There is one notable thing about our Christianity... it is still a hundred times better than the Christianity of the Bible. Measured by our Christianity of today, as bad and hypocritical as it is, neither the God nor His Son Jesus is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place.
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind; and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Insult to God
It is an insult to God to believe in God. For on the one hand it is to suppose that he has perpetrated acts of incalculable cruelty. On the other hand, it is to suppose that he has perversely given his human creatures an instrument, their intellect, which must inevitably lead them, if they are dispassionate and honest, to deny his existence. It is tempting to conclude that if he exists, it is the atheists and agnostics that he loves best, among those with any pretensions to education. For they are the ones who have taken him most seriously.
Jesus’ Resurrection, According to the New Testament
By Garrett Fogerlie
Keep in mind that the New Testament is a highly questionable source, and should be looked at with scepticism! The majority of its books, if not all, were not written by their namesake but by descendants many, many years later. (One reason for this is that most people though that the apocalypse was going to come in their lifetime, as Jesus said, so why bother to write it down)
Nevertheless, let’s assume for a moment that it is true. The books say Jesus died for our sins, and three days later came back to life. This is thought by many to be the pinnacle argument for why to believe that he is the son of god. According to the New Testament, resurrection is almost commonplace. Both Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus were resurrected. Albeit it was supposedly Jesus that resurrected them, who’s to say someone didn’t resurrect Jesus after his death. Resuection was such a commonplace at that time, that apparently nobody seems to have thought it worthwhile to follow up with either Lazarus or Jairus’ daughter after they came back from death. You would think that they would have been hounded with questions and that these questions would defiantly have been worthwhile to include in the bible. It must have been so common that nobody cared about their extraordinary experiences. Nor does anyone seem to have kept a record of whether or not, or how, these two individuals re-died. Or if they stayed immortal? Perhaps they are still wandering around to this very day? Who knows perhaps that’s where the vampire myth comes from? They may be in complete misery, condemned to eternal life on earth. How can they get into heaven? This misery being inflicted upon a mere bystander in order to fulfil the otherwise unfulfilled prophecy that Jesus would come again in the lifetime of at least one person who had seen him the first time around.
When Jesus was put to death, according to the Gospel of Matthew 27:52-53,
This seems incoherent, since the dead corpses apparently rose both at the time of the death on the cross and of the Resurrection. Oddly enough history has no record of corpses rising form graves. It must have scared the hell out of everyone around the world, but yet no one seems to written it down. Not even the many historians whose records, while meticulous, apparently deemed that corpses’ crawling up everywhere was not as important or interesting as the suns rise and set time, or the yield of a particular crop and such.
The bible records the taunts and comments of the Roman soldiers, at the time of Jesus’ death, and not a single one said, “Holly shit, corpses are coming out of the fucking ground! Run!!!”
Resurrection is apparently so frequent, that no one pays any attention to the dead rising from their graves. This undermines the uniqueness of the resurrection by which all of mankind’s sins were forgiven.
There is no cult or religion before or since, from Osiris to vampirism to voodoo, that does not rely on some innate belief in the "undead." To this day, Christians disagree as to whether the day of judgement will give you back the old shitty, abused, wreck of a body that has already died on you, or will you be given some new form. If it’s the latter, people will have to come up with a new way in which they can recognise one another.
For now though, we can say that resurrection would not prove the truth of Jesus’ doctrine, nor his paternity, nor the probability of still another return in fleshly or recognisable form. The action of a man who volunteers to die for his fellow creatures is universally regarded as noble. The extra claim not to have "really" died, because he was back in three days, makes the whole sacrifice tricky and meretricious.
Thus, those who say "Christ died for my sins," when he did not really "die" at all, are making a statement that is false in its own terms. Having no reliable or consistent witnesses, in anything like the time period needed to certify such an extraordinary claim, we are finally entitled to say that we have a right, if not an obligation, to respect ourselves enough to disbelieve the whole thing, unless or until superior evidence is presented, which it has not been. Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence!
-- Garrett Fogerlie
Keep in mind that the New Testament is a highly questionable source, and should be looked at with scepticism! The majority of its books, if not all, were not written by their namesake but by descendants many, many years later. (One reason for this is that most people though that the apocalypse was going to come in their lifetime, as Jesus said, so why bother to write it down)
Nevertheless, let’s assume for a moment that it is true. The books say Jesus died for our sins, and three days later came back to life. This is thought by many to be the pinnacle argument for why to believe that he is the son of god. According to the New Testament, resurrection is almost commonplace. Both Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus were resurrected. Albeit it was supposedly Jesus that resurrected them, who’s to say someone didn’t resurrect Jesus after his death. Resuection was such a commonplace at that time, that apparently nobody seems to have thought it worthwhile to follow up with either Lazarus or Jairus’ daughter after they came back from death. You would think that they would have been hounded with questions and that these questions would defiantly have been worthwhile to include in the bible. It must have been so common that nobody cared about their extraordinary experiences. Nor does anyone seem to have kept a record of whether or not, or how, these two individuals re-died. Or if they stayed immortal? Perhaps they are still wandering around to this very day? Who knows perhaps that’s where the vampire myth comes from? They may be in complete misery, condemned to eternal life on earth. How can they get into heaven? This misery being inflicted upon a mere bystander in order to fulfil the otherwise unfulfilled prophecy that Jesus would come again in the lifetime of at least one person who had seen him the first time around.
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Matthew 16:27-28
When Jesus was put to death, according to the Gospel of Matthew 27:52-53,
"the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."
This seems incoherent, since the dead corpses apparently rose both at the time of the death on the cross and of the Resurrection. Oddly enough history has no record of corpses rising form graves. It must have scared the hell out of everyone around the world, but yet no one seems to written it down. Not even the many historians whose records, while meticulous, apparently deemed that corpses’ crawling up everywhere was not as important or interesting as the suns rise and set time, or the yield of a particular crop and such.
The bible records the taunts and comments of the Roman soldiers, at the time of Jesus’ death, and not a single one said, “Holly shit, corpses are coming out of the fucking ground! Run!!!”
Resurrection is apparently so frequent, that no one pays any attention to the dead rising from their graves. This undermines the uniqueness of the resurrection by which all of mankind’s sins were forgiven.
There is no cult or religion before or since, from Osiris to vampirism to voodoo, that does not rely on some innate belief in the "undead." To this day, Christians disagree as to whether the day of judgement will give you back the old shitty, abused, wreck of a body that has already died on you, or will you be given some new form. If it’s the latter, people will have to come up with a new way in which they can recognise one another.
For now though, we can say that resurrection would not prove the truth of Jesus’ doctrine, nor his paternity, nor the probability of still another return in fleshly or recognisable form. The action of a man who volunteers to die for his fellow creatures is universally regarded as noble. The extra claim not to have "really" died, because he was back in three days, makes the whole sacrifice tricky and meretricious.
Thus, those who say "Christ died for my sins," when he did not really "die" at all, are making a statement that is false in its own terms. Having no reliable or consistent witnesses, in anything like the time period needed to certify such an extraordinary claim, we are finally entitled to say that we have a right, if not an obligation, to respect ourselves enough to disbelieve the whole thing, unless or until superior evidence is presented, which it has not been. Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence!
-- Garrett Fogerlie
Friday, April 8, 2011
Old Testament Evil God
The Christian religion would be much better off if it was not based on the old testament. The god of the old testament is such a horrible character, in any other book he would have been the villain! A murdering evil lunatic that demands you kill women, children, friends, family, and yourself! He is incredibly jealous and demands that you worship him and mutilate your body. He is a self proclaimed vengeful angry god. He is a racist megalomaniac that has no problem committing genocide. He destroys entire cities because some of its citizens don’t worship him. He’s a bloodthirsty, homophobic ethnic cleanser that makes Hitler and Stalin look like angels. Satan must have been thought of as a welcome reprieve, by the people of the time. He is a jealous and vindictive character and should not be worshipped by anyone!
It is unfortunate that any would religion worships him, yet many do. It’s amazing that the world is as peaceful as it is since a majority of its inhabitants look up to his as a role model. The Christian religion had to include the old testament because without it’s perditions to fulfill the story of Jesus would not have been that popular. It is frankly shocking that over the 15 or so centuries, while the new testament was whittled down to what it is now (see Canonization), that the old testament didn’t undergo the same hacking; removing its horrors and its unforgiving and bloodthirsty god character. Not to mention cleaning up as many possible contradictions as possible. But I assume that doing so would have left only a very small pamphlet consisting mostly of family trees and various pointless meanderings.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
It is unfortunate that any would religion worships him, yet many do. It’s amazing that the world is as peaceful as it is since a majority of its inhabitants look up to his as a role model. The Christian religion had to include the old testament because without it’s perditions to fulfill the story of Jesus would not have been that popular. It is frankly shocking that over the 15 or so centuries, while the new testament was whittled down to what it is now (see Canonization), that the old testament didn’t undergo the same hacking; removing its horrors and its unforgiving and bloodthirsty god character. Not to mention cleaning up as many possible contradictions as possible. But I assume that doing so would have left only a very small pamphlet consisting mostly of family trees and various pointless meanderings.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Angry Rant!!!
As I have pointed out elsewhere, if people would just spend half as much time studying their religion from sources outside the bible, as they devote to studying the bible, then they would notice all the contradictions that are in it. But they don't. For something as major as 'possibly burning in hell for an eternity' you would think they would explore a great deal of different faiths and churches, etc; just in case if their initial beliefs was just a smidgen off and god drew the line at that smidge.
I'm so very very tired of making this point to people and the only response I get back is, "well I just know that what I believe is correct. So there is no reason for me to study other ways of life." I don't mean to rag on those of you who actually believe in a god and study their asses off to hopefully get it 'right', but you are a minority.
Most believer's won't even consider the possibility that they are wrong and stay away from researching anything about religion outside of the church; like if they happen to read, "On the Origin of Species," god will send them to hell. WTF!
I was lucky enough to have grandparents that have lived in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and China, and while they are Catholic they still shared with me zeitgeists they came across.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
I'm so very very tired of making this point to people and the only response I get back is, "well I just know that what I believe is correct. So there is no reason for me to study other ways of life." I don't mean to rag on those of you who actually believe in a god and study their asses off to hopefully get it 'right', but you are a minority.
Most believer's won't even consider the possibility that they are wrong and stay away from researching anything about religion outside of the church; like if they happen to read, "On the Origin of Species," god will send them to hell. WTF!
I was lucky enough to have grandparents that have lived in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and China, and while they are Catholic they still shared with me zeitgeists they came across.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
Religion in America New Stats
A new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that more than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.
The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.
See the full report here.
The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.
See the full report here.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Doomed to Repeat
If you don't learn from history you're doomed to repeat it. People should be wary when they say things like, "We'll you can't do that now-a-days," or "That will never happen again." That's probably the same thing that people were saying before it happened the last time.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
-- Garrett Fogerlie
The Greatest Show on Earth Excerpt
"In 1998, Larson and Witham polled the cream of American scientists, those who have been honoured by election to the elite National Academy of Sciences . Among this select group, belief in a personal God dropped [as compared with the average person where belief in God is above 70%] to a shattering 7%. About 20% call themselves agnostic, and the rest are atheists. Similar figures obtain for belief in personal immortality. Among biological scientists elected to the National Academy, only 5.5% believe in a god. I have not seen corresponding figures for elite scholars in other fields such as history or philosophy, but it would be surprising if they were very different.
We have reached a truly remarkable situation: a grotesque mismatch between the American intelligentsia and the American electorate. A philosophical opinion about the nature of the universe, which is held by the great majority of America's top scientists and probably by the elite intelligentsia generally, is so abhorrent to the American electorate that no candidate for popular election dare affirm it in public. If I am right, this means that high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs: American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest."
This is an excerpt from Richard Dawkins book The Greatest Show on Earth. If you haven't read it I highly suggest you do. It goes into amazing detail about evolution amongst other things.
The last line of the quote is so very important, "high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs: American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest."
What he means by this is that if you are an atheist and you run for government office, you will either have to lie about your religious belief, or lack of one, (as many politicisations do) or else you tell the truth and are not elected (survey after survey shows that atheists are the most hated group in America.) Since the vast majority of the intelligentsia, 93%, are not religious, unless they lie about their beliefs, they are essentially banned from public office. Their office positions will therefore be filled by someone less intelligent or a liar.
I'm interested to here what others think about this, so please leave a comment.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
We have reached a truly remarkable situation: a grotesque mismatch between the American intelligentsia and the American electorate. A philosophical opinion about the nature of the universe, which is held by the great majority of America's top scientists and probably by the elite intelligentsia generally, is so abhorrent to the American electorate that no candidate for popular election dare affirm it in public. If I am right, this means that high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs: American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest."
This is an excerpt from Richard Dawkins book The Greatest Show on Earth. If you haven't read it I highly suggest you do. It goes into amazing detail about evolution amongst other things.
The last line of the quote is so very important, "high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs: American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest."
What he means by this is that if you are an atheist and you run for government office, you will either have to lie about your religious belief, or lack of one, (as many politicisations do) or else you tell the truth and are not elected (survey after survey shows that atheists are the most hated group in America.) Since the vast majority of the intelligentsia, 93%, are not religious, unless they lie about their beliefs, they are essentially banned from public office. Their office positions will therefore be filled by someone less intelligent or a liar.
I'm interested to here what others think about this, so please leave a comment.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
Some Good Quotes About Religion
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” -Stephen Robert
“A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism”
-Donald Morgan
“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
“If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.”
-Edmond de Goncour
“In some awful, strange, paradoxical way, atheists tend to take religion more seriously than the practitioners.”
-Jonathon Miller
“It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are atheists and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so”
-Ernestine Ros
“After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
“There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.”
-Robert Green Ingersoll
“People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug.”
-Edmond de Goncourt
“A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism”
-Dion Fortune
Plea to Parents
Parents work so hard at sheltering their children from violence, profanity, pornography, bad role models, and so many other things. Yet then every Sunday they send them off to 'Sunday school' where they are exposed to truly horrific stories. Worse then just being exposed to it, they are told to study it and embrace it or else they will be subject to the worst tortures you can imagine, for eternity! Imagine if you told your kids that if they didn't get a good grade they would be tortured, and not just saying the word, but telling them they will be set on fire, etc. That's absurd! Not just absurd but child abuse! Yet every week millions of children are sent to church to be taught how to save their 'souls', taught doubtlessly by someone who's views aren't exactly the same as the parent's. (I should know, as I was raised in this barbaric manner)
With this kind of indoctrination and brainwashing at such a young age it's no wonder that there are extremists willing to kill people so that they may go to heaven!
-- Garrett Fogerlie
With this kind of indoctrination and brainwashing at such a young age it's no wonder that there are extremists willing to kill people so that they may go to heaven!
-- Garrett Fogerlie
The Church Shouldn't Suppress Knowledge
Why does the the church suppress knowledge? There are a plethora of examples throughout the last two millennia, most notably Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Voltaire, and Charles Darwin. Any time a new theory is presented that disagrees with the teaching of the church, the theory is mocked and it's creator is usually taunted, labelled a heretic, beaten, and may end up being brutally murdered (sadly this still happens today.) Then years later the theory is accepted by the church, as if it had always been.
We see this scenario play out time and time again. The church suppresses and denies these ideas because the idea may persuade some people to no longer believe their teachings; however looking back throughout history and seeing this scenario over and over again must surly persuade more people to stop believing then if the church had just accepted it in the first place.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
We see this scenario play out time and time again. The church suppresses and denies these ideas because the idea may persuade some people to no longer believe their teachings; however looking back throughout history and seeing this scenario over and over again must surly persuade more people to stop believing then if the church had just accepted it in the first place.
-- Garrett Fogerlie
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