A Post on the Earth, in Full Size.

Hey :) Might as well put up another blog entry to attract attention, and plus, this has been on my mind recently.

I was browsing the photos from the "atheist" Facebook group and I found this one picture that struck me. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4137932&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=2210222015&aid=-1&oid=2210222015&id=545844953

Most of the photos there are satire (which isn't bad but it's kinda closed). This one picture, though, stands out as having a heavy weight behind it. Read the words of Carl Sagan on that picture. That tiny spec suspended in a sunbeam (as he put it) has sustained (for the most part) all of humanity throughout its time. That earth is in orbit around a minor yellow dwarf star. That yellow dwarf star is so tiny compared to other stars it ain't even funny. Galaxies are made up of hundreds of millions of stars. Estimates put the amount of galaxies in the known universe at 100 billion.

Christians seem to think the whole universe revolves around us. If you can say that with a straight face looking at this picture, that the whole universe was made for us, then I recommend a psychiatric ward. It is bullshit to think that we are special for any reason other than that chance has favoured the development of sentience on this tiny rock we call home.

It's small. It's fragile. Take care of it. Take a moment to forget your grouch against your neighbor or your religious presuppositions and have a look here: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/ . ;)

What the hell?

You can tell by the cricket noises that this blog don't have many people knowin about it yet. Well, I'm putting posts up anyways to give anyone who happens upon something to read and comment on. ;)

I'm calling this post, “What the hell?” And that's my question. Or maybe you could rephrase it as “Why the hell?” In either case, I'm asking about why Christianity has hell in its doctrines.

I'm sure every human being in America (probably counting out at least half the toddlers) has heard something along the lines of “if you don't accept God you're going to hell!”, or, more bluntly, “you'll burn in hell for eternity if you do not accept God's grace and mercy!” I'm sure the Christians you've talked to don't phrase it like that, but it's the general idea. For the Christians who do not believe in a literal hell there's always a fundamentalist citing such a verse as Daniel 12:2, or Matthew 18:8-9, affirming that hell does exist and demanding that the church step away from such a “secularized and worldly idea” as the nonexistence of hell.

Why is this there? Well, it actually makes sense. The concept of hell comes from the same deity who would destroy all the people in a nation, babies, moms, kids, dads, soldiers, everybody, for something nation did at some point in the distant past (compare 1 Samuel 15 to Exodus 17:16, even theologians debate why God was so bitter against the Amalekites). This is also the same deity who demanded that Israel wipe out the inhabitants of several other nations so that Israel could take possession of the land. See the Dwindling in Unbelief article for other examples of this and Richard Dawkin's words regarding this: http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2008/12/richard-dawkins-god-of-old-testament.html

As these are attributes of God, no wonder he inserted the whole “damn” thing in the Bible. But some people say that all that was before the new testament, and you see, Jesus lets mercy enter the picture and all that. That's all quite fascinating, but it leaves us with a little bit of an issue. Why would good ole love-em-all Jesus support such a damned idea as hell?

Some examples of this violent Jesus-talk can be found in Mark 9:43-48, and Luke 16:22-24. Jesus seems just fine with this arrangement. And one cannot get past the dead-smack end of the Bible, Revelation. Jesus looks like he's about to do some kickass genocide there, even more than God ever did in the old testament. It appears this is part of a reality-show complex.

You see, it's quite simple. God created man, put Satan on the planet (as you may recall from my last post), got him evil, and booted him out of the garden for it. Then, demanding blood for being so insolent as to eat the fruit God didn't want touched, God ordered that the rest of mankind sacrifice good healthy animals to burn so God is appeased (he loves the smell). Then God sent part of himself who also happens to be his son (Jesus) to go die on the cross so God can be a sacrifice for humanity to himself so that the billions of people comprising mankind have a shot at being free of the charge Eve got them by eating the wrong fruit. Now we just have to say “I'm sorry!” and we're saved! God's reality show, complete with dramatic effects.

But if you don't, no, Jesus don't like that. Hell is what you get for not getting into a personal relationship with Jesus, because you sinned in your sinful nature that Eve got you (thanks a lot, woman). It is only just that you help pay off Eve's punishment by burning in excruciating pain for eternity.

Now to the Christian, it's a duh. Say “I'm sorry Jesus, come into my heart and fix me”, or go to hell. Hint: choose first one. But in reality, this is the most ridiculous bullshit ever. All of mankind has inherited the worst punishment ever conceivable because Eve ate the wrong fruit (again, thanks a lot). God, crazed from this act of disobedience, wants people to burn for that. But to be saved from this wrath what do you become?

A CONVERT! All you have to do is scare people into being Christians with this concept of hell and you get more people! Once you are a convert you preach the good news that you're damned unless you repent. The religion spreads. What people don't seem to think about is that this is all centered around an egocentric, malevolent, bloodthirsty, tyrannical deity that happens to have a desperate need for love. You might as well have worshiped the sun-god and given him human sacrifices, it wouldn't be as bloodthirsty. It turns out that hell is simply a scare tactic. Once people are convinced that hell is real (or want to pull Pascal's wager), they're more than willing to accept a way out. In fact, if hell DIDN'T exist, there's no way ANYONE would want to serve such a perverted deity.

Yo folks! Post from previous blog.

Hey guys! I had another blogger account that I gave up and decided I wanted to follow a different focus with my blogging. With this blog I'm gonna post about the Bible and the sort with a light sense of humor and my atheistic perspective.

But I figured I'd save this this I posted on the other blog, as I spent too much time writing it to give it up. So here ya go:

The famous quote from the philosopher Epicurus reads "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" Many Christians have read that and thought "no, that's not how it works." From what I hear, Christians seem to think that of course God was good to do this because free will is required to make friends with God.

Fair enough. But does the ends justify the means? And is free will really worth it?

This is an argument I posted somewhere once. I typed this up myself, I did not copy it from anywhere:

I'm going to acknowledge some of your premises for the moment:

God exists.
He is the creator of everything that exists, besides himself (he is all present and therefore does not need creating).
The Bible is the infallible word of God.

Now, on to the Garden of Eden. God created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as he is the creator of everything that exists, correct? Now, I've heard the argument that the tree itself is not inherently evil, it's the fact that God commanded not to eat from its fruit. He said that his creation was “very good” and he had created Adam and Eve in his image. Adam and Eve were not evil, and evil, in the Christian definition, is to be against God.

Now we move on to the devil. He came to Eve in serpent form, and tempted her with the fruit. As Eve was not created evil, and anything against God is evil, and eating of the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is against God: he commanded not to eat of it. Therefore, Eve was corrupted by this serpent. Evil entered her like a contagious disease from the serpent: there is no other way she could have had it, as she was created not evil.

God let the devil corrupt her. The devil first became corrupt in heaven and was kicked out. What caused the devil to be evil? He was originally not evil. The only influence that could have done it is God, as no other factors in heaven are created evil unless God created them so: in the end, God made the devil evil.

Now, the devil was cast to earth. Not hell, earth. With all his visions of grandeur as described in the Psalms, God still sent him to earth instead of hell. So God has just fired a live round he created at Eve.

CONCLUSION ONE: God made the devil evil and then sent him to where he could corrupt Eve: a highly predictable situation.

So the devil corrupted Eve, she ate of the apple, and then she lost her innocence: now her very nature is evil. Same thing happened with Adam. God then cursed them: God just punished the “apple of his eye” for the evil that God himself gave them through the devil: remember, in order to make the choice to eat the apple, they had to be turned evil first to be capable. The devil was the evil that God sent from heaven to earth, and he gave it to her like a disease.

Now the whole universe is evil, as destruction and pain are against God, unless you want to say that it is his will to have destruction and pain, which says he's malevolent. So, in this case, that leaves three evil beings on the earth: the devil, Adam, and Eve (remember that they are against God and thus evil). Which of them corrupted the whole universe? As Adam and Eve seem to be incapable of that, the devil must have done it.

So here we go: God made the devil evil. He then sent him to earth, where he made Eve evil. As a result of this, the whole universe was corrupted. That means that God either directly cursed the whole universe because of something he himself did, or he indirectly caused it by making the devil evil and sending him to earth.

CONCLUSION 2: God is the ultimate cause of all evil.

So God is the ultimate cause of all evil. You may say that free will is so precious to God that he should be willing to allow evil to continue for the sake of giving people the choice. Right?

Because of "evil," many people have been raped, tortured, murdered, etc. People have been sent to hell (supposedly) and many are yet to go (again, supposedly). Every broken heart, every hurt, every pain, every case of torture, every case of lying, every case of stealing, every case of murder, is supposedly a direct result of this choice God supposedly made.

Now, what was God's reason again for making free will? So that his relationships with people were a bit more meaningful. Is that worth it?

Lets just say God were *cough* all powerful. Could he have made a way that didn't involve pain, suffering, and agony? Didn't God design how relationships work, anyway? Christians seem to make him very confined to human reasoning.

Epicurus' challenge stands.