When a child’s undeveloped mind is indoctrinated with religion, turning them into little Christians, Jews, Hindus or Muslims, it amounts to nothing less than a predatory assault on their minds, no less a crime than a predatory assault on their bodies which religious leaders also seem to excel at.
Instilling religious “faith” in the minds of innocent children is just another way of filling their heads with fear and superstition. It seems that everybody from the President of the United States on down, fall all over themselves to “honor” religious faith, no matter how disparate and contradictory the claims.
If you want to see how absolutely silly this is, consider this. Every major religion, be it Hindu, Christianity, Judaism or Islam, accuse all the others of harboring false beliefs. Even Catholics and Protestants, supposedly believers in the same Jesus, accuse the other of harboring a false religion. And you know what? They are all correct.
It takes some degree of courage to admit we don’t have answers. But pretending we know when we don’t is far worse than not knowing. When we hold false beliefs, it leaves no room in our minds for the truth, even if it comes along and smacks us in the face.
The weak minded desperately need faith and miracles. Why? Because no intellectual effort is needed for miracles. Miracles allow us to have strong absolutist beliefs without the need to understand the natural world we live in. Physics, mathematics, biology (especially evolutionary biology) not required. If you want to drag somebody down to your level of what I call willful ignorance, explain in your holy books that knowing and understanding things that contradict your dogma amounts to nothing less than blasphemy. Turn things completely upside down. Let ignorance be your most valuable asset. Convince your weak minded followers that critical thinking and rational thought is dangerous, that it is nothing more than a devious scheme by the devil to test your faith. Critical thinking and rational thought must be rejected out of hand. If confronted with facts, accuse your antagonist of being militant and using hate to further their blasphemy. Ask them why they hate God.
I can’t count the times that I have seen ignoramuses accuse non-believers of hating God. Why does it never occur to these folks that accusing a skeptic, agnostic or atheist of hating god is akin to accusing them of hating Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or unicorns?
How many times do we have to explain that it is impossible to hate something for which there is zero evidence of its existence. That includes Easter rabbits that lay pure sugar candied eggs, generous jolly fat men in red suits, unicorns and long dead zealots who believers claim got here without the help of a daddy. We don’t believe any of that crap so stop accusing us of hating it.
The philosopher, Eric Hoffer reminded us that an empty mind is not really empty. It is filled with rubbish; thus the difficulty of introducing anything new into an empty mind. And he had it exactly right. Faith tends to swell up in a believer’s head like a balloon, using up all the valuable space that could well be put to better purpose. Once that happens believers becomes obnoxious and arrogant because with a fully inflated balloon in their heads, there is no longer any room for rational thought. No wonder there are so many “persons of faith” out there. Since the discovery of evidence takes a tremendous amount of work and faith requires absolutely no effort whatsoever, the more evidence provided the more effortless faith believers can drum up to counteract the evidence. Ain’t that great!! Its so EASY!!
The faithful say that scripture was brought to us by divine revelation. I have some rather disconcerting news for them. Their scripture was not divinely revealed; it was humanly imagined. Trying to hide behind something imagined is what three year old children do when they shut their eyes and think you can no longer see them. It doesn't work for adults. Instead it turns the spotlight on your intellectual nakedness, exposing you for the weak minded person that your are. If you want to peddle your Islamic, Christian, Catholic, Jewish or Hindu snake oil, wait until your victims are at least 25 years old. See how many you can convince then.
Just don't terrify our defenseless children before they learn to think on their own.
If you keep doing this you will keep hearing from me.
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Charlie said, "If you want to peddle your Islamic, Christian, Catholic, Jewish or Hindu snake oil, wait until your victims are at least 25 years old. See how many you can convince then."
ReplyDeleteThings have a way of leveling itself out. Seventy percent of those indoctrinated as young children abandon those beliefs by age 23. Given time,the intelligent ones figure it out for themselves.
Jim
I just wrote the most intelligent, witty , deep response of my entire life. And blew it away. I'll be back!
ReplyDeleteCA gal
Jim said: Seventy percent of those indoctrinated as young children abandon those beliefs by age 23. Given time,the intelligent ones figure it out for themselves. Jim
ReplyDeleteBut the question needs to be asked; if a huge majority of the intelligent ones abandon the religion later, why in the world do adults who know better insist on giving religion legitimacy by attending church three times a week, joining the conspiracy to infect young minds with rubbish?
Church membership and attendence implies endorsement. If there is any doubt to the truth of that statement, trying getting up in church and announcing you think this business of coming back alive after being dead is a crock.
If I yearn for fellowship I can find it in many places other than a church. Places where people are intelligent and curious, where asking questions is more important than clinging to answers hewn in stone. The very things that are likely to get one ejected from church.
50 years from now we will look back on our religious beliefs and they will be a huge emabarrassment as slavery is to us now.
It takes courage to speak out. I am maligned every day for my views. It should be the six Supreme Court Justices that are maligned for their silly and outrageous beliefs that when they eat that little cracker and drink the cheap wine, they are actually eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus. It should be Harry Reid and Mitt Romney who are maligned for believing in a two bit con man with 33 wives who started the Mormon church. It should be the idiots who bilked their church membership out of 27 million dollars to build a "creationist" museum so they could teach their impressionable youngsters the lie that the earth is only 6000 years old.
Among my favorite people is my atheist friend from Bulgaria. She was raised with the possibility of christianity (her grandmother was a catholic, permitted to practice, just not "encouraged"). Zori chose atheism, which seemed more intelligent and REASONABLE. That was back in Bulgaria. Now let me tell you the wierd part: she never admits it in public (in USA) except to people like me who ask rude questions like "What church do you go to?" Even then, it is not really public. One other (muslim) friend and myself are the only ones she tells. I think that demonstrates how truly deep the prejudice against those who choose NOT to believe, goes and she GETS IT.
ReplyDeleteEven she, so comfortable with the truth, is afraid to have all those other people know who she is in terms of her faith, for fear of repercussions.
I do believe, however, the prejudice against those of us who do not believe in the various religions is so ingrained in the commoner by the powers that be (think pope, etc.)in order to keep reason from overwhelming their very powerful(think money) positions in the world. Fighting each other, versus us, is kind of like two boxers in the ring beating each other's brains out with the crowd yelling encouragement and vitriol, depending on their favorites. Different days, different fighters, same crowd. Then we add the atheist. He is walking around the ring with a sign that says, "FOLKS! What are you thinking? You are asking these others to beat the s...out of each other for your pleasure! Does that seem right?" Well, guess who is gonna get stoned (and I don't mean the fun kind)! Now who is going to push the crowd to crucify? Who else! The owners of the game!
Notice I said in the last paragraph, prejudice against those of us who do not believe in religion, rather than god. If this argument was truly between those who believed in a universal being and those who didn't with no power or money involved, it would have about as much impact as those who believe in drinking 6 glasses of water a day versus those who think 4 is plenty!
And, Dear Uncle Charlie, thank you for giving me courage. I get stronger all the time and I so appreciate your thoughts!
CA gal
Dear Jim,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thought but the only problem I find with the idea that 70% have discarded their beliefs by age 26, is that they really just don't want to do what has been asked of them as "believers" for instance, going to church every sunday morning (early sun morn) and giving 10% of their income to the church!.
Tell 99% of that 70% that there is no god and watch what happens. I have a friend who hasn't been to the catholic church in 50 years but he is against abortion because the church says so! heh heh
Does that make sense?
Always enjoy your input!
CA gal
CA. Gal wrote: "Even she, so comfortable with the truth, is afraid to have all those other people know who she is in terms of her faith, for fear of repercussions."
ReplyDeleteMy next blog is going to be about truth. How important is it to us, and how do we go about establishing truth?
Wow. What an idea. So simple. Truth and (the hitch) how do we establish it. I look forward to that blog.
ReplyDeleteCA gal
CA gal said, "Tell 99% of that 70% that there is no god and watch what happens. I have a friend who hasn't been to the catholic church in 50 years but he is against abortion because the church says so!"
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right. My mother's grandfather was a German Catholic and mom laughed about how he wanted to instill his religion in his sons. At the evening meal he insisted his son offer prayer. The kid kept refusing to do it so he yelled, "God-D---!! I said pray!"
Jim
Jim! I love that story. My husband and I were in choir so I spent every Sunday morning screaming "Hurry up, dammit! We're gonna be late!" My kids quit church right after they counted their confirmation $take$. I suspect they would both choose atheism in a heartbeat over a "faith." Smart kids, huh?
ReplyDeleteCA gal
There are so many folks out there who are forced to become hypocrites because if their true beliefs were made public, there is no way they could keep their jobs.
ReplyDeleteJust two examples:
1. Next door neighbor who teaches at a Catholic school. She is looking for a position at another school because she has finally gotten fed up with the religious indoctrination the kids are forced to endure. She dares not let the school authorities know she is not a "believer" because she knows she would be fired. They are struggling to support three kids, one who is heading to IU next year. (He work at two jobs, his job as assistant prosecuting atty and as an emergency medical technician on the week-ends.) Therefore she believes one thing and professes another in order to keep her job. In other words she is forced to be a hypocrite.(Her husband, also scoffs at the idea of religion)If the Catholic church found out her true beliefs, she would lose her job and they would lose their house because they must have three jobs between them.
Don't believe that little cracker is Jesus? You are outta here lady! What a nice Christian thing to do. Forget the tragedy of making a family of five homeless.
2. The prosecuting atty for the county (a Democrat) just won election by a large majority. When Mavis presented his wife with my 100.00 ck for his re-election campaign, she confided that neither of them are religious but wouldn't want that to become public. He would have lost the election so he is forced to be a hypocrite. I am o.k. with that because I know what a good person he is and the effort he puts into supporting the disadvantaged youth of the county.
A society that forces its citizens to become hypocrites and saddles them with a financial burden for not adhering to a particular belief especially one supported only by "belief" and zero evidence, is a sick society.
Charlie said, There are so many folks out there who are forced to become hypocrites because if their true beliefs were made public, there is no way they could keep their jobs."
ReplyDeleteIt is not only jobs, but family, friends and others.
A Newsweek story reported that 80% under age consider themselves spiritual; 75% pray daily; only 33% attend church. Gabe Lyons who wrote,THE NEXT CHRISTIANS declared at age 27 that he was embarrassed to be called a Christian even though he was a bright young leader of the religious right (graduated from the ultra-conservative Liberty University) has tried to restore "the faith". He stated, "Christianity should mean something good, intelligent, authentic, true, and beautiful". He thought the death of Jerry Falwell was a good start, but we still have a long way to go. I'm still annoying folks trying to make it so.
Jim
Make that 80% under age 60 consider themselves spiritual.
ReplyDeleteSorry,
Jim