Atheists are often asked, "What do you have against the Bible?" or something to that effect. There are very, very many ways to answer this question. I'll attempt to answer it one way in which most Christians may understand. It's pretty well understood by many atheists that Christians know very little about the Bible, and have actually read only very small pieces of it. So it's easy to see why many of them don't see why we would have a problem with the "good" book. Every Christian should at least be familiar with one Bible verse, and I think it pretty well sums up what Christianity professes. You see it as sporting events, bumper stickers, and t-shirts. Of course, I'm referring to the ever-popular John 3:16. According to the King James Version: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let's dissect this verse, and see what truth or logic we can or cannot glean from it.
For God so loved the world...- Did God love the world? The Old Testament is full of wrath and vengeful acts. He condemned a couple of naked people to death and pain for eating 1 fruit off a tree that he had forbidden (would you do this to your child if he ate something you told him not to?) He wiped out the entire population of the world except for a boat full of animals and 1 family because he loved the world so much? God was jealous and vindictive of anyone who worshiped other Gods, and ordered their rape and slaughter. He turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt for the grievous offense of looking back at the destruction of everything she knew in Gomorrah. Does God love the children who he afflicts with birth deformities? Does God love amputees? Very rarely does God show love in the Old Testament, and it is only Jesus who comes along and starts telling us about God's love, but apparently God loved us all very much before Jesus, but apparently had a very hard time showing it. So I guess we just have to believe Jesus when he says that "God loves us," in spite of all the evidence we have from scripture to the contrary.
...that he gave his only begotten Son...- Here is a part that it illogical at its base, but somehow Christians manage to rationalize around it. The whole concept of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They maintain that they are all one God, yet separate individuals somehow. It is logically impossible for a being to be itself and at the same time its own father. Even if you clone a person- so that they are exactly the same as you on a genetic level- you would still be separate individuals. You would have separate thoughts, separate minds, separate atoms composing you, etc. If Jesus and God were the same, then how come Jesus so often referred to God as, "Father" and "The one who sent me"? Wouldn't it have been more accurate to say "It is I, your God, made as man"? Why, when Jesus was crucified, did he say "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" Would he not be forsaking himself. Did he not even know the mind of God when he is supposedly part of the same being? It is all extremely illogical, and simply falls apart upon examination.
...that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Here's the clincher- believe or burn. I believe it was Jesus who first introduced the notion of Hell. The Jews didn't really have a concept of eternal torment and suffering, so it had to have been introduced later. Christianity is the first to use fear tactics to win converts and prevent questioning. "You better believe or you'll suffer for eternity." Not only is this belief immoral at its core (eternal punishment for finite crimes), but the whole notion is just ridiculous.
So here's basically what this verse (and others in the Bible) boil down to: God loves you, but actually really thinks you deserve to burn for all of eternity and to be tormented by demons for the crime of being born a human. So he decided to have himself born to human as a Man-God, while also retaining his own God role. The purpose of this was so that he could be tortured and killed by humans, so that he could forgive them if they would just acknowledge this Man-God as God. Confused yet? And why can't God forgive us of his own volition? Certainly this is exactly what he expects us to do with regards to our fellow humans. Is he not omnipotent? Does he not make the rules? If he wanted to forgive us, but couldn't, is he really omnipotent? Why does a blood sacrifice (especially when it's yourself) make everything okay? Which leads me to my next point-
Imagine that you are in a strange society that you are unfamiliar with. Imagine that you picked up an apple and took a bite, and the authorities grabbed you and arrested you because you held the apple with your left hand instead of your right. In this society, this offense is punishable by death. At your trial, right before your death sentence is handed down, a man stands up and says, "Take my life instead of his." The judge says this is acceptable, and asks you if you accept. What would you choose? This is exactly the dogma that Christianity puts forth. Now I love life as much as the next guy, but condemning an innocent man to death because of my minor crime is worse. The sentence is not just in either case, but at least I take the moral high ground by refusing play along with the rules of such an unjust court.
Where's the morality in the idea that Criminal Person A can get off the hook punishing Innocent Person B? If I have committed crimes (sins) in the eyes of a moral and just God, than I ask that I answer for those crimes personally.
And to those that say the Bible has no contradictions: Go Here to see that the Bible cannot get its "central theme" in John 3:16 right.
Friday, August 31, 2007
John 3:16
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Review- Jesus Camp
4.5/5
Here is a high quality documentary about the evangelical movement in America. It focuses on several families, a "Jesus Camp" in Devil's Lake (ironic?), North Dakota, and the megachurches of Colorado Springs. The movie makes it clear that there is a major movement afoot in America that would fight to the death to make Christianity the official religion of this country. These people (including the president) do NOT respect the separation of church and state. They make many, many political statements and pressure their congregations to vote in certain ways, despite being tax-exempt organizations which are prohibited from doing so. All religious institutions should lose its tax-exempt status, because they have abandoned their non-partisanship.
I found it amusing that Ted Haggard is in this video, espousing again the evils of homosexuality. How ironic given the recent events that came to light that he hired a male prostitute for sex and used methamphetamine. How would these fundamentalists feel if Muslims became organized and began aggressively infiltrating the government and schools? How hypocritical are all of these people.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Review: A War on Science
4/5
This is a great video that does a great job in its handling of intelligent design (ID) and evolution. The movie did a good job of getting the major players in the ID camp to be in the program. It was nice to be able to put a face with the names that I’ve read about in the news fighting evolution. I thought the program was very fair, and it presented ID in an unbiased way that would not offend anyone, whether you believe in ID or not.
This is a great program to check out if you want more information about ID- what it is, and how it differs from evolution. It is also a current program, and covers the relatively recent court case in Dover.
Here’s my problem with ID- it talks about how everything is ‘obviously designed’, and that is adequate evidence for the existence of an intelligent designer. Of course, what they are talking about is God. And God is perfect. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. Okay… sounds good…. But then they ignore all of the examples of poor design, of which there are many.
My favorite example of poor design and one of the best evidences for evolution that I know of: The Broken Vitamin C Gene. I’m amazed that this is not brought out more often, because it really is an amazing piece of evidence. I’ll do my best to present it here briefly, although you could probably find it presented better elsewhere.
What happens to you if you don’t consume any Vitamin C in your diet? You’d probably experience these symptoms: dark spots on skin, spongy gums leading to tooth loss, bleeding gums, bleeding from all mucous membranes, pallor, sunken eyes, opening of healed scars and separation of knitted bone fractures. Sounds pleasant, huh? Early sailors experienced this first-hand during long voyages, and didn’t know what the cause was for a long time. Then someone figured it out and they started packing citrus fruit on their ships. That’s common knowledge, for the most part.
Now answer this question: has your dog/cat/bird ever eaten an orange? Have they ever eaten any Vitamin C-containing food? No? Then why aren’t they experiencing the same problems that we humans do? It is because the majority of the animal kingdom synthesizes their own Vitamin C. “How can they do this,” you might ask. Well, they have a gene that allows it, duh. “Well, Mr. Evolutionist, if we all descended from common ancestors, then how come we don’t have the same gene? Sounds like your theory is breaking down. Ha!” It may seem that way until you look a little closer. You see, it is notable that the great apes and humans are among the very few animals that lack this gene. But it’s not really accurate to say that we lack the gene. We have the gene… but it’s broken!
“That’s right folks, step right up and witness the Incredible Intelligent Designer! See how he magically creates a gene in all of the animal kingdom with the power to synthesize Vitamin C! Then watch as he inserts ‘Junk DNA’ into the middle of it during cell formation in an ancestor of the great apes and humans. See how this effectively breaks that gene! Observe the millennia of pain and suffering that result from this cosmic act of wisdom!”
What’s truly amazing, is that when one looks at the gene in apes and in humans, it is broken in exactly the same way! Pretty big coincidence, huh? Obviously this is a result of Adam and Eve committing original sin by biting into a magical fruit. But did the author forget to write down the part where all the different species of great apes ate fruit as well? Do the monkeys get to suffer because of man’s sin? Seems a little strange.
But this is just one of many, many examples of why evolution is right and why ID is wrong. But don’t take my word for it, figure it out for yourself.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Boy, 5, doused in gas, set on fire by masked men
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Five-year-old Youssif is scarred for life, his once beautiful smile turned into a grotesquely disfigured face -- the face of a horrifying act by masked men. They grabbed him on a January day outside his central Baghdad home, doused him with gas and set him ablaze.
It's an act incomprehensibly savage, even by Iraq's standards today. No one has been arrested and the motive remains unknown. In a war-ravaged city torn by sectarian violence and marked by acts of vengeance, this attack's apparent randomness stands out as an example of what life has become in a place where brutality -- even against young children -- is a constant.
"They dumped gasoline, burned me, and ran," Youssif told CNN, pointing down the street with his scarred hands where his attackers fled. See photographs of Youssif before and after the attack »
She ran downstairs, saw her son and fainted. When she came to, she barely recognized her child. "His head was so swollen, you couldn't see his eyes, and his nose was pushed in."
"There was blood," she added, shuddering slightly. "The skin was melted off."
He spent two months in the hospital recovering from the severe burns. These days Youssif spends most of his time indoors, in front of the computer. It's only then that traces of the 5-year-old in him emerge. "He can't play outside with the other kids," Zainab said. "The other day they were playing, and he came in crying. I asked him, 'What's wrong?' and he said, 'They won't play with me because I am burned.'"
She said he once wanted to be a doctor and he loved kindergarten. "He used to be the one who would wake me up every morning, saying let's go to school," Zainab recalled.
She coaxed him to tell me the few words he knows in English. "Girl, boy, window, fan," he said, his voice barely audible, the words barely intelligible.
Doctors told the family there is little more they can do to help Youssif. The family can't afford care outside Iraq.
So Zainab has taken a massive risk by telling her story to the world. Her husband works as a security guard, and it's too dangerous for him to talk to the media.
"I'd prefer death than seeing my son like this," Zainab said.
All she wants is for someone to help her little boy smile again
Scientology
3.5/5
AND
Scientology and Me- Panorama (BBC) (29 min)
3/5
There, now no one can say that I pick on Christianity.
This is one strange, harmful cult. It is very amusing to me that so many celebrities are so involved in this. John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and the other famous people are covered briefly in the first video. There are a number of websites stating what this strange cult believes. Many of them talk about the ridiculous dogma they secretly believe in, that an intergalactic warlord blew up billions of aliens in pre-historic Earth's volcanoes using hydrogen bombs, and that these alien spirits are flying around, infecting our minds and bodies. Of course, you won't get any of them to admit that to a lay person. I'm sure that they feel we are not ready to hear the truth without having undergone their "auditing" process, through which they can brainwash us, and then they can say anything and it won't sound quite so ridiculous.
Another way they get people to believe all of this nonsense, is to charge such obscene amounts to progress in the organization. It's small amounts at first, and it then gets progressively more expensive. This then creates a 'perceived value' in the person spending the money. By the time you start finding out this stuff about aliens and spirits inhabiting us, you have already spent thousands and thousands of dollars. This would lead us to think, "I've spent $60,000 learning about this, and now they're telling me about space aliens. Well, either I'm a total moron for having spent a fortune on this nonsense or they are right. I'll choose the latter, please."
I'm also amazed by these people who will take these stories concocted by modern people and just believe them. How do they distinguish between which nut is right and which is wrong? Jim Jones, David Koresh, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, Joseph Smith, L Ron Hubbard, etc. What makes one of these guys right and the other wrong? They all have the same amount of evidence to back up their claims (none). Of course, this can easily be extended out to more popular world religions. Like the bumper sticker says, "Religions are just cults with more members."
Hopefully no scientologist will declare, "fair game" on me and try to sully my reputation. Luckily, I just cleansed my system with a big Thetan-dump this morning, and I'm feeling pretty good now.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Review- The Phelps Family Documentary
The Phelps Family- BBC Documentary (50 min)
Rating: 4 out of 5
This is an interesting, and intimate look at the Phelps family and how they tick. In case you didn't know, the Phelps family is the primary constituents of the Westboro Baptist Church, who are most famous for traveling around the country and preaching (protesting) at dead soldiers' funerals. They hold up signs like, "God Hates America," "Thank God for IEDs," "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and the famous, "God Hates Fags." These people are bizarre in the extreme, and there are few groups to whom the label of 'Cult' fits better than them.
There were a few things that I found interesting about this documentary. I found it strange how much delight they took, even the younger kids, in relaying the messages of hate. They truly believe that God hates us for our wicked ways, and since he is by definition all-knowing and all-good and the source for morality (according to most Christians), then why shouldn't they rejoice in this message? If God is the pinnacle of morality, should we not be gleeful in His vengeance? For as much as most Christians hate the message these people put out there, it's hard to argue with their dogma. They seem to be well backed by the Bible on their rants. God does seem to hate gays, as he condemns them in both the old and New Testament. He also had no problem wiping out entire nations for little more than worshiping the wrong god. What then must He think of America, where our very right to worship as many or as few gods as we want is protected by the very charter of our nation? The Phelps clan may be on to something....
I was saddened to see the toll that this nonsense was taking on the kids who were being indoctrinated into this nonsense. They are truly the innocent victims here. They are having their brains so thoroughly warped by the adults around them that they may never lead a normal life. They have condemned themselves to a life where the whole world despises them, they have no friends outside the family, and they have such hatred cultivated into their psyches. That may be fine for the adults to choose, it is their right. However, they are dragging their poor children into this lifestyle. I think this can be called nothing other than a form of child abuse. These kids will never know most of the joys of childhood that the rest of us remember: going over to friends' houses, sleep-overs, dating, and just living a care-free childhood apart from regular street-corner protests and getting spit on.
I also found it interesting that so many of the members of the family were quite intelligent. Many of the women supported the family by practicing law as attorneys. This surprised me that not only were they able to use their brains, but that there were people willing to pay them for their services in a competitive market. It always amazes me that there are intelligent people who will believe such strange things when it comes to religion. You can take a very intelligent person in almost all respects, and if you indoctrinate them to believe that your religion is right, and they have to take it on 'faith' without any evidence to back it up, you can make them believe almost anything. And why not? Is not every other religion equally strange when you boil it right down? If you were handed any holy book and were told to read it at face value only and make the determination of whether it was fact or fiction, any rational person would have to determine that there is no more reason to believe the book is fact any more than we believe Harry Potter is fact. All of the stories in them are so absurd and contradict themselves, history and science so frequently, that one has to have the preconceived notion that it is the word of God in order to take any of it seriously. Once you believe that, than you can discount anything that contradicts that belief as a poor translation, faulty science, human error, or satanic deception.
Finally, I found this program well worth the time as it was a very interesting look inside a twisted and hateful cult. I think most believers and nonbelievers alike could find value in watching it as well.
