Personification of a God who isn't there
By Sam --
I am a new skeptic and a new atheist. I have always been fascinated with Psychology and Sociology as well as Statistics and Probability.
Image by Vidiot via FlickrAfter seeing many videos on the Psychology of religion by Darrel Ray on YouTube; I thought I'd do some snooping on my own.
I call this... The God ILLUSION
Why do Theists think God exists? They claim they constantly see Him manifesting himself in reality all the time. Since I used to be a Christian, I will focus on the Christian version of God.
They claim that,
We can agree that anything which is within reality is and can be tested by science, yet the claim God can't be tested by science but he manifests in reality..
So aside from their ignorance, we will claim that the above list of claims can be tested.
1. Words of Knowledge
Words of Knowledge are supposedly when God pops a thought in your mind about someone.. (Check out the 700 Club. They have tons of these every day)..
On TV, the televangelist will say, "I had a word from God and he told me that a man named Samuel has a brain turmor and is being healed right now in jesus name"..
As you can see, words of knowledge are Extremely vague and can apply to anyone. This is known as the Forer/Barnum Effect. Saying vague statements which people apply to themselves but in reality apply to practically ANYONE.
2. Prophets
Supposed prophets will come to churches telling people things about the future and about other people. These "prophets" use a mixture of the forer effect and COLD READING. - Cold reading is fishing for information from people and making it look like they know everything about you. They will say to the entire congregation, "God is showing me the name John" .. after the congregation finds a john, (this should be easy) John will go up front and the prophet will tell them something vague about the future.. "God has a great plan for you.. You might be moving some day".. Umm... The reason people are so fooled by this is because the future hasn't happened yet so they just accept the prophets word as true.. and if the person happens to move in the future .. it is a self fulfilling prophecy.. The person will move to make the prophecy happen.. Not very convincing..
3. Speaking in tongues.
Do we really need to go over this one?
Speaking in tongues refers to christians speaking in a Heavenly language.. and than someone will interpret what the person said.
Gibberish...... The interpretation of the tongues never even matches the tongue.. Just listen for key words and see if the person matches them up....
4. Answered prayer.
Answered prayer is the equivelant of chance.
When their vague prayers are answered.. god did it and when theyre not... god must have a reason........ UGH
Answered prayer is also a combination of self fulfilling prophecy as well. Alot of the times the prayers will be so vague , they are bound to happen. "God i pray for money." - Than theyre paycheck comes 2 weeks later.. Ya hardly a miracle.
5. Feeling gods presence - holy spirit.. Its known in psychology that when crowds are together in unity they feel EUPHORIC not the holy spirit.
Christians feel this same feeling at a football game but dont attribute it to the holy spirit.. why? because theyre not in church.. in church you attribute it to the holy spirit.... outside of church you dont..
6. Healing
Healing of the body... why is it amputees are never healed?
Well, theres a thing called remission, where the persons problem goes away because of treatment, medicine and their immune system.
Also there is the placebo effect. The placebo effect is actualy someones faith making them better -- .. NOT A GOD -- but the persons faith that they are healed causes them to be optimistic and then they cause their body to send out healimg chemicals in their brain.
So in a way faith healing is real, but it is the optimism that heals the body -- not a God.
Christians tend to personify these simply scientific things which no one really talks about and they place these things into a god like image of a 2000-year-old dead man in their minds.
This is why it appears their god is real but he and his "manifestation" can be easily debunked with rationality and science..
I am a new skeptic and a new atheist. I have always been fascinated with Psychology and Sociology as well as Statistics and Probability.
Image by Vidiot via FlickrI call this... The God ILLUSION
Why do Theists think God exists? They claim they constantly see Him manifesting himself in reality all the time. Since I used to be a Christian, I will focus on the Christian version of God.
They claim that,
- Words of Knowledge
- Prophets
- Speaking In Tongues
- Answered Prayer
- The Holy Spirit, and
- Healing are all proof He manifests in reality.
We can agree that anything which is within reality is and can be tested by science, yet the claim God can't be tested by science but he manifests in reality..
So aside from their ignorance, we will claim that the above list of claims can be tested.
1. Words of Knowledge
Words of Knowledge are supposedly when God pops a thought in your mind about someone.. (Check out the 700 Club. They have tons of these every day)..
On TV, the televangelist will say, "I had a word from God and he told me that a man named Samuel has a brain turmor and is being healed right now in jesus name"..
As you can see, words of knowledge are Extremely vague and can apply to anyone. This is known as the Forer/Barnum Effect. Saying vague statements which people apply to themselves but in reality apply to practically ANYONE.
2. Prophets
Supposed prophets will come to churches telling people things about the future and about other people. These "prophets" use a mixture of the forer effect and COLD READING. - Cold reading is fishing for information from people and making it look like they know everything about you. They will say to the entire congregation, "God is showing me the name John" .. after the congregation finds a john, (this should be easy) John will go up front and the prophet will tell them something vague about the future.. "God has a great plan for you.. You might be moving some day".. Umm... The reason people are so fooled by this is because the future hasn't happened yet so they just accept the prophets word as true.. and if the person happens to move in the future .. it is a self fulfilling prophecy.. The person will move to make the prophecy happen.. Not very convincing..
3. Speaking in tongues.
Do we really need to go over this one?
Speaking in tongues refers to christians speaking in a Heavenly language.. and than someone will interpret what the person said.
Gibberish...... The interpretation of the tongues never even matches the tongue.. Just listen for key words and see if the person matches them up....
4. Answered prayer.
Answered prayer is the equivelant of chance.
When their vague prayers are answered.. god did it and when theyre not... god must have a reason........ UGH
Answered prayer is also a combination of self fulfilling prophecy as well. Alot of the times the prayers will be so vague , they are bound to happen. "God i pray for money." - Than theyre paycheck comes 2 weeks later.. Ya hardly a miracle.
5. Feeling gods presence - holy spirit.. Its known in psychology that when crowds are together in unity they feel EUPHORIC not the holy spirit.
Christians feel this same feeling at a football game but dont attribute it to the holy spirit.. why? because theyre not in church.. in church you attribute it to the holy spirit.... outside of church you dont..
6. Healing
Healing of the body... why is it amputees are never healed?
Well, theres a thing called remission, where the persons problem goes away because of treatment, medicine and their immune system.
Also there is the placebo effect. The placebo effect is actualy someones faith making them better -- .. NOT A GOD -- but the persons faith that they are healed causes them to be optimistic and then they cause their body to send out healimg chemicals in their brain.
So in a way faith healing is real, but it is the optimism that heals the body -- not a God.
Christians tend to personify these simply scientific things which no one really talks about and they place these things into a god like image of a 2000-year-old dead man in their minds.
This is why it appears their god is real but he and his "manifestation" can be easily debunked with rationality and science..
Comments
Post a Comment