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An unexamined faith based on belief without evidence that cannot stand up to science, reason and critical criticism is a useless faith.
What's the worst that can happen if there is no God?
Your thoughts will be of your own private affair. You will be responsible for your thoughts, emotional responses and actions. It will mean that instead of judging, persecuting, blaming, pitying, hurting and segregating people because of religious conviction or beliefs because “my God loves me more than you because I believe,” you will have to take care of and serve each other, for there is no one else looking out for us. It means that the only choice you have is to learn unconditional love and compassion at a level that would make Jesus look like a beginner. It means that you need to pay attention to how you can help others today, instead of awaiting some grand war to end the suffering of the world or to get “ultimate revenge”, a.k.a. “eternal justice” for the acts of fear that have brought terror, pain and unjustice in the world.
It means that you will have to learn to deal with your fear based emotions and actions with love and compassion, and to learn how to understand yourself and others on a social and psychological level. It means that instead of giving your money to religious affiliates (churches, evangelists, religious schools, etc); you can donate money to feed the hungry, for medical research and other organizations that help those in need and advance our society, instead of holding it back. While religious propaganda has supported the idea for 2000 years that a Savior is come to save the world and who has treated science as a threat and has held it back, it is sciences that have brought us space exploration, medical cures and treatments, environment and human resource development, physical science discoveries, etc.
It means admitting that the idea of spreading apathy through spreading the word of waiting for a God to change things is ignorant and useless to humanity. It means helping others find their own abilities and skills to use in the service to the community, to teach them their ability to choose their own emotional responses, use their personal power to make critical and educated decisions that solve problems and help their life, environment and the life of others prosper. It means teaching them how to change their own character, demeanor, and understand their emotional nature and their nature within the world. It is demonstratable that religion has continuously contributed to the social ignorance or atrophying of these matters of human development.
It means re-evaluating the mainstream knowledge we know about social interaction, relationships, child-rearing, politics, critical thinking and cognitive abilities, social interdependence, creating win-win solutions, dealing with all people with love and compassion instead of contempt, destructive criticism, segregation, guilt, shame, fear, and prejudice.
The idea that, God, who is claimed to be the Ultimate authority of love and compassions is also a jealous, angry, prejudice and vain God is impossible. God is claimed to have put everything into place that caused the fall from grace, then foregone with a creation he had foreseen was doomed and would regret after creating it. Although he foresaw the very thing that He didn't want, he continued to create it regardless. He is accredited with having a plan for everything, which means that humans free will is nil since it is predestined, but yet humans somehow became something he didn't intend, which means he could not have planned it. If he foresaw these events and foregone with his plan anyway, he could not have become angry or regretful. If he was angry and regretted his creation, surely he created something imperfect that he didn't plan because his own vanity blinded his foresight. He also manages to be fallible in love, compassion, empathy and powerless to forgive by his own free will. To appease his vanity and responsibility, he required the torture, sacrifice and blood-letting of his incarnated self, a.k.a., his only son. This whole premise makes no sense. A just God infallible in love, benevolence and kindness could not do such things.
It is often said by believers (when they are faced with questions or facts that cause them to examining their faith or contradicting beliefs) that humans are incapable of understanding God by our own reasoning, but if this is true then why do believers spend so much time in church and reading the bible to do that very thing? From the late 4th century in the Roman Empire to at least the late 16th century in England, owning and reading copies of Latin and English bibles was only allowed by priests. Most people were illiterate until the mid-18th century and it was considered heresy to own copies of the bible. This gave the church power because it was only through them that the bible could be interpreted and the common law society didn't have the power to discern the Scripture for themselves. The printing press was invented in the mid-15th century which allowed more copies to be printed but it wasn't until the mid-19th century that paper and books became affordable to all classes of the industrialized society.
Today, we are taught to fear a God who is supposed to be the Ultimate and Inerrant Authority of love and benevolence, which is ridiculous at best. Why would you fear love? Surely, the ideas of pain, suffering and fear associated and misunderstood as love in our society has stemmed from religion. The fear of getting hurt by love or being afraid of love is very ignorant. Putting oneself down by saying things like, “I'm nothing without Jesus,” is surely a sign of ignorance and delusions of worthlessness.
We are taught to not critically discern what the Bible says all the while we think Christendom propaganda is teaching us how to do so. Upon a critical reading of the bible or when science and reason make what church tells us look ignorant and erroneous and we get confused about how it is supposed to be understood, we are told its not what you can prove but what you believe through a leap of faith. Isn't this the same tactics used by cults?
In science, its not what you believe but what you can prove, so for the bible to be scientifically correct, you have to prove it. You cannot claim it is without evidence and just expect someone to provide evidence that its false. Science doesn't work that way.
While throughout churches and missionaries across the world there is great differences in interpretation and still a large amount of mistranslation and misinterpretation by most churches in the U.S and in the bibles used by them.
For examples, the Nativity Scene is not a story written in the bible. In other work, I provide evidence of how it was created by St. Francis of Assisi which can be looked up on the Internet. Another example is theologians have been teaching for centuries now that Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-17 give us a perfect explanation of how a perfect Lucifer changed himself into Lucifer the Devil, but this is erroneous as Lucifer was a title applied to the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14:12 and appears no where else in the bible. In all Hebrew or Aramaic texts of Isa. 14:12, the only word found is "heh-lehl," eill, which is a form of the Hebrew stem "yah-lahl," ill, meaning howl. There are 29 other renderings of the word that is found in the "Hebrew" texts and transliterations of its various forms and in every occurrence in the entire KJV Bible they all mean howl. Ezekiel 28:12-17 it is the king of Tyrus and not Satan who is being addressed in this lamentation. There are scriptures that tell us that Satan sinned and was a murderer from the beginning but there is no scriptural evidence of Satan being Lucifer or of Satan being an archangel.
We are, in fact, still being taught to not actually read the Bible in its entirety, but are taught to interpret it with selective details that have created Sunday School versions of stories that are not written in the Bible. The popular versions have ignored some facts in the bible, or are a version of two different accounts of the same story that have conflicting details or are stories not written in the bible.
It is also said that humans are helpless before God to change their own character, to make change in the world and to control their own life without God. Science, especially, various psychology has proven the opposite. If God was real and truly loved us, he would give us the cognitive, intellectual and emotional tools to solve our own problems, to hypothesis questions that bring us new knowledge to evolve our ability to serve others and manage our environment. Certainly illiteracy and the misunderstandings of the world around us could cause humans to sin (make mistakes from ignorance) without the need of a devil, which is why the ideas of gods and devils has been an explanation, since ancient times, of that which cannot be explained until science gives us the answers. This is not the Dark Ages anymore, its the age of Information and Illumination (shining light on the nature of the universe, earth, life and humanity so that we may understand its harmony, balance, workings and interdependence)
Only a God of vanity would want us to think he wants us to accept and worship him with free will and free choice, but make it impossible to do so by not giving us the reasoning, critical thinking skills, behavior and character building skills, ability to understand him, and to place ideas of prejudice and segregation by placing emphasis on belief and faith rather than how we treat each other. Only a God of vanity would tell us we have free will, but in reality make it circumstantial will. How can we have free will if we are incapable of understanding God by our own reason, and if he has a plan for everything, and if we don't have to cognitive thinking skills to change our own character, to learn from mistakes without guilt, shame or fear or have to take believing only by faith without evidence? How can we know if we aren't being decieved, otherwise?
These claims that we are helpless, etc. are nothing more than an insult to our intelligence.
Only a God of vanity would care more about people believing in him, sending those who don't to torture, than care more about how we serve and love each other. Only a God of vanity would send those who have never heard of his word and of Jesus who cannot make the choice by free will to accept or reject him to eternal torture. A deity infallible in love and compassion cannot be judgmental, or create a hell while knowing most humans were already doomed to go there, or order and commit murder of innocent men, women, children and unborn children as God does throughout the OT. (For those shocked that this claim is made, a HUGE list of Scriptures can be provided as proof.)
Matthew 7:18, Luke 6:43 – Someone once said that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. The idea that Adam/Eve's disobedience rendered God's creation imperfectand that humanity is somehow inheritably guilty of their sins makes no sense. You cannot be a sinner from birth. You have to sin to actually become a sinner.
Only an imperfect God could create imperfect humans.
A just God would not punish someone else for your sins or you for someone else's sins. A just God would not condemn most of humanity to infinite torment for a finite crime of disbelief. A just God who did not want any of his creation to perish for eternity would certainly never have forgone with a creation he knew was doomed by his own hand. Certainly humankind was capable of sinning on their own, so why would God need to loose Satan to tempt us? Satan did not rebel against God, he is seen in the bible doing only what God allowed Satan to do. Jesus was the one who rebeled against God's old laws, subverting laws for love and subverting judgment for compassion.
Because of Adam and Eve's sins God punished future generations in that women were given pains in labor and men must toil the ground as punishment. Why did the rest of humanity get punished for Adam and Eve's sins?
Perhaps we should take an evangelist and behead them for Hitler's Holocaust, seeing as Hitler was raised in a Catholic monastery, was an alter boy, learned his anti-Semitism in church, was supported by the Vatican and became the leader of the German Church who forced religion to be taught in schools, public and the military. Or perhaps we should take a random Christian and feed them to the lions for Jack the Ripper's murders. As with the sins of Adam and Eve, somehow being passed down magically to every person as they are born as if some physical disease, instantly rendering them a sinner....the connections don't make any sense.
Has it ever occurred to anyone that we all live in the Garden of Eden as young children? Not knowing good or evil, but “eating from the tree of knowledge of god and evil” as we are taught by the world their subjective misconceptions and judgments of existence? Is it not written that you must be humble and converted like a child to enter heaven, that you must keep the one commandment “Love thy neighbor” and that the kingdom is already here and within you?
Many people claim that only through faith and belief we are saved through Christ, but how can faith and belief be more important than being responsible for your own character, emotions, thoughts, and actions or more important than how you treat others? Certainly, if you believe but still judge others, do not serve others, are mean or prejudice to others or use threats when faced with non-believers, this does not sound like someone who is suddenly changed by the loving grace of God. It is ridiculous to claim that only God can control these things.
Only people with forked tongues could hate and be intolerant of “humanism” and “humanist ideas.” Only those afraid self-examination, of being responsible for their lives and to go out into the community and be helpful think that anyone who doesn't “let God take care of it” are fools. It's easy to claim things happen because of God instead of taking the responsibility of human action.
“Humanism intolerance” is the worst racism. Superficial people spend so much time over “racist remarks” and “actions from racism” but allow the worst racists to spit their lies mixed with cow dung from their mouths. Ethnic groups are just that, different ethnic groups of the only one race, the human race. They are not different races. The only true racist, and the worst of them all, is the bigot who judges, condemns and puts down humans and humanism. Its easy to stand behind a pulpit or in front of a TV camera and look down on others, instead of doing what Jesus did and treat the poor and sick with as much love as the rich and healthy.
People often claim that if you don't believe in God and he isn't real, you have nothing to lose, but if don't and he is, then you have lost everything. They say that if you do believe and he isn't real, then you have lost nothing but a few fantasies but if he is real then you have gained everything. This argument is known as Pascal's Wager and I disagree with this argument.
David Mills (an ex-Christian), in his book “Atheist Universe” writes:
“Blaise Pascal, a 17th century French philosopher articulated an argument known as Pascal's Wager. If an atheist is right that there is no God, Heaven, or Hell; then you have nothing to gain. But if you're wrong, then you've lost your soul for eternity. On the other hand, if a person believes in God, then he has everything to gain and nothing to lose. If he's right, then he'll go to heaven. If he's wrong about there being a God, then he'll at least have looked forward to going to heaven even if he merely rots in the ground beside you.
There are several fallacies with this argument. The most obvious is that the same argument can be applied to any religion-- not just Christianity. For example, I could say that, since we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by converting to Islam, we should all become Muslims. Or since we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by being a Hindu, we should all adopt Hinduism. Christians never stop to consider that they are in just as much danger of going to Muslim hell as an atheist is in danger of going to the Christian hell.
Pascal's Wager is also flawed in its premise that a person has everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by converting to a religion. The fact is, whether we like it or not, our earthly life is the only life [we have evidence for] that we are going to experience. If we sacrifice this one life in dormant subservience to a nonexistent god, then we have lost everything!”
Although I agree with David Mills, I also contend, however, that there is a bigger fallacy with this argument.
God is said to be jealous, angry, and anyone who doesn't believe in him or his son goes to hell/purgatory/lake of fire/Hades. Only a God of vanity would care more about whether you believe in him or not, than how you treat people. For a God of love would care more about how you serve and love others, rather than if you believed in him or not. Only a god of vanity would want subservient doormats, who put themselves down to raise him up and who think they cannot change their own behavior or character without him. A god of love would give us all the tools to learn to mold our own character, to learn from our own experiences and give us the free will and creativity to follow our own paths. Only a God of vanity would have plans for us for his own selfish entertainment.
It is better to not believe in God and treat others with love, compassion, empathy, understanding, kindness and consideration than to believe in God and treat others with judgment, prejudice, pity and anger. For if God has the same attributes as Satan, i.e., angry, jealous, vain, etc....then surely he is not the ultimate bringer of love, compassion and benevolence, or it is Satan posing as God or God's existence is impossible because no object can hold contradicting mutually-exclusive attributes at the same time and the biblical God was created by fallible men.
Only Satan would be jealous, angry and be so vain and unjust as to judge people for the simple act of not believing in him and condemn them to infinite pain for the finite crime of disbelief, but the bible claims this is God's doing.
Only Satan would convince of us of circumstantial will by the use of threats or make us think that we are unworthy of being forgiven or loved, just because we make mistakes. Threats are the hallmark of the wicked, and they are also one of the lamest Bible arguments. “There will be a 'time' when we will all have all the 'evidence' we need to prove our beliefs correct or wrong. By then it may be too late." or "I will dance with glee in Heaven as you roast in Hell!"
A God who would create a hell, or allow any good person to fall there by mere error, would be a wicked god by definition, and anyone who admired such a god would be just as wicked, and therefore those Christians who admire such are truly “terrorfying”. They have taken evil and called it good, under the banner of self-righteousness, and by this they justify the most horrible ideas and wishes--and then have the gall to pretend they believe in love.
Only Satan would use guilt, shame, fear and threats of damnation for non-believers, while rewarding believers who judge and persecute others, who have changed the stories and context of the Bible for their own agendas, who use threats of Hell or hate on anyone they deem to choose as targets.
Only Satan would teach people to be afraid of questioning him or his word, and to be afraid of any scientific evidence, historical evidence or reasoning that “creates doubt.” Only Satan would want us to blindly follow him and be too afraid to examine our beliefs, to question those on the pulpit, and to take everything in without critically thinking about it.
If you believe in God, but are wicked to others and that can be as simple as telling someone that they are doomed unless they believe in God, if there is no God, you have done more damage than a non-believer who acts out of love!
I don't care if you believe in God or not, because what I do know, is that even if Jesus did exist, if you are going to follow his teachings, you have to subvert laws for love and act out of love. Only a God of love would care more about how we treat each other, regardless of whether you believe in him or not. If God does exist and is love, I know he cannot have these horrible attributes also attributed to the devil.
Considering the persecution of non-believers by Christians since its post-pagan times starting in Roman Catholicism, I would contend that assuming God, and Jesus are real; either the Bible was written by judgmental fallible humans or inspired by the devil himself, or Christianity since Rome converted has been corrupt and led by the very Devil himself.
Whether you believe or not, if you have not love, you have nothing and lost everything!
If God does exist and you've wasted your time praying or trying to convert people, instead of doing what you can to feed, clothe, employ and nurture people, you have wasted your whole life. By serving others, you are serving God. Serving people doesn't mean subserviently praying for them or trying to pressure them into converting.
If God doesn't exist, and you have wasted your time praying instead of doing what you can to feed, clothe, employ and nurture people, you have wasted your entire life.
Whether God exists or not, if you have wasted your life not serving the people that you know are real, you have lost everything and have gained nothing.
