By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~
Many Christian sects believe that, according to the Bible, God will one day destroy the earth at “the end of days.”
That just doesn’t make sense.
We humans were put on this earth under very difficult conditions, prey to the beasts, infectious microbes, the weather, natural disasters, and our own tendencies to arrange ourselves into often hostile tribes. Ever since, we have worked hard to better the lives of our species through the development of science and social progress.
Thanks to our development of science, very few of us are in danger today from beasts like lions, tigers, etc. And, we have developed inoculations to protect us from many diseases like measles, mumps, polio, and many others, we’ve developed numerous antibiotics like penicillin and its allies, and we’ve discovered or developed dozens of pain killers to aid the suffering. We learned that diseases aren’t caused by demons but by microbes, toxins, and genetic flaws. We learned that merely washing our hands before delivering new humans into this world can often save the lives of delivering mothers and their babies.
We have even learned how to go into the human body to make repairs to clogged arteries, ruptured organs, worn joints, and such. We have also made some progress in treating mental illness through drugs and other therapies. We have learned to predict weather dangers and protect ourselves against them in warm houses and strong buildings. We have developed faster growing, more abundant, and disease- and weather-resistant crops to feed ever more of us. And, we got none of this from the Bible.
The lesson here is obvious; the god of the Bible makes no sense. Socially, we have worked hard to improve the lives of average humans all over the world. Slavery is outlawed everywhere, and we have generally fair and humane laws serving to protect us from the less sociable among us. In most of the world, women and children have gained many rights just in the past hundred years or so; likewise racial and ethnic minorities. And, as philosopher/author Stephen Pinker has shown, the rate of human death by violence is at its lowest level ever (“The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”). Again, none of this social progress came from the Bible.
In short, we humans, dropped into this world naked and with difficult circumstances, have worked intelligently, diligently, and compassionately to improve our chances here on earth, for ourselves and those who will follow us. True, we are also causing damage to the earth’s environments and climate, but we are also constantly working on solutions to these problems.
For most of us in the free world, life is no longer "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short," as Thomas Hobbes wrote. We have come to love this good earth and the many, many pleasures it offers. Now, how can it be fair or in any way reasonable for a god to simply destroy this earth and all that we have worked so hard for and for so long? Would you make a tree house for your children and then, after they have sanded, painted, furnished and decorated it, turn around and destroy it? Why? What on earth for? Does this really sound like a god who gives a damn about us humans?
The lesson here is obvious; the god of the Bible makes no sense. Since the lowest possible hurdle for a believable god is that it make sense, Bible-god deserves to be discounted just like all those thousands of other gods of yore which didn’t make sense.
That just doesn’t make sense.
We humans were put on this earth under very difficult conditions, prey to the beasts, infectious microbes, the weather, natural disasters, and our own tendencies to arrange ourselves into often hostile tribes. Ever since, we have worked hard to better the lives of our species through the development of science and social progress.
Thanks to our development of science, very few of us are in danger today from beasts like lions, tigers, etc. And, we have developed inoculations to protect us from many diseases like measles, mumps, polio, and many others, we’ve developed numerous antibiotics like penicillin and its allies, and we’ve discovered or developed dozens of pain killers to aid the suffering. We learned that diseases aren’t caused by demons but by microbes, toxins, and genetic flaws. We learned that merely washing our hands before delivering new humans into this world can often save the lives of delivering mothers and their babies.
We have even learned how to go into the human body to make repairs to clogged arteries, ruptured organs, worn joints, and such. We have also made some progress in treating mental illness through drugs and other therapies. We have learned to predict weather dangers and protect ourselves against them in warm houses and strong buildings. We have developed faster growing, more abundant, and disease- and weather-resistant crops to feed ever more of us. And, we got none of this from the Bible.
The lesson here is obvious; the god of the Bible makes no sense. Socially, we have worked hard to improve the lives of average humans all over the world. Slavery is outlawed everywhere, and we have generally fair and humane laws serving to protect us from the less sociable among us. In most of the world, women and children have gained many rights just in the past hundred years or so; likewise racial and ethnic minorities. And, as philosopher/author Stephen Pinker has shown, the rate of human death by violence is at its lowest level ever (“The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”). Again, none of this social progress came from the Bible.
In short, we humans, dropped into this world naked and with difficult circumstances, have worked intelligently, diligently, and compassionately to improve our chances here on earth, for ourselves and those who will follow us. True, we are also causing damage to the earth’s environments and climate, but we are also constantly working on solutions to these problems.
For most of us in the free world, life is no longer "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short," as Thomas Hobbes wrote. We have come to love this good earth and the many, many pleasures it offers. Now, how can it be fair or in any way reasonable for a god to simply destroy this earth and all that we have worked so hard for and for so long? Would you make a tree house for your children and then, after they have sanded, painted, furnished and decorated it, turn around and destroy it? Why? What on earth for? Does this really sound like a god who gives a damn about us humans?
The lesson here is obvious; the god of the Bible makes no sense. Since the lowest possible hurdle for a believable god is that it make sense, Bible-god deserves to be discounted just like all those thousands of other gods of yore which didn’t make sense.
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