now known as “The Book of Mormon”, conveniently the angel Moroni came back to claim the tablets and the stones. So once again to be a Mormon you have to accept this charlatans story on faith.

Mormonism in my opinion is just one of many other religious sects that just goes to prove my theory that people are willing and gullible enough to believe anything regardless of education. My problem with Mormonism is that if you are going to be an offshoot of a religion you should at least follow the rules set down by the religion you are borrowing from. Obviously, Joseph Smith must have overlooked Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 through 9. Mormons when you have a chance you can read it for yourselves.

The main focus of Galatians 1:6-9 that interest me the most and that is the most damning to Mormonism is particularly verses 8 and 9. 8 But even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven preaches to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let God's curse be on him. 9 I repeat again what we declared before: anyone who preaches to you a gospel other than the one you were first given is to be under God's curse. (NJB) The apostle Paul knew and even experienced in his day opposing doctrines and beliefs, so he warned the Galatians apparently because some of them were being led astray.

Now let’s look at this text in perspective, Paul said “if we ourselves” (the apostles) and in this case Joseph Smith or an angel from heaven such as Moroni was purported to be, preaches to you a gospel…. As you can see the entire foundation of the Mormon church based on the words of Paul come crashing down. Although both religions are false; Christianity being the parent religion takes precedence over its bastard child Mormonism.

The hypocrisy of Christianity

2010-10-06T02:14:00.000-04:00

Christians claim to be followers of Christ; and to this day they claim that they are in all things only doing God’s will, yet they demonstrate with their deeds the very hypocrisy of their beliefs and their own convictions based on those beliefs. According to the scriptures Jesus supposedly said: 36 “Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. 37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6: 36, 37 (NJB)

Upon first glance it seems like a simple and direct commandment, but it is not as simple as it seems. I don’t care who you are or from what walk of life you come from it is in our nature to judge one another. Not necessarily on religious beliefs and convictions but also on societal norms. We even judge each other on the weirdest things such as how a person dresses, smells, walks, or talks. It is natural to judge certain people, places, and things based on our own life experiences and convictions. John 15: 18-20, Matthew 5: 13-15

Because of the many commandments of the biblical god from the old testament under the law and the commandments from the new testament under grace, Christians are filled with unreasonable biases. Christianity in general is sexist, homophobic, pro-slavery, bigoted, etc… In order to be a true Christian you must be willing to sacrifice your ability to reason and rationalize, you must put unquestioning faith now matter how impossible it is first.

You must accept that you are nothing more than a piece of navel lint and that without God you are absolutely worthless, you must sacrifice your will for his will whatever you believe that will might be. You must be untrue to yourself since everything that might bring you joy out of life for instance a homosexual relationship is a sin before the Lord. Or not having an abortion after having been impregnated by a rapist simply because the church tells you it is a sin before God.

Once the poison of Christian beliefs and biases enter your system and take over your mind, you become the most hypocritical bigot on the face of the earth. All of a sudden the world and everything in it has to conform to your beliefs and what you believe to be your gods will. The world becomes a hostile place and everything you can possibly think of as wrong with the world centers on its lack of submitting to your religious convictions and beliefs. What you fail to realize my dear Christian is that religious beliefs have been around since mankind’s infancy, and that throughout its existence it has varied and changed as knowledge about the world we live in has changed and increased.

Religious beliefs are a personal choice and are not meant to be shoved down the throats of those that differ or refuse to accept them. An atheist has free will in that he is much more closer to living his life and doing what makes him happy. As long as his life choices are benevolent and do not harm his fellow members of society they are acceptable. He is not a slave to dogma or religion everything he does is because he wants to and chooses to. He does not behave a certain way because it is what is required by his deity of choice, he does not withhold those things in life that bring him pleasure because it violates a command of an imaginary deity.

The atheist enjoys life to the fullest and when he decides to help out a fellow human in need he does so not because he is trying to do God’s will, but because he is doing his own will. And whenever he does a good deed he feels good and can take the full credit for his labor of love. Not having to hand over credit to the grace of God but rather to the goodness of his own heart and convictions. Christianity breeds hypocrisy, and hypocrisy separates man from his true nature and self.

No one has come back from the dead! Ever!!

2010-10-01T10:34:00.002-04:00

Religious beliefs aside from being nothing more than wishful thinking and delusional; are also guilty of perpetuating a false outlook on life in general. Christianity for example emphasizes the so called spiritual life over that of the physical life, it teaches that this life is temporary which it is, and that it is that afterlife which is eternal and that each one should strive to achieve.

It teaches its adherents to abhor this life in exchange for a life that cannot possibly be proven to exist since no one has ever been known to return from the dead outside of mythology. You can argue that Christ returned from the dead but in doing so you face several dilemmas. Namely, having to prove that Christ existed as an historical figure, that the gospel narrative are reliable sources of information regarding his life and if possible provide secular evidence that corroborates those narratives.

There is also the issue of proving that he died by way of crucifixion, was entombed in a cave for three days, and finally that he rose from the dead. The gospels state that he was seen by his apostles and immediate followers, but according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:6 he was also seen by over 500 witnesses after his resurrection.

I don’t know about you but I find it hard to believe that if so many people saw Christ after he was allegedly dead that no one thought that this event was significant enough to write about. I do know that there was a huge amount of illiteracy in those days, but biblical accounts state that Jesus had contact with the scribes and the Pharisees often and they were certainly not illiterate. Yet there is nothing written by any of them that have survived or been discovered to this day.

According to Paul; Christianity hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15: 14-17). The bible is full of tales and myths of men being brought back to life after having been dead as in the case of Lazarus and several others both in the old and new testaments. None of these so called resurrected figures uttered on single solitary word about what happened to them on the “other side”.

Evidence of this so called afterlife is scant and the so called evidence that does exist is dubious at best and very suspect. Don’t get me wrong I personally had some experiences as a child that I thought at the time were actual sightings of full bodied apparitions and such, but as an adult I question myself and wonder if these experiences were not the result of a young child’s active imagination. Let’s not forget that there are also several mental illnesses that make it difficult for a person to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

I therefore conclude that no one has ever returned from the dead, especially after three days or more of being in the grave. I know the bible states that Jesus did not decay while he was in the grave, but that would be a miracle and we know miracles of a divine nature don’t exist. With rigor mortis and cellular death after a few hours of physical death this just makes Jesus resurrection an impossibility.