10/27/09
Is the question of to believe or not to believe as simple as right and wrong? (Hint... Yes)
Some atheists, probably most are truly certain that all of the religions are nonsense. Most religious people believe that all but THEIR religion is nonsense.So two things: 1 close to 100 if not 100 % of the world’s population think that most or all religions are nonsense2: Atheists and Theists AGREE that most or all of the worlds religions are nonsense. So why are we arguing? We all agree. Religion is nonsense?
To Pro Life Advocates - A Lesson in Logic
I've been thinking about how pro-life people, you know those who say abortion is murder and can't be allowed and blah blah blah and I have a question/argument that may appease them from a philosophical point of view...
- Below is a rant from a Mr. Wingnut Prolife
Abbortion must be outlawed. It is a crime against God! It is a crime against nature! It is the most horrific and brutal thing ever to be allowed on this earth. Any women who has or any man who allows his wife to abort an innocent child will burn in Hell! How could they expect to be allowed into God's kingdom to live with the very child they refused to allow to live on earth? Anyone who's had an abortion has a rotton soul and that rotton soul will surely rott in Hell beyond the grave!
My wife had something to say as well
Do stupid liberal atheist women think that there won't be any consiquences for their actions? I know for a fact that God will punish you in the end evildoer!
- My Response
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Prolife,
What makes you think a swab of microscopic goo or even a partially formed fetus has a soul? If humans do have souls then they are part of our consciousness, otherwise when we died we wouldn't bring anything from this life to the afterlife thus making Heaven or Hell meaningless. If you're rewarded for your earthly works or for your belief in Christ with eternity in heaven than you must remember why you've been rewarded. A swab of microscopic goo or a partially formed human fetus is not conscious of it's own existence, therefore it could not have developed a soul seeing as how the soul is a product of consciousness.
- Below is a rant from a Mr. Wingnut Prolife
Abbortion must be outlawed. It is a crime against God! It is a crime against nature! It is the most horrific and brutal thing ever to be allowed on this earth. Any women who has or any man who allows his wife to abort an innocent child will burn in Hell! How could they expect to be allowed into God's kingdom to live with the very child they refused to allow to live on earth? Anyone who's had an abortion has a rotton soul and that rotton soul will surely rott in Hell beyond the grave!
My wife had something to say as well
Do stupid liberal atheist women think that there won't be any consiquences for their actions? I know for a fact that God will punish you in the end evildoer!
- My Response
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Prolife,
What makes you think a swab of microscopic goo or even a partially formed fetus has a soul? If humans do have souls then they are part of our consciousness, otherwise when we died we wouldn't bring anything from this life to the afterlife thus making Heaven or Hell meaningless. If you're rewarded for your earthly works or for your belief in Christ with eternity in heaven than you must remember why you've been rewarded. A swab of microscopic goo or a partially formed human fetus is not conscious of it's own existence, therefore it could not have developed a soul seeing as how the soul is a product of consciousness.
Why We Should Abandon Religion
Someone once insinuated that I don’t believe in the bible because I am not a good enough reader to understand what the bible has to offer. I explained to them that my disbelief in the bible and other holy books as well as my opinion that they are poorly written is not a sign that I am not a good enough reader. I said in fact, quite the opposite is true. I have read so many books and thought about these things so deeply that coming to any conclusion other than that all religions are pure nonsense would be insane.
I meant them no disrespect either. I was answering a question in the hopes that they could see where I was coming from. My response went somewhat as follows.
The Bible, Qur’an, the Torah etc. are nothing more than fairy tale books that are taught as FACT to people all over the world. Think about it. If you’re born in Afghanistan most likely you’ll be raised Muslim and because of that you’re likely to live your entire life as a Muslim. You’ll be told that Allah is the one true god and Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the prophet of Allah and the teacher of his word. If you’re born in India you’re likely to be brought up to embrace the Hindu faith and practice it lifelong as well. You will believe that cows are holy and you’ll pray to the gods: Shiva, Vishnu or Shakti. Likewise if you are born in a western nation where the majority of the people are Christian, than you’ll probably be raised to believe in Christianity. You’ll be told that Jesus was born of a virgin and that he healed the sick and cured the blind and walked on water. You’ll be told that Jesus was crucified and that he died so that you’re soul was free of sin and would be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. You’ll be told that accepting Christ as your lord and savior is you’re ticket to everlasting life. In other words, you’ll go to heaven.
The Christian Church promises Heaven as a reward for believing and Hell as a punishment for not believing. Mind you that Heaven and Hell are not so clearly spelled out in the bible, as many would have you believe. They are merely the most popular interpretations of what the bible said. Such is the case of most if not all of the beliefs in the Christian faith. Islam and Judaism aren’t any better either. They’re just teaching their own interpretations of what their books and prophets said.
What I’m getting at here is that even if one of these holy books is factual (and none of them are) but even if they were, you’re being taught merely the interpretation of the words that has survived throughout the centuries, not to mention that what you read in the bible probably has little resemblance to what was originally written by the ancients. People throughout history have manipulated and twisted the words in the bible to fit their needs. Think about the dark ages in Europe when very few people could read. The church had absolute power over peoples lives through some of these periods and the bishops and preachers (who could read) had the ability to shape the bible however they saw fit. Do you mean to sit there and think that every single one of these powerful men in the dark ages was 100% truthful? Of course they weren’t they were human beings with their own fears and superstitions and beliefs and they had the power to tell people what God said! They had the power to control the minds of millions and make them believe whatever they wanted them to believe. It was men like this that concocted the idea of Hell. Of course they used the threat of eternal damnation and torture as a way to scare people into joining the church.
An old saying summed it up well. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
These dark-age churchmen had absolute power and they were without a shadow of a doubt, extremely corrupt. Think of all the horrific things that went on during these times. Crucifixions, beheadings, public humiliation of the condemned, burning people alive and stoning them etc. Quite often the crimes for which these punishments were carried out were trivial. Unbelievably terrible things happened to people as a result of both the church and peoples ignorance.
Religion promotes ignorance by telling you not to question God. It says that if you question God you will be punished. This all stems from churchmen of old who used this to scare the illiterate masses that came to them for spiritual guidance. Every time those churchmen wanted something from the people, money, service, anything, all they had to do was say, You must obey God. They were really saying you must obey me, but transposing the word god for the word me.
Think about how the books in the bible are like modern day fairy tales. How is it more believable that a talking snake made a women eat a forbidden fruit than it is that Jack climbed a magic beanstalk and reached the land of the giant? Their both fairy tales, one is just older. The old bible fairy tale seems more real to believers because they want to believe it and because it’s ancient it is somehow mystifying. But that’s all it is, it’s just old, nothing more.
Think about why the bible never says, that men cannot rape women. The reason it never says this is that the men who wrote the bible had no concept of rape. To them, women had no rights and were the property of men. Therefore if a man wanted to have sex with a woman, he did. The women had no choice. Of course this is completely unfair and women deserve to be free and make their own choices just as men do. God would have known this. So if the Bible were the inspired word of God, it would have told people not to rape. It wasn’t the word of God however, it was the word of people, and not even people that would be respected in todays society. The people who wrote the stories in the Bible/Qur'on etc. were primitives with no knowledge of science and very limited reasoning skills.
We have surpassed these primitives to the point of total eclips. We've built on what they taught us and made improvements and created the vastly superior modern world we live in today. We have cell phones and the Internet and airplanes that can travel all over the world. We have the ability to destroy entire cities with one bomb (not a good thing but a testement to our knowledge and power) and we have left the boundaries of earth and traveled into space. Some men have even walked on the moon. It makes no sense for us to believe in the teaching of primitive people. It makes no sense to believe that anything that’s written in the bible is or ever was the word of God either. We don’t even have a logical reason to believe that God exists at all. Yes it would be nice if there is life after death and the good people are rewarded and the wicked are punished. I want that to be true just like most people do. But just because we want something doesn’t make it true.
The upside to this from a phylisophical perspective is that there are limitless possibilities. With no God to govern our actions, anything can happen. We can accomplish unimaginable things much like our accomplishments today would seem unimaginable to people living 1,000 years ago. There is no telling how far the human race will go. Someday we may be immortals, traveling the cosmos, wielding the power of stars.
I believe religion is one of the things that may prevent us from ever reaching such greatness because it vilifies science and reason. I hope for the best for humanity because I believe we are for the most part a good species. Most of us have compassion for other people and also for other animals. Yes, human beings are animals. We are just the smartest and most powerful animals that have ever lived. Not believing in God doesn’t make life pointless and human beings aren’t just smart monkeys. We are the only species in the history of the world to have ever questioned it’s own purpose and searched for answers to deep questions. We’re the only ones to have ever-developed languages with which to communicate these complex thoughts. We’re the only species to fight and die over what we believe in and we’re the only species to have ever slaughtered it’s own for illogical reasons like believing in one invisible god or another. We are both the greatest and worst species in the history of the world and it is up to us to make the right choices from here on out and strive to be better to each other and be a better species in general. We have made great strides with the belief that everyone is created equal and that all have undeniable rights. We’re not perfect, but we’re getting better. We’re still learning how to do the right things and someday, we may be living in a veritable utopia, our own heaven, right here on earth. We’ll never reach it through faith, but through reason we have a good shot.
I meant them no disrespect either. I was answering a question in the hopes that they could see where I was coming from. My response went somewhat as follows.
The Bible, Qur’an, the Torah etc. are nothing more than fairy tale books that are taught as FACT to people all over the world. Think about it. If you’re born in Afghanistan most likely you’ll be raised Muslim and because of that you’re likely to live your entire life as a Muslim. You’ll be told that Allah is the one true god and Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the prophet of Allah and the teacher of his word. If you’re born in India you’re likely to be brought up to embrace the Hindu faith and practice it lifelong as well. You will believe that cows are holy and you’ll pray to the gods: Shiva, Vishnu or Shakti. Likewise if you are born in a western nation where the majority of the people are Christian, than you’ll probably be raised to believe in Christianity. You’ll be told that Jesus was born of a virgin and that he healed the sick and cured the blind and walked on water. You’ll be told that Jesus was crucified and that he died so that you’re soul was free of sin and would be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. You’ll be told that accepting Christ as your lord and savior is you’re ticket to everlasting life. In other words, you’ll go to heaven.
The Christian Church promises Heaven as a reward for believing and Hell as a punishment for not believing. Mind you that Heaven and Hell are not so clearly spelled out in the bible, as many would have you believe. They are merely the most popular interpretations of what the bible said. Such is the case of most if not all of the beliefs in the Christian faith. Islam and Judaism aren’t any better either. They’re just teaching their own interpretations of what their books and prophets said.
What I’m getting at here is that even if one of these holy books is factual (and none of them are) but even if they were, you’re being taught merely the interpretation of the words that has survived throughout the centuries, not to mention that what you read in the bible probably has little resemblance to what was originally written by the ancients. People throughout history have manipulated and twisted the words in the bible to fit their needs. Think about the dark ages in Europe when very few people could read. The church had absolute power over peoples lives through some of these periods and the bishops and preachers (who could read) had the ability to shape the bible however they saw fit. Do you mean to sit there and think that every single one of these powerful men in the dark ages was 100% truthful? Of course they weren’t they were human beings with their own fears and superstitions and beliefs and they had the power to tell people what God said! They had the power to control the minds of millions and make them believe whatever they wanted them to believe. It was men like this that concocted the idea of Hell. Of course they used the threat of eternal damnation and torture as a way to scare people into joining the church.
An old saying summed it up well. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
These dark-age churchmen had absolute power and they were without a shadow of a doubt, extremely corrupt. Think of all the horrific things that went on during these times. Crucifixions, beheadings, public humiliation of the condemned, burning people alive and stoning them etc. Quite often the crimes for which these punishments were carried out were trivial. Unbelievably terrible things happened to people as a result of both the church and peoples ignorance.
Religion promotes ignorance by telling you not to question God. It says that if you question God you will be punished. This all stems from churchmen of old who used this to scare the illiterate masses that came to them for spiritual guidance. Every time those churchmen wanted something from the people, money, service, anything, all they had to do was say, You must obey God. They were really saying you must obey me, but transposing the word god for the word me.
Think about how the books in the bible are like modern day fairy tales. How is it more believable that a talking snake made a women eat a forbidden fruit than it is that Jack climbed a magic beanstalk and reached the land of the giant? Their both fairy tales, one is just older. The old bible fairy tale seems more real to believers because they want to believe it and because it’s ancient it is somehow mystifying. But that’s all it is, it’s just old, nothing more.
Think about why the bible never says, that men cannot rape women. The reason it never says this is that the men who wrote the bible had no concept of rape. To them, women had no rights and were the property of men. Therefore if a man wanted to have sex with a woman, he did. The women had no choice. Of course this is completely unfair and women deserve to be free and make their own choices just as men do. God would have known this. So if the Bible were the inspired word of God, it would have told people not to rape. It wasn’t the word of God however, it was the word of people, and not even people that would be respected in todays society. The people who wrote the stories in the Bible/Qur'on etc. were primitives with no knowledge of science and very limited reasoning skills.
We have surpassed these primitives to the point of total eclips. We've built on what they taught us and made improvements and created the vastly superior modern world we live in today. We have cell phones and the Internet and airplanes that can travel all over the world. We have the ability to destroy entire cities with one bomb (not a good thing but a testement to our knowledge and power) and we have left the boundaries of earth and traveled into space. Some men have even walked on the moon. It makes no sense for us to believe in the teaching of primitive people. It makes no sense to believe that anything that’s written in the bible is or ever was the word of God either. We don’t even have a logical reason to believe that God exists at all. Yes it would be nice if there is life after death and the good people are rewarded and the wicked are punished. I want that to be true just like most people do. But just because we want something doesn’t make it true.
The upside to this from a phylisophical perspective is that there are limitless possibilities. With no God to govern our actions, anything can happen. We can accomplish unimaginable things much like our accomplishments today would seem unimaginable to people living 1,000 years ago. There is no telling how far the human race will go. Someday we may be immortals, traveling the cosmos, wielding the power of stars.
I believe religion is one of the things that may prevent us from ever reaching such greatness because it vilifies science and reason. I hope for the best for humanity because I believe we are for the most part a good species. Most of us have compassion for other people and also for other animals. Yes, human beings are animals. We are just the smartest and most powerful animals that have ever lived. Not believing in God doesn’t make life pointless and human beings aren’t just smart monkeys. We are the only species in the history of the world to have ever questioned it’s own purpose and searched for answers to deep questions. We’re the only ones to have ever-developed languages with which to communicate these complex thoughts. We’re the only species to fight and die over what we believe in and we’re the only species to have ever slaughtered it’s own for illogical reasons like believing in one invisible god or another. We are both the greatest and worst species in the history of the world and it is up to us to make the right choices from here on out and strive to be better to each other and be a better species in general. We have made great strides with the belief that everyone is created equal and that all have undeniable rights. We’re not perfect, but we’re getting better. We’re still learning how to do the right things and someday, we may be living in a veritable utopia, our own heaven, right here on earth. We’ll never reach it through faith, but through reason we have a good shot.
10/18/09
Tyler McCail dreams of changing the world. He hates organized religion, war, greed and ignorance with a passion that far exceeds most. He’s physically tough, highly intelligent and possess a razor sharp sense of morality. He wants to become an enormous celebrity and use his power to influence the people of the world in order to minimize suffering and prevent future catastrophe. He faces two major obstacles in achieving this goal. First off, his endless potential and lax upbringing has left him a lazy dreamer with an undeserved superiority complex. The other obstacle is a hole torn in space that allows something from a parallel universe to invade earth and bring evil and carnage beyond humanities most terrifying nightmare.
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