By Michael Runyan ~
Encouraging doubting, de-converting, deconstructing and former Christians
Friday, March 30, 2018
Women v. Religion: The Case Against Faith – and for Freedom
By Karen Garst ~
After finishing my first book, Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life without Religion
, I had a chance to attend several secular events including the Women in Secularism Conference. This was excellent and I had the opportunity to meet many interesting women. So instead of going back into retirement, I decided to write another book. The result is Women v. Religion: The Case Against Faith - and for Freedom
.
Each of the essays in this book examines one aspect of the impact of the three Abrahamic religions on women: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the first essay, licensed professional mental health counselor Candace Gorham, author of The Ebony Exodus Project, dives deep into the impact of religion on our psyche. She outlines the basics of mental illness that can be caused by religion, including depression, anxiety, shame, and guilt. Gorham also discusses the ineffective religious treatment for mental health problems such as pastoral counseling, conversion theory, and faith healing.
Lauri Weissman, a professor of communications at a top-ranked American university, gives an overview of the first in the three Abrahamic traditions, Judaism, and its proscriptive roles for women. As “an oppressed and isolated minority within an oppressed and isolated minority,” Jewish women have endured millennia of religiously justified misogyny. Scriptural disgust for female bodies and demand for ritual purity enforce an essential “otherness” by which women are excluded from leadership roles and core practices of many Jewish communities. These earliest attitudes are replicated by Islam and Christianity, which hold some of the same core texts to be sacred.
Alexis Record, frequent book reviewer and blog contributor, expands Gorham’s discussion by focusing on the impact of childhood indoctrination. Record was raised in a fundamentalist household and was educated using Accelerated Christian Education. In 2001, Norway banned the curriculum for violating their Gender Equality Act.[1] A mother’s roles are discussed as “helper, cook, cleans house, washes and irons clothes.”[2] Record concludes with an action plan to help children know what is true and to give them the tools they need to distinguish facts from beliefs.
Dr. Valerie Tarico, author of Trusting Doubt and blogger at www.valerietarico.com, gives an insightful analysis of the treatment of women in the Bible and early Christianity. Her work outlines the tendency of Bible writers and subsequent Christian leaders to eliminate any notion of a feminine divine and to paint women as unclean, dirty—literally property to be owned, given away, sold, or claimed as spoils of war by powerful men. Christian apologists like to ignore the Old Testament and focus on the New Testament. Yet as Tarico outlines so well, it is hard to ignore the statements of early Christian fathers or the roots of their disdain for women in the Bible itself.
The third Abrahamic religion, Islam, is explored by Hibah Ch. Ch is a Syrian expatriate born and raised in Aleppo in a conservative Muslim family. She left Islam in her twenties and now studies chemistry and mathematics in the United States. Ch reveals that female deities in the Arabian Peninsula were initially revered but subsequently destroyed by Islam. In addition, there were successful business women and female rulers prior to Islam. Inspired by the patriarchal norms of Judeo-Christianity, the founder of Islam, Mohammed, adopted many of their negative proscriptions regarding women.
Aruna Papp, author of Unworthy Creature: A Punjabi Daughter’s Memoir of Honour, Shame and Love, was born and raised in India. The oldest of seven children, Aruna’s formative years were governed by her father’s pastoral service, the culture of honor, and her yearning for an education that eluded her. In an abusive arranged marriage, Aruna immigrated to Canada with two small daughters. Here she learned about rights and protections Canada offers to women. She embarked on a frightening but empowering journey that lead to two masters’ degrees, and a second, loving, and mutually respectful marriage. In her pioneering career counselling immigrant women, Aruna is recipient of dozens of awards, including the Toronto Women of Distinction. Aruna facilitates training on “Risk Assessment: How Honour Based Violence differs from Domestic Violence.” As a Canadian Delegate at the 57th Session of the UN Aruna spoke on Honour Killing in the West countries.
The next two essays, written by Valerie Wade and Deanna Adams, outline the impact of religion on African American women. Wade is a historian at Lynnfield Historical Consulting, where she assists families with genealogical research and conducts workshops on preservation and other history-related topics. Adams is the author of the blog Musings on a Limb, where she expresses her views as an African American atheist, professional, and mom on subjects related to the intersectionality of racism and skepticism. She currently serves on the board of the Humanists of Houston. Wade describes the culture in Africa prior to the Middle Passage of the slave trade. In many societies in Africa, there was a strong influence of female goddesses like Mawu, Yemoja, and Ala. The advent of Christianity, with its rampant misogyny, however, put African American women in a double bind: they were disadvantaged because of their race and because of their sex. Adams continues this history and states that during the civil rights era, Christian churches held back and many avoided involvement. Just like in the churches, women’s involvement in civil rights was more as workhorses. After this era, the prosperity gospel phenomenon took much of the women’s hard-earned dollars. Other impacts such as the prevalence of domestic violence and the lack of psychologically sound support also contribute to the struggle of African American women today.
Marilyn Deleija, born in Guatemala, and raised in Central California, gives a unique prospective on what it means to be an Atheist Latin immigrant. She has worked hard to be politically active in her community and has also helped to improve political information access to them. She is a local volunteer in Central California and has helped in moving her community progressively forward. In her essay, her experiences reflect what she sees needs to be changed with regards to religion and how it can affect local communities, but more specifically, Hispanic prominent communities, like places she grew up in.
Hypatia Alexandria introduces herself as a multi-faceted individual, dedicated to promoting secular values as well as social, political and business interests in the US Latino community. She completed her education in an all-girls Catholic school. Thus, she is well aware of the huge impact of religion, particularly Catholicism, on the US Hispanic Population. She writes and discusses the influence religion has on Latino women and the multiple barriers they face in achieving true gender equality. Hypatia cofounded Hispanic American Freethinkers (HAFREE), a non-profit organization that encourages critical thinking in the US. She is currently a PhD student at Virginia Tech.
Kayley Margarite Whalen, digital strategies and social media manager at the National LGBTQ Task Force, adds yet another dimension to the subjugation of women by religion¾that of a transgender woman. In her essay, she weaves her personal journey both as a transgender woman and as an atheist along with current research on gender identity. It is an issue that virtually all religions have not yet come to terms with.
Dr. Abby Hafer, author of The Not-So-Intelligent Designer, takes up the discussion of evolution in her essay. She points out that evolutionarily speaking, females are the first, original sex. She contradicts the argument from nature by showing the many different gender roles and forms of sexual expression that exist in the animal kingdom, and points out numerous fallacies in the idea of intelligent design, in particular with regard to women’s reproductive systems. She shows how the Abrahamic religions go out of their way to trap women, and reveals that the natural rate of spontaneous abortions makes the evangelicals’ God by far the world’s busiest abortionist.
Gretta Vosper, author of With or Without God and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief, leads a congregation in Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, the United Church of Canada. She is in the middle of a controversy and may lose or leave her position because she is an atheist. She explores how her congregation developed around her after her declaration of atheism and how she has attracted congregants who want the community that a church provides but none of the doctrine.
If you have a chance to read the book (it is available for pre-order here), please go to my website and vote for Faith or Freedom (and a short review on Amazon would be much appreciated). The book will be available June 1.
Karen Garst
March 24, 2018
[1] Jonny Scaramanga, “Norway Banned ACE. Could the UK Follow?” Patheos, August 4, 2014, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/leavingfundamentalism/2014/08/04/norway-banned-ace-could-the-uk-follow/.
[2] http://faithlessfeminist.com/blog-posts/exposing-accelerated-christian-education/
After finishing my first book, Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life without Religion, I had a chance to attend several secular events including the Women in Secularism Conference. This was excellent and I had the opportunity to meet many interesting women. So instead of going back into retirement, I decided to write another book. The result is Women v. Religion: The Case Against Faith - and for Freedom.Each of the essays in this book examines one aspect of the impact of the three Abrahamic religions on women: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the first essay, licensed professional mental health counselor Candace Gorham, author of The Ebony Exodus Project, dives deep into the impact of religion on our psyche. She outlines the basics of mental illness that can be caused by religion, including depression, anxiety, shame, and guilt. Gorham also discusses the ineffective religious treatment for mental health problems such as pastoral counseling, conversion theory, and faith healing.
Lauri Weissman, a professor of communications at a top-ranked American university, gives an overview of the first in the three Abrahamic traditions, Judaism, and its proscriptive roles for women. As “an oppressed and isolated minority within an oppressed and isolated minority,” Jewish women have endured millennia of religiously justified misogyny. Scriptural disgust for female bodies and demand for ritual purity enforce an essential “otherness” by which women are excluded from leadership roles and core practices of many Jewish communities. These earliest attitudes are replicated by Islam and Christianity, which hold some of the same core texts to be sacred.
Alexis Record, frequent book reviewer and blog contributor, expands Gorham’s discussion by focusing on the impact of childhood indoctrination. Record was raised in a fundamentalist household and was educated using Accelerated Christian Education. In 2001, Norway banned the curriculum for violating their Gender Equality Act.[1] A mother’s roles are discussed as “helper, cook, cleans house, washes and irons clothes.”[2] Record concludes with an action plan to help children know what is true and to give them the tools they need to distinguish facts from beliefs.
Dr. Valerie Tarico, author of Trusting Doubt and blogger at www.valerietarico.com, gives an insightful analysis of the treatment of women in the Bible and early Christianity. Her work outlines the tendency of Bible writers and subsequent Christian leaders to eliminate any notion of a feminine divine and to paint women as unclean, dirty—literally property to be owned, given away, sold, or claimed as spoils of war by powerful men. Christian apologists like to ignore the Old Testament and focus on the New Testament. Yet as Tarico outlines so well, it is hard to ignore the statements of early Christian fathers or the roots of their disdain for women in the Bible itself.
The third Abrahamic religion, Islam, is explored by Hibah Ch. Ch is a Syrian expatriate born and raised in Aleppo in a conservative Muslim family. She left Islam in her twenties and now studies chemistry and mathematics in the United States. Ch reveals that female deities in the Arabian Peninsula were initially revered but subsequently destroyed by Islam. In addition, there were successful business women and female rulers prior to Islam. Inspired by the patriarchal norms of Judeo-Christianity, the founder of Islam, Mohammed, adopted many of their negative proscriptions regarding women.
Aruna Papp, author of Unworthy Creature: A Punjabi Daughter’s Memoir of Honour, Shame and Love, was born and raised in India. The oldest of seven children, Aruna’s formative years were governed by her father’s pastoral service, the culture of honor, and her yearning for an education that eluded her. In an abusive arranged marriage, Aruna immigrated to Canada with two small daughters. Here she learned about rights and protections Canada offers to women. She embarked on a frightening but empowering journey that lead to two masters’ degrees, and a second, loving, and mutually respectful marriage. In her pioneering career counselling immigrant women, Aruna is recipient of dozens of awards, including the Toronto Women of Distinction. Aruna facilitates training on “Risk Assessment: How Honour Based Violence differs from Domestic Violence.” As a Canadian Delegate at the 57th Session of the UN Aruna spoke on Honour Killing in the West countries.
The next two essays, written by Valerie Wade and Deanna Adams, outline the impact of religion on African American women. Wade is a historian at Lynnfield Historical Consulting, where she assists families with genealogical research and conducts workshops on preservation and other history-related topics. Adams is the author of the blog Musings on a Limb, where she expresses her views as an African American atheist, professional, and mom on subjects related to the intersectionality of racism and skepticism. She currently serves on the board of the Humanists of Houston. Wade describes the culture in Africa prior to the Middle Passage of the slave trade. In many societies in Africa, there was a strong influence of female goddesses like Mawu, Yemoja, and Ala. The advent of Christianity, with its rampant misogyny, however, put African American women in a double bind: they were disadvantaged because of their race and because of their sex. Adams continues this history and states that during the civil rights era, Christian churches held back and many avoided involvement. Just like in the churches, women’s involvement in civil rights was more as workhorses. After this era, the prosperity gospel phenomenon took much of the women’s hard-earned dollars. Other impacts such as the prevalence of domestic violence and the lack of psychologically sound support also contribute to the struggle of African American women today.
Marilyn Deleija, born in Guatemala, and raised in Central California, gives a unique prospective on what it means to be an Atheist Latin immigrant. She has worked hard to be politically active in her community and has also helped to improve political information access to them. She is a local volunteer in Central California and has helped in moving her community progressively forward. In her essay, her experiences reflect what she sees needs to be changed with regards to religion and how it can affect local communities, but more specifically, Hispanic prominent communities, like places she grew up in.
Hypatia Alexandria introduces herself as a multi-faceted individual, dedicated to promoting secular values as well as social, political and business interests in the US Latino community. She completed her education in an all-girls Catholic school. Thus, she is well aware of the huge impact of religion, particularly Catholicism, on the US Hispanic Population. She writes and discusses the influence religion has on Latino women and the multiple barriers they face in achieving true gender equality. Hypatia cofounded Hispanic American Freethinkers (HAFREE), a non-profit organization that encourages critical thinking in the US. She is currently a PhD student at Virginia Tech.
Kayley Margarite Whalen, digital strategies and social media manager at the National LGBTQ Task Force, adds yet another dimension to the subjugation of women by religion¾that of a transgender woman. In her essay, she weaves her personal journey both as a transgender woman and as an atheist along with current research on gender identity. It is an issue that virtually all religions have not yet come to terms with.
Dr. Abby Hafer, author of The Not-So-Intelligent Designer, takes up the discussion of evolution in her essay. She points out that evolutionarily speaking, females are the first, original sex. She contradicts the argument from nature by showing the many different gender roles and forms of sexual expression that exist in the animal kingdom, and points out numerous fallacies in the idea of intelligent design, in particular with regard to women’s reproductive systems. She shows how the Abrahamic religions go out of their way to trap women, and reveals that the natural rate of spontaneous abortions makes the evangelicals’ God by far the world’s busiest abortionist.
Gretta Vosper, author of With or Without God and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief, leads a congregation in Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, the United Church of Canada. She is in the middle of a controversy and may lose or leave her position because she is an atheist. She explores how her congregation developed around her after her declaration of atheism and how she has attracted congregants who want the community that a church provides but none of the doctrine.
If you have a chance to read the book (it is available for pre-order here), please go to my website and vote for Faith or Freedom (and a short review on Amazon would be much appreciated). The book will be available June 1.
Karen Garst
March 24, 2018
[1] Jonny Scaramanga, “Norway Banned ACE. Could the UK Follow?” Patheos, August 4, 2014, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/leavingfundamentalism/2014/08/04/norway-banned-ace-could-the-uk-follow/.
[2] http://faithlessfeminist.com/blog-posts/exposing-accelerated-christian-education/
The Fictitious Missionary Journey of the Disciples
By Michael Runyan ~
When an author produces fiction, he often tries to make his account seem realistic if the goal is to have people believe it actually happened. Generally, this is what the authors of the gospels strove to do. Some of what they wrote was actually based on something they read or heard, but clearly a lot of it was simply made up by their imagination. When Mark, the first gospel writer, wrote about Jesus sending his disciples out two by two to preach his message, he introduced plenty of elements letting us know that it never happened.
Mark 6:7-13Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Here are the reasons to doubt this story:
- Jesus almost certainly would not have sent his followers away at any time, given that they gave him protection. Jesus wandering about by himself would have been suicidal.
- Even if the disciples were sent, what would have been their message?- “we are following a man who claims to be a prophet and he is working some miracles?” That would be about all they could say. Obviously, at this time, they knew nothing of the ultimate doctrine that Jesus was to die for the salvation of mankind.
- Jesus gave them ‘authority over impure spirits,’ that is, he gave them authority over things we now know don’t exist.
- He tells them to take nothing for the journey other than sandals and a shirt. This is embarrassingly unrealistic, unreasonable, and completely unnecessary to their purported mission. He is improperly burdening other people who will end up having to provide for his men.
- He tells them to dust off their feet as a testimony against those who appropriately reject their message. The author of Matthew added even more venom to this threat when he copied this story from Mark (Matthew 10:15- Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.)
- They drove out many demons (that don’t exist) and anointed sick people with oil ( having no curative value).
This story could have been written in a much more realistic manner, but even at the start, there was no need to even posit that such a venture would have happened in the first place. In other areas of the Bible, we are led to believe that the disciples were unlearned, rather dull people who were very slow to understand Jesus’s divinity and message, and yet Jesus sent them out by themselves to preach? That Jesus went solo for what, several weeks or months? This doesn’t whisper, this doesn’t speak, this doesn’t shout, no, it screams FICTION.
The Live Worship Recording
By Susan ~
The Pentecostal church can be a serious mind-fuck. I honestly can not believe what I agreed to do in order to try and win the ‘favour’ of my pastors and of God. I was a sheep, faithfully following my strong leaders as God’s appointed. Coincidentally, in the church that I attended, God had chosen the pastors family and closest friends as his cohorts! Amazing:)
Of course, this couldn’t be questioned or one would be seen as dissident and therefore in the way of God’s work.
I once ‘served under’ a young worship leader that was told specifically not to sing for several months because of a serious jaw condition. The church had already committed to recording a live worship CD and had invested over $10,000 in the project, not including the expense of flying out Christianity's hottest worship couple from New Zealand to coach us.
Our young leaders’ jaw condition persisted, but we were all told to simply trust that God would show up on the night of the live recording and miraculously heal her jaw. Obviously she needed someone to sing her ‘lead’ parts in the many rehearsals up to the ‘live’ night. I was chosen to do that and I willingly agreed as I knew this would show my faithfulness to the church leaders and ultimately help in my moving up on the worship team ladder. Being that I am a singer, I saw no other possible outlet to express myself vocally but to become a worship leader. The thought of playing ‘in the world’ was out of the question to me at that time.
Long story short, the day of the live recording arrived and with only hours left before the performance…er….’worship night’ began, I finally got up the nerve to address the elephant in the room. I chose to bring it up to the blonde 40-something worship leader from New Zealand in the leather jacket. “Ummmm…..I don’t want to sound like I don’t have enough faith, but….what happens if God doesn’t heal her tonight?”. She looked at me…smiled…shrugged her shoulders, and said, “Well then honey, it would all be on you!”.
Being someone that lives with an anxiety disorder, this may as well have been a forceful punch in my gut. It’s the truth I knew but hadn’t dared to address:
-hundreds of humans will be arriving within hours to help record a live CD that is being funded by the generous donations of the faithful people of the church
-the leader is incapacitated and has not exercised her vocal chords for months and is therefore completely unprepared
-It is entirely likely that her jaw will freeze up and I will have to be the shoulders the entire congregation stands on
It was more than I could emotionally bear, but even in that moment, I felt guilty for the pressure I felt…I felt that I wasn’t believing enough, and I felt that even to the final hour.
God I wish I could go back to that moment with the 20/20 I have now. (Exit, stage left. Now run as far and as fast as you can.)
Lo and behold, she was able to get through the worship night, though it was a complete shit show…complete with flashing lights and smoke machines and the young leader calling out “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”…over and over again when her vocal ability failed her and she needed to fill the dead air space with something.
I am known for having a terrible memory, but this memory is somehow forever emblazoned in my mind. I was singing background vocals on stage and looking out at the ‘pumped’ crowd. The leader was screaming something out, the congregation was cheering, the camera’s were rolling, the strobe lights were flashing, but in my minds-eye everything went completely silent. Silent.
All I could see were the false hopes and dreams of hundreds of people that desperately wanted to be involved in something that mattered. And to them, this live worship night was that thing.
So when the Director of the show….er…worship night….told them to cheer again and again and again so that they could get a good recording of the sound of the power of the Holy Spirit, cheer they did. When they were told to give God a ‘clap offering’…clap they did.
And they jumped…and they pumped their fists…and they raised the roof…and they lifted holy hands to the sky….
And I stood on stage…nauseous and dizzy and feeling like everything I knew to be true no longer was.
I endured the night as best I could and then I ran to my car. As soon as the door closed behind me I burst into tears. I sobbed and sobbed all the way home.
I cried because I knew I had seen clearly that night. And what I saw was ugly and proud and broken. It was cloaked in hair dye and heels, in smoke machines and strobe lights, in clap offerings and flat-screen teleprompter’s. But I saw it. And it was nothing.
The do-nothing God
By John Draper ~
I want God’s job.
The guy never has to do a bloody thing and people still throw rose petals at his feet.
No, no, no, believers say, indignantly. God is “active in my life”!
But what do they mean? For my part, I’ve never had a miracle occur in my life. That is, nothing’s happened to me that I couldn’t explain through natural processes. I say that as someone who was mentally ill the first 10 years of his Walk With Christ. I had all sorts of people lay hands on me for healing. To be fair, I didn’t really think of what I was going through as something I needed to be healed from—a disease. I didn’t know what it was. I just wanted it gone.
And then I was given a little pill and—poof!—it was. Ten fucking years.
Likewise, I’ve never met anyone who has had a miracle occur in their life. I’ve met a lot of believers who know someone who has had a miracle occur in their life—or know someone who knows someone.
Probe a bit. Here’s what I think you’ll find about God being “active” in believers’ lives.
In my experience, believers only see God’s activity in their life in hindsight. In the moment, they’re oblivious. No one says, “I’ve really been feeling empowered by God lately.” Noone coasts through the Christian life, not even Pentecostals. It’s always a slog. They say things like, “I’m being tested. I think God is trying to teach me something.” When you ask them what that lesson might be, they’ll usually say, “To rely on God.”
But . . . why should you rely on God if He does nothing? What do you have that unbelievers don’t have?
When believers talk about God’s activity in their lives, what they mean is that God has given them the strength to endure the hardships He won’t remove from their lives.
When believers say God forgives them/is patient with them, what they mean is that God hasn’t punished them. In other words, he has done nothing.
Most of the time, believers don’t get what they pray for. When they don’t get it, they say that it’s because God in His wisdom determined the thing they were praying for wouldn’t be good for them. Once again, He does nothing.
Do believers overcome obstacles in their lives? Absolutely. But I don’t think they overcome them in higher percentages than nonbelievers. In other words, they get no boost from their belief.
The amazingly good things that do happen in believers’ lives—inexplicable reversals of cancers, for example—happen with the same frequency in nonbelievers’ lives. Which is to say, almost never.
Believers also point out that coincidences that occur in their lives are actually God-incidences—that is, explainable as the activity of God. But they know that’s a stretch. In fact, it takes faith to insist the coincidence is being directed by God—because all signs seem to say otherwise. It just looks like what it is—a coincidence, which occur just as often to nonbelievers.
Even what believers call their love for God—it’s really just their yearning for Him in His absence. C.S. Lewis was full of baloney when he said “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” I have yet to meet a satisfied believer.
Most believers have come up with rationalizations for God’s apparent inactivity. Why was there only one pair of footprints on the beach when I was going through hardship, Lord? That’s because I was carrying you. They say what really matters is how God changes you. He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion and I’m am the Vine. You are the branches.
Well, there, too, I don’t think God is active. In my experience, after 35 years of devout belief I was essentially the same person I was when I started. It’s the same for all believers. What people mean by becoming Christlike is God gives them the ability to restrain their animal impulses. They’re still as lustful, prideful, vain, etc. as they were when they converted. They still have their animal impulses because, well, they’re animals. For my part, I just had to take my foot off the pedal a bit and I was as crass as I ever was as a frat boy.
When I say stuff like this, believers pile on, insisting otherwise. One guy said he knows an addict in his church who has done a complete 180. I said, you don’t know that. You only know what he tells you—and addicts always lie. Another guy said he himself had just been healed of drug addiction—instantly, without withdrawals. My response was, let’s wait a year and see if you’re still sober.
Am I a cynic? I suppose. I prefer the term realist.
The truth is that God is not active. Sometimes life goes your way. Sometimes it doesn’t.
We’re on our own, which is not to say there’s necessarily not a God. I think there probably is—He just isn’t who believers think He is.
The guy never has to do a bloody thing and people still throw rose petals at his feet.
No, no, no, believers say, indignantly. God is “active in my life”!
But what do they mean? For my part, I’ve never had a miracle occur in my life. That is, nothing’s happened to me that I couldn’t explain through natural processes. I say that as someone who was mentally ill the first 10 years of his Walk With Christ. I had all sorts of people lay hands on me for healing. To be fair, I didn’t really think of what I was going through as something I needed to be healed from—a disease. I didn’t know what it was. I just wanted it gone.
And then I was given a little pill and—poof!—it was. Ten fucking years.
Likewise, I’ve never met anyone who has had a miracle occur in their life. I’ve met a lot of believers who know someone who has had a miracle occur in their life—or know someone who knows someone.
Probe a bit. Here’s what I think you’ll find about God being “active” in believers’ lives.
In my experience, believers only see God’s activity in their life in hindsight. In the moment, they’re oblivious. No one says, “I’ve really been feeling empowered by God lately.” Noone coasts through the Christian life, not even Pentecostals. It’s always a slog. They say things like, “I’m being tested. I think God is trying to teach me something.” When you ask them what that lesson might be, they’ll usually say, “To rely on God.”
But . . . why should you rely on God if He does nothing? What do you have that unbelievers don’t have?
When believers talk about God’s activity in their lives, what they mean is that God has given them the strength to endure the hardships He won’t remove from their lives.
When believers say God forgives them/is patient with them, what they mean is that God hasn’t punished them. In other words, he has done nothing.
Most of the time, believers don’t get what they pray for. When they don’t get it, they say that it’s because God in His wisdom determined the thing they were praying for wouldn’t be good for them. Once again, He does nothing.
Do believers overcome obstacles in their lives? Absolutely. But I don’t think they overcome them in higher percentages than nonbelievers. In other words, they get no boost from their belief.
The amazingly good things that do happen in believers’ lives—inexplicable reversals of cancers, for example—happen with the same frequency in nonbelievers’ lives. Which is to say, almost never.
Believers also point out that coincidences that occur in their lives are actually God-incidences—that is, explainable as the activity of God. But they know that’s a stretch. In fact, it takes faith to insist the coincidence is being directed by God—because all signs seem to say otherwise. It just looks like what it is—a coincidence, which occur just as often to nonbelievers.
Even what believers call their love for God—it’s really just their yearning for Him in His absence. C.S. Lewis was full of baloney when he said “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” I have yet to meet a satisfied believer.
Most believers have come up with rationalizations for God’s apparent inactivity. Why was there only one pair of footprints on the beach when I was going through hardship, Lord? That’s because I was carrying you. They say what really matters is how God changes you. He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion and I’m am the Vine. You are the branches.
Well, there, too, I don’t think God is active. In my experience, after 35 years of devout belief I was essentially the same person I was when I started. It’s the same for all believers. What people mean by becoming Christlike is God gives them the ability to restrain their animal impulses. They’re still as lustful, prideful, vain, etc. as they were when they converted. They still have their animal impulses because, well, they’re animals. For my part, I just had to take my foot off the pedal a bit and I was as crass as I ever was as a frat boy.
When I say stuff like this, believers pile on, insisting otherwise. One guy said he knows an addict in his church who has done a complete 180. I said, you don’t know that. You only know what he tells you—and addicts always lie. Another guy said he himself had just been healed of drug addiction—instantly, without withdrawals. My response was, let’s wait a year and see if you’re still sober.
Am I a cynic? I suppose. I prefer the term realist.
The truth is that God is not active. Sometimes life goes your way. Sometimes it doesn’t.
We’re on our own, which is not to say there’s necessarily not a God. I think there probably is—He just isn’t who believers think He is.
The Fickle Finger of God. Part Two
By Carl S ~
A lesson unaddressed by clergy and scholars alike, comes from seeing Jesus as his Jewish audience did. His whole mission was silly, and rather pointless. Come on, what do we expect to happen when a man claiming to speak for his god contradicts that god, by teaching that, instead of an eye for an eye, instead of seeking vengeance, you must forgive your enemies, do good to them who harm you? He had the audacity to claim this god is a father to the whole human race, not only the Jews. Jesus says his god forgives those who disobey him and repent, rather than destroys them; he especially forgives those who forgive their enemies. Oy vay! His is a god opposing the God of the Jews, a false god. Bible God is not amused.
Jesus had created his own god. What happened to the God who demanded that revenge and punishments be meted out by the accusers, the insulted, and the wronged? That isn't what God wanted, that isn't the way of his Holy Land, where the revenge of “an eye for an eye, life for a life,” is still the norm, thousands of years later. Original Bible God has to triumph over the God preached by Jesus. If you don't believe this, consider: In a restoration of the original God, the “good news” New Testament itself ends (in Revelation) with vengeance, violence, slaughter, the destruction of our entire Earth, in fire. This time God's plan will bring everlasting joy!
Also, Jesus preached against God's choices; that was blasphemy. His god of compassion was un-Godlike. It follows Jesus had to be killed. God's “infinite wisdom” decision. After he was executed, Jesus then became just another symbol of the conquest of death, and “Jesus,” trademarked, is used, and his cross became O.T. God's militant symbol to conquer others. Later on, God's plan included Mohammed, restoring the one true, original biblical god. Once again, conquest by the sword was the plan God used to spread his, a.k.a., their, word.
The cross remains a reminder of what happens when a man like Jesus crosses God. To this day, that cross is “God's” weapon for revenge, conquest, bigotry, prejudice, and military might, even against those merely suspected to be “his” enemies. It is O.T. God, not the loving false father-god promoted by Jesus, who sits watching his children being tortured, burned alive, his women being buried alive and stoned to death. It almost makes you want to believe in this god, so that you can have the pleasure of rejecting him.
According to Christian, Islamic, and Jewish dogma, God's choices and plans are morally justified and a sign of his infinite love. Now, all their clergy tell us that we, as mere humans, don't understand them because “God's ways are not our ways,” and we must never question the decisions of their all-wise deity who “works in mysterious ways.” They warn: those who condemn his decisions will be subjected to eternal torment, compliments of same “loving” God. They say he's the same forever. Being all-wise, he can't change his mind.
God's ways: kill homosexuals, adulterers, those who worship any other gods but him, and disobedient sons, witches, heretics, (each religion regards those of the others as “heretics”). We must be willing to kill one another, even our children, for him. God's own ways are to punish severely the questioning, or even thinking for ourselves, about the results of his decisions. His are not humane, compassionate decisions, choices to be merciful rather than punitive. Compassion is the human answer; it's how we treat one another.
The struggles in bible-dominated lands come from allegiance to their various chosen versions of biblical God, and often to the father-god promoted by Jesus (the one who will punish, on his fickle whim, in his kangaroo-court, for the “crime” of merely not believing in him). Christian fundamentalists in the U.S. are merrily working to bring America back to the O.T. God and his punitive, vengeful choices on our society. Their ends justify their means. They're not humane, caring, compassionate, unless it involves their maudlin obsession with the unborn. Let's halt their fundamentalist agendas, their pleasure in taking away human rights for their god.
So what if we choose human, non-theological, non-mysterious allegiance to one another, by striving to make life more fair, just, compassionate, secure, available for happiness, for all humans? All of the human sacrifices for God and gods, with all the other sadistic inflicting of suffering and death to please him/them, have done nothing to save the world from pain and suffering. But our “non-mysterious ways” human compassion does. We are the ones making merciful decisions. We so love the world as to know what love is - and isn't. Aren't you glad our human ways are Not God's Ways?
Jesus had created his own god. What happened to the God who demanded that revenge and punishments be meted out by the accusers, the insulted, and the wronged? That isn't what God wanted, that isn't the way of his Holy Land, where the revenge of “an eye for an eye, life for a life,” is still the norm, thousands of years later. Original Bible God has to triumph over the God preached by Jesus. If you don't believe this, consider: In a restoration of the original God, the “good news” New Testament itself ends (in Revelation) with vengeance, violence, slaughter, the destruction of our entire Earth, in fire. This time God's plan will bring everlasting joy!
Also, Jesus preached against God's choices; that was blasphemy. His god of compassion was un-Godlike. It follows Jesus had to be killed. God's “infinite wisdom” decision. After he was executed, Jesus then became just another symbol of the conquest of death, and “Jesus,” trademarked, is used, and his cross became O.T. God's militant symbol to conquer others. Later on, God's plan included Mohammed, restoring the one true, original biblical god. Once again, conquest by the sword was the plan God used to spread his, a.k.a., their, word.
The cross remains a reminder of what happens when a man like Jesus crosses God. To this day, that cross is “God's” weapon for revenge, conquest, bigotry, prejudice, and military might, even against those merely suspected to be “his” enemies. It is O.T. God, not the loving false father-god promoted by Jesus, who sits watching his children being tortured, burned alive, his women being buried alive and stoned to death. It almost makes you want to believe in this god, so that you can have the pleasure of rejecting him.
According to Christian, Islamic, and Jewish dogma, God's choices and plans are morally justified and a sign of his infinite love. Now, all their clergy tell us that we, as mere humans, don't understand them because “God's ways are not our ways,” and we must never question the decisions of their all-wise deity who “works in mysterious ways.” They warn: those who condemn his decisions will be subjected to eternal torment, compliments of same “loving” God. They say he's the same forever. Being all-wise, he can't change his mind.
God's ways: kill homosexuals, adulterers, those who worship any other gods but him, and disobedient sons, witches, heretics, (each religion regards those of the others as “heretics”). We must be willing to kill one another, even our children, for him. God's own ways are to punish severely the questioning, or even thinking for ourselves, about the results of his decisions. His are not humane, compassionate decisions, choices to be merciful rather than punitive. Compassion is the human answer; it's how we treat one another.
The struggles in bible-dominated lands come from allegiance to their various chosen versions of biblical God, and often to the father-god promoted by Jesus (the one who will punish, on his fickle whim, in his kangaroo-court, for the “crime” of merely not believing in him). Christian fundamentalists in the U.S. are merrily working to bring America back to the O.T. God and his punitive, vengeful choices on our society. Their ends justify their means. They're not humane, caring, compassionate, unless it involves their maudlin obsession with the unborn. Let's halt their fundamentalist agendas, their pleasure in taking away human rights for their god.
So what if we choose human, non-theological, non-mysterious allegiance to one another, by striving to make life more fair, just, compassionate, secure, available for happiness, for all humans? All of the human sacrifices for God and gods, with all the other sadistic inflicting of suffering and death to please him/them, have done nothing to save the world from pain and suffering. But our “non-mysterious ways” human compassion does. We are the ones making merciful decisions. We so love the world as to know what love is - and isn't. Aren't you glad our human ways are Not God's Ways?
The Fickle Finger of God. Part One
By Carl S ~
How often have you been told, “God has a plan for you?” What the hell does that mean? Could those who glibly assert the plan explain “it”? What about the “redemption plan” for Jesus? I once asked a Christian theologian about that plan. He said, “Well, it didn't need to go that way. For one thing, God could have simply forgiven everyone. But he chose to do it his way.” Ask yourself: Was there a God whose choice was moral, or did somebody fabricate both him and his plans?
Whenever you're told, “God has a plan for you,” you're hearing the echoing of historical hearsay. No gods speak. Men do, men frequently quoting ancient writings with made up words for their gods. Societies are told to respect that tradition. A wise man said : “A man's judgement is no better than his information.” Those quoted olden-times sources, telling the choices and wills of gods, were ignorant and un-or-ill-informed, about reality. Nowadays, God's spokesmen choose to remain ignorant: they prefer to quote their predecessors, in spite of the world continually revealing itself. There's no excuse for ignorance.
“God's ways and plans” are of those “authorities who speak for God,” and this explains how societies dominated by religion get fucked. (Is it God's will we love, or destroy, our enemies? God's will we allow our child to die rather than disbelieve prayers to him will cure her? God's will that you sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, don't make plans for the future - or not?) What can “Authorities on the Will of God,” say that will convince us they're not promoting their own personal agendas? They can't break with tradition, the traditional method being to contort theology into seeming to be morality. It's fickle, fanciful, and fun. Sometimes, it erupts into the fun-times of the Inquisition. It's what God would do, after all.
What about morality without theology? Many insist you can't have one without the other. But millions of morally upright humans do. So, which are better, our ways/plans, or “God's?” What are the lessons of “redemption?” Well, one is: Two wrongs make a right. If someone sins against a god, it's wrong; but having an innocent person killed to make up for the sins makes it right! So the God of Christians sits in glory watching an innocent man arrested and tried as a criminal, whipped, raped, and tortured to death. It's the price he demands to be paid off. Christians call this his “love.” It's absurd. It doesn't make sense. It's the fun in faith.
More absurd fun, via another lesson: The ends justify the means. In order to have “redemption”, this god has others kill this man by proxy. They have to take the responsibility for his decision. Ah, but the irony doesn't stop there. For centuries, innocent humans (the Jews), who never even met the man, are persecuted and killed for causing his death!
Still another lesson to enjoy: Jesus had to be killed, not for redemption (that was a cover), but for preaching a false god. You'd think this would be obvious to anyone familiar with the established Old Testament “God,” whose all-wise plans mean punishing, destroying, wreaking vengeance on anyone deviating from his wishes. Is he patient, does he consider the suffering he will cause? No. His way is to drown, destroy by fire, engulf by earthquake, etc., even innocent human beings and their properties. This god also commands humans seek justice and recompense through revenge, retaliation, warfare: “an eye for an eye, a life for a life, etc.” He commands: destroy your enemies, even if it means genocide. What's not to like about revenge? Why else would the “inspired” psalmist speak of enjoying smashing the heads of his enemy's infants on rocks?
Whenever you're told, “God has a plan for you,” you're hearing the echoing of historical hearsay. No gods speak. Men do, men frequently quoting ancient writings with made up words for their gods. Societies are told to respect that tradition. A wise man said : “A man's judgement is no better than his information.” Those quoted olden-times sources, telling the choices and wills of gods, were ignorant and un-or-ill-informed, about reality. Nowadays, God's spokesmen choose to remain ignorant: they prefer to quote their predecessors, in spite of the world continually revealing itself. There's no excuse for ignorance.
“God's ways and plans” are of those “authorities who speak for God,” and this explains how societies dominated by religion get fucked. (Is it God's will we love, or destroy, our enemies? God's will we allow our child to die rather than disbelieve prayers to him will cure her? God's will that you sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, don't make plans for the future - or not?) What can “Authorities on the Will of God,” say that will convince us they're not promoting their own personal agendas? They can't break with tradition, the traditional method being to contort theology into seeming to be morality. It's fickle, fanciful, and fun. Sometimes, it erupts into the fun-times of the Inquisition. It's what God would do, after all.
What about morality without theology? Many insist you can't have one without the other. But millions of morally upright humans do. So, which are better, our ways/plans, or “God's?” What are the lessons of “redemption?” Well, one is: Two wrongs make a right. If someone sins against a god, it's wrong; but having an innocent person killed to make up for the sins makes it right! So the God of Christians sits in glory watching an innocent man arrested and tried as a criminal, whipped, raped, and tortured to death. It's the price he demands to be paid off. Christians call this his “love.” It's absurd. It doesn't make sense. It's the fun in faith.
More absurd fun, via another lesson: The ends justify the means. In order to have “redemption”, this god has others kill this man by proxy. They have to take the responsibility for his decision. Ah, but the irony doesn't stop there. For centuries, innocent humans (the Jews), who never even met the man, are persecuted and killed for causing his death!
Still another lesson to enjoy: Jesus had to be killed, not for redemption (that was a cover), but for preaching a false god. You'd think this would be obvious to anyone familiar with the established Old Testament “God,” whose all-wise plans mean punishing, destroying, wreaking vengeance on anyone deviating from his wishes. Is he patient, does he consider the suffering he will cause? No. His way is to drown, destroy by fire, engulf by earthquake, etc., even innocent human beings and their properties. This god also commands humans seek justice and recompense through revenge, retaliation, warfare: “an eye for an eye, a life for a life, etc.” He commands: destroy your enemies, even if it means genocide. What's not to like about revenge? Why else would the “inspired” psalmist speak of enjoying smashing the heads of his enemy's infants on rocks?
I’ve been lying to you. I’m not a Christian.
By Jonny ~
We need to talk.
I’ve been lying to you.
I’m not a Christian.
For the first 20 or so years of my life I was a perfect little Christian boy. I prayed, I read my Bible, I think I really believed it. But in college, when I started to confront life’s big questions, I didn’t find answers that resonated.
My questions mostly revolved around trying to reconcile God’s sovereignty with how I experience the world. I saw bad things happen in the world and I asked, where was God? I prayed for answers and for clarity of belief and I got nothing in return.
Where was God?
The Christian answers I kept hearing are “God is greater than our unbelief” “God has a plan, we just need to trust in him” “If we could comprehend God, would he be worth worshiping?”
To me, these answers just didn’t satisfy. They all presuppose that God exists and cares about us.
The thing about God is that you can’t prove his existence. You can provide evidence, but there is no ultimate proof. For a while, the evidence was enough for me. I told myself “You have to have faith to believe in anything, even atheists have faith. You can’t prove God’s non-existence either.” The more I struggled with it, the more I prayed and the more I read the Bible.
I was looking to God for answers, I wanted to believe that he was there.
My entire world revolves around Christianity. I went to christian High School and Christian college. All my friends are Christians, my entire extended family is full of Christians. I desperately wanted to fit in to their club. It would be easier for me if I could believe what they believed. I wouldn’t have to confront them and become that guy. You know the one. The sad story of the good christian boy who got swayed from his faith by the evil, corrupt world. The one everyone walks on eggshells around and prays for.
I wanted to buy it, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t shake my doubts. If God existed, and if he cared about me, then he would be capable of shaking my doubts.
Wouldn’t he be the only one capable of doing such a thing?
But he didn’t. He didn’t answer my prayers, he didn’t cure my doubts. He hung me out to dry. So finally, I started to realize that maybe he wasn’t just hearing my prayers and not answering, maybe he wasn’t “hanging me out to dry” as I had thought. Maybe it was simpler than that. Maybe the God I had been brought up my whole life to believe in wasn’t there at all.
The moment I came to terms with this was a scary moment indeed. I knew that if I told anyone about this realization that would be the end of my life as I knew it. So I lied. I did the Christian thing. I continued to go to church, to go to Bible study, and to read my Bible on occasion. Even though I didn’t believe that it was real, I still wanted to be in the club. I didn’t want to change my entire relationship with my friends and with my family. I wanted to be a Christian.
But after a couple years of this, I just couldn’t keep up the lie anymore. I couldn’t continue to act like I was a Christian and hope that I could “fake it till I make it.” The lie was eating me alive.
My friends and family came to me with their doubts and I gave them the Christian answers. I told them to pray about it, to read the Bible. I couldn’t possibly tell them that I had the same doubts.
Deep down I think i wanted to save them from the pain that I was feeling. It would be better if they didn’t have these questions. I couldn’t convince myself to believe it, but maybe they could. Maybe they could save themselves from my fate. But I could only keep up the lie for so long. I couldn’t keep following the rule book when I didn’t believe in the rules.
I was miserable.
So, I came to terms with the fact that I wasn’t a Christian anymore. I stopped trying to find happiness in Christianity. I realized that nothing was going to bring me back and I had to let it go.
So, last night I called my mom in the middle of the night and I blindsided her. It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever had to do. It was like having to watch your parents attend your funeral. They think I’m going to hell. There is no worse news I could have told them.
Today, I am going to tell the first of my friends. I am going to watch my world crumble, and I’m going to be the one operating the wrecking ball.
Do I think my friends and family will abandon me? Of course not. But our relationship will never be the same. From now on I will be someone to have pity on. Someone to evangelize to. I will no longer be their friend, their child. I will be their charity case. I will be recommended books and articles and I will be prayed for more than I’ve ever been prayed for before. I’ll receive emotional letters and texts. They will all try to convince me that I’m wrong. They’ll give me directions to save myself. All the while they won’t realize how arrogant they’re being.
This is why I lied for so longThey genuinely think they know something that I don’t. That reading one more piece of evidence or hearing that one more person cares about me is going to change my mind. They won’t think that I’m capable of thinking for myself. From now on I’ll be treated like a mental patient, who is incapable of caring for themselves.
This is why I lied for so long.
But I’ve come to realize that there will be light on the other side of the tunnel. This is going to be a tough time in my life but it’s something I have to do.
So pray for me.
I’ve been lying to you.
I’m not a Christian.
For the first 20 or so years of my life I was a perfect little Christian boy. I prayed, I read my Bible, I think I really believed it. But in college, when I started to confront life’s big questions, I didn’t find answers that resonated.
My questions mostly revolved around trying to reconcile God’s sovereignty with how I experience the world. I saw bad things happen in the world and I asked, where was God? I prayed for answers and for clarity of belief and I got nothing in return.
Where was God?
The Christian answers I kept hearing are “God is greater than our unbelief” “God has a plan, we just need to trust in him” “If we could comprehend God, would he be worth worshiping?”
To me, these answers just didn’t satisfy. They all presuppose that God exists and cares about us.
The thing about God is that you can’t prove his existence. You can provide evidence, but there is no ultimate proof. For a while, the evidence was enough for me. I told myself “You have to have faith to believe in anything, even atheists have faith. You can’t prove God’s non-existence either.” The more I struggled with it, the more I prayed and the more I read the Bible.
I was looking to God for answers, I wanted to believe that he was there.
My entire world revolves around Christianity. I went to christian High School and Christian college. All my friends are Christians, my entire extended family is full of Christians. I desperately wanted to fit in to their club. It would be easier for me if I could believe what they believed. I wouldn’t have to confront them and become that guy. You know the one. The sad story of the good christian boy who got swayed from his faith by the evil, corrupt world. The one everyone walks on eggshells around and prays for.
I wanted to buy it, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t shake my doubts. If God existed, and if he cared about me, then he would be capable of shaking my doubts.
Wouldn’t he be the only one capable of doing such a thing?
But he didn’t. He didn’t answer my prayers, he didn’t cure my doubts. He hung me out to dry. So finally, I started to realize that maybe he wasn’t just hearing my prayers and not answering, maybe he wasn’t “hanging me out to dry” as I had thought. Maybe it was simpler than that. Maybe the God I had been brought up my whole life to believe in wasn’t there at all.
The moment I came to terms with this was a scary moment indeed. I knew that if I told anyone about this realization that would be the end of my life as I knew it. So I lied. I did the Christian thing. I continued to go to church, to go to Bible study, and to read my Bible on occasion. Even though I didn’t believe that it was real, I still wanted to be in the club. I didn’t want to change my entire relationship with my friends and with my family. I wanted to be a Christian.
But after a couple years of this, I just couldn’t keep up the lie anymore. I couldn’t continue to act like I was a Christian and hope that I could “fake it till I make it.” The lie was eating me alive.
My friends and family came to me with their doubts and I gave them the Christian answers. I told them to pray about it, to read the Bible. I couldn’t possibly tell them that I had the same doubts.
Deep down I think i wanted to save them from the pain that I was feeling. It would be better if they didn’t have these questions. I couldn’t convince myself to believe it, but maybe they could. Maybe they could save themselves from my fate. But I could only keep up the lie for so long. I couldn’t keep following the rule book when I didn’t believe in the rules.
I was miserable.
So, I came to terms with the fact that I wasn’t a Christian anymore. I stopped trying to find happiness in Christianity. I realized that nothing was going to bring me back and I had to let it go.
So, last night I called my mom in the middle of the night and I blindsided her. It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever had to do. It was like having to watch your parents attend your funeral. They think I’m going to hell. There is no worse news I could have told them.
Today, I am going to tell the first of my friends. I am going to watch my world crumble, and I’m going to be the one operating the wrecking ball.
Do I think my friends and family will abandon me? Of course not. But our relationship will never be the same. From now on I will be someone to have pity on. Someone to evangelize to. I will no longer be their friend, their child. I will be their charity case. I will be recommended books and articles and I will be prayed for more than I’ve ever been prayed for before. I’ll receive emotional letters and texts. They will all try to convince me that I’m wrong. They’ll give me directions to save myself. All the while they won’t realize how arrogant they’re being.
This is why I lied for so longThey genuinely think they know something that I don’t. That reading one more piece of evidence or hearing that one more person cares about me is going to change my mind. They won’t think that I’m capable of thinking for myself. From now on I’ll be treated like a mental patient, who is incapable of caring for themselves.
This is why I lied for so long.
But I’ve come to realize that there will be light on the other side of the tunnel. This is going to be a tough time in my life but it’s something I have to do.
So pray for me.
Saturday, March 10, 2018
The four gods of Christianity
By Michael Runyan ~
Fully distilled, there are only four gods that might exist in the world of Christianity. Let’s consider each one:
(1) The deceptive and cruel god
This is the god of Ken Ham and the creationists. He created the universe in 6 days 6000 years ago, and though that was an impressive feat, this god is guilty of grave deception. He planted evidence for no evident purpose other than to deceive humans, once they became sufficiently knowledgeable, into thinking that the universe is billions of years old. To this end, he manufactured trillions of fake fossils and strategically placed them in rock layers to make it look like a long period of evolution had occurred. He artificially aged radioactive elements, engineered the DNA of animals in a fashion to correlate perfectly with an apparent evolutionary descent, created ice cores and rock layers consistent with an old earth, and even created pre-made light beams stretching all the way to the earth from the distant stars to make it appear that they were millions or even billions of years old. And, of course, this same god was extremely cruel in drowning nearly every living thing in a fit of anger. This is the god of Ken Ham. This is the deceptive and cruel god.
(2) The incompetent god
This is the god of mainstream or more liberal Christians who understand that biological evolution is true, but attempt to hold on to their theistic beliefs by declaring that god ‘guided’ the evolutionary process. This god is pathetically incompetent and wasteful, given that 99% of all of the animals he ‘directed’ to be made eventually became extinct. Although humans were his intended end goal, he ineptly allowed dinosaurs to dominate the earth for 160 million years, effecting shutting down any progress in reaching that goal. Even when he finally guided humans into existence, he came very close to having them go extinct at one point when only a few thousand remained alive. This is the god of scientifically-literate Christians. This is the incompetent god.
(3) The apathetic god
This is the god of Christians who are scientifically literate but wish to forgo the logical issues involving the incompetent god described above. This god did not interfere with the evolutionary processes on the earth, and had only a passing interest in the planet. He had no end goal, but was just observing what was happening. Only after humans evolved to a point where they had languages and writing did he decide to intervene, though he did this in a haphazard and isolated fashion, revealing himself to just one small primitive tribe of people in a remote corner of the Middle East, while ignoring completely all of the other civilizations, many of which were much more advanced. Even when he decided to expand his revelation worldwide, he still limited this effort to the same isolated area, leaving the vast majority of people in the dark. Then after this period of revelation, he left the scene entirely for the next twenty centuries. This god is not that interested in the earth or in humans. This is the apathetic god.
4. The non-existent god
This is the god of the atheists; he exists only in the minds of believers. This is the god that seems to be consistent with every scientific measurement ever taken- given the total lack of evidence of interference by any supernatural agency. This is the non-existent god.
Christianity Creates its own Hell
By Don ~
I had an experience with I believed was the Holy Spirit when I was 18. I immediately stopped using drugs and changed my life.
That is why I believe there is something or someone out there, or maybe it is just our spirit getting in touch with our roots. The church gave it a name and for lack of anything more certain, I joined the church and drank the Kool-Aid.
After 45 years in the church I started asking questions that neither the Bible nor scholars could answer adequately. I was always told to just accept some things by faith.
That is what con artists say.
I first started studying the concept of hell, because as a pastor I felt I should be able to preach on it. But after two years of study, I determined that it is not a biblical concept and goes against the idea of a loving god.
I then began to realize how much fear and control the church and religion exerts on people by threats of punishment and torment. So I thought, "If they got this wrong, how much other stuff is in error?"
Then my daughter died, and I lost any fear of what god could do to punish me for stepping out of line, and I began to question everything.
I now see that preachers are pompous, self-righteous know-it-alls who hang on to the power of the pulpit because it gives them a rush and a sense of purpose, but they are liars and self deluded power mongers. (I know because I was one of them and traveled in the company of such men. )
"Scholars" argue over points and write books for the rest of us "less educated" followers, but none of it has any real basis. Thousands of variations of Christianity exist, all based on post-it-notes that self-proclaimed experts say they can interpret and prove their authenticity, or not. But these are just people who studied someone else's research and bought into it, and then come off as experts on God, when really they are just experts on someone else's research and conclusions. An entire society has been built up around these assumptions and most of the "truth" is built into the culture and no-one dares challenge it lest they be burned at the stake.
Another "point" of contention for me was all of the unanswered prayers I had over a lifetime of service to god. Thousands of unanswered prayers.
I was told to keep trusting even in the face of zero evidence that god was listening, because that is what makes him happy. I was told to tell god how great he is even when I suffered loss and he seemed absent from my life. I have had miracles happen occasionally and randomly -- and I think stuff happens to and for everyone sometimes when they yearn for it enough -- but I honestly cannot trace them back to the god of the bible or because I was doing anything particularly righteous at the time.
We are asked to add 2 plus 2 and get 10, but tomorrow it may be 9 -- there is no consistency to this religion and little dependability of its invisible leader. In any other arena if we were told to do something for a reward, and reward never came, we would abandon that pursuit.
How can I or anyone continue to represent this god or try to give him good PR in the light of his poor performance?
The concept of god has always been a specter, an icon used to represent the unknown and our desire to connect with a creator or a loving father. That would be nice, but I think I will keep looking because the one I was pointed toward has done a piss poor job.
That is why I believe there is something or someone out there, or maybe it is just our spirit getting in touch with our roots. The church gave it a name and for lack of anything more certain, I joined the church and drank the Kool-Aid.
After 45 years in the church I started asking questions that neither the Bible nor scholars could answer adequately. I was always told to just accept some things by faith.
That is what con artists say.
I first started studying the concept of hell, because as a pastor I felt I should be able to preach on it. But after two years of study, I determined that it is not a biblical concept and goes against the idea of a loving god.
I then began to realize how much fear and control the church and religion exerts on people by threats of punishment and torment. So I thought, "If they got this wrong, how much other stuff is in error?"
Then my daughter died, and I lost any fear of what god could do to punish me for stepping out of line, and I began to question everything.
I now see that preachers are pompous, self-righteous know-it-alls who hang on to the power of the pulpit because it gives them a rush and a sense of purpose, but they are liars and self deluded power mongers. (I know because I was one of them and traveled in the company of such men. )
"Scholars" argue over points and write books for the rest of us "less educated" followers, but none of it has any real basis. Thousands of variations of Christianity exist, all based on post-it-notes that self-proclaimed experts say they can interpret and prove their authenticity, or not. But these are just people who studied someone else's research and bought into it, and then come off as experts on God, when really they are just experts on someone else's research and conclusions. An entire society has been built up around these assumptions and most of the "truth" is built into the culture and no-one dares challenge it lest they be burned at the stake.
Another "point" of contention for me was all of the unanswered prayers I had over a lifetime of service to god. Thousands of unanswered prayers.
I was told to keep trusting even in the face of zero evidence that god was listening, because that is what makes him happy. I was told to tell god how great he is even when I suffered loss and he seemed absent from my life. I have had miracles happen occasionally and randomly -- and I think stuff happens to and for everyone sometimes when they yearn for it enough -- but I honestly cannot trace them back to the god of the bible or because I was doing anything particularly righteous at the time.
We are asked to add 2 plus 2 and get 10, but tomorrow it may be 9 -- there is no consistency to this religion and little dependability of its invisible leader. In any other arena if we were told to do something for a reward, and reward never came, we would abandon that pursuit.
How can I or anyone continue to represent this god or try to give him good PR in the light of his poor performance?
The concept of god has always been a specter, an icon used to represent the unknown and our desire to connect with a creator or a loving father. That would be nice, but I think I will keep looking because the one I was pointed toward has done a piss poor job.
Again and again and again
By Carl S ~
They prayed their child would be safe, protected by their god.
But the child was kidnapped.
They went on television and pleaded.
Millions prayed the child would be found, unharmed.
With hope in prayers they searched everywhere.
She had been raped and killed.
And again they prayed her rapist-murderer would be found.
But they didn't wait for their god to do this for them.
Human beings searched and did this.
And at the funeral and gravesite, as the world watched, again they prayed to and praised the protector god
who failed them again and again and again.
And all the people said ...
again.
In the house of a shepherd who brings one through the shadow of death and cradles the babe from its first breath, they praised and raised with prayers so strong in hope to shake a heaven's gate, petitioning their protector god.
But suddenly, the faithful fell like rain, bullets replaced the promised peace he said the world cannot give.
Stunned survivors went on TV -- tried to explain or understand, in vain, such soul-wrenching pain.
To twist the mind -- accommodating a god's contradictions -- this is no way to live.
Politicians played the same old game: a nation turned away from the protector god, had itself to blame.
Then millions watched, but did not think to learn one day... what lessons in these deaths do weigh, as at the graves, again survivors praised and petitioned their protector god who did not prevent... whose helping hand was never raised.
And every time the faithful trustful pray
in all his churches, by the way,
would you believe, as right as rain,
every one of them still say
again, again and again....
Amen?
But the child was kidnapped.
They went on television and pleaded.
Millions prayed the child would be found, unharmed.
With hope in prayers they searched everywhere.
She had been raped and killed.
And again they prayed her rapist-murderer would be found.
But they didn't wait for their god to do this for them.
Human beings searched and did this.
And at the funeral and gravesite, as the world watched, again they prayed to and praised the protector god
who failed them again and again and again.
And all the people said ...
Amen.
again.
In the house of a shepherd who brings one through the shadow of death and cradles the babe from its first breath, they praised and raised with prayers so strong in hope to shake a heaven's gate, petitioning their protector god.
But suddenly, the faithful fell like rain, bullets replaced the promised peace he said the world cannot give.
Stunned survivors went on TV -- tried to explain or understand, in vain, such soul-wrenching pain.
To twist the mind -- accommodating a god's contradictions -- this is no way to live.
Politicians played the same old game: a nation turned away from the protector god, had itself to blame.
Then millions watched, but did not think to learn one day... what lessons in these deaths do weigh, as at the graves, again survivors praised and petitioned their protector god who did not prevent... whose helping hand was never raised.
And every time the faithful trustful pray
in all his churches, by the way,
would you believe, as right as rain,
every one of them still say
again, again and again....
Amen?
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