Jim quoted Gabe Lyons who stated, "Christianity should mean something good, intelligent, authentic, true, and beautiful".
But how can a religion built on the false argument that mankind arrived with the creation of Adam and Eve (it didn’t) that dead men come back alive, (they don’t) that the laws of nature are routinely negated (they aren’t) ever be reinstated to mean something good, intelligent, authentic, true, and beautiful"?
Those are all good touchy, feely words but they work just as well (actually better) if we leave religion out of it. Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet, both atheists, are doing more to save children from starvation and disease than a make-believe god ever did.
If god was good, millions of innocent, blameless children would not slowly starve each year when all it would take to save them is just a few inches of rain.
If god was good we would be capable of regenerating limbs. Salamanders can do it. We would never have to feel ashamed that thousands of quadriplegic veterans are forced into wheel chairs for the rest of their lives and tens of thousands more are encumbered with artificial limbs. They could grow new limbs, just like the lowly salamander.
If god was good we could eat enough food at one sitting to last us for months at a time, just like polar bears.
If god was good, millions of innocent children would not choke to death each year because unlike porpoises, which are literally incapable of choking on their food, we breath and eat through the same hole.
I could give dozens of other examples.
My challenge remains: Wait till our children reach the age of 25, then explain their choices.
1. Eating Jesus in the form of a cracker
2. Praying five times each day while facing Mecca
3. Being “born again”
4. Devotion to a con man with 33 wives who claimed to have dug up some golden plates to which he was directed by an angel named "Moroni." (Rhymes with baloney)
5. Insisting on belief that only comes with evidence.
I would bet that without prior brainwashing, 99.9 % of our children would go for option # 5.
Think about it.
Only 25 years and we could convert the trillions of dollars spent on churches for the purpose of praising an ephemeral sky daddy, into something good, intelligent, authentic, true and beautiful.
Here's the thing. In order to call yourself a Christian, you MUST believe that dead men come back alive, that the laws of nature have been routinely broken and that when you die you are going to a place called heaven where you will live for eternity, while non-believers will go to a place called hell where they will experience unbelievable agony for eternity. There is no way to squirm around that proposition if you are a true Christian. That is what a Christian is.
And you must believe all this while acknowledging that two thirds of the planet's population (nearly five billion people)adamantly reject the notion that they must profess belief that a long dead religious despot called Jesus is their savior and the only way they can attain salvation is by professing a belief that he vicariously died for their sins.
People like Mr. Lyons constantly go on about a "higher power" that we must turn to in order to be good, intelligent, authentic, true, and beautiful. We ARE the higher power. Its up to us. No one is coming to "save" us. If we are to be saved we must do it with the one thing we have that the so-called lower animals do not. Our 1400cc brain with its magnificent frontal cortex.
Right now, we are not doing so good. We hold back some of our brightest children by infecting their young undeveloped minds with rubbish; rubbish that is nearly impossible to dislodge in later life. Here is my analogy. It is as if we have a brand new Maserati sports car parked on the curb but we have a couple of donkeys hooked up to it to pull us around. So much potential. So much waste. We can and should do better.
Wait till our children are 25. By then we will have had time to train their minds to use the power of reason and the art of critical thinking.
Next blog; does truth matter?
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Religions have been built on "false arguments" for thousands of years. In time they all have been discarded only to resurface as other religions using the remains of previous dead religions. Christianity is no different and is in the final stages of its death. It will likely reinvent itself using the remains of its dead members. Should that be the case, I'll side with Lyons and wish for, " something good, intelligent, authentic, true, and beautiful".
ReplyDeleteThose are attributes some (meaning atheists, agnostics and even some religious folks) have already discovered.
Jim
I am "bowled over" by the truth of your argument, Charlie. I can confess to being Jewish, Christian, etc., etc. The only unallowed thing is being atheist. That is the only thing because it is such a threat to the "powers that be." Went to see that Valerie Plame movie today. Wow. The horrors that the religious have done disregarding their own best interest and the interest of the world. I say that because without the religious jesus loving far right, our democracy could not have been so violated by cheney and bush and rove. We the people would have risen up in one voice in outrage at the violation of human rights. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteCA gal