Month: December 2013

“Prophetic” Verses

An example of religious logic and cult-like thinking. Make up a religion, “predict” that people won’t buy it, and call these future dissenters fools. It looks like a prophecy to those who don’t think it through, and effectively discourages questions and critical thinking. It’s what cults do to keep their members from leaving or thinking differently.

Ray Comfort has just revealed how manipulative this belief system really is. This is not prophecy- anyone with half a brain could have predicted that some people wouldn’t believe in a religion that teaches talking donkeys are real.

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Proof for God’s Existence? Part 2

5. “Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us.”

Rebuttal: How do you know? How can you prove that statement? You can’t. It’s wishful thinking and confirmation bias. Christianity borrowed much of it’s teachings from other religions, many more ancient than itself. Born of a virgin, having 12 disciples, preaching peace and love, savior from sin- all of these characteristics are not new or specific to Christianity.

But let’s say that this is true, and it’s the best picture of god revealing himself to mankind. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt. All this proves is that humans are getting better at creating religions/deities that they can believe in. This is NOT proof of supernatural claims- it just shows the ingenuity of man.

6. “God answers prayer.”

Rebuttal: “God answers prayer in 3 ways: Yes, No, and I have something Better.” This is what’s known as confirmation bias: meaning that no matter what happens, it is seen as proof of their beliefs. Here are a few problems I have with the concept of prayer:

1. Why does god ignore the pleas of starving people overseas, children being molested by priests, families in the midst of domestic abuse, teenagers about to commit suicide? And yet he will answer your prayers to find your car keys, help you get over your cold, pass a test you studied for, help your favorite team win a game, or heal you (as long as you’re getting medical treatment). Either he’s really screwed up in choosing which prayers to answer and which to ignore, or maybe it’s all just random chance and the consequences of our own actions.

2. If you’re getting medical treatment, how can you say god healed you? You’re insulting the medical staff and the scientists who worked their butts off to save you. You may think that he gifted them with the ability to heal you- but why is that necessary in the first place if he can just heal you without medical assistance?

3. Christianity teaches you that you’re nothing without god. When you think you’re not capable of doing anything, then it makes sense to attribute all your success to god. But when you realize just how capable you really are, how people just like you accomplish those exact same things without prayer or by prayer to a totally different god, then you start to see how little it all makes sense.

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Summary: I have yet to hear any solid evidence for the existence of god. Every argument I have heard is either applicable to any religion or is not verifiable.

But let’s say you could show me concrete, solid proof of YOUR god’s existence. In the case of most religions, I wouldn’t serve their god even if he was undeniably real- especially the gods of the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism)- because they are not worthy of any respect or worship. But that’s an issue for another post. 😉

-Lilly

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Proof for God’s Existence? Part 1

I often hear apologists use very illogical arguments to try to prove god’s existence. Here are a few of the top ones I hear all the time and what I think about them.

1. “The Bible is a historical document, Jesus was a real person according to secular writings, etc.”

Rebuttal: Just because Jesus may have been a real person and the Bible talks about some places and events that actually happened, does not mean that the supernatural claims are thus verified. Many religious texts from other religions and cults also reference history; Joseph Smith was a real person and so was Mohammed, but that doesn’t mean their supernatural claims were true.

There has to be specific proof to verify the supernatural claims, otherwise all that has been proven is that the authors of the book added in events and people they knew in real life.

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2. “Intelligent Design proves God exists.”

Rebuttal: No it doesn’t. Even if you could prove that Intelligent Design was the way the universe came into being, who can prove what intelligence created everything? It could be an alien life form, a form of life we don’t know about yet, etc. If it IS a god, who can say whether it’s yours, or whether he is a personal god at all?

Proving intelligent Design does not prove your religion to be true.

This includes such arguments as “The un-caused cause”, “The universe is fine-tuned”, etc.

3. “You can’t prove he doesn’t exist.”

Rebuttal: The burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim, in this case the religious person claiming god exists. YOU have to prove that he EXISTS- not the other way around!

Hermione sums it up very well:

“But that’s – I’m sorry but that’s completely ridiculous! How can I possibly prove it doesn’t exist? Do you expect me to get hold of – of all the pebbles in the world and test them? I mean you could claim that anything’s real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody proved it doesn’t exist!”

4. “We know God exists because he pursues us. He is constantly initiating and seeking for us to come to him.”

Rebuttal: If he’s actually doing this, then he’s doing a terrible job- everyone thinks they have communicated with the “right” god and yet no one can agree on anything, while others have felt no drawing from god at all. If you believe that humans created god, then this makes perfect sense- “god seeking us” is really us trying to connect with ourselves. We all have a sense of longing at times- sometimes we attribute this to god, sometimes to our emotions, etc. In the end, it all results from our own inner feelings and outside influences, such as our culture that teaches us that god exists and is talking to us. That’s why he takes so many forms for people- he IS them.

If a single god was truly seeking us, then there should be no question of which god is real- everyone would know because he would have spoken to them. There would be no other religions, no different denominations- just a unified understanding of god.

Ask yourself this: When a Muslim or someone from a different religion tells you that their god spoke to them and thus their religion is verified, how do you respond? Keep in mind that your own religion is held to the same proof standards as theirs; you can’t discount their personal experiences without discrediting your own. If you do acknowledge theirs, then what does that say about whose god is the right one? Either way, there’s a serious problem.

See Proof of God: Part 2 for the rest!

What is Rape Culture?

http://anchalproject.org/what-is-rape-culture/Image

Great article, here’s part of it:

In both the United States and around the world there are prevalent attitudes and practices that normalize, excuse, tolerate, and even condone rape. This is the definition of Rape Culture, and it has been exemplified by many highly publicized cases this year, such the Steubenville rape case in Ohio and the gang rape that caused outrage in Delhi. The purpose of comparing these two very different cases of rape is to show that on varying degrees, Rape Culture is prominent both on the other side of the world, and right here in small town America.

Rape Culture is rooted in victim blaming. “She’s asking for it”, when a women wears a figure flattering dress or a short skirt. “She owes me” when she accepts a free drink or a walk home. “No means yes”, when she has been with other men. Here are some of the tweets from the public after a guilty verdict was reached in the Steubenville rape case earlier this year.

– See the shocking tweets here: http://anchalproject.org/what-is-rape-culture/#sthash.xjcK36po.dpuf

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Who is your brother?

The-human-race-will-then-become-one-family,-and-the-world-will-be-the-dwelling-of-Rational-Men.

Who are your brothers and sisters? To a Christian or a member of another religion, often the fellow members of their religion are considered their brothers and sisters. Politics and other issues can also cause people to see one group as their family and one group as not; the battle between Republicans and Democrats is a very good example. But religion seems to be the biggest one.

Although it might make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, it divides the human race instead of bringing it together.

As an atheist, I see ALL humans as my brothers and sisters, even religious people.

Of course not all atheists think this way, and there are Christians and people from other religions that do see all humans as their metaphorical siblings. This is just an observation of what I have seen in my own circles. Because I grew up as a believer and was one for 24 years, I used to have hundreds of Christian people on my Facebook. Many of them would post about helping their Christian “brothers and sisters” and speak against abortionists, atheists, “false” Christians, liberals, democrats, etc. When they did post about other people in need, such as helping young girls in India who were rescued from sex trafficking, it was almost always with a catch: they were witnessing to those needy people so they would become “part of the family”. They couldn’t just help them with no other agenda- it had to be with the purpose of winning them over to their beliefs.

I saw how divisive this idea can be, and I felt the sting when I started to become public about my “non-conforming” ideas that many of my Christian friends did not like as my beliefs grew further from traditional church teachings. I wasn’t family anymore- and so they stopped treating me as family.

I think that any belief that divides the human race is harmful. When you see one group as your family and another as outsiders, or even perhaps enemies, then only hurt can come of it. I hope that you can see everyone as your family, even those that you don’t agree with.

-Lilly

Gay Marriage: More Than Just Wanting to Wear the Ring

Gay Marriage: More Than Just Wanting to Wear the Ring

Pinner on Pinterest said this:
“This is why I’m constantly fighting against those who want to use religion and the Bible to deny gay marriage. It isn’t “church recognition” or even “moral recognition” that we are seeking- it’s just the same fair and equal access to basic human rights that heterosexual couples have from “marriage” that are denied to gay couples.”