I posted the following on the Value Forum website where quite an argument has been raging over religion. Several "fundies" on the site have repeatedly insulted me for my views on religion. I thought it was about time to reply.
When small people have no good arguments to make, they fall back on personal insults. Bonddaddy has speculated that I am a fat, slovenly, miserable person who has nothing else to do but spread misinformation about true believers.
I am 5’ 11’ (used to be 6’0” but spent too much time pulling positive G’s in my acrobatic sailplane which tends to compress the spine somewhat) Yesterday at my doctor’s office for an annual check-up, I tipped the scales at 171 pounds. ( And that was with my shoes on and cell-phone and keys in my pocket) I bathe regularly and brush my teeth at least three times a day.
Most of the so-called “drivel” Bonddaddy accuses me of is taken directly from the inerrant holy bible. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
One thing I will confess to is being a heretic.
Heretic: “a holder or adherent of an opinion or belief that contradicts established religious teaching.”
In a country where 80% of the population claims to believe in the supernatural I confess to holding contradictory views.
As we all know, heretics helped to bring us out of the dark ages. Were it not for the heretic Galileo, the sun might still be circling the earth and people would still be hanged, drawn and quartered, stretched on the rack and burned at the stake for rejecting “belief.”
It would be nice if we could have a conversation here without all the insults and accusations. Other than the fact that I cannot bring myself to believe (without evidence) of a supernatural entity that notes every sparrow’s fall, there is probably not a lot separating me from believers.
For example I can’t bring myself to believe in pregnant virgins, dead men coming back alive, talking donkeys and snakes, water covering the tallest point on earth by 25 feet, (where the outside temp. on a standard day would be 43 degrees below Fahrenheit) that a cracker is really Jesus and on ad infinitum.
For this lack of belief, bonddaddy informs me: “You are stark raving **cked in the head nuts.” vf-bonddadddy
Why are those of us who simply cannot bring ourselves to believe something we disbelieve so ostracized? We can’t help it and neither can you. And I can prove that. If you are male, try believing you are Napoleon. If you are female try believing you are Joséphine de Beauharnais. I’ll give you a moment………………………………………………….
Couldn’t do it could you? Not unless you, as Bonddaddy accused me, are “stark raving **cked in the head nuts.”
No matter how hard I try, I can’t believe in all the things I mentioned above. But in order to be a Christian, and/or a Catholic, I MUST believe in all those things. By the same token I can’t bring myself to believe that Mahomet talked to the angel Gabriel in a cave. I can’t bring myself to believe that Joseph Smith talked to an angel named Moroni who told him where to find the golden books and magic reading glasses. I can’t believe Moses wandered around in the desert with a tribe of thousands for 40 years without leaving a trace they were ever there. And then led them to the only place in the Middle East that didn’t have any oil. (I know, I know, he died before they got there but you get my point)
In order to be elected President of this country, no matter how brilliant and qualified you are, you MUST profess to one of these “beliefs.” You must be a “person of faith.” And it doesn’t matter which of these contradictory and even absurd “faiths” you believe, so long as you believe one of them.
OR you forced to become a hypocrite by professing to believe something it is impossible for you to believe.
Like Bonddaddy said: stark raving **cked in the head nuts.
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And I know from personal experience, being related to you, that you have never been fat! I bet the real problem for bonddaddy, he has it all in a bunch over the fact that, as an atheist, you are better informed on the various religious beliefs then he is! His beliefs suggest the possibility he is, politically, a teabagger, some of the most ignorant folks in this country. What is it that bible says? Smoething about "none so blind"...I went through about 40 years of blindness before it occurred to me to examine, really examine, religion. I found it wanting. I was baptist and lutheran, by the way, so I have seen it from totally different sides. Both sides, by the way, think the other is a "false religion"! Ironic. I also find it interesting that while I, nearing death, face that knowledge unafraid, knowing it is the way of life, while so many of my aging peers, who never followed, have jumped on the bandwagon out of their fear of hell. I find that rather amusing.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Charlie. A great piece of wisdom.
CA Gal
Geez. Pardon all my typos above!
ReplyDelete