The Obsession of Religion with Eternal Life, the Ultimate Scam

A tale of two deathbeds

A few years ago, a devout Catholic woman told me she was having a tough time finding a new job. Since I was a career coach at the time, I offered to give her a book on effective job search. I was stunned by her response: “I don’t read books. Even when I was in college, I didn’t read books. I passed the tests because I kept very good notes in class.” And she confessed that was very protective of her faith; she didn’t want it damaged in any way, because she was eager to see her mother again in heaven.

Read more »

Phil Zuckerman, What Happens When Countries Lose Religion?

Beware Furious Christians on the Warpath to Defend Their Faith

Christian love shatters into denial, rage and hate

By the time my first book, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief, was published in 2016, its Facebook page was up and running. I decided to do paid boosts on weekends to promote the book. I selected my preferred target audiences carefully: atheist, agnostic, humanist, secularist— but was surprised to find out that the boost had also appeared on the newsfeeds of devout Christians. This was not a happy event: there was an outbreak of Christian hate as they responded to the ad. I was called all sorts of names and was accused of never having been a real Christian. I was assured that I was going to hell. After a while I discontinued the paid boosts. The biggest irritant, actually, was that not one—not a single one—of the furious Christians chose to engage in any of the ten issues I raised in the book, any one of which is enough to falsify the faith. They were interested in lashing out, not learning.

Read more »

"Man is the Measure."

All ethics are made by human beings, many of which are claimed to be given by a God. This means when the ethics of a God are deemed barbaric so also goes that God.

It also means that it's not only possible to have ethics without a God, ethics have always been without a God. 

If Devout Folks Get to Heaven by Using Magic Spells and Potions…

Why bother following the rules?  

We can find many examples of Jesus-script in the gospels that stress good behavior, compassion, carefully following god’s rules—as the ways to make it to heaven. In Matthew 19 we read the story of a rich young man who asked Jesus how he could obtain eternal life. “Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” (Matt 19:21-22)   I suspect most consumer-driven devout folks would identify with the young man’s grief. An important part of life for them is the accumulation of as much stuff as possible, e.g., cars, houses, flat-screen TVs, a wide assortment of appliances—and saving bundles of cash for fun vacations. That’s life in the modern world. Following Jesus into poverty can be left to those who join monasteries and convents. The devout may not say it out-loud, but their response to Jesus is no thanks!

Read more »

Is Ethics without God Possible?

I've been honored to contribute a paper to an online interactive scholarly symposium on ethics without god(s). My major in a PhD program at Marquette Univ. was ethics. 

I also taught Intro to Ethics college classes. My recent  focus has been on the failure of a theistic ethics, but this symposium concerns an atheist ethics. What say you? 

The Author of Mark’s Gospel Created Jesus Fantasies

Matthew, Luke, and John did too, but none of them knew how to write history                                                                      

 

                                                                                                            

One of my favorite challenges to church folks is: Please read Mark’s gospel—all at one sitting. No such nonsense as a chapter-per-day: that’s as much as admitting lack of interest. Leave the TV off for an evening, and really focus on Mark’s gospel. Read the whole thing carefully, thoughtfully; this will take about as much time as watching a movie. Have a notepad handy, to write down items that sound goofy, farfetched—things that just don’t make sense. If ever I could find a devout Christian willing to do this, I’d love to engage him/her in a conversation about the problematic texts. Mark’s gospel is chock full of theological problems—and absurdities. Please, believers, face them head-on!

Read more »

Let's Highlight My Magnum Opus, WIBA.

Let's highlight my magnum opus, per a comment by Dr. Jim Sterba, Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame: "I think your book 'Why I Became an Atheist' is unsurpassable." Amazon LINK.

 

Why Isn’t Membership in the Catholic Church Down to ZERO by Now?

Because it exploits magical thinking and has mastered show business

Here we go again, from the Associated Press, 25 July 2024: Missouri lawsuits allege abuse by priests, nuns; archdiocese leader in Omaha among those accused. Here are three excerpts:

“Among those named is Omaha Archbishop George Lucas. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court said the unnamed accuser was 16 when he met Lucas at the now-closed St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in the late 1980s, where Lucas was a priest and dean of education. The lawsuit accused Lucas of sexually abusing the boy multiple times and offering better grades for sexual favors.”

Read more »

If We Put It This Way It's Nonsense!

Greg G wrote:

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are known as the Abrahamic religions because the worship the same "God of Abraham". Pat Condell calls them "the death cults of the desert".

The Bible has the story of how Abraham started those religions in Genesis chapters 17 through 22. It started with Abraham mutilated his sex organ by circumcision. Then he did the same to his only son by his baby mama, followed by all of his servants. When his wife produced a son, he almost immediately did it to him. Then he evicted his baby mama and eldest son. Then he tried to kill his younger son on an altar. He did all these things because a voice nobody else could hear told him to them.

Humans who didn't know where the sun went at night invented thousands of god thingies before anybody invented your favorite, and humans invented thousands more after that, all based on a primitive understanding of the universe. But you believe one out of thousands got it right.

They apparently recognized the night sky could help them with sowing and harvesting crops. Before that, it may have helped them anticipate migrations. The patterns of those lights in the sky, that is, the constellations, changed as the year progressed.

But they also noticed certain lights in the night sky that changed positions within the background of the night sky. These were usually interpreted as god thingies.

Solar deities were often noted for their hairiness while lunar deities were hairless and bald. There are Bible stories with pairs of characters, one known for hairiness and the other known for being not hirsute: Jacob (hairless) vs Esau (hirsute), Elijah (hirsute) vs Elisha (bald), Samson (power is his hair) vs Delilah (name is similar to the word for "night").

Your religion began as polytheism, evolved to henotheism, to monotheism, while being celestial during the whole process. Your religion still teaches transubstantiation.

Several years ago, some dude took a communion wafer out of the building instead of eating, them posted it online. Some Catholics accused him of kidnapping Jesus. Where would they get such an idea if not from the teachings of their religion?

When the foundational stories are recognized as absurd at face value, they try to patch them up by making up new beliefs and "deeper meanings".

Catholics now recognize that the transubstantiated crackers look like crackers right down to the atomic level but believe it is still Jesus meat.

Since there are so many conflicting, antithetical religions, most should be dismissed out of hand. Abrahamic religions are easy to dismiss.

Ignorant Amos added:

Otherwise, Mo rode a flying horse on a midnight sky gallop, to visit upon an arch angel to get the second hand news from Allah/Yahweh.

And Joe Smith met the angel Moroni who showed him where the Golden Tablets were hidden, which Joe then deciphered using a magic hat and special spectacles made from two stones called Urim and Thummim.

Must be all true, if it's written in a book, amarite?