My Rants
Of course my opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of other atheists - Dean Watson
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Roy Moore and the 10 Commandments
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Probably all of us have been asked the question, “Do you believe in god?” The way this question is put implies that a God does exist. What is really being asked is, “Do you accept the fact that God exists?” How this question should be asked is, “Do you agree with the notion that there is a God?” Atheists know not what is “God”. The belief in God is wishful thinking in response to the realization and fear that we all will die plus it provides a lazy way to answer questions to that which is not understood. As I see it, there are four categories a person can fall under in respects to the god idea: 1. Theist, 2. Agnostic Theist, 3. Agnostic Atheist, 4. Atheist. There is no such thing as a “Gnostic Theist” or “Gnostic Atheist” because nobody knows if there is a god or not. The theists may insist there is a god for what they believe to be proof. The atheist can claim that since there is no proof – there is no reason to believe it to be true. The agnostics in both cases admit they don’t know while favoring one position. However, the agnostic position for an atheist seems silly to me because it gives indirect credence to universal negatives as being possible. For example, I could make up a hundred invisible and undetectable beings and it would be ridiculous to claim that they all could possibly exist because they can not be disproved. The atheist does not need the badge of agnosticism to prove they are open-minded. We have the right to claim it is not so and still remain open minded to any claims of proof. The meaning of the word agnostic is “without knowledge”. With that definition, technically everyone is an agnostic. The word “know”, as an absolute, is a word game of epistemological extremes. Metaphysical philosophers often use it to defend any weird idea they dream up. Saying you know there is no god is unnecessary. We simply say there is no god. Madalyn Murray O'Hair explained this better with an article titled Agnostics.
Non-Tangible claims made outside the natural world are universal negatives. Theologians like to use universal negatives to support other universal negatives. That is, myth 2 proves myth 1. Thousands of years of trial and error have made religious universal negatives more complex and tricky. Long ago, when a person claimed to be God and went to live on a mountaintop, their ability to be hunted down and killed was evidence that their claim was false. Eventually the gods became invisible, untouchable and undetectable and any request for this super-being to prove its existence was to be considered as “Tempting God”.
Many people think that atheists couldn’t possibly know right from wrong without religious doctrines. They also think that without a belief in a future state of rewards and punishments, ethical behavior means nothing. This idea exposes a serious problem in the psyche of religious people. Let us say that we could prove right now that there is no god. Would you go out and rape, murder and steal, just to pass the time? If you say you would, it just proves how immoral you really are and that you only behave for rewards. Some Christians have told me that they would commit suicide if it wasn’t so! They don’t lead a good life because religion has taught them morals. What they are really doing is kissing god’s ass to get their little souls in heaven. If you say you would not rape, murder and steal, the claim that atheists are inclined to behave immorally is groundless. Atheists need no rewards to behave like civilized human beings. We know it is the logical and decent way to live. Most people know right from wrong without any religious tutoring anyway. People join a particular church because they agree with the ideas of that church. Their idea about what is moral is not being taught, it is being agreed upon.
Morality is also about disciplining the self gratifying part of the psyche that is the source of primitive instinctive impulses and drives – the id. From the start this instinct is different in everyone as is evident with the variety of temperaments we see in newborns. As we mature it becomes necessary to control this selfishness because cooperation is essential for a society to work. This requires input about the needs of their society. There are many different types of societies and families in the world so our inputs vary. Since it is necessary to think beyond our selfishness and meet our basic instincts to live and prosper we must develop a sub personality – the superego. The wants of the id and the needs of the superego often conflict so a compromise must be made. Our second sub personality - the ego mediates between the id and the superego. I believe these three elements are the basic tenets of religious thought – Good, Evil and Free will. An example is the idea that we have the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other while we are in the middle trying to decide which to side with.
When the id becomes too strong, a person thinks only of them self without any regard to anyone else. In extreme cases this lack of empathy can cause some people to steal, rape and murder. When the superego becomes too strong, a person can be intolerant and they try to impose their ideas onto others. Having a dominant superego can cause regression into an uncontrollable id. For example when priests practice the unnatural sexual perversion of celibacy, their natural desire for it builds up to the point where they can’t control themselves and they end up kiddy dipping. On the other side of the coin a person’s superego can get out of control when they are too obsessed with the ids denial to accept death. These people usually become ministers or other religious fanatics who want power over others. These two examples correspond to the two drives mentioned by Sigmund Freud that motivate everything we do; Sex and aggression.
Our egos sometimes have a hard time satisfying both the superego and id so we find easier ways to deal with the tension. One of these defenses is denial. The thought of no life after death or that evolution is a true process, causes anxiety for religious people so they find ways to ignore it. It is also easier to assimilate new ideas rather than accommodate them (Cognitive dissonance). This is exactly what creationist Kent Hovind does.
Another mechanism is projection. An example is when a religious person tells you that you will burn in hell for eternity, or when they resort to ad homonym attacks.
Morality
“Morality is doing what is right no matter what you are told.
Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right.” - Jerry
Sturdivant
At a God debate I attended in
There are three stages of moral development according to
Kohlberg (1973):
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Kohlberg’s
Stages of Moral Development Preconventional Level (up to age nine): ~Self Focused Morality~ 1. Morality is defined as
obeying rules and avoiding negative consequences. Children in this stage see
rules set, typically by parents, as defining moral law. 2. That which satisfies the
child’s needs is seen as good and moral. Conventional Level (age nine to adolescence): ~Other Focused Morality~ 3. Children begin to
understand what is expected of them by their parents, teacher, etc. Morality
is seen as achieving these expectations. 4. Fulfilling obligations
as well as following expectations are seen as moral law for children in this
stage. Postconventional Level (adulthood): ~Higher Focused Morality~ 5. As adults, we begin to
understand that people have different opinions about morality and that rules
and laws vary from group to group and culture to culture. Morality is seen as
upholding the values of your group or culture. 6. Understanding your own personal beliefs allow adults to judge themselves and others based upon higher levels of morality. In this stage what is right and wrong is based upon the circumstances surrounding an action. Basics of morality are the foundation with independent thought playing an important role. |
Christianity encourages people not
to think for themselves and to only obey laws set forth by their doctrine; so they
remain at the Conventional Level of morality. Christians also claim that the
laws in the bible are non-negotiable and that only God can judge. They think
morality is an absolute and that any other opinion is unacceptable. Therefore
Christianity fails the Postconventional Level of higher focused morality.
Self-awareness is pretty amazing and the thought of death ending it terrifies a lot of people. I believe that the need to believe in God is caused by our id’s refusal to accept death while our egos try to convince us that we have a deity parent there to solve this problem. Our superego gives this Deity a personality, which reflects experiences we received as children and infants by our parents. Parents teach children about right and wrong, good and bad and rewards and punishments. The parent then becomes the blueprint for the deity’s personality. When a person chooses to believe in a God they are pretending that it is so. There are many other animals besides humans that pretend, which indicates that make-believe is to a degree instinctive. A good example is when a cat stalks and pounces on a toy as if it were prey. The need for people to believe in the same thing as a group can also be instinctual. We humans are social herd animals just like our ancestors and like many other animals our survival depends on it. Animals’ conforming to the behavior of the group as a whole is inherent. This behavior can be witnessed in the air, sea and land. Flocks birds and schools of fish seem to change direction simultaneously, and some herds of animals seem to all flee at the same time as one spots a predator and may even follow the rest of the herd to their death over a cliff. Together, the Embryonic and Parental Shell Theory and our Evolutionary Psychology explain the initial attraction to God-belief that most people have.
People, who believe in god, set themselves up for the next step. That is, they figure that if it exists, it naturally must have communicated with people at one time or another. So their curiosity prompts a search to the content of that message. This is the trap that sucks people into religion because religions claim to have that message. That message is usually a collection of threats and promises that are designed to control their lives. “Kissing Hanks Ass” is an entertaining example of how religions use circular logic to control people. Once people allow themselves to believe in something because it can’t be disproved and with no need to be proved, the boundaries of superstition are left to the scope of the imagination. This is why people get caught up in cults, read the supermarket tabloids, become victims of “psychics” and make people like John Edward, who claims to talk to dead people, rich and famous. It also explains why there are so many religions in the world today and other countless superstitions. Personally, I think these people are really searching for proof that supernatural things exist. They “want” to believe these things and set themselves up to be fooled by tricksters.
Religion cultivates fear with phony threats to make its false promises sweeter. It also intensifies fear by creating a larger contrast between its’ alternative i.e. Heaven and Hell. With this kind of psychological intimidation, a person who simply believes in a God can be scared into religion. This is why the clergy fought so hard to get “in god we trust” on our coins and “under god” in our pledge of allegiance; they knew that if you believe in god, proselytizing becomes an easier job for them. It would be wise for god-believers to live one life at a time, instead of living their life for the next. Doing otherwise makes their inspiration in life – death.
Understanding the process of evolution gives us a clearer picture of how religion works. Religion started out as a simple superstitious idea. As people became more educated, the superstition’s environment changed. Favorable changes (mutations) in the superstition allow it to survive thus allowing it to be copied to the next generation of minds - natural selection. DNA replicates genes like people replicate ideas. The elementary meaning to life is “survival of the species”. Religion’s existence also relies on its own survival. Religion mutated and branched off into different species to best suit its host’s ways of life. This is why Gods usually took the form of people or animals in the region. Religions are territorial as is evident today around the world. One big threat to a religion is another competing religion. This religion may mutate in a way that it will attack the other religion to ensure its survival by eliminating the competition of its resources - religious wars. Science and reason are the biggest threats to Christianity’s survival. “Creation Science” and “Christian Science” are camouflage mutations. Just like how living organisms have mutated to blend into their environment to avoid detection, Creation Science blends in with science to make it look like it is a science when it really is not. The evolution of ideas is known as “Memes”. For a more detailed look at Memes, go to Martin Willett's Debate Unlimited (formerly The Meme Machine) or learn all about the Christian Meme at http://www.christianitymeme.org/.
Many God believers, whether or not they know it, like to use Pascal’s wager to defend their position. Blaise Pascal presented this wager in his personal notes called the Pensées. The wager goes like this; “…We are therefore incapable of knowing what God is or whether God is. …You must wager. …Which then will you choose? Let us weigh up the gain and the loss in calling heads that God exists. …If you win, you win everything; if you lose you lose nothing. Do not hesitate then; wager that God does exist. This wager is based on assumptions concerning God’s personality and this gamble could yield very slim odds for the believer and not necessarily zero odds for the non-believer. Additionally, this method of reasoning is irrational and could be used to support any negative claim that is comprised with a threat or promise.
Today, Pascal’s wager is usually worded like this; If you believe in God and turn out to be wrong, you have lost nothing. If you don’t believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you risk going to hell. Therefore it is foolish to be an atheist. This type of reasoning is a logical fallacy called "Appeal to Fear". In other words, creating fear in people does not constitute evidence for a claim. Another problem with this wager is it does not tell you which God to believe in. The world has known over 40 thousand religions, each with a number of assorted sects. Today there are over 10 thousand active religions. Christianity alone has over 10,000 sects according to the World Christian Encyclopedia. Let us say that there is a God in the first place and one of these religions out of the 40,000 got it right. There is a 25% chance it is amongst the 10,000 practiced today. The odds become even slimmer when we begin to refer to God’s alleged conditions and live up to its prescribed sets of behaviors. There are a lot of people who think that God will judge what is in people’s hearts regardless of their behavior. Pascal’s wager is a worthless idea when it comes to religions that believe in predestination. Let us say, for example, that the Jehovah witnesses as well as some Christian sects are right and only 144,000 people will go to heaven as it says in the book of Revelations 14:3 of the King James Bible. The odds here are not very good considering that there are over seven billion people in the world today. But what if Armageddon comes a hundred years from now, how many people will there be then and how small will the odds become then? And what if the people who believe this also think that babies and mentally retarded people go to heaven? Surely there would be no chance for them or anyone else.
Pascal admitted that it is impossible to prove that a God does exist. However, he assumes that if there is a God, an unfavorable outcome will result if its existence is not acknowledged. Maybe if there is a God it is not that egotistic or maybe there is no hell or eternal punishment. Also, how do we know that if there is a God that it would not value an honest opinion over faith from fear? So, if the atheist is wrong, it is an assumption that they have everything to lose or that they have no odds in this gamble. The god believer may get the short end of the stick in this gamble by living a life of fear and guilt and wasting their lives by living it for the next. Living one life at a time would be their best bet.
If we start thinking about things with this kind of logic, life would be very confusing. I could easily make up hundreds of universal negatives and dress them up with false promises and phony threats. It would be silly to believe in them just to be safe. To be even more ridiculous I could use negatives to support other negatives, which is the nature of religion. History is full of examples of people harming each other because they thought they would be on the better side of their deity and that their soul depended on it.
In conclusion, Pascal’s wager is based on two negatives; the idea that God has a need to be believed in and that not doing so will result in eternal abandonment. If this kind of God would be unhappy not to be believed in then it would also be unhappy to be believed in wrongly. So, with the thousands of religions to choose from, your best odds would be about the same as winning the lottery. I could also play the negative game and claim that God would rather not be believed in than to be thought of as an egocentric and spiteful entity. A lot of people would loose from the toss of that coin.
The Personal
Experience Argument
When all else fails, the Christian will always bring up personal experience as proof that their god exists. People from every faith in the world also claim that their god(s) grant them favors in life. Many Christians dismiss these other claims by saying that the devil has tricked them to make sure they stay on the wrong path. There are also many other superstitious beliefs that people will swear to that works, such as a lucky hat that helps a fisherman snag the big one or the lucky jewelry that helps a ball player hit a home run etc... These are nothing but the mystification of coincidences and fortunate events that happen to everyone. What would really be suspicious is if coincidences and fortunate events never happened!
There is no doubt that religious belief can improve a person’s life physically and mentally at times. But this is not due to “super-intervention”; instead, it is due to one’s outlook on life. These same results can be seen with hypnosis, self improvement seminars and drugs. It is a scientific fact that placebos do work but the fact remains that a sugar pill is just a sugar pill.
It is not uncommon for some Christians to claim they witnessed supernatural events. Many have claimed to have seen the ghosts of dead loved ones without knowing that this claim conflicts with Jesus’ teaching in Luke 6 19-31 that there is no purgatory or revolving doors in neither of the two after-places. Some of these “ghosts” are claimed to be of a holy kind however religious people all over the world have claimed to have seen these kinds of supernatural beings but they are always in the form of characters of their particular religion, which indicates they are delusional or they are just taking dreams seriously. Then of course we have those who are deceitful enough to lie about experiences to try and win you over to what they believe or for your “soul’s” sake. It can also be the case that a person really witnessed what they claim to be a supernatural event. Most of these people can be found in insane asylums around the world. Hypnosis can also generate hallucinations, which implies that a person can will their mind to actually see or hear what is not really there. Many religions have practices that help spawn hallucinations such as fasting and prolonged prayer and drugs (like wine for example).
In conclusion, human beings are imperfect and make mistakes. Our brains are subject to chemical imbalances and are programmed by society. The personal experience argument is not a creditable argument for the existence of god because it is based on hear-say and there is no way to sort out what is true even if someone actually did have a real experience. Even if I did witness a real supernatural event, it would be unreasonable for me to expect people to believe my story without some kind of tangible evidence, regardless of my trustworthiness. The bible is a collection of hundreds of years of hear-says of hear-says and subjective behavior towards those stories is not evidence to their validity.
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The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as
one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and
is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon
you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer
eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more
abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. Jonathan Edwards |
Most preachers today are in the business of misrepresenting the Bible by painting
a pretty picture of their God. The God fearing fire and brimstone sermons are
generally a thing of the past. Since society has grown out of that, due to the
influence of humanism, the clergy’s approach had to change. What sells today is that warm fuzzy feeling
people get when being told about a kind, loving and merciful God. The truth is
the Bible portrays a monster that is vengeful, self centered, vicious and
unmerciful. Preachers of the past had nothing to hide and could afford to be
honest. One such preacher was Father John Furniss of the 19th
century. I recently came across his booklet called “The Sight Of Hell”
published in the 1850’s. This booklet
best describes the impression I got about Jehovah’s personality after reading
the Bible. This booklet was approved by the Catholic Church at the time as
being an accurate to the teachings of their doctrine. William Meagher who was
the Vicar-General at the time wrote “I have carefully read over
this Little Volume for Children and have found nothing whatever in it contrary
to the doctrines of Holy Faith; but, on the contrary, a great deal to charm,
instruct, and edify our youthful classes, for whose benefit it has been
written.” John Furniss has saved me a lot of work with this booklet and I don’t
think I could have presented it any better. Of course I don’t mean the stories
themselves but the underlying principles that were derived from the Bible that
led to these sensationalized stories. The graphic below is a link to a copy of
this booklet.
Christians like to claim that I am mad at God because I criticize its’ behavior. First of all, if I were mad at a God I would not be an atheist. Second, it is the story I am criticizing. They also tell me not to judge God and that God does the judging. Again, it is the story that is being critiqued because there is no God to judge. Christians however do judge their God. There are literally thousands of contradictions in the bible and it is the Christian who “pick and choose” favorable passages of the bible. How convenient – God is reminiscent of a Mr. Potato head.
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They make the judgment thatGod is good even when the bible says he is the author of evil; Lamentation3[38] Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? Jeremiah 18 [11] Now therefore go to, speak to the
men of Isaiah 45[7] I form the light, and create darkness:
I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. |
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Christians judge their God as being peaceful, merciful and good even though the biblesays he is war-like, cruel, unmerciful, destructive and ferocious. Psalms 144[1] Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight Jeremiah 13[14] And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. Joshua10:[11]…the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died |
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Christians judge their God to be just
and impartial even though their doctrine says he is a bigot and a
chauvinist; 1Timothy 2[11] Let the woman learn in silence with
all subjection. Leviticus 27[1]
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Exodus 20[5]…for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation Deuteronomy 14[21] Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien Matthew 13 [12] For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. |
Christians judge God when they claim
that if you accept Jesus as your savior and lead a righteous life accordingly,
you will go to heaven. They are judging
their God not to be a liar even though the bible says he is a liar and a deceiver.
Or is their God not a liar? Hebrews 6:[18]”… it was
impossible for God to lie”. But I thought God could do anything;
Matthew 19:[26}”…with God all things are possible”. You be the “Judge”.
Jeremiah
4:[10]…Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people…
Jeremiah
15:[18] wilt thou be altogether
unto me as a liar…?
2Thessalonian
2:[11] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie
Ezekiel 14: [9] And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet
The behavior of the God of the bible can be compared to a spoiled child who has temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. The bible is full of death because God got mad and lost his temper and most of the time it was because he was getting insufficient attention. One day he got so angry he drowned everyone on the planet. Why was it that when Andrea Yates drowned her 5 children on June 20, 2001, the world was deeply disturbed by the news, yet when they are told that their god drowned the whole world they call it an act of love?
The god of the bible likes to be a showboat to impress us little human
beings. For example, he hardens Pharaoh’s heart so he can unleash terrible
plagues on the people of
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Exodus 7[3] And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and
multiply my signs and my wonders in the [13] And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. Exodus 10[1] And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him [20] But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that
he would not let the children of [27] But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Exodus 14[17] And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen |
The Christian god also leashes out at animals, fish, bugs and even plants. Once he got mad at a fig tree for not producing fruit out of season and punished it so it would never produce fruit again;
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Mathew 21[18] Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. [19]And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. [20] And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Genesis 7[23] And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. Exodus 9[3] Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy
cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels,
upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. [6]
And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Exodus 9[9] And it shall become small dust in all
the Exodus 12[12]"On
that same night I will pass through 2Samuel
24[17] And Joshua 6[21] And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. Leviticus 14[25] And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: Leviticus 8[19] And he killed it; and Moses
sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about. Leviticus 16[21] And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:[22] And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. |
Can you imagine the
Genesis 3[8] And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.[9] And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Deuteronomy 13 [3] …the LORD your God proveth you,
to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul.
Deuteronomy 8 [2] And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Christians also claim their god to be all-powerful but
Jehovah was unable to drive out some inhabitants because they had chariots of
iron: Judges 1[19] And the LORD was with
Many times you will hear a
Christian say “yeah but that’s Old Testament” as if their god changed his mind
on things. According to Ezekiel, God says he does not change his mind:
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What Jesus had to say about the “yeah but that’s Old Testament” excuse: Matthew 5[17] Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. [18] For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.[19] Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. |
Another characteristic of the Christian God’s personality is its pompous
view of “himself”:
Isaiah 46[9] Remember the former things of old: for
I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me
And how about the Ten Commandments and the conceit displayed there?
Exodus 20:2I am the LORD
thy God, which have brought thee out of the
[3] Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. (I’m a little insecure and jealous,
so you better worship me and me only or else!)
[4] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
[5] Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;[6] And shewing mercy
unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Just to make sure, I am holding your children and children’s
children hostage!)
[7] Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in
vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
(That, my friend, is the unforgivable sin;
[8] Remember the sabbath
day, to keep it holy.
[9] Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:[10] But the seventh day is
the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor
thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
[11] For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in
them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath
day, and hallowed it. He expects a big party
at the end of every week. Don’t do any work that day so you will have ample
time to stroke his ego. If you fail to do this, he might loose his temper and
kill you like he did to the poor Israelite gentleman that was picking up some
sticks on God’s day:
Numbers 15:32 And while the
children of
[33] And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron,
and unto all the congregation.
[34] And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done
to him.
[35] And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all
the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
[36] And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with
stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
Roy Moore and the 10 Commandments
Christians wouldn’t dare question their god’s behavior. They
think God can do as he pleases simply because he is king shit. Though
Christians claim their god to be all knowing and loving and a perfect being - he
cannot even set a good example. He breaks every one of his own commandments, a
case of “do as I say, not as I do”. Everyday more Christians are convinced by
propagandists like Ex-Alabama Judge Roy Moore that
When was the last time he or anyone else convicted someone
for worshipping some other god but Jehovah? How does he squeeze religious
freedom out of “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”? If Mr. Moore is such
a supporter of this first Law of Moses, he must not be a Christian because it
was broken by a Jesus when he said in John 14:6” ...I
am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”.
And what about those idol worshippers called Catholics; did
he convict any of them? Would he be in favor of editing the book of exodus, the
same book his second commandment is written, because it claims that Jehovah
said it was ok to make idols?; Exodus 25:18-20 “And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold,
of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And
make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of
the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the
cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with
their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat
shall the faces of the cherubims be”.
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain?
Let’s see here, WWJD?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, or thy
son, or thy daughter, thy manservant, or thy maidservant, or thy cattle, or thy
stranger that is within thy gates.” If our laws are based on the bible
why is our Christian nation allowing hospitals to be open on Sunday? Why are
cops protecting the public instead of puckering up to Jehovah on Sunday? And if this really was a law, you might as
well grab some weenies and marshmallows if your church or house catches on fire
during the Lord’s Day because there would be no firemen scheduled to work on
that day. But
Honor thy father and thy mother was revised by the New Testament because God changed his mind on it; Luke 14:26 “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple”. Since Roy Moore says we are a Christian nation he should update his 5300 pound Granite monument and make the original 10 commandments illegal. Jesus obviously had no use for this commandment considering how he talked to his mom; John 2:3 “And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?” Maybe he was just upset at his deadbeat dad for breaking the 7th commandment (Thou shalt not commit adultery) and bastardizing him. I guess we will never know since there was no Jerry Springer show in those days.
Thou shalt not commit adultery, unless you think God told
you to do otherwise; Num.31:18 "But all the women
children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for
yourselves."Hos.1:2 "And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a
wife of whoredoms...." Hos.3:1"Then said the Lord unto me, God yet,
love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress."
Two consenting adults do not need the church’s permission or
the government’s permission to have sex. If we were really a Christian nation,
it would be a felony punishable by death as instructed by the bible. In other
words, thou shalt not kill is nullified by breaking this commandment. Also,
Thou shalt not kill unless the 4th commandment is broken; Exodus 31:14 “Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is
holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for
whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his
people”.
Thou shalt not steal but hey, finders are keepers as Jesus
says in Matthew 13:44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is
like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth,
and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field”.
“ Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbour”. If we were absolutely honest about everything we
wouldn’t have many friends. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that
unnecessary trivial truths that can hurt feelings are better off not said. For
example, take a young child who draws a picture for the first time; we say how
nice a job he or she did on it, even if it was lousy, for the purpose of
encouragement. Or how about being a guest for dinner at a friend’s house and
the food was not exactly to your liking, of course you say thank you for the
good meal if you have any manners at all. It’s the big lies that are harmful.
Take, for example, the whopper Roy Moore told when he promised to uphold the
laws of the constitution. What he did instead was he tried to change them and
when that did not work, he ignored them.
Not only did he commit perjury by lying to the citizens of
Capitalism would never work if the 10th commandment (Thou shalt not covet) was the law. The bible endorses socialism (Read Acts 2:41-47 and 4:32-5:16). The commercialization of Christian holydays has made coveting the most anticipated practice of the year for businesses in our country. George W Bush is an expert on coveting. He knows that tax cuts will provide citizens with more money to buy stuff they want which will in turn boost the economy. His tax breaks benefit the wealthy in particular so they can have more of what they covet the most – money.
Atheists are the most
misunderstood and ostracized people in the world. Atheists are often used as scapegoats for
societies ills. When Michael Carneal
opened fire with a .22-caliber pistol in the lobby of
The believer’s hostility towards atheists may have been prompted by same
cause that resulted in their belief in the first place – fear. Fear is instinctive in all animals; otherwise
they would not flee from predators and become extinct. With no more natural predators, we supplement
this instinct. Religion cultivates fear
by way of a spiteful deity. A future state
of rewards and punishments are then used to control every aspect of life. To
believe in something based on emotion is subjective thinking. Atheists base their opinion about the
existence of god scientifically or objectively.
There are many ways in which people become convinced that there is no
god: of course, there is not one scrap of evidence. Another is that some folks are not
superstitious and since God is a supernatural entity, it qualifies as
superstition. Some conclude that you
can’t have an all-powerful and all-knowing being at the same time; If God knows
what it can’t do then it is not all-powerful and if it doesn’t know what it
can’t do then it’s not all knowing. Tribulations such as natural disasters,
human disasters, diseases and so on are called evils. If there really was a benevolent God there
would be no evil and this very old argument explains why:
|
The
Riddle of Epicurus (341-271 “BC”) Is God
willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he
able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he
both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he
neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? |
Theists usually demand evidence from the atheist that there is no god. Even though it is impossible to prove there is or is not a god, theists make the claim and therefore carry the burden of proof, besides how can an atheist present nothing as evidence of nothing? A good example for this unfair situation would be to indict someone for stealing and require the accused to disprove the allegation without need for the accuser to produce any kind of evidence whatsoever.
Long ago Socrates said, “Know thyself” with rational thoughts and introspection. I think most Atheists became so by questioning everything they have been taught. There are a great number of ways people can get to the point of questioning everything. Most Atheists, who are Ex-Christians, became Atheists because they really read the Bible and realized that what they have been told about it is not true. The point of my website is not to “deconvert” Christians into Atheists but to expose the Bible and encourage them to actually read it. I believe any honest and civilized individual would reject the bible’s portrait of God. It is my hope that you will realize as I did that the clergy, parents and culture have brainwashed you since childhood just like they were brainwashed when they grew up. Most Christians today are so because their medieval ancestors were forced by the sword to accept it. The ones who did not conform were tortured and executed.
In 1963, government sponsored prayer was removed from public schools, not the right to pray in public schools. The United States Supreme Court decided in June, 1963 (Murray v. Curlett), in an 8-1 decision that the reading of the Bible and the recitation of the King James version of the Lord’s Prayer was “a religious ceremony” and that requiring children to be in attendance of that religious ceremony is not proper in the public schools. Many people assume that prior to the 1963 decision, school sponsored prayer had been in effect since the founding of our nation. However, it was in the early 20th century that prayer recitation actually began in the public schools.
Today there are over 10,000 distinct religions in the world, of which 150 have 1 million or more followers. (World Christian Encyclopedia) Many people of these religions have very specific guidelines to follow when they pray. Some religions require a member of the clergy or a certain number of people of the same religion to be present in order to pray. Others don’t allow men and women to pray together. Muslims are required to pray at least five times a day, each of which is a time - consuming process and prayer times are fixed by the sun and thus change daily. For others public prayer is forbidden by religious doctrine. In the King James Bible, from which all other Christian Bible versions are based, Christians are told not to pray in public by their God - Jesus. Jesus said in his famous Sermon on the Mount: “Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men […] But thou, when thou prayest, enter into the closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret” (Matthew 6:5-6) We are better off leaving sponsored prayer out of schools to prevent the hodgepodge of rituals and differences from turning the public schools into a circus. Keeping the public schools as religion - free zones will help eliminate the potential for harassment by other students or unfair treatment from teachers.
I believe the real issue about prayer in school is not about the right to pray but the right to being seen praying, in hopes that others might follow. It is about coercing children to pray and giving them the impression they should pray by means of example. There are several religious groups, which are on the dogmatic fringe of Christianity, that are responsible for trying to tear down the wall of separation of government and religion. Groups like these have been trying to stop the government from remaining neutral over issues of faith since we became “One Nation under the Constitution.” Today, these groups are infiltrating the government with key players to their cause. Soon they may take over school boards in every district in the country by filling them with Christians who share their motives. Here are a few statements made by Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, the most powerful and dangerously effective of these groups:
“We can change education in
“We are training people to be
effective […] to be elected to school boards, to city councils, to state
legislatures, and to key positions in political parties […] By the end of this
decade, if we work and give and organize and train, the Christian Coalition
will be the most powerful political organization in
(Pat Robertson, in a fundraising letter, July 4, 1991)
In 1995, the Christian Coalition
claimed to have 50,000 precinct leaders out of approximately 175,000 precincts
in
The real threat started in the
early 1950’s, when “Under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance and “In
God We Trust” made our new national motto and made mandatory law to be struck
on all our currency. These changes were
made during the height of the cold war in response to
Robertson, Pat. The 700 club. CBN.
Barrett,
The idea that tax money should be used to pay for religious tutoring is in
full contrast to the first amendment of our constitution. The first amendment
states it clearly; “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. Of course the Christians
only recognize the second half of this statement and use it to try to get their
foot in the door of our treasury department. Our courts today are littered with
cases by religionists who think that the term “Free Exercise” means “Free
Ride”. The
The
“No State shall make any law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; and no money raised by taxation in any State for the support of public
schools, or derived from any public fund therefore, nor any public lands
devoted thereto, shall ever be under the control of any religious sect; nor
shall any money so raised or lands so devoted be divided between religious
sects or denominations."
Also in 1875, while serving as the18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant made it clear what “free exercise” means in a speech he gave in Des Moines Iowa;
“Encourage free schools and
resolve that not one dollar of money be appropriated to the support of any
sectarian school... Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the
Church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions.
Today Christians like to use the argument that their taxes are used to fund public schools and because they do not use those schools, they should be issued vouchers to be used for their school of choice. There are a lot of government funded programs that are paid for by our taxes and it would be silly to ask for a voucher for each one we don’t use. Imagine someone asking for a vehicle voucher because they don’t use the public transit system. If you really wanted to get greedy, you could just “ask Lesko” about the thousands of government programs we all do not use or even know about by reading his book called "Free Money To Change Your Life" which is often advertised on television.
We cannot allow the government to fund discriminatory programs. Unlike public schools, religious private schools can choose the type of students they want. They can disqualify a student because of any indifference they might have towards them or the child’s parents. They could also choose to accept only the brightest kids just so they can turn around later and tell the public how their school is superior to the public schools. Also, these schools have discriminatory hiring practices.
If religious schools started to receive government money, they would have to renovate their buildings and abide by government mandates like fire and safety codes etc ... To offset these costs, the school’s tuitions would increase and parents will still have problems affording it. But knowing the opportunists, they will try to get more government money to pay for those mandates. Even if they succeeded in doing that, who is going to stop them from taking advantage of the situation and raise tuitions anyway? Since there is a shortage of money to the public schools in the first place, where is all this money going to come from? You guessed it, property taxes, and it would probably double. If taxes are not increased, it will take money away from public schools and public school children would suffer; and they say they are so moral and care about children! Is it not enough that we burdened to pay higher taxes in the first place to compensate for the nearly one trillion dollars the churches do not pay yearly in taxes on property, religious businesses, stocks and bonds?
The reason for first amendment ignorance in the first place is most likely due to the Christian private schools biased education. They are free to distort subjects like history, science and government. Religious propaganda and brainwashing should not be funded at our expense. Our constitution protects their right to do it, but it protects my right to pay for it.
Christians love to toot their own horn. They think they have a monopoly on morals and that all the advancements in history were direct results of their influence. Today, our level of humanism, technology and science and the Constitution were produced despite Christianity. The truth is it was the unpolluted (or less polluted) minds of the heretics that prevented Christianity from stopping progress altogether.
If it wasn’t for the heretics, there would be no hospitals because it was thought that interference with health was “Playing God” and was in defiance of God’s will. Long ago it was the women who tended to the sick and found remedies. These women were the earliest doctors and were called “witch” which means wise woman. Hundreds of years later these women were burned alive because the bible says “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”. Eventually, enough humanism rubbed off on the Christians and the medical profession became acceptable. Not only did they get on the band-wagon, today they like to boast about all the Christian named hospitals and even take credit for the profession.
If it wasn’t for the heretics, there would be no science of any kind. The bible makes it clear that knowledge is foolishness and that eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge is a good way to kindle God’s wrath. Science was considered sorcery and the penalty for that was death. When science first became acceptable to the Christians they used the knowledge from it to develop better torture devises to physically force conversions to their faith. Today Christians claim that we are the most advanced and powerful nation in the world because we are God’s favorite country and through his divine intervention, gave us great amounts of scientific knowledge.
If it wasn’t for the heretics, slavery would have never been abolished. It was the God of their bible that sanctioned slavery and even explained how to carry out slave expeditions. It is ironic that Christian ministers like Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King advocated a book of such bigotry. According to the bible, women and slaves are sub humans and it was those who opposed those ideas that campaigned for their equal rights. But today, the Christians call themselves the champions of human rights and urge all other countries to follow their example.
The history books are littered with examples of the Christian church changing its mind on issues and turning the tables later when its history is forgotten. These new ideas become adopted as theirs and supported by some obscure parable in the bible. Today we have important issues that the church will eventually embrace to later claim as Christian values. One of the most important of these issues is the right for terminally ill people to end their lives to avoid unnecessary suffering. Like the old idea that medicine contradicts God’s will, they think its God’s will that someone suffer when dying. We even have idiots like Pat Robertson saying that if this was legalized, people will euthanize the elderly to avoid the burden of taking care of them. Christians are told that suicide will land them strait to hell. One day they will realize that this is not about ending the life process - It is about ending the death process.
Birth control, abortion rights and stem cell research will be the next step in the evolution of Christianity. The modern Christian movement is responsible for the death and suffering of millions of people because of their opposition to birth control. They go to third world nations to feed the hungry so they can pat themselves on the back and use it as an advertisement tool for their religion. They are exploiting the hungry by making themselves look like their heroes and opportunistically brainwashing them in the process. What these unfortunate people really need is birth control. It is inhumane to bring a child into this world only to suffer and starve to death. One day the Christians will accept the fact that an embryo is not a human being and that aborting that embryo can be likened to a clipped toenail. Unlike a toenail, the stem cells can be used to treat scores of serious medical conditions of real human beings. It is because they believe in a thing called a “soul” that is causing all the problems. They claim that an embryo has a soul and that aborting it is murder. As Frank Zindler once pointed out, scientists can split an embryo giving us twins, triplets, quadruplets, and so on. Is this splitting souls? What about natural spontaneous abortions? Every sexually active woman has at least one in her life time. Who gets charged for murder for those billions of abortions?
The psyche of the religious mind can one day destroy the
world. Wars are fueled by one of three ways – where to pray, to whom to pray,
and how to pray. British Protestants and Irish Catholics are basically fighting
because Catholics think you need an interpreter (priest) to talk to God and
Protestants think you can talk directly to God.
The war in
Christians are masters of the art of putting themselves and their ideas in no-loose positions. Take, for example, special rights for Christians. If Christians are a majority in a country, they demand special rights because they are the majority. But if they are a minority, they demand special rights because they are “being persecuted.”
When a loved one of a Christian survives a life threatening ordeal, it means God intervened and a miracle has occurred but if they did not survive it was “God’s will” and he had a secret reason for the outcome. If this same unfavorable outcome happens to an atheist or someone of another faith, this same Christian would say it was because God turned its back on them.
Christians claim that they and everyone else are sinners but waste no time telling atheists they are sinners because they don’t have God in their lives. To be a Christian all you need is faith, so any idiot can qualify. But say you are an atheist, they demand a good explanation. They expect the atheist to have a degree level education on every subject in question and when they make sense it’s a “trick of the devil.”
These are just a few examples of many warped ideas and lies the Christian movement has dreamed up. Christians or other religious persons are not necessarily idiots, many are very intelligent in all other areas in life however, when it comes to religion, they are conditioned not to think rationally.
Another mutation Christianity will one day go through is the
recognition that circumcision is an out of date concept and that performing it
on baby boys is child abuse. This ritual can be dated back 6,000 years ago in
“In the 1900’s when the Germ Theory of Disease was introduced, the foreskin changed from being spiritually unclean to physically unclean and disease became the new excuse. By the 1930’s cancer became another scare tactic to keep this ritual alive. Sexual transmitted diseases became the new excuse in the 1960’s during the sexual revolution. All of these excuses were discredited by the 1970’s but the practice survived only because of aesthetic reasons. In the 1980’s they claimed that an intact foreskin caused increased urinary tract infections, which later was proven not to be the case. AIDS became the new and ignorant excuse in the 1990’s.” Milos Today, Americans are still using the aesthetic excuse for the amputation of this very important sensory organ. Not only do we know that circumcision is needless; we have medical reasons to end this practice;
|
What
is Lost to Circumcision “1. The frenar band of soft
ridges--the single most pleasure producing zone on the male body. Loss of
this densely innervated and reactive belt of tissue reduces the sensitivity
of the remaining penis to about that of ordinary skin. 2. Approximately half of the
temperature reactive smooth muscle sheath called the dartos fascia. 3. Specialized epithelial Langerhans
cells, a component of the immune system. 4. An estimated 240 feet of
microscopic nerves, including branches of the dorsal nerve. 5. Between 10,000 to 20,000
specialized erotogenic nerve endings of several types, which can discern
slight motion, subtle changes in temperature, and fine gradations in texture.
This loss includes thousands of coiled fine-touch receptors called the Meissner's
corpuscles - the most important sensory component in the foreskin. |