It’s cold now. Not like before when all I felt was a warm breeze flowing through my body, taking the pain away from my chest and easing my nervous mind. I had welcomed that warm breeze and it stayed with me until I was wholly numb. Now only the cold consumes me. I have a sense that I am moving, but it’s hard to say in what direction; up, down, sideways. I guess it doesn’t matter, but I feel like I need to end up somewhere. My poor wife and children. I can only say I am sorry for leaving them so soon.
The cold has become less angry with me and has relented. I have been in this void for so long I feel like something is wrong. I want to see something, anything. My eyes are tired of the blackness that surrounds me. I have no idea how long I have been in this place; 30 seconds, 30 hours, 30 days? I have lost all track of time and my mind aches for change. I miss my family. I should have taken my pills. I knew I wasn’t well.
A star! A precious star that twinkles red, yellow, blue, white then repeats that pattern over and over again. I see it in the distance. Or is it near me? I feel warmth again, like a tropical breeze on a spring day. A tingling around me. Oh thank you! I must have patience now. Things seem to be in working order after all. I have not been forgotten out here, wherever here is. I will soon be somewhere. If only my children could see this. They would say it was the most beautiful thing in the world. I miss them. I know they will take care of my love. I have nothing to worry about.
My God! There is no describing this place. My weary and eager eyes did not see a star but a place. A brilliant place which looks very familiar to me, but strange in an ancient way; ancient beyond my knowledge. The structures are soaked with intelligence and the inhabitants move with such fluidity it all seems artificial. I have been so consumed with quenching my eye’s thirst that I didn’t notice my body. I can feel myself again. And I feel incredible improvement! My skin is soft and flexible, my joints are strong and pain free. I feel like running a trillion miles and leaping over oceans. I thought I could never feel this way. Oh to hold my family again. I would reach around them and lift them up with both arms. I would never let them go. Never again. I must run and release this new energy before I explode like a firework. I am glorious!
There are others here, trillions of them. I have spoken with some and they have tales that make my mind swim with questions and intrigue. One woman told me that I can seek my relatives out and reunite with them, but I am finding out that this place is immense beyond imagination. And so many souls are screaming out the names of their loved ones that my voice becomes diluted before it even exits my mouth. How can I ever wish to find anyone specific in this horde of hordes? My calls will never be heard. But wait, I see a group approaching me. They are waving and gliding to me. Oh how lovely and fantastic! I see my grandfather, my grandmother. Oh how beautiful they are. I see friends and family all coming. I love them all and I soak up the very essence of them as they greet me with their loving arms.
My grandmother, whom had died well before I had the chance to know her, told me all about her experiences on Earth and here, in Heaven. She informed me that they had been watching me my whole life and they were very proud of all my accomplishments. I had grown up to be a very good man and I should be proud of the men my sons have become. I am overjoyed with being able to hear these things and to share my feelings with the people I had only dreamed about. This place is wonderful.
The cold consumes me again. I have been snatched up into the “sky”; into a place that is colorless and uncomfortable. Tis a shame as I had just begun learning of my granddad’s top 1000 favorite things to do on a Sunday. In the gray clouds, a faint figure, outlined only by what appears to be sparkles of dew is edging towards me. My young eyes follow the figure as it glides to the left and then to the right of me; as if it is sizing me up. I want to say something, but I feel it might be out of place so I remain quiet. “Albert James Kingman” it bellowed in a voice made of brass. “Yes?” I choked out. “You are being judged on your Earthly life.” I was surprised to hear this. “Really?” I remarked. “I…I thought perhaps this had already been done. You see I have been here for some time now and figured it was a foregone conclusion...” “You are good man, Albert. You have been loyal to your friends, a great husband and father, an intellectual of immense respect and leader of profound importance to men and children alike. You have lived a full, moral and fruitful life. For this you receive my praise.” “Thank you, sir. Your Majesty.” “I have been watching you ever since you took your first breath. I have been greatly pleased with your contributions to your fellow man. You have shown restraint in times of violence. You have promoted peace when it was easy to ignore it. You thrived in times of turmoil. I am proud of you and what you were able to accomplish in your short time on Earth.” “Oh thank you sir. Thank you.” He stopped pacing and came up to me, only inches away from my face. I could see the grey clouds move behind him, moving into his translucent body and filling him up. He looked solid now and I could see his features. Although his face was missing eyes, I could sense them looking through me. “I love you with all my heart Albert, but because you did not believe in me on Earth, I must send you away from here.” “Excuse me?” “I am sorry my child, but you are not worthy of staying here with me.” “No. I don’t understand. You just told me that I was a good man. I did live a full and moral life. I never stole, coveted or killed anyone. You can’t be serious?” “You contain the qualities of everything I look for in a person, but you lacked faith in me. For this you will be punished forever in the bowels of Hell.” “Wait! Wait! I don’t understand. Are you saying that despite me living an honorable life on Earth, worthy of your praise, I am being banished to… because I simply didn’t believe in you?” The figure turned and left me behind. I stood there watching him and hoping that this was all a dream. I looked at my young strong body and couldn’t fathom why I would need something so strong and new only to be cast into an abyss filled with hellfire and choking smoke. “I don’t understand! Why are you punishing me for being good? Why are you taking me away from all the love of my family and friends when all I did was use the rational thought you gave me?” The gray clouds around me began to dissipate and the surface beneath my feet began to give way. Through the thin veil of mist remaining beneath me, I could see red and orange lights, dancing with the sounds of screams and pain. I could see men, women and children drenched in fire, clawing at each other as if they were trying to remove the very skin on their bones. But their bodies were not perishing. They were sustained only to be burnt over and over again. I looked down at my own strong and youthful hands and understood why I had been given this gift. It was so I could endure the pain and agony forever. The loving god whom I called ‘Majesty’ moments ago had condemned me to infinite torture. And I was a good man worthy of God’s praise.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Can We Really Blame Them?
Consider for a moment the story of Adam and Eve. Adam, created out of nothing, was given life and was free to roam the garden at his own leisure. Certainly, since everything was new to him, he would have been curious about his surroundings. He may have even experimented. For instance, if he was lucky enough to catch a butterfly, he might have torn it apart to see how it worked. Of course he would have quickly realized that putting a butterfly back together was a lot more difficult than tearing it apart. Who knows how many times he tried?! But Adam wouldn’t have known any better. You see, life was new to him. He couldn’t have understood it, nor could he have given it any value because he knew nothing about its workings. Of course one has to wonder what he thought when the butterfly miraculously kept wandering about without its head and wings-you know, because there was no death in the world…at least not yet. To him it may have even been comical! His concept of right and wrong, good and evil would have been absent in his thinking- for how could he know what was good and what was bad without being told? Even if he was told, who's to say the teller didn't have it wrong? Everything he did was then not an action of good, bad, moral or immoral…they were just actions without any preconceived notions.
Then you have Eve. Eve would have been just as curious and just as ignorant as her male predecessor, I think. She was made to serve Adam, but what did that mean to her? She had never seen anyone serve another. Perhaps she could have been ‘programmed’ like a robot to know what servitude was (by God). But Christians always cringe when they think about God making anyone like a robot. I guess we will never know for sure, but I think we can say that she also had no idea about what good and evil was, what moral or immoral was, or what life and death was.
So what do we make of the apple? The temptation? The “original sin”? Can we blame Adam or Eve for their curiosity? Even as God threatened them to “not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die”, they couldn’t have possibly comprehended what ‘death’ truly was, could they? I mean, the word itself, in any language, would have been confusing and at the same time intriguing. They might have thought death was a form of pleasure; another thing to explore and experience. I imagine at this time, before the apple was eaten, they had seen everything worth seeing in the garden. A new adventure would have been welcomed and would have spurred them both on to discover what ‘death’ was. Logically, I don’t blame them.
So Eve comes across a talking snake, a new and fascinating creature, as she had only seen the ones that walked around (yes they had legs at this time) and licked the air and said nothing at all. The walking (and talking) snake told Eve that if she ate the fruit, they would know good and evil. And they would not die. Eve knew not what a lie was, or a temptation, or a consequence. She ate of the fruit because everything she did was an action, neither good nor bad. Once the fruit was consumed, Adam and Eve saw for themselves the difference between right and wrong. I can see Adam now…the euphoric smile on his face, slowly turning to straight faced stunned disbelief as knowledge settled into his virgin brain: “Wow Eve. That was not a good idea. I wish I knew we were doing something ‘bad’ before we ate the damned apple!”
So, can we really blame Eve or Adam for eating the forbidden fruit? I think not. What did God expect to happen when he put two curious creatures, who knew nothing of right and wrong-good and evil, into a beautiful garden that had at its center a tree bearing forbidden fruit? Oh come on…you know you would have done it too.
Then you have Eve. Eve would have been just as curious and just as ignorant as her male predecessor, I think. She was made to serve Adam, but what did that mean to her? She had never seen anyone serve another. Perhaps she could have been ‘programmed’ like a robot to know what servitude was (by God). But Christians always cringe when they think about God making anyone like a robot. I guess we will never know for sure, but I think we can say that she also had no idea about what good and evil was, what moral or immoral was, or what life and death was.
So what do we make of the apple? The temptation? The “original sin”? Can we blame Adam or Eve for their curiosity? Even as God threatened them to “not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die”, they couldn’t have possibly comprehended what ‘death’ truly was, could they? I mean, the word itself, in any language, would have been confusing and at the same time intriguing. They might have thought death was a form of pleasure; another thing to explore and experience. I imagine at this time, before the apple was eaten, they had seen everything worth seeing in the garden. A new adventure would have been welcomed and would have spurred them both on to discover what ‘death’ was. Logically, I don’t blame them.
So Eve comes across a talking snake, a new and fascinating creature, as she had only seen the ones that walked around (yes they had legs at this time) and licked the air and said nothing at all. The walking (and talking) snake told Eve that if she ate the fruit, they would know good and evil. And they would not die. Eve knew not what a lie was, or a temptation, or a consequence. She ate of the fruit because everything she did was an action, neither good nor bad. Once the fruit was consumed, Adam and Eve saw for themselves the difference between right and wrong. I can see Adam now…the euphoric smile on his face, slowly turning to straight faced stunned disbelief as knowledge settled into his virgin brain: “Wow Eve. That was not a good idea. I wish I knew we were doing something ‘bad’ before we ate the damned apple!”
So, can we really blame Eve or Adam for eating the forbidden fruit? I think not. What did God expect to happen when he put two curious creatures, who knew nothing of right and wrong-good and evil, into a beautiful garden that had at its center a tree bearing forbidden fruit? Oh come on…you know you would have done it too.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Where Did They All Go?
Today I was sad to learn that the BE’ER SHEVA FRINGE-FINGERED LIZARD was on the critically threatened species list. These beautiful creatures are struggling to deal with climatic and social changes, but unfortunately they are not the only ones. There are over one million different kinds of animals on the threatened species list. It's a little depressing to imagine so many innocent animals facing extinction, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.
There is no doubt that a million species seems like a lot, but this only represents a small fraction of the animal kingdom we share the world with today. Even more daunting is that throughout history, man has cataloged hundreds of millions of other ancient animals that once roamed the earth but had plummeted into extinction. Why so many extinct animals? Why didn’t they survive?
Of course the question that should be asked is, if you believe that God created all of these animals, why did He kill them all off…completely? Did they sin? Did they present a moral dilemma to the world? Perhaps He is making up ideas for animals as he goes, experimenting with them to see how long they will last? The trash heap of failed animal species is much like a writer’s wastebasket who can’t figure out how to start his story…filled with crinkled papers full of bad ideas.
Now fathom this: Over 99% of all animal species that once inhabited the earth are now extinct. That means that God has a 1% success rate. An abysmal percentage when considering this is supposed to be the most powerful and perfect being ever known. Even if we take into consideration that humans may have had a hand in the extinction of thousands or even millions of animal species, this is still insignificant to the vast amount of species that have met their demise-permanently without any help from you or me. So again, you can see where a curious mind might want to know why there have been so many mistakes. And if they weren’t mistakes, why did God decide to go through the morbid exercise of creating and destroying animals wholesale when he knew they wouldn’t work out in the end anyway.
Perhaps the world wide flood accounts for the 99%. But wait…if we assume the flood story is true, at least two of every animal was saved on the Ark. So according to the Bible, no animals became extinct during the flood. In fact, God was trying to prevent it-that was the whole point (of course he could have just conjured up some new ones, but that’s a story for another day). So why did they die out?
Ponder the two different explanations we have today for life’s origins. There is creationism which states that a perfect God created all living creatures. If this is true, we have to conclude that he either planned for nearly all of them to be extinct (for what purpose?) or he didn’t know what he was doing. Either way, I think it paints a much different picture of God than what Christians normally perceive of him. Alternatively, we have evolution which explains in natural terms why extinction does and should take place. The “survival of the fittest” logic fits quite nicely here. We know that life experiments with different genetic combinations that can sometimes enhance a species’ probability for survival. If a species can no longer remain viable in it's environment, it will eventually die out. The animals we see active today are the “survivors” from a long line of animal “experiments” that happened to work. So why is evolution so hard to accept?
Fast Facts
*Extinction is a necessary aspect of the evolutionary process.
*Earth has seen an estimated 5 mass extinctions during its history.
*A mass extinction wiped out the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago.
*Approximately 50% of mammals that have become extinct since the 1800s lived in Australia.
*Studies show that smaller mammals are less vulnerable to extinction than larger ones.
Human Involvement
Fossil records show that the overall number of species on Earth has generally increased over time. However, recent increases in species extinction are believed to have been caused by human interference.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Do Atheists Have Hope?
Hope is a word humans use to describe the innate feeling that, what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. For instance, sports fans often hope that their favorite teams win. Or we hope that we make it through the day as healthy as we started it. Hope is a human feeling that cannot be given or taken away based on a person’s belief or disbelief in a god. Every human has hope, so the obvious answer to this question is yes, atheists certainly have hope. But I am often reminded, as a nonbeliever myself, that I live a life void of any real hope. I am essentially hopeless. Perplexed Christians wonder how non-believers, no matter how happy they appear to be, go on living without hope in an afterlife. How non-believers can feel safe and secure without the hope of divine justice. There is a fundamental error in this reasoning as I think most non-believers do hope for these things. They just don’t base their lives on it because they do not have substantial reason to believe they will ever come true. Hope against hope as they say.
Religion makes claims to many things, but it does not have a monopoly on hope. There is no doubt that religion depends greatly on the hope of individuals to sustain its dogmatic power. Without the promise of something better, what does religion have to offer? Some people find comfort in believing a god will give them eternal life, or that they are being watched over in times of darkness. While these ideas are appealing, there are others who find comfort in knowing they have control over their own life. That their future is not written in stone. That the trail they blaze belongs to them and not some facilitator in the sky. So just like anything else in this world, we choose the things that make us most comfortable. Because isn’t that what we all strive for? To be comfortable?
In relation to how we deal with adversity, there are two philosophies at work in the world: 1) When times get tough, turn to someone (or something) else to work out your problems. Shed the responsibilities of the world from your shoulders and let someone else take the credit or the blame. Or 2) you can face reality, take responsibility for yourself and endure. Atheists fall in to this second category. As a person who does not believe in the power of God, I can say that in many ways I have an easier time dealing with adversity than someone who does believe. Let me explain: I never get disappointed when my prayers aren’t answered. I never have to wonder why God, the person I trust the most in this world, decided to ignore my pleads for help. I never have to feel like I did something wrong or that I didn’t pray hard enough for Him to care. No, I simply work at making things better and rationalize my successes and failures as products of my own decisions. The believer, on the other hand, will undoubtedly feel the disappointment of not having prayers answered. They might wonder if they were living righteous enough to warrant God’s favor. The mental reconciliation must be tough. Its like a father who promises to be there, but never is and you have to justify why he doesn’t show up time and time again. The feeling of abandonment is very strong and can have lasting effects.
My hope is rooted in what I know. I can take solace in knowing my past was written in my own words, my present is what I make of it, and my future is a blank canvass ready to be painted by life’s glorious colors. So don’t feel sorry for me. I find life very much worth while. If you take a closer look at your atheist neighbors, and there are more than you think, I believe you will discover that what they want most in life is a lot like what you want the most. To make this world a better place- not only for them, but their children, their family, their friends and yes, Christians too.
Religion makes claims to many things, but it does not have a monopoly on hope. There is no doubt that religion depends greatly on the hope of individuals to sustain its dogmatic power. Without the promise of something better, what does religion have to offer? Some people find comfort in believing a god will give them eternal life, or that they are being watched over in times of darkness. While these ideas are appealing, there are others who find comfort in knowing they have control over their own life. That their future is not written in stone. That the trail they blaze belongs to them and not some facilitator in the sky. So just like anything else in this world, we choose the things that make us most comfortable. Because isn’t that what we all strive for? To be comfortable?
In relation to how we deal with adversity, there are two philosophies at work in the world: 1) When times get tough, turn to someone (or something) else to work out your problems. Shed the responsibilities of the world from your shoulders and let someone else take the credit or the blame. Or 2) you can face reality, take responsibility for yourself and endure. Atheists fall in to this second category. As a person who does not believe in the power of God, I can say that in many ways I have an easier time dealing with adversity than someone who does believe. Let me explain: I never get disappointed when my prayers aren’t answered. I never have to wonder why God, the person I trust the most in this world, decided to ignore my pleads for help. I never have to feel like I did something wrong or that I didn’t pray hard enough for Him to care. No, I simply work at making things better and rationalize my successes and failures as products of my own decisions. The believer, on the other hand, will undoubtedly feel the disappointment of not having prayers answered. They might wonder if they were living righteous enough to warrant God’s favor. The mental reconciliation must be tough. Its like a father who promises to be there, but never is and you have to justify why he doesn’t show up time and time again. The feeling of abandonment is very strong and can have lasting effects.
My hope is rooted in what I know. I can take solace in knowing my past was written in my own words, my present is what I make of it, and my future is a blank canvass ready to be painted by life’s glorious colors. So don’t feel sorry for me. I find life very much worth while. If you take a closer look at your atheist neighbors, and there are more than you think, I believe you will discover that what they want most in life is a lot like what you want the most. To make this world a better place- not only for them, but their children, their family, their friends and yes, Christians too.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Why Do Non-Believers Care?
Why do people who don't believe in God spend so much time talking about it? Why do they waste their time and energy trying to battle the word of God and the people who try to promote it? 6 years ago I would have answered this with an "I don't know." But now I know why they do it. Rather, why we do it.
6 years ago my wife became a Christian. This was the result of her need to make sense of her life which was, in her eyes, falling apart. We were having marital problems and she had hoped the divine powers of God would help reunite us again. As fortune would have it, we did reunite and today we are as strong as ever. Although I have never asked her, she likely viewed this as a miracle. That God had willed us to be together for some divine purpose. I, on the other hand, viewed it as the result of a lot of forgiveness. Either way, our lives had changed; for the better because we were a family again, for the worse because now we had another major challenge. How could we ever reconcile the differences in our worldviews, me being a secularist and her being a devout Christian. And most importantly, how do we raise our children?
3 years ago, my oldest son - 5 y.o. at the time- asked me if I was really going to Hell. After getting over the shock, I told him "of course not", but he didn't seem convinced. He had learned in Sunday school that anyone who doesn't believe in God will be sent to Hell to burn forever. His eyes seemed older at that moment-like he had lost a part of his innocence. I remember how concerned he looked and how hurt I was to see him that way. I asked him what he thought would happen to me. He said that I would go to Heaven, because I was a good daddy. I left it at that and we went to sleep. I am sure he slept a lot better than me that night.
Up to that point, religion had never been a significant part of my life. I never cared that much about it. Sure, I was always fascinated with how rational people could accept the non-sensical as reality, but that was their own personal choice. Why should I care? Now things were different. Now religion had forced its way into my home and my life and was now consuming the thoughts of my children. I didn't ask for any of this, but here it was. I didn't want to care, but I had to care.
Common belief among Christians is that atheists are people who don't want God to exist. I can't speak for all of them (as atheists are very independent people and wouldn't want me to), but this accusation is simply not true. I would like nothing more than to know after I die I will spend an eternity with the people I love. As humans, we know with certainty that one day we will die. This is one of the ways we are different from the rest of the animal kingdom. We spend countless hours wondering what the end will be like. There are whole industries built around this very fact (i.e life insurance, legal wills, religion). So naturally, we want to find comfort in death in any way we can. I am no exception. I want to believe that I will live forever surrounded by love. But this is not likely. Atheists deal with probabilities. That is why we demand proof. Proof is the ultimate decider in truth. There is no proof for God. Until there is, you will always have people like me that play the odds.
I know that tomorrow there is close to a 100% chance that the sun will rise in the east and will set in the west. Why is this? Because we know certain things about our Earth and solar system that make this likely. I also can say with a high level of probability that dinosaurs did not live with humans. Why is this? Because nowhere in the history of archeology have we found dinosaur bones buried with human ones. I prefer to live my life on probabilities. I do not find the risk-reward very appealing in the God hypothesis. There are Christians who also concede that the existence of God cannot be determined through reason. So why believe in it at all? Such arguments like Pascal's Wager have been around for decades. Even he realized the existence of God could not be reasoned out. Here is what he said: Even though the existence of god cannot be determined through reason, a person should "wager" as though God exists, because so living has potentially everything to gain, and certainly nothing to lose. In other words, at the very least we should pretend to believe in an unreasonable God so we can get into Heaven - if there turns out to be one. But there is more to this than you might think. There is something to lose even for the Christian if he/she is wrong. The average Christian who goes to a 1 1/2 hour sermon every Sunday is spending more than 5300 hours at church during his/her lifetime. If he/she tithes $20 each time, he/she is spending more than $70,000. If Christians are wrong, they have sacrificed a large amount of their only true existence supporting a bogus idea. Again, I live according to probability. In fact we all do. Non-beleivers just don't ignore the probabilities when it comes to religion.
Outside of my own personal issues with religion, others who battle the mainstream Christian movement get involved because they recognize a danger. They understand that their way of life is at stake if they don't stand up to be heard. Religion is a personal matter, but there are many public issues that have pitted Christians against non-believers. Things such as abortion, stem cell research, prayer in public schools, the faith based initiative, proselytizing in the military, etc. Each issue becomes so complex, bogged down by dogma and doctrine, that we tend to get nowhere as a society and the general public ends up suffering for it. Take for instance stem cell research. The reason the government has not funded this promising field of medicine is because of Christian influence. They believe that the potential for a human being in the 3 day old blastocyst is more important than the 12 year old girl suffering from liver disease. This absurdity can only be manifested through the dogma of religion. Rational sense tells us to fund the hell out of this research so we can start caring for people who actually feel pain, feel fear and feel sadness. But this research is being outlawed or held down in courts by religious activists who want to push their own agenda.
It's when the personal matter of religion becomes a detriment to society that you begin to hear the voices of non-believers across the country. Issac Newton stated that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If his law holds true, people can expect to hear a lot more from non-believers in the future. And I don't blame them.
6 years ago my wife became a Christian. This was the result of her need to make sense of her life which was, in her eyes, falling apart. We were having marital problems and she had hoped the divine powers of God would help reunite us again. As fortune would have it, we did reunite and today we are as strong as ever. Although I have never asked her, she likely viewed this as a miracle. That God had willed us to be together for some divine purpose. I, on the other hand, viewed it as the result of a lot of forgiveness. Either way, our lives had changed; for the better because we were a family again, for the worse because now we had another major challenge. How could we ever reconcile the differences in our worldviews, me being a secularist and her being a devout Christian. And most importantly, how do we raise our children?
3 years ago, my oldest son - 5 y.o. at the time- asked me if I was really going to Hell. After getting over the shock, I told him "of course not", but he didn't seem convinced. He had learned in Sunday school that anyone who doesn't believe in God will be sent to Hell to burn forever. His eyes seemed older at that moment-like he had lost a part of his innocence. I remember how concerned he looked and how hurt I was to see him that way. I asked him what he thought would happen to me. He said that I would go to Heaven, because I was a good daddy. I left it at that and we went to sleep. I am sure he slept a lot better than me that night.
Up to that point, religion had never been a significant part of my life. I never cared that much about it. Sure, I was always fascinated with how rational people could accept the non-sensical as reality, but that was their own personal choice. Why should I care? Now things were different. Now religion had forced its way into my home and my life and was now consuming the thoughts of my children. I didn't ask for any of this, but here it was. I didn't want to care, but I had to care.
Common belief among Christians is that atheists are people who don't want God to exist. I can't speak for all of them (as atheists are very independent people and wouldn't want me to), but this accusation is simply not true. I would like nothing more than to know after I die I will spend an eternity with the people I love. As humans, we know with certainty that one day we will die. This is one of the ways we are different from the rest of the animal kingdom. We spend countless hours wondering what the end will be like. There are whole industries built around this very fact (i.e life insurance, legal wills, religion). So naturally, we want to find comfort in death in any way we can. I am no exception. I want to believe that I will live forever surrounded by love. But this is not likely. Atheists deal with probabilities. That is why we demand proof. Proof is the ultimate decider in truth. There is no proof for God. Until there is, you will always have people like me that play the odds.
I know that tomorrow there is close to a 100% chance that the sun will rise in the east and will set in the west. Why is this? Because we know certain things about our Earth and solar system that make this likely. I also can say with a high level of probability that dinosaurs did not live with humans. Why is this? Because nowhere in the history of archeology have we found dinosaur bones buried with human ones. I prefer to live my life on probabilities. I do not find the risk-reward very appealing in the God hypothesis. There are Christians who also concede that the existence of God cannot be determined through reason. So why believe in it at all? Such arguments like Pascal's Wager have been around for decades. Even he realized the existence of God could not be reasoned out. Here is what he said: Even though the existence of god cannot be determined through reason, a person should "wager" as though God exists, because so living has potentially everything to gain, and certainly nothing to lose. In other words, at the very least we should pretend to believe in an unreasonable God so we can get into Heaven - if there turns out to be one. But there is more to this than you might think. There is something to lose even for the Christian if he/she is wrong. The average Christian who goes to a 1 1/2 hour sermon every Sunday is spending more than 5300 hours at church during his/her lifetime. If he/she tithes $20 each time, he/she is spending more than $70,000. If Christians are wrong, they have sacrificed a large amount of their only true existence supporting a bogus idea. Again, I live according to probability. In fact we all do. Non-beleivers just don't ignore the probabilities when it comes to religion.
Outside of my own personal issues with religion, others who battle the mainstream Christian movement get involved because they recognize a danger. They understand that their way of life is at stake if they don't stand up to be heard. Religion is a personal matter, but there are many public issues that have pitted Christians against non-believers. Things such as abortion, stem cell research, prayer in public schools, the faith based initiative, proselytizing in the military, etc. Each issue becomes so complex, bogged down by dogma and doctrine, that we tend to get nowhere as a society and the general public ends up suffering for it. Take for instance stem cell research. The reason the government has not funded this promising field of medicine is because of Christian influence. They believe that the potential for a human being in the 3 day old blastocyst is more important than the 12 year old girl suffering from liver disease. This absurdity can only be manifested through the dogma of religion. Rational sense tells us to fund the hell out of this research so we can start caring for people who actually feel pain, feel fear and feel sadness. But this research is being outlawed or held down in courts by religious activists who want to push their own agenda.
It's when the personal matter of religion becomes a detriment to society that you begin to hear the voices of non-believers across the country. Issac Newton stated that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If his law holds true, people can expect to hear a lot more from non-believers in the future. And I don't blame them.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Diary of The Hated American
I find that I must be well behind the curve when determining truth from fiction. It seems that everyone else has subscribed to the God hypothesis but me. I often find myself wondering where I went wrong. Did I miss something in school? Was I watching NBC when God did his news conference on ABC? Perhaps there was something profoundly important my parents forgot to mention when I was young and impressionable. No matter, I am now in this predicament regardless of how I got here. I guess I’ll have to blame all of the teachers in my life for steering me wrong and hiding the most obvious truth from me.
I was born in a small town smack-dab in the heart of America. Some say, and I agree, that the American experience is best exemplified in the Midwest. The people are hard working, tough, courteous, kind and have a strong belief in patriotism. Each person’s value is determined by what he does and not what he says. This seemed reasonable enough. You can usually find the troublemakers by simply listening to who is TELLING you how good they are rather than showing you. I guess I fared OK as I always seemed to avoid stealing, killing and maiming anyone. I guess I was lucky because I don’t remember God telling me not to do those things. I suppose God and chance can exist at the same time. Our town’s most anticipated holiday of the year was the Fourth of July; Christmas came in second just ahead of hunting season and Thanksgiving. I lived the American experience every day of my childhood. I was proud to be an American. I honored it and adored it, as did my friends and neighbors who accepted me and everyone else who believed in doing the right thing.
Today I found out in a national survey that my fellow Americans hate me. They hate my lack of ethics, and my lack of morality and hope. They hate what I represent, yet I don’t see how it’s possible all of these people ever got the chance to know me. My time is usually spent in quiet reading and I usually try to avoid crowds. I guess it might be a product of hearsay. It could have been that nasty John Freeman whom I told on for stealing back in 4th grade. Yes, I’m sure he has something to do with this. At any rate, the numbers indicate that Americans just don’t like or trust me. I am currently thanking my lucky stars that I got married before this survey was published. These same people say they would have a hard time allowing their daughter to marry me. I can only imagine how hard it would be now to convince my in-laws that I truly am a good person-despite what everyone else was saying about me. Timing is everything my father always says.
I read an article that the former President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, declared (off the record) that atheists should not be considered citizens of America. What would I be then? I have never known life outside of the United States and I surely don’t want to leave the freedoms we have in this country for the oppression of another. Citizenship, I thought, is not dependant on religion. I was born here, cultivated here and contribute my time, money and energy here. I am a citizen by birth. Why wouldn’t I be a citizen? I need to ponder this for awhile. I’ll get back to you.
[6 hours, 6 minutes and 6 seconds later]
Religion is to blame! George H.W. Bush hates me because of it. Not because I don’t have it, but because religion exists. Without their being a choice there would be no divide. The fact that religion demands a choice is enough to send the world into chaos, apparently. You either are a Christian or you are not. There is no in-between (unless you count Catholics and Mormons). Now I stand at odds with people whom I would otherwise have no quarrel with. This is saddening to me as I am sure it is to you, reader. I constantly hear how religion brings people together, but all I see is how it labels and filters people into piles. I’m in a pile now. The one that people are sticking their nose up to and spitting on. I don’t know what I did, but I am sorry. Sorry that our previous generations of American parents allowed this catastrophe to happen. I am too distraught to continue writing. I shall gather myself and return.
[7 minutes later]
I am often told this is a Christian Nation. This is something quite different than an American Nation of course. You see, a Christian Nation is a place where only the Christians get to do what they want. They get to make the rules and impose whatever view they see fit on everyone else who is not ‘Christian’. I have had many fruitful discussions with Christians regarding our founding father’s most illegitimate claim. You know, that pesky one about how state and church should be separate? I am told this is not what the fathers had in mind when they wrote it, well not literally anyway. It’s not what the words say that matters anyway, but rather what American life was like before the Constitution was enacted. You have to “read between the lines” and “take into context” what the establishment clause says in order to really understand it. Interestingly, this method reminds me of the field of Christian apologetics. Always on the hunt for a new way to circumvent difficult Bible passages and contradictions by slight of hand or slip of tongue. The only problem is our founding fathers weren’t writing in befuddling parables or clever poetry. They meant what they said and said what they meant. No amount of sorcery will change that.
So is this a Christian Nation? No, I don’t think so. It most definitely is a secular nation made up of people who came here to start a new life. America has always prided itself on being the melting pot of the world, accepting people of all nations who share in the dream of freedom. A place where hard work and an honest tongue can breed success. Being born and raised in this great land, I too share this dream, and I accept all people from all countries to join this greatest of nations. And I do it without asking them to become Christian first.
I was born in a small town smack-dab in the heart of America. Some say, and I agree, that the American experience is best exemplified in the Midwest. The people are hard working, tough, courteous, kind and have a strong belief in patriotism. Each person’s value is determined by what he does and not what he says. This seemed reasonable enough. You can usually find the troublemakers by simply listening to who is TELLING you how good they are rather than showing you. I guess I fared OK as I always seemed to avoid stealing, killing and maiming anyone. I guess I was lucky because I don’t remember God telling me not to do those things. I suppose God and chance can exist at the same time. Our town’s most anticipated holiday of the year was the Fourth of July; Christmas came in second just ahead of hunting season and Thanksgiving. I lived the American experience every day of my childhood. I was proud to be an American. I honored it and adored it, as did my friends and neighbors who accepted me and everyone else who believed in doing the right thing.
Today I found out in a national survey that my fellow Americans hate me. They hate my lack of ethics, and my lack of morality and hope. They hate what I represent, yet I don’t see how it’s possible all of these people ever got the chance to know me. My time is usually spent in quiet reading and I usually try to avoid crowds. I guess it might be a product of hearsay. It could have been that nasty John Freeman whom I told on for stealing back in 4th grade. Yes, I’m sure he has something to do with this. At any rate, the numbers indicate that Americans just don’t like or trust me. I am currently thanking my lucky stars that I got married before this survey was published. These same people say they would have a hard time allowing their daughter to marry me. I can only imagine how hard it would be now to convince my in-laws that I truly am a good person-despite what everyone else was saying about me. Timing is everything my father always says.
I read an article that the former President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, declared (off the record) that atheists should not be considered citizens of America. What would I be then? I have never known life outside of the United States and I surely don’t want to leave the freedoms we have in this country for the oppression of another. Citizenship, I thought, is not dependant on religion. I was born here, cultivated here and contribute my time, money and energy here. I am a citizen by birth. Why wouldn’t I be a citizen? I need to ponder this for awhile. I’ll get back to you.
[6 hours, 6 minutes and 6 seconds later]
Religion is to blame! George H.W. Bush hates me because of it. Not because I don’t have it, but because religion exists. Without their being a choice there would be no divide. The fact that religion demands a choice is enough to send the world into chaos, apparently. You either are a Christian or you are not. There is no in-between (unless you count Catholics and Mormons). Now I stand at odds with people whom I would otherwise have no quarrel with. This is saddening to me as I am sure it is to you, reader. I constantly hear how religion brings people together, but all I see is how it labels and filters people into piles. I’m in a pile now. The one that people are sticking their nose up to and spitting on. I don’t know what I did, but I am sorry. Sorry that our previous generations of American parents allowed this catastrophe to happen. I am too distraught to continue writing. I shall gather myself and return.
[7 minutes later]
I am often told this is a Christian Nation. This is something quite different than an American Nation of course. You see, a Christian Nation is a place where only the Christians get to do what they want. They get to make the rules and impose whatever view they see fit on everyone else who is not ‘Christian’. I have had many fruitful discussions with Christians regarding our founding father’s most illegitimate claim. You know, that pesky one about how state and church should be separate? I am told this is not what the fathers had in mind when they wrote it, well not literally anyway. It’s not what the words say that matters anyway, but rather what American life was like before the Constitution was enacted. You have to “read between the lines” and “take into context” what the establishment clause says in order to really understand it. Interestingly, this method reminds me of the field of Christian apologetics. Always on the hunt for a new way to circumvent difficult Bible passages and contradictions by slight of hand or slip of tongue. The only problem is our founding fathers weren’t writing in befuddling parables or clever poetry. They meant what they said and said what they meant. No amount of sorcery will change that.
So is this a Christian Nation? No, I don’t think so. It most definitely is a secular nation made up of people who came here to start a new life. America has always prided itself on being the melting pot of the world, accepting people of all nations who share in the dream of freedom. A place where hard work and an honest tongue can breed success. Being born and raised in this great land, I too share this dream, and I accept all people from all countries to join this greatest of nations. And I do it without asking them to become Christian first.
Calculation For Who Created Evil
Before there was nothing but God.
Now there is good and evil.
Case closed.
Now there is good and evil.
Case closed.
Doesn’t It Make More Sense?
I was driving home in my car the other day listening to a popular Christian radio show (I know, hard to believe). The show's host, to his credit, takes challenging calls from its listeners and answers questions that often are considered taboo. Things like, “Will God punish me for believing in evolution?” or “How come there are two different stories of the creation in Genesis?” The radio host usually answers the questions in a convincing manner-many times citing chapter and verse to back up his point. I am amused and entertained by this show and have to say I am a regular listener.
Yesterday a caller (who is a Christian) brought up an interesting topic; prayer. He asked the host why praying in public was such a big deal for Christians since the bible says Jesus and Elijah both taught that prayer should be done in private-behind closed doors. Regrettably I failed to hear the host's response as I began thinking about the issue myself and how this topic has become a recent rallying cry for today’s Christians. It seems you can turn on FOX or CNN any day of the week and find a Christian complaining about the lack of prayer in public schools. According to the devout faithful, this is the real reason why America is suffering. I too believe that a person’s religion is a personal and private matter and should be practiced in private. So if everyone agrees, why do Christians want to make prayer a public matter? Will praying in schools, as opposed to praying at home for instance, really make a difference when it comes to crime rates, poverty, hunger and illness? Do schools possess special (prayer) transmission powers that our homes do not? Perhaps it’s neither of these. Instead, maybe it’s simply a way to try and gain access to impressionable minds. The heads of church will never admit it, but isn’t it obvious to everyone? Isn't it?
Prayer is a fascinating religious dogma. Science has repeatedly proven that prayer does not work yet Christians continue to practice it with fervor. Why? For comfort? Because the preacher tells them to? Not only does science discount prayer’s usefulness, but the whole idea of prayer makes little sense in the context of who Christians claim their god to be. God is supposed to be an all powerful and all knowing being who possesses a master plan for the universe and everything in it-even us. Each individual has a God-anointed purpose. Now ponder this: when we, the imperfect sinful humans, pray to the perfect God to ask him for favors, we do it in hopes that he will hear us and intervene to fulfill our wishes. In fact, the bible preaches that if we pray in Jesus’ name, we will receive whatever we ask for. Does this happen? Of course not. Does it matter to Christian's? Apparently not. But why?
God knows what was, what is and what is to be. His master plan is perfect and without fault (so we are repeatedly told). We would expect nothing less from a perfect god. Now lets put on our Ponder Hats: Let’s say you (the Christian) pray to God to heal your very sick friend Nikki. In fact you ask your whole church to pray for Nikki. Despite your extreme efforts to let God know you want your friend healed, if healing Nikki is not in God’s plan, all prayers for her will go unanswered. The opposite is true as well: If it IS in God’s plan and IS His will, your friend will be healed.
So a rational person has to ask him/herself: Is prayer really necessary to begin with?
God's plan is a perfect plan. There is no changing it. If it needs to be changed then its not a perfect plan, right? SO, God will do what he is going to do in accordance to the plan-despite what you ask of him. This is only human reasoning here, but if we are unable to comprehend the master plan, our calls for Godly intervention (prayer) is a pestilence at best. God doesn’t and shouldn't care what we pray for. He is going to stick to the perfect eternal plan regardless.
You might say that God has the ability to change the future if he wants to. I suppose an all powerful being can do whatever he wants, but if he does that, did he really know the future in the first place? [Again put your ponder hat on] God would have foreseen himself changing the perfect eternal plan (he knows the future) and thus would have planned for the change. So he still has an eternal perfect plan, it just contained the prediction that he was going to change the future to accommodate your request to heal Nikki (even though he really didn't plan on it initially). As you can see, this can get very messy and confusing. So we must call upon the suggestion of the 14th Century logician William of Ockham who said the simplest answer is likely the correct answer.
Doesn’t it make more sense that prayer is just a means to create and maintain a relationship with an imaginary being? That God may in fact really not exist? It is true that if we talk to a wall long enough, we will begin forming an attachment to it (Just ask Tom Hanks how bad he felt when his volleyball 'Wilson' fell into the ocean). Just like a child and his favorite stuffed animal or blanket or imaginary friend, we are able to convince ourselves that someone is on the other end of the unplugged phone despite the fact we know its not possible.
Prayer is an absolute necessity for religions. Without it, people could not become attached to the invisible. With it, it becomes harder for us to realize we are just talking to ourselves.
Yesterday a caller (who is a Christian) brought up an interesting topic; prayer. He asked the host why praying in public was such a big deal for Christians since the bible says Jesus and Elijah both taught that prayer should be done in private-behind closed doors. Regrettably I failed to hear the host's response as I began thinking about the issue myself and how this topic has become a recent rallying cry for today’s Christians. It seems you can turn on FOX or CNN any day of the week and find a Christian complaining about the lack of prayer in public schools. According to the devout faithful, this is the real reason why America is suffering. I too believe that a person’s religion is a personal and private matter and should be practiced in private. So if everyone agrees, why do Christians want to make prayer a public matter? Will praying in schools, as opposed to praying at home for instance, really make a difference when it comes to crime rates, poverty, hunger and illness? Do schools possess special (prayer) transmission powers that our homes do not? Perhaps it’s neither of these. Instead, maybe it’s simply a way to try and gain access to impressionable minds. The heads of church will never admit it, but isn’t it obvious to everyone? Isn't it?
Prayer is a fascinating religious dogma. Science has repeatedly proven that prayer does not work yet Christians continue to practice it with fervor. Why? For comfort? Because the preacher tells them to? Not only does science discount prayer’s usefulness, but the whole idea of prayer makes little sense in the context of who Christians claim their god to be. God is supposed to be an all powerful and all knowing being who possesses a master plan for the universe and everything in it-even us. Each individual has a God-anointed purpose. Now ponder this: when we, the imperfect sinful humans, pray to the perfect God to ask him for favors, we do it in hopes that he will hear us and intervene to fulfill our wishes. In fact, the bible preaches that if we pray in Jesus’ name, we will receive whatever we ask for. Does this happen? Of course not. Does it matter to Christian's? Apparently not. But why?
God knows what was, what is and what is to be. His master plan is perfect and without fault (so we are repeatedly told). We would expect nothing less from a perfect god. Now lets put on our Ponder Hats: Let’s say you (the Christian) pray to God to heal your very sick friend Nikki. In fact you ask your whole church to pray for Nikki. Despite your extreme efforts to let God know you want your friend healed, if healing Nikki is not in God’s plan, all prayers for her will go unanswered. The opposite is true as well: If it IS in God’s plan and IS His will, your friend will be healed.
So a rational person has to ask him/herself: Is prayer really necessary to begin with?
God's plan is a perfect plan. There is no changing it. If it needs to be changed then its not a perfect plan, right? SO, God will do what he is going to do in accordance to the plan-despite what you ask of him. This is only human reasoning here, but if we are unable to comprehend the master plan, our calls for Godly intervention (prayer) is a pestilence at best. God doesn’t and shouldn't care what we pray for. He is going to stick to the perfect eternal plan regardless.
You might say that God has the ability to change the future if he wants to. I suppose an all powerful being can do whatever he wants, but if he does that, did he really know the future in the first place? [Again put your ponder hat on] God would have foreseen himself changing the perfect eternal plan (he knows the future) and thus would have planned for the change. So he still has an eternal perfect plan, it just contained the prediction that he was going to change the future to accommodate your request to heal Nikki (even though he really didn't plan on it initially). As you can see, this can get very messy and confusing. So we must call upon the suggestion of the 14th Century logician William of Ockham who said the simplest answer is likely the correct answer.
Doesn’t it make more sense that prayer is just a means to create and maintain a relationship with an imaginary being? That God may in fact really not exist? It is true that if we talk to a wall long enough, we will begin forming an attachment to it (Just ask Tom Hanks how bad he felt when his volleyball 'Wilson' fell into the ocean). Just like a child and his favorite stuffed animal or blanket or imaginary friend, we are able to convince ourselves that someone is on the other end of the unplugged phone despite the fact we know its not possible.
Prayer is an absolute necessity for religions. Without it, people could not become attached to the invisible. With it, it becomes harder for us to realize we are just talking to ourselves.
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