Illogical vs. illogical. Winner? It’s a draw.
Archive for September, 2009
Islam vs. Christianity. Which one is right?
September 29, 2009Conflicting Bible teaching of the week:
September 29, 2009The personality disorder of Moses:
Numbers 12:3
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
Numbers 31:14-16, 18-19
Moses was angry with the officers of the army … “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them.
“Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
Moses was the meekest man on the face of earth? Slaughtering children? Kidnapping women to use as sex slaves?
Moses was meek, humble, holy and wise … for the Bible tells me so.
The four reasons people cling to religion.
September 24, 2009
Fear
Fear is an extremely effective and powerful motivator for human behavior. Which is exactly why virtually every religion operates under a rule system that inflicts horrific punishment upon anyone who doesn’t follow these religious rules. Today, countless people only continue cling to their religious faith because they are afraid of what will happen to them if they don’t.
Let’s be honest … if a person even has a hint of belief in Christianity, the threat of burning in a lake of fire for eternity is a pretty convincing reason to keep going to church on Sunday. For people motivated by fear, religion becomes little more than an eternal insurance policy. Believe … just in case it’s true.
Social acceptance
Religion plays a major role in cultures throughout the world. In America, around 3/4 of our nation claims to be Christian. So it has become the socially acceptable thing to do. If you are born into a family who practices Islam, you will likely practice Islam. If your parents are Mormons, you’ll likely become a Mormon. If you are born into a Christian family, you guessed it, you’ll likely become a Christian.
Doesn’t this seem illogical? Why does a human being’s birthplace and family play such a major role in their religious beliefs? Why do these gods allow so many people to live life without knowing the “Truth”? Christians believe 70% of the earth is going to hell and Muslims believe 80% of the earth is going to hell.
Socially acceptable or not, you can’t tell me this describes a just and loving god worthy of worship.
Hope
Let’s face it … life is tough. People die from horrible diseases. People spend their entire lives suffering from physical and/or metal disabilities. People struggle with addictions. People live without shelter, water or food and die from starvation and disease. Tragedies happen every day to good people.
For many, belief in an afterlife gives them hope. Their life on earth may be difficult, but they believe they will be rewarded with eternal happiness in paradise after death. This makes it a little easier to get out of bed each morning.
To explain the unknown
No person knows with certainty why we are here and how the universe was formed. I find it exciting that we don’t know everything. There is so much more for humans to learn and I look forward to the discoveries that are to come in my lifetime.
For others, the unknown scares them. They need to understand the unknown, and belief in a god helps them do that. If something is unexplained, they believe it is the work of their god. Many call this approach to religion, “god in the gaps”. Others would call it superstition.
Is there anything I should add to the list?
Why are Christians afraid of Atheists?
September 21, 2009I just read an article about the isolation of being an atheist. I personally haven’t experienced this isolation, because I’m still an admitted closet atheist. If I were to go public with my family and friends, it would certainly lead to isolation within my current social group. The funny thing is I’ve been accused by commenters on this blog for only becoming an atheist because it’s “the cool thing to do”. I guess I’m now super cool with my internet imaginary friends.
My question is why a person is assumed to be evil because they believe in one less god than you? If you can’t tell I’m an atheist by my words and actions, what makes me so scary?
This Christian fear became VERY evident to me in the past month. I was in a meeting with a man I was considering joining in a business partnership. He believed I was a Christian as he openly explained that he would only do business with fellow Christians. He said that anyone who didn’t believe in God couldn’t be trusted. There is nothing quite like being inadvertently insulted to your face. Since I don’t like partnering with openly bigoted people, I didn’t join with him in the business venture.
Now just a few days ago I was in another meeting with a group trying to convince me to join their business network. They sent me their business agreement form containing core values and legal information. What surprised me is their core values openly spoke about the God of the Bible as the foundation of their “Christ-like” values. By signing the document, I was being required to believe in their version of God or I wasn’t welcome as a business vendor. Only in America would this ever happen. I agree with their core values, I just don’t believe a Jewish man from 2,000 years ago was the son of Yahweh. Call me crazy and evil.
What do you think I should have done? Since it was a good business opportunity, I signed the agreement. Seriously, what difference does it make? I’m ethical in my business practices and I’m honest in my character. It is none of their business what religion I do or don’t practice. They are good meaning people, only ignorantly fearful and very deluded by their religious faith. I can ignore their ignorant fear of those different than themselves and they can blindly believe in my “Christ-likeness”. Now everyone is happy.
(I have to admit, it’s kind of fun to be the Judas of a group. Hopefully Jesus doesn’t tip them off to the evil among them.)
My piece of advice to Christians is save your fear for the real scary people. There are plenty of them in your own church. Just because someone doesn’t share your same delusion, it doesn’t make them evil. It only makes them rational.
Do you believe Obama is the AntiChrist?
September 17, 2009The fact that this is even considered a serious question is comical. But the fact that 35% of conservatives in America think Obama may be the AntiChrist and 18% are convinced he is the AntiChrist scares the shit out of me.
Wake up from your delusion people! Just because your religion is accepted as mainstream does not make you any less bat shit crazy for believing this delusional crap. When as a nation are we going to stop allowing this insane extremist behavior to be acceptable? Cult mentality is dangerous whether it happens within a small sect or a mainline religion. It’s people like this that convince themselves they are justified to kill people in the name of their God.
The following video is from an interview with Frank Schaeffer by Rachel Maddow. Schaffer comes from a Christian perspective to intelligently discuss the topic. He speaks about saving Christianity from Christians. But you can’t save this religion from the people who practice it.
Religion today is doing exactly what it has done for thousands of years:
Inspiring some to do good things and inspiring many to act like dangerous mental patients.
The book of Genesis FAIL. A snake in China grew one of it’s legs back.
September 16, 2009
Genesis 3:14
So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, ”Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.”
Telegraph.co.uk – A snake with a single clawed foot has been discovered in China. Apparently serpents have finally paid their full punishment for deceiving Eve and their curse has been lifted. After 6,000 years, snakes will soon be walking around on their feet like they used to in the Garden of Eden.
In all seriousness, this is a true story.
Dean Qiongxiu, 66, said she discovered the reptile clinging to the wall of her bedroom with its talons in the middle of the night.
“I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw,” said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China.
Mrs Duan said she was so scared she grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death before preserving its body in a bottle of alcohol.
The snake – 16 inches long and the thickness of a little finger – is now being studied at the Life Sciences Department at China’s West Normal University in Nanchang.
Snake expert Long Shuai said: “It is truly shocking but we won’t know the cause until we’ve conducted an autopsy.”
A more common mutation among snakes is the growth of a second head, which occurs in a similar way to the formation of Siamese twins in humans.
Who said all mutations are harmful deformities? A snake that can climb a wall with it’s mutated claw sounds pretty evolved to me.
Conflicting Bible teaching of the week:
September 16, 2009Jesus prophesied that the Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed.
“Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”
-John 13:38
The rooster crowed before Peter had denied him three times.
“He swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about. Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him”
-Mark 14:71-72
Prophesy FAIL.
Ignorance + fear + gullibility = mass idiocy.
September 15, 2009We have the freedom of speech and religion in America. Both freedoms are something each American should be thankful for every day. We have the freedom to say and believe (or not believe) whatever we want to.
The following video shows how quickly this free speech turns into a mob of ignorant masses. A sea of blind sheep believing everything they are told and being gullibly motivated by fear mongering tactics.
This is a perfect example of why progress is so painfully slow in our world. Extremists keep the rest of us from seeing any progress happen politically, socially or religiously. It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant and gullible people are.
(via)
Holy irony … a devout Catholic man is crushed by stone altar while praising God for saving his life.
September 11, 2009Telegraph.co.uk – Gunther Link, a devout Catholic man, was trapped in a lift elevator. He was terrified for his life, so he prayed for God to save him. A short while later Link was pulled out of the elevator, and like a good Catholic he went straight to his church to thank God.
Link apparently embraced a stone pillar at the church on which an 860lb stone altar was perched. This caused the altar to fall on him, crushing and killing him instantly. His body was found by parishioners attending Mass the next day after he had been reported missing by his cousin.
Roman Hahslinger, a police spokesman, said:
“We have found his fingerprints on the pillar. We are now investigating the case further.”
Either God is imaginary, or he has a very sick sense of humor. That must be why God instructs people to look skyward when they worship. So they’ll see the huge stone altar he is about to drop on their head.
But then again … God only does the good stuff. Maybe the devil did it.
