God
More Musings.
I am very much an atheist. I have almost zero belief in the supernatural. What little belief there is i reckon is stuff science has simply not got around to explaining yet.
One of the big differences between atheism and theism is the desire to explain something. Atheism in general and science in particular wants to explain everything, but when it finds itself unable to do so, or when an atheist or scientist doesn't know something, they are quite content to say "I don't know".
Theist on the other hand have their handy "A wizard did it" excuse. Namely, god.
Classic example is the beginning of the universe. There is no scientific theory at present that explains the beggining of time and space. There is a generally accepted hypothesis which it is acknowledged has a few grey areas, but no solid theory.
Theism however simply says "God made it" and thats fine for them.
If they kept it to themselves and didn't force it on others then i'd have no problem with this. However religion has a habit of forcing their ideas on others. Even in the field of science. Look at Galileo for instance.
Religion should be a personal thing. It shouldn't be something that you use to force others to act in the ways you want.
So, in no particular order, here are my top ten "religion is a blight on mankind areas of the day"
1. Intelligent design. Creationism with longer words. This is NOT science. Teach it in RE classes if you must but it is not science. In science we tak a hypothesis and then test it and expose the idea to rigorous examination and testing from our scientific peers. Creati...sorry, intelligent design, proposes no hypothesis or detail. It just says "life is too complex to occur naturally (without trying to prove this of course), therefore god did it." Small surprise that intelligent design base camp is in Kansas at present.
2. Islamic Jihads. Just fuck off you arseholes. I mean really! I can totally see the cultural grudges against the persistent meddling by the West in Muslim countries as justification ill feeling but sort your own house before coming to sort ours. Many of the Muslim countries in the world are some of the most corrupt, dictatorial and vile regimes on Earth. Sort your own house and take out the trash, then come to the UN and demand your due from the west.
3. Herr Ratzinger/Pope Benedic 16th. How the Roman Catholic church is still in existence except as a historical curiosity is beyond me. And Rattzinger, "Gods Pitbull" has taken the church back into politics in a MAJOR way. His frocked minions are now interfering in both Spanish and Italien politics. If you remember, thats what started the reformation and the whole protestant movement in the first place. Church meddling in the secular world. This guy also pisses me off for his stance on abortion, contraception and homosexuals. Let me get this straight. God prefers that we raise children in poverty and need with mothers that could be totally incapable of raising a child, rather than aborting the fetus while it is still a pin head sized ball of cells? God prefers that sexual disease and teenage pregnancy spread rather than deny a sperm to merge with an egg? God prefers that people BORN GAY should repress it and be hated and outcast rather than having the chance to marry and live as equals to straight people. Fuck off Rattzinger.
4. Door to Door christians. I actually love these folks but i can understand why many people don't. I particularly like talking to them about leviticus. Once you ask them to defend slavery, stoning people for shaving their beard, wearing cotton/polyester blend clothing/eating shellfish they start to act a bit embarassed. Silly sods.
5. Televangelists. We don't really get these guys over here, its more of an American thing. Of course. What right minded person seriously sends these scum money? I mean, have you seen how rich some of these guys are? Pat Robertson is a billionaire for dogs sake! And corrupt? man, some of these guys put the Italien government to shame.
6. Religious politicians. Tony Blair and George W Bush both are Christian, Bush insanely so. Both have final say on the deployment of nuclear weapons. Bush certainly believes the bible literally, including the fire and brimstone ending bit. Which he can make reality with nukes. Scary no? Would you elect people to such offices who claimed they had an invisible friend called Ted who told them what to do? Of course not, but its ok if your imaginary friend is called Jesus.
7. Stem Cell Research. Genetic stem cell research has the potential to cure many of mankinds woes and lead to further technologies that may go even further. And people want to stop this why? I do not recall Christ or Muhammed ever mentioning the hell that awaits genetic scientists. What chapter was that in? What particular line? Base superstition fuelled by pseudo-religious nonsense conspires to scupper key scientific research, its madness.
8. Sex scandals. Its a no brainer. You get a guy when he is young and virile, say 19/20. He takes orders and vows and swears never to have sex. Even masturbation is dubious. You then put him in a position of stress and public responsibility where a good shagging every now and then would help let off some steam and you are SURPRISED when after 30 years he turns out to be a twisted sexual deviant. Of course he is. He has been repressing perfectly natural human desires for 30 years. I get twitchy after a fortnight of no sex, let alone 30 years.
9. Rational thought. People who believe in religion or god or something along those lines stop thinking at some point along the way. Even the smallest glimpse into history regarding the bible will show you so many translation errors and so many cases of early christianity ripping off other religions (Judaism obviously, Mithraism, Cult of Osiris, Dionysus, etc), and so many excluded gospels and so many early councils among largely forgotten men who selected and edited the first bibles that its obvious the "divinely inspired holy book" is a load of tripe. And if you don't base your views on the bible? what are you basing them on? a gut feeling? Thats gas you muppet, not the divine spirit. Great example, Hell. No such place in the original bible. Strange but true. There are three different hells in the original greek version. Tartarus, Hades and Gehenna. the first is where naughty angels go, and there is no bit about people going there. The second is a place where you sleep for eternity (doesn't sound so bad) and the third is a real life valley outside Jerusalem where the bodies of the dead will be burnt after the end of the world. Most of the other world religions are the same, they all draw from existing religions, change a bit here, a bit there. Its so clear that religions are MAN MADE that i can't understand how people think otherwise.
10. History. Similar to No. 9. People today (pagans aside) don't believe in Thor or Odin or Zeus or Hades or Set or Osiris or Mithras or. . . . . . you get it i'm sure. Indeed talk to a follower of an abramic faith and they'll perhaps chuckle about such gods, mostly cartoonish characters with big beards. And yet they totally fail to see how their own god is most definately included in the same crowd. They'll say something like "hahaha, of course those gods were inventions of man made to explain things we didn't understand like lightening or the suns passage through the sky. No, they are false gods, we know all about storms and the orbit of the earth now. No, my god is the real god. My god explains how life started and what happens when we die." They can't see the similarities between the gods of old and their own bearded super-dude.
I am very much an atheist. I have almost zero belief in the supernatural. What little belief there is i reckon is stuff science has simply not got around to explaining yet.
One of the big differences between atheism and theism is the desire to explain something. Atheism in general and science in particular wants to explain everything, but when it finds itself unable to do so, or when an atheist or scientist doesn't know something, they are quite content to say "I don't know".
Theist on the other hand have their handy "A wizard did it" excuse. Namely, god.
Classic example is the beginning of the universe. There is no scientific theory at present that explains the beggining of time and space. There is a generally accepted hypothesis which it is acknowledged has a few grey areas, but no solid theory.
Theism however simply says "God made it" and thats fine for them.
If they kept it to themselves and didn't force it on others then i'd have no problem with this. However religion has a habit of forcing their ideas on others. Even in the field of science. Look at Galileo for instance.
Religion should be a personal thing. It shouldn't be something that you use to force others to act in the ways you want.
So, in no particular order, here are my top ten "religion is a blight on mankind areas of the day"
1. Intelligent design. Creationism with longer words. This is NOT science. Teach it in RE classes if you must but it is not science. In science we tak a hypothesis and then test it and expose the idea to rigorous examination and testing from our scientific peers. Creati...sorry, intelligent design, proposes no hypothesis or detail. It just says "life is too complex to occur naturally (without trying to prove this of course), therefore god did it." Small surprise that intelligent design base camp is in Kansas at present.
2. Islamic Jihads. Just fuck off you arseholes. I mean really! I can totally see the cultural grudges against the persistent meddling by the West in Muslim countries as justification ill feeling but sort your own house before coming to sort ours. Many of the Muslim countries in the world are some of the most corrupt, dictatorial and vile regimes on Earth. Sort your own house and take out the trash, then come to the UN and demand your due from the west.
3. Herr Ratzinger/Pope Benedic 16th. How the Roman Catholic church is still in existence except as a historical curiosity is beyond me. And Rattzinger, "Gods Pitbull" has taken the church back into politics in a MAJOR way. His frocked minions are now interfering in both Spanish and Italien politics. If you remember, thats what started the reformation and the whole protestant movement in the first place. Church meddling in the secular world. This guy also pisses me off for his stance on abortion, contraception and homosexuals. Let me get this straight. God prefers that we raise children in poverty and need with mothers that could be totally incapable of raising a child, rather than aborting the fetus while it is still a pin head sized ball of cells? God prefers that sexual disease and teenage pregnancy spread rather than deny a sperm to merge with an egg? God prefers that people BORN GAY should repress it and be hated and outcast rather than having the chance to marry and live as equals to straight people. Fuck off Rattzinger.
4. Door to Door christians. I actually love these folks but i can understand why many people don't. I particularly like talking to them about leviticus. Once you ask them to defend slavery, stoning people for shaving their beard, wearing cotton/polyester blend clothing/eating shellfish they start to act a bit embarassed. Silly sods.
5. Televangelists. We don't really get these guys over here, its more of an American thing. Of course. What right minded person seriously sends these scum money? I mean, have you seen how rich some of these guys are? Pat Robertson is a billionaire for dogs sake! And corrupt? man, some of these guys put the Italien government to shame.
6. Religious politicians. Tony Blair and George W Bush both are Christian, Bush insanely so. Both have final say on the deployment of nuclear weapons. Bush certainly believes the bible literally, including the fire and brimstone ending bit. Which he can make reality with nukes. Scary no? Would you elect people to such offices who claimed they had an invisible friend called Ted who told them what to do? Of course not, but its ok if your imaginary friend is called Jesus.
7. Stem Cell Research. Genetic stem cell research has the potential to cure many of mankinds woes and lead to further technologies that may go even further. And people want to stop this why? I do not recall Christ or Muhammed ever mentioning the hell that awaits genetic scientists. What chapter was that in? What particular line? Base superstition fuelled by pseudo-religious nonsense conspires to scupper key scientific research, its madness.
8. Sex scandals. Its a no brainer. You get a guy when he is young and virile, say 19/20. He takes orders and vows and swears never to have sex. Even masturbation is dubious. You then put him in a position of stress and public responsibility where a good shagging every now and then would help let off some steam and you are SURPRISED when after 30 years he turns out to be a twisted sexual deviant. Of course he is. He has been repressing perfectly natural human desires for 30 years. I get twitchy after a fortnight of no sex, let alone 30 years.
9. Rational thought. People who believe in religion or god or something along those lines stop thinking at some point along the way. Even the smallest glimpse into history regarding the bible will show you so many translation errors and so many cases of early christianity ripping off other religions (Judaism obviously, Mithraism, Cult of Osiris, Dionysus, etc), and so many excluded gospels and so many early councils among largely forgotten men who selected and edited the first bibles that its obvious the "divinely inspired holy book" is a load of tripe. And if you don't base your views on the bible? what are you basing them on? a gut feeling? Thats gas you muppet, not the divine spirit. Great example, Hell. No such place in the original bible. Strange but true. There are three different hells in the original greek version. Tartarus, Hades and Gehenna. the first is where naughty angels go, and there is no bit about people going there. The second is a place where you sleep for eternity (doesn't sound so bad) and the third is a real life valley outside Jerusalem where the bodies of the dead will be burnt after the end of the world. Most of the other world religions are the same, they all draw from existing religions, change a bit here, a bit there. Its so clear that religions are MAN MADE that i can't understand how people think otherwise.
10. History. Similar to No. 9. People today (pagans aside) don't believe in Thor or Odin or Zeus or Hades or Set or Osiris or Mithras or. . . . . . you get it i'm sure. Indeed talk to a follower of an abramic faith and they'll perhaps chuckle about such gods, mostly cartoonish characters with big beards. And yet they totally fail to see how their own god is most definately included in the same crowd. They'll say something like "hahaha, of course those gods were inventions of man made to explain things we didn't understand like lightening or the suns passage through the sky. No, they are false gods, we know all about storms and the orbit of the earth now. No, my god is the real god. My god explains how life started and what happens when we die." They can't see the similarities between the gods of old and their own bearded super-dude.
posted by Gribble The Munchkin | 4:04 AM
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