Questions in Genesis (part 1): Entrapment in Eden

Fundamentalist and evangelical Christians believe that we live in a world gone wrong, and controlled by dark spiritual forces.  They think that  a host of things we face today, including death, disease, predation, violence, painful childbirth, thorns and thistles, and Miley Cyrus’ twerking can all be traced back to a Very Bad Thing which happened once upon a time in a garden called Eden, where a rebellious woman listened to a talking snake, ate a forbidden fruit, and led her husband into eating his way into God’s bad graces.

 (image credit:  Forbidden Fruit by Amanda Chervinko - amandachervinko.com)

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Behold, Ken Ham - master of circular reasoning!

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A Plague of Stupidity at Answers in Genesis

While a number of Christian leaders and radio personalities are gleefully hailing the recent Ebola outbreak as a sign of the “End Times” or perhaps the means by which God will purge the Earth of homosexuals, atheists, and other types which fundamentalist Christians love to hate, Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis sees a different silver lining:  a chance to proclaim their God’s goodness (and the literal truth of Genesis). I’m not kidding.

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Samson: Bible Hero or Terrorist

Since leaving Christianity, I have become acutely aware of the strange disconnect that believers have with the violent acts of the Bible.  It seems that no matter how horrid the atrocity, once sugar-coated with divine approval, Christians swallow it quite easily.  Another factor in Christians’ blithe acceptance of violence is that the blood-soaked events in the Bible have been depersonalized and spiritualized; reduced to mere props in service of religious lessons.  Empathy for the suffering in stories such as the worldwide destruction of living creatures in the flood story, the killing of the Egyptian firstborn, and the genocidal stories of Canaanite conquest is pretty much absent from the thinking of the average Christian.

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Jesus Behaving Badly: The Fig Tree Incident

It’s hard to act mature all of the time… even for the Son of God.  The gospels contain a number of incidents in which Jesus gets annoyed or angry.  Today, we are going to look at two versions of a story about how Jesus gets pissed off and kills a fig tree.  I don’t want to be too hard on Jesus, because he was hungry and I know how cranky I get, when I’m starving, but nonetheless, shouldn’t we expect better behavior from someone who is supposed to be God in human form?

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Christians Have A Gambling Addiction

 I’ve been pondering Pascal’s Wager, and I think that he might actually have been onto something.  Not in the sense that his wager was valid, of course.  

His bet was far too simplistic.  Its fatal flaw of assuming that the Christian god is the only deity which might exist, is glaringly apparent to everyone except for believers.  Philosophers such as Homer J. Simpson have dissected it:

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Freedom of Mind

Because today is the 4^th of July, I thought I would share a few things about freedom of thought.  It is impossible for a person to be truly free, unless they are in full ownership of their mind and thoughts.  A person may be physically free, but if their mind is enslaved, then they are chained.  Religion – especially fundamentalist religion takes away that freedom

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Dear Christian, Doubt is not Your Enemy (Part 2)

In this installment, dear Christian, let’s look at the role of doubt, with regard to religion and truth.  Most religions have sacred books or traditions.  These books make claims about all sorts of things – the origins of the world, prescriptions for daily living, and promises and threats about a supposed afterlife.  The more fundamentalist the religion, the more demands it places on the believer’s mind and life.  Often, fundamentalist faiths seek to impose these view by force of law, for example the Taliban and Sharia law, or religious conservatives in the U.S. who want to impose legal penalties for those who violate their beliefs or ‘offend’ their god. 

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The Idea of Heaven Seems Strange To Me Now

Now  that I've been out of Christianity for a while, one thing that seems very strange to me is the Christian conception of a Heaven in which, day and night, people will be singing songs to God and telling him how great he is.  For one thing, wouldn't that get old rather quickly?  More importantly though, what kind of person would want people groveling and constantly going on about how awesome you are?  I could see a North Korean dictator enjoying that sort of thing (Kim Jong-un certainly does), but normal people?  No way!  What kind of person needs their self-esteem propped up by that sort of subservient, fawning adulation?   Imagine if when your friends were with you, all they did was bow down before you,  sing songs in honor of you, and constantly shower you with praise.  Wouldn't it make you uncomfortable; embarrassed?  Healthy relationships certainly don't work that way. 

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A Brief Thought: Dennis Rodman, Kim Jong-un, and Yahweh

The way that Christians are willing to ignore all the horrible aspects of their god's character and actions (as reported in the Bible), and blissfully cozy up to him reminds me of how Dennis Rodman likes hanging out with sadistic North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un.  It kind of makes you want to shake  him and say "What the hell are you thinking?!" 

I guess for Christians, the perceived benefits of being buddies with a powerful psychopath outweigh the negatives.

Written by J. M. Green

For My Christian Friends Offended By Michael Sam's Kiss

So, I've been seeing some upset and outrage from some of my Christian friends, about the public broadcast of Michael Sam kissing and embracing his boyfriend.  I find it strange that these same people aren't bothered by some things in their Bible.  Consider the following passages:

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Dear Christian, Doubt Is Not Your Enemy (Part 1)

For the Christian, doubt is a bad thing - a lack of faith, or even worse, outright unbelief.  Early on in the Bible, doubt is portrayed in a negative light.  The Eden story in Genesis tells of a serpent planting doubt in the mind of Eve - did God really say not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? 

According to the Bible, faith is the “evidence of things unseen” (Hebrews 11:1).  Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).  The writer of the gospel of John has Jesus saying “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).  In other words, God approves of those who believe on the basis of stories they have been told, rather than requiring evidence, as “doubting Thomas” did.

Such credulous acceptance of unverified word-of-mouth claims played an essential role in the rise of Christianity.  Miraculous stories abounded in ancient superstitious cultures, providing fertile soil for supernatural beliefs to grow and thrive.  Apologists and theologians love to claim that the New Testament stories are based on eyewitness accounts, but let’s face it – it’s not like the early believers could use a phone, or Google, or Snopes to investigate claims.  Do we really think that they climbed on a donkey and rode for days to track down and interview sources, to verify the tales they were told?  The fact that the people of that time would most likely not be skeptics is the more reason that it is vital we should scrutinize the biblical claims.

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What’s So Good About “Good Friday”?

It has been a few years, since I left Christianity, so when I look at it now, I can see it more through the eyes of an outsider, rather than through the god-glasses given to me through childhood indoctrination.  One thing about human nature is that we can be in situations in which things which are quite strange can appear normal, simply because they are part of our everyday experience, and because we are surrounded by people who treat these things as normal.   Such was the case with the core beliefs of Christianity.  Now, when I think about the Christian teachings about and commemoration of the death of Jesus, I can’t believe that I didn’t see how weird it all was at the time.

Since today is Good Friday, and churches everywhere are gearing up for their Easter celebrations this weekend, I thought I’d take a look at some of the things which are strange and don’t add up, with this particular set of beliefs.

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Answering Believers: "If I believe in God why does that bother you?"

On my personal Facebook page, I tend to do my direct critiquing of religion mainly through what I call my “Freethinker Friday post”.  The rest of the week, I post funny stuff, health tips, and inspiring and insightful quotes.  For some of my Christian friends however, even once a week is way too often for me to be challenging their beliefs.  On April 4^th, I did a post called “A Twisted ‘Love.’ In which I talked about how the Christian god’s brand of love is actually coercion because it is accompanied by the threat of violence for those who don’t ‘choose to accept' it.  An acquaintance from high school, which I never even interact with on Facebook seemed to take my post a bit personally.

Here is the response I posted for her, and others who might share her annoyance with questioning of religion:

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Identifying Barriers to Unbelief

I was recently reading an interesting article called “How Not to Lose an Argument” and came across this:

“First, what does it mean to win or lose an argument? There is an unspoken belief in some quarters that the point of an argument is to gain social status by utterly demolishing your opponent's position, thus proving yourself the better thinker. That can be fun sometimes, and if it's really all you want, go for it. But the most important reason to argue with someone is to change his mind. If you want a world without fundamentalist religion, you're never going to get there just by making cutting and incisive critiques of fundamentalism that all your friends agree sound really smart. You've got to deconvert some actual fundamentalists. In the absence of changing someone's mind, you can at least get them to see your point of view. Getting fundamentalists to understand the real reasons people find atheism attractive is a nice consolation prize.”

This is really what we want – right?  Changing minds when possible, and at least clearing up misconceptions about atheists.

Later in the article, the author says:

“If you believe morality is impossible without God, you have a strong disincentive to become an atheist. Even after you've realized which way the evidence points, you'll activate every possible defense mechanism for your religious beliefs. If all the defense mechanisms fail, you'll take God on utter faith or just believe in belief, rather than surrender to the unbearable position of an immoral universe.

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Christians Falsify Christianity

Claim:  Christians have no need for a teacher, since the Holy Spirit will teach them.

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.  1 John 2:27 (ESV)

 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.  John 14:26 (ESV)

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The Cannibal Dreams of the Puppet Minister

Ronald William Brown had a dream .  He wasn’t content with just doing a Christian children’s TV puppet show, and warning about the evils of porn. 

He wasn’t satisfied by working with the puppet ministry of Gulf Coast Church of Largo, Florida for 15 years.  He wanted more than just picking kids up for church in a van.  He longed for something more fulfilling than living in a trailer park, and running his Puppets Plus business.  To fulfill his dream, Ronald Brown wanted to kidnap, sexually abuse, murder, and cannibalize a child - a boy from his church!  

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Atheism Sighting: HBO's True Detective.

Existential bleakness runs deep in HBO’s excellent new Louisiana noir crime drama, where damaged cops investigate a murder marked by cultic overtones.  I found this scene to be fascinating, between a cop who believes that religion is useful and necessary, and one who thinks that “If the common good’s gotta make up fairy tales, then it’s not good for anybody.”  (NSFW language throughout.)

Great back-and-forth verbal jousting between the two viewpoints.  You will have had these conversations many times with believers. 

“If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother, that person is a piece of shit.”

“What’s it say about life… Hmm?  You gotta get together to tell yourself stories that violate every law of the universe, just to get through the goddamn day.  What’s that say about your reality, Marty?”

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Dear Christian, Would You Kill Your Kid for God?

Christian parent, I have a question for you.

Would you be willing to murder your child to prove your loyalty to your boss?

Imagine that your boss came to you and said, “Look, I know you are a good employee and all, but I really need to know for sure that you are 100% loyal to my company.  So, next Saturday, I want you to take your son on a camping trip, and while you are in the mountains I want you to cut his throat and burn his body, to honor me as your boss.“

You would look at your boss like he was insane, and refuse to do it – right?  I hope that I am right in assuming that all of you would refuse such a vile request.

Let’s up the stakes a little. What if – instead of your boss – it was your god who told you to kill and sacrifice your child - to demonstrate your faith?

Would you do it, or not?

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Ken Ham’s ‘Creation Science’ Sham.

Ken Ham’s ‘creation science’ has nothing to do with actual science (which seeks a deeper understanding of the way our world and the universe works).

I mean, think about it.  What recent discoveries have been made by ‘creation scientists’?  

Medical breakthroughs in treating diseases and preventing human suffering?

Technological advances which better our lives?

A deeper understanding of the human mind enabling better treatments for mental illness? 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can’t think of any. 

Zero.  

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