Religion gives comfort to many and helps explain that which we do not fully understand. Humans want to believe the universe was created for them. To believe we are God’s special creation formed in his own image. That we are infinitely precious, and all other creatures are merely here for us to use as we see fit.
This human desire to have divine meaning to our lives continues to propagate religion from generation to generation. When you remove emotion from the equation, it’s not difficult to see religion for the ancient superstition that it is.
“That the Christ must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles.”
–Acts 26:23
No.
“When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” –John 11:43-44
Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.
While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher any more?” Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” ). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. –Mark 5:22-24; 35-43
As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. –Luke 7:12-15
Christians love to talk about the perfect heaven that awaits them after death; a place with no evil, no temptation, no disease, no suffering, and no death. A perfect god created this perfect place for glorified beings to live for eternity.
Why would this omnipotent god also intentionally create a highly flawed universe filled with imperfect beings? And after creating this imperfect place, repeatedly blame his imperfect beings for his own design shortcomings? This same god also create angels who were not required to prove their faith, did not have to endure life in a broken world and freely received paradise at the moment of their creation. Does God love angels more than humans? Why not create us all to live in heaven and skip the shitty part?
Either God is sadistic or imaginary … I don’t see another option. Under the biblical model, we are little more than pawns living within a cruel game. When you take an honest look at Christian theology beyond the smiley Jesus paintings, it’s hard to deny how ludicrous and truly sad the belief system is.
This has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. The teachers were concerned that their colleague was openly discussing his atheistic beliefs with students. If the teacher was attempting to deconvert students in a public school, they had reason to be concerned. But this absurd act of holy water assault is beyond comical.
Did they actually believe tap water was going to wash away his atheism? Are they really that ignorant, or were they simply being assholes? After personally witnessing the blind idiocy of brainwashed fundamentalists, I’m guessing these two teachers actually thought a miracle from God would occur. These types of imbecilic drones are teaching our children in public schools across America. It’s a scary fact, especially in the Southern Bible Belt. Unfortunately there is very little we can do about it.
They now need to pray that Jesus will save their jobs. Thankfully for the children of Pompano Beach, imaginary people don’t answer prayers.
What should we do to our enemies and those who have wronged us?
Pay them back with equal vengeance.
Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. –Deuteronomy 19:21
But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. –Exodus 21:23-25
If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. –Leviticus 24:19-20
Love your enemy and allow them to assault you with no recourse.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. –Matthew 5:38-44
I thought God was perfect. Did he get the law wrong the first time?
From a 2005 article in Forbes Magazine, below is a list of the 15 richest fictional characters by net worth. Santa Claus tops the list with infinite “∞” net worth. In a major oversight, Forbes omitted Jesus from the list.
Within the Catholic Church alone, Jesus’ net worth is staggering. There is more money and power to prosthelytize his fictional book the Santa could ever dream of.
Sorry Santa. You may be more popular than Jesus at Christmas time, but you just can’t compete financially.
Christians continually point to God as the source of all moral teaching and the the value of life. Never mind the millions of years that predate Judea-Christianity void of the Ten Commandments or any religious law.
I don’t understand why it is so difficult to comprehend how the extremely intelligent human species could culturally develop, create moral laws and compassion for fellow beings. Why is an invisible deity necessary to create a civil culture? And why is a god based in one specific ancient religion the ultimate source of morality for all the world, most of which worship different gods or no god at all?
The simple answer is this theology is complete bullshit. Not that I need evidence to prove this point, but let’s look at a recent study of chimpanzees and how they deal with the death of a family member.
April 27th issue of Current Biology — The findings we’ve described, along with other observations of how chimpanzees respond to dead and dying companions, indicate that their awareness of death is probably more highly developed than is often suggested. It may be related to their sense of self-awareness, shown through phenomena such as self-recognition and empathy towards others.
In the days leading up to the chimp’s death, the group was very quiet and paid close attention to her, the researchers report. Immediately before she died, she received much grooming and caressing from the others, who appeared to test her for signs of life as she died. They left her soon after, but her adult daughter returned and remained by her mother all night.
“In general, we found several similarities between the chimpanzees’ behavior toward the dying female, and their behavior after her death, and some reactions of humans when faced with the demise of an elderly group member or relative, even though chimpanzees do not have religious beliefs or rituals surrounding death,” Anderson said. Whatever the reasons for the chimps’ actions, he added, they suggest that chimpanzees have a highly developed awareness of death.
“Chimpanzees are humans’ closest evolutionary relatives, and they have already been shown to resemble us in many of their cognitive functions: they empathize with others, have a sense of fairness, and can cooperate to achieve goals,” Biro said. “How they perceive death is a fascinating question, and little data exist so far concerning.
Did God give a set of Ten Commandments to Chimpanzees too?If all morality comes from God, Chimpanzees must have given their lives to Jesus. Otherwise this just doesn’t make any sense.
