Things that destroyed my faith, hope and belief; first, like I said I'm a doubter, but I tried for many years to keep the faith. The biggest thing to kick me in the gut was the hypocrisy of most, and maybe all, churches and religions. It came at me every day, in many ways. Along with it came backstabbing, gossiping and outright lying. It slowly ground away at my faith in the church and in the congregation.
Then along came the atrocities of church leaders, from the bottom clear to the top. Scandals kept denied and covered up and finally bribed away. No one turned over the tables. All it takes to wipe away the front page headlines is a few greenbacks. And the denials, "Not our pastor, not our preacher," the congregations cried. "Ah, this is life, no one is without sin." And to ones that go to jail, only to come back to the open arms of their blind sheep, and they continue their blood sucking and blabbering about repentance.
It was all more than this redneck/hillbilly could swallow. I lost hope. Now I believe only in nature, which, of course, includes space. It's a marvelous universe out there, something that is real and can be verified. Until something new and explicable comes along, this is where I'll stay.
I read signs in my neighborhood saying "Save our schools, we are one nation under God. My question is, whose God? Why should one be allowed to stand around and have the beliefs of some other God stuffed down his throat? And it happens every day. If you hear it on the radio or television, you have the option of turning it off or changing the station. But at public meetings and gatherings one must suffer the embarrassment of setting through it.
I think government run schools should be done away with. Home schooling, private schools and church schools are the way to go. They are more efficient and less expensive in the long run. Let the government put that money toward more space exploration. Maybe we will find God out there somewhere, or at least see more of His creation?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Recovering from religion, who am I and who is God: PART TWO
Did God inspire the Bible's writers? You cannot prove it by me.
Yes, the Bible was written by God-fearing men, but you can't convince me they were inspired by God, no more than I am convinced that all these God-fearing people these days who say "God talked to me," or, "I talked to God," or "God wants me to do this," or, "wants me to go here or there." That's not God talking to them. They may hear a voice in their head, but it's their own voice crying out their desires. And when they do what God told them, and fail, it's "I must have misunderstood God's instructions," or "He wants me to do something else." I pity these poor souls and I realize they are only trying to do good, and that's good. Let's not put it on God. If there is a God out there, He has more important things to do; like creating more galaxies and other worlds on which to place more of His creations. I do believe there are other worlds with sentient life on them. If there is a God who created the universe, I do not believe He did it for our amusement.
I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about people believing God spoke or guided them. If I were to say, "God inspired me to write this article," I would be committed to the local nut ward before the sun sets.
And then, the Bible was edited and reedited, and even new ones were written to satisfy new religions, how many times, all by men, who may have been scholars and theologians but, assuming there is a God, who gave them the authority to select and edit God's words? Did God get it wrong the first time?
Did God speak to them and guide them along the way? Some even edited their own works. Some started their works and others finished it. Is that like starting a series such as Star Trek? Others continued it, or rewrote it. I guess God spoke to them too. It's no wonder this world is in the shape it's in; one religion slaughtering another, whole nations trying to wipe out another. And what erks me is people praying for its side to be victorious. If this is what God wants, He has to be an evil God.
Don't get me wrong, the Bible is a good guide to live your life by, even though it's riddled with many contradictions, atrocities, fables and fairy tales; it's only a guide, a great collection of short stories for children, undoubtedly a best seller. There's going to be a lot of disappointed believers when they wake up dead floating around in space in a cloud of tiny dust particles. That's a guess, not a belief.
Yes, the Bible was written by God-fearing men, but you can't convince me they were inspired by God, no more than I am convinced that all these God-fearing people these days who say "God talked to me," or, "I talked to God," or "God wants me to do this," or, "wants me to go here or there." That's not God talking to them. They may hear a voice in their head, but it's their own voice crying out their desires. And when they do what God told them, and fail, it's "I must have misunderstood God's instructions," or "He wants me to do something else." I pity these poor souls and I realize they are only trying to do good, and that's good. Let's not put it on God. If there is a God out there, He has more important things to do; like creating more galaxies and other worlds on which to place more of His creations. I do believe there are other worlds with sentient life on them. If there is a God who created the universe, I do not believe He did it for our amusement.
I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about people believing God spoke or guided them. If I were to say, "God inspired me to write this article," I would be committed to the local nut ward before the sun sets.
And then, the Bible was edited and reedited, and even new ones were written to satisfy new religions, how many times, all by men, who may have been scholars and theologians but, assuming there is a God, who gave them the authority to select and edit God's words? Did God get it wrong the first time?
Did God speak to them and guide them along the way? Some even edited their own works. Some started their works and others finished it. Is that like starting a series such as Star Trek? Others continued it, or rewrote it. I guess God spoke to them too. It's no wonder this world is in the shape it's in; one religion slaughtering another, whole nations trying to wipe out another. And what erks me is people praying for its side to be victorious. If this is what God wants, He has to be an evil God.
Don't get me wrong, the Bible is a good guide to live your life by, even though it's riddled with many contradictions, atrocities, fables and fairy tales; it's only a guide, a great collection of short stories for children, undoubtedly a best seller. There's going to be a lot of disappointed believers when they wake up dead floating around in space in a cloud of tiny dust particles. That's a guess, not a belief.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Recovering from religion, who am I and who is God
Recovering from religion, who am I and who is God? PART ONE
I no longer claim to be a Christian, nor am I a conformed atheist. Neither of these religions, and they are religions, can prove or disprove their beliefs. So I take the stand of an agnostic, a word coined by Thomas Henry Huxley who said: “Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.” That’s me 'show me brother,' I've been called a Doubting Thomas more than a few times in my life. Another Thomas, the disciple, I believe was the first agnostic long before the word was coined. But then, this was just a story which, many apostles, in a frenzy, jumped on the bandwagon to get their stories published. I feel sure there were others long before that.
In my opinion, there are too many religions, all claiming theirs to be the only true one. This makes for a lot of Gods. I offer a quote from Stephen F. Roberts: I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer God than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible Gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
On the other hand, here is another quote this one from one of the Bible writers or editors and there are more than a few who have changed their views after editing the Bible. ??? Henry Cadbury, the biblical scholar who contributed to the new Revised Standard Version of the Bible said, "I can describe myself as no ardent theist or atheist." To me, hope, faith and belief mean little, if all one can say is, "it's in the Bible, it's God's will." No one can say they know God's will, and entity whose existence cannot be confirmed.
I'll post part two within the next two days.
I no longer claim to be a Christian, nor am I a conformed atheist. Neither of these religions, and they are religions, can prove or disprove their beliefs. So I take the stand of an agnostic, a word coined by Thomas Henry Huxley who said: “Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.” That’s me 'show me brother,' I've been called a Doubting Thomas more than a few times in my life. Another Thomas, the disciple, I believe was the first agnostic long before the word was coined. But then, this was just a story which, many apostles, in a frenzy, jumped on the bandwagon to get their stories published. I feel sure there were others long before that.
In my opinion, there are too many religions, all claiming theirs to be the only true one. This makes for a lot of Gods. I offer a quote from Stephen F. Roberts: I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer God than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible Gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
On the other hand, here is another quote this one from one of the Bible writers or editors and there are more than a few who have changed their views after editing the Bible. ??? Henry Cadbury, the biblical scholar who contributed to the new Revised Standard Version of the Bible said, "I can describe myself as no ardent theist or atheist." To me, hope, faith and belief mean little, if all one can say is, "it's in the Bible, it's God's will." No one can say they know God's will, and entity whose existence cannot be confirmed.
I'll post part two within the next two days.
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