By Carl S ~
If a country is “Under God,” the citizens of that country will never be truly free. Not as long as its citizens accept that slogan and “everyone trusts in that god. As long as “the will of God” justifies those who make the legal decisions imposed on its citizens, they are not free. And they are not free to the extent they continue to remain “God-ly.” A murderer's defense based on a claim of, “God told me to do it, and we can't disobey God, can we?” is no different from any other made in history to justify an immoral act. In any court of law. And, “God commanded me,” is unacceptable by law, since, without presence, “God” is not evidence but “hearsay.” “God” is the emperor’s new clothes.
Since “supernatural beings” are accepted by a jury as fact, then they must deal with the defendant's claim to justifiable homicide, since “God” commanded the criminal action. The jury looks to the judge. On the wall behind the judge, in dominant letters for all to see, are the words, “In God We Trust.” The jury is persuaded to free murderers based on a belief individuals can't be found guilty if they sincerely believe they are acting on orders from higher powers. It's the sincere Abraham and Noah defense for committing or permitting murder and every other immoral act. It is the same historical defense for all anti-human decisions made “in God's name.” Being under God is being under the choices of those who accept superstitious belief in the god as unchallengeable by all citizens.
Since true believers believe in “God,” and “Satan,” if they're told to do something evil, how can they know if that comes from “God” or “Satan?” They don't. What if their Satan was ordering the denial of legal rights and lives to citizens? If “God's ends” justify the means, what are the limits of following “his orders” in their heads, if not in deaths and incarceration? This inquiry raises a question. Does God = Satan? Should the jury listen to “agents of God” who insist no human has the right to challenge their “God told me to do it” tradition, or must it decide using moral and legal guidelines?
Next: World War I commentator: “Each country prayed to the same God for victory.” Lincoln made the same observation regarding both sides in the Civil War. All Christian nations in WWII prayed to the same God for victory. Add six million Jews. Gypsies, gays, political dissidents, etc., made five million more. So, 11 million victims there alone prayed to the same God for deliverance. Just think about the power of all those prayers! Christians explain it this way: “Well, sometimes God's answer is “No!” As Anatole France noticed: “The impotence of God is infinite.”
You got “faith” as a gift. You didn't ask for it, but that's the way it went down. The givers might have hung around to make sure you were using and taking care of it. You noticed after a while, it not only didn't work for you; it didn't work for them either. They just didn't notice it. The givers meant well. “We just couldn't live without it.” They didn't own it; it owned them. Go figure this: people who wouldn't dream of telling you to drink the booze they enjoy have no problem telling you that you must accept beliefs they enjoy, or you'll be punished. My own in-laws and a few friends are still using that “gift.” Although I may respect and appreciate them, I sure don't want to be like them in that way.
11 million victims [...] prayed to the same God for deliverance. Just think about the power of all those prayers! Christians explain it this way: “Well, sometimes God's answer is “No!” As Anatole France noticed: “The impotence of God is infinite.”Those “eternal” faiths are obsolete. They're the eight tracks of the digital age. Do televangelists travel by oxen driven carts? Those vehicles and their times are where there morality comes from. Churches have to keep adapting core dogmas by using hyper emotion-stirring entertainment. Faith is down to the nitty-gritty of what it's always been about: feeling. Hell, anyone can have great feelings in living with real people, not fantasies. Most humans live well without the Christian “gift.” Many billions of happily unsaved people on this planet don't accept Jesus as a god.
If you ever had an old car that kept breaking down, you eventually realized putting out more effort and money to keep it running until the next breakdown wasn't worth it. That goes for faith. You're told to persist in having faith in faith and eventually you won't have a problem! Oh yeah, sure. Uh-huh. If a chimpanzee repeatedly tries to fit a square peg into a triangular shaped hole, everyone laughs at the chimp. We can relate to its frustration. Ah, but faith is different! Faith teachers tell us, when a human can't fit a comparable square of belief into the triangular shaped opening of reality, then blame the person or the reality for the un-fit, not the faith square peg!
Where did my primary family's faith come from? From their countries of origin, my grandparents brought the historical infection of faith, those traditions of repudiating thinking and questioning. Included in their faith-baggage was the subjugation of women, the belief in blacks as inferiors, gays as perversions of nature, Jews as sneaky exploiters, and the beating of children. These they gifted to my parents. By the time the gifts came to my one remaining brother and me, they died “not with a bang, but a whimper.”
Religious beliefs have been in the cold case unsolved files for thousands of years. It's time to shred those files for good. All the actors and the “revelations” (to them alone), if any of “them” really existed, are long dead and their visions irrelevant to our times. Christianity's a death cult. It teaches one man's death was the only meaning for his life. As a wise Jewish man said recently: Christianity says this man will return to Earth for a second time when he wasn't here a first time.
Since “supernatural beings” are accepted by a jury as fact, then they must deal with the defendant's claim to justifiable homicide, since “God” commanded the criminal action. The jury looks to the judge. On the wall behind the judge, in dominant letters for all to see, are the words, “In God We Trust.” The jury is persuaded to free murderers based on a belief individuals can't be found guilty if they sincerely believe they are acting on orders from higher powers. It's the sincere Abraham and Noah defense for committing or permitting murder and every other immoral act. It is the same historical defense for all anti-human decisions made “in God's name.” Being under God is being under the choices of those who accept superstitious belief in the god as unchallengeable by all citizens.
Since true believers believe in “God,” and “Satan,” if they're told to do something evil, how can they know if that comes from “God” or “Satan?” They don't. What if their Satan was ordering the denial of legal rights and lives to citizens? If “God's ends” justify the means, what are the limits of following “his orders” in their heads, if not in deaths and incarceration? This inquiry raises a question. Does God = Satan? Should the jury listen to “agents of God” who insist no human has the right to challenge their “God told me to do it” tradition, or must it decide using moral and legal guidelines?
Next: World War I commentator: “Each country prayed to the same God for victory.” Lincoln made the same observation regarding both sides in the Civil War. All Christian nations in WWII prayed to the same God for victory. Add six million Jews. Gypsies, gays, political dissidents, etc., made five million more. So, 11 million victims there alone prayed to the same God for deliverance. Just think about the power of all those prayers! Christians explain it this way: “Well, sometimes God's answer is “No!” As Anatole France noticed: “The impotence of God is infinite.”
You got “faith” as a gift. You didn't ask for it, but that's the way it went down. The givers might have hung around to make sure you were using and taking care of it. You noticed after a while, it not only didn't work for you; it didn't work for them either. They just didn't notice it. The givers meant well. “We just couldn't live without it.” They didn't own it; it owned them. Go figure this: people who wouldn't dream of telling you to drink the booze they enjoy have no problem telling you that you must accept beliefs they enjoy, or you'll be punished. My own in-laws and a few friends are still using that “gift.” Although I may respect and appreciate them, I sure don't want to be like them in that way.
11 million victims [...] prayed to the same God for deliverance. Just think about the power of all those prayers! Christians explain it this way: “Well, sometimes God's answer is “No!” As Anatole France noticed: “The impotence of God is infinite.”Those “eternal” faiths are obsolete. They're the eight tracks of the digital age. Do televangelists travel by oxen driven carts? Those vehicles and their times are where there morality comes from. Churches have to keep adapting core dogmas by using hyper emotion-stirring entertainment. Faith is down to the nitty-gritty of what it's always been about: feeling. Hell, anyone can have great feelings in living with real people, not fantasies. Most humans live well without the Christian “gift.” Many billions of happily unsaved people on this planet don't accept Jesus as a god.
If you ever had an old car that kept breaking down, you eventually realized putting out more effort and money to keep it running until the next breakdown wasn't worth it. That goes for faith. You're told to persist in having faith in faith and eventually you won't have a problem! Oh yeah, sure. Uh-huh. If a chimpanzee repeatedly tries to fit a square peg into a triangular shaped hole, everyone laughs at the chimp. We can relate to its frustration. Ah, but faith is different! Faith teachers tell us, when a human can't fit a comparable square of belief into the triangular shaped opening of reality, then blame the person or the reality for the un-fit, not the faith square peg!
Where did my primary family's faith come from? From their countries of origin, my grandparents brought the historical infection of faith, those traditions of repudiating thinking and questioning. Included in their faith-baggage was the subjugation of women, the belief in blacks as inferiors, gays as perversions of nature, Jews as sneaky exploiters, and the beating of children. These they gifted to my parents. By the time the gifts came to my one remaining brother and me, they died “not with a bang, but a whimper.”
Religious beliefs have been in the cold case unsolved files for thousands of years. It's time to shred those files for good. All the actors and the “revelations” (to them alone), if any of “them” really existed, are long dead and their visions irrelevant to our times. Christianity's a death cult. It teaches one man's death was the only meaning for his life. As a wise Jewish man said recently: Christianity says this man will return to Earth for a second time when he wasn't here a first time.
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