What to say to a Christian who likes to pick and choose their scripture.

[When I wrote this, I wasn't imagining myself talking to any old Christian, I was imagining my thought process about 2 years ago while I was still a Christian (I guess) when I came to the conclusion that the Christian God was highly unlikely.]

1. "Is God a good and perfect, all knowing, all-powerful being?" – probably yes…

2. "Do you believe the Old Testament is the true word of God?"
2.a. If yes, skip #2.b. and move on to #3.
2.b. If no, then what about Adam and Eve, the firmament, God casting Satan from heaven to hell, etc, and what about all the references from the New Testament to the old testament? - they may say "Oh yes I believe those parts," and if so, then they do believe that at least some of the Old testament is the word of God, because otherwise, how would anyone know to write it down (unless it was an outright fabrication.). This argument should eventually lead you to #4.

3. "What about the nasty bits in the Old Testament about stoning family members to death for doing things like disobeying you?" (there's lots of other nasty bits in there as well (SAB) ) - I assume the likely answer is something like we don't follow those scriptures anymore, or that they became outdated with the release of the New Testament, or something to that effect.

4. "So the New Testament is the true word of God?" - I assume the answer is yes, if you are talking to a Christian.

Soooo........

If both The Old and the New Testaments are the word of God, who is perfect, all knowing, and all powerful, why did he need a second chance at bible authoring? Why was there a need for him to dictate two different books, separated by several thousand years of time? (We actually know from history that the New Testament was probably compiled as a fix for the rampant fear and disbelief of God, and the church's resulting lack of control over society.)

(Speaking of second chances… why the flood? Why couldn’t God predict the problems and avoid them, rather than letting it all get out of control, and then totally destroying thousands of innocent children in order to give himself a second chance? Seems like cheating or something… extremely lazy, at the very least (not to mention utterly evil, terrifying, and violent).)

If the New Testament is the word of god, and the Old Testament is as well, but is too outdated or something, why couldn't God have foreseen this, and rewritten the original before releasing it, in a way that would incorporate both the new and old testaments. Or why didn’t he just say "Screw the original! You’re up, Jesus!"? Why did he wait until he knew most of his believers hated and feared or simply doubted him (rather than just predicting they would hate, fear, and doubt him, and fix the problem at the source). It just seems like a poor strategy for someone who is both perfect and all knowing. Plus, why would God EVER say that it is cool to stone somebody to death, or to kill someone period. (All I can say is read Deuteronomy now...) Why should I believe any of the Old Testament (the ark, the flood, Moses, Adam, Eve, the firmament, Satan, the 6+1 days hypothesis, creation, etc) if it is obvious that much of it is utterly ridiculous.

If you're a Christian, it is pretty much impossible for you to be correct if you believe the Old Testament IS NOT the true word of God and the New Testament IS the true word of God, because the Old Testament is often referred to (creation, original sin, Satan, etc)in the New Testament. So either the Old Testament is true, or it's not. Either its true that god wrote or dictated the Old Testament, or else whoever wrote the New Testament was lying throughout the whole thing in order to make their prospective cult members (today's Christians) believe they were simply signing on for a better version of their old religion; because, if the Old Testament was not the true word of God, then how did the writer(s) come up with all these things that turn out to be "true" in the New Testament?

So you can either believe in just the Old Testament in its entirety, or else you must believe both Testaments in their entirety. If you only believe the New Testament as the true word, then your religion has no foundation (the foundation for the Christian religion is set up in Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament). If you state that you can get your foundation from the Old Testament (and skip the rest) and apply it to the New Testament, then you are essentially admitting to getting your religious foundation from a book of fairy tales that were written 4000 years before god ever decided to write a book.

Also note that I am saying that if you believe the Genesis story, that the earth was created 6000 years ago, and you believe in the New Testament, but you can't think of any reason why a man's daughter should be stoned to death on his doorstep (Deuteronomy 22:13-21), then you, my friend, are going directly against God's wishes, and perhaps you should rethink your path. I'm saying that in my mind there should be no such thing as a moderate Christian... you have to be literal, or else you are doing it wrong. I'm saying you are doing something wrong according to the bible so if you ever want to tell an atheist how they should change, and you quote scripture the whole way through, just remember that you're doing it wrong too. Why should someone believe anyone who is so hypocritical?


I'm tired and I got off track, and I don't know how to finish this so bye!

NIIIIIIIIICE.... 16 Hours of yummy footage

holy shit.
http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief/watch/

Book List

Here is a list of really educational, eye opening, and even inspirational books which I recommend as a starting point if you are interested in learning more about the stuff I've been writing about.

1. Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
This was my most recent read, but I would say this is a great starting point. This one is very direct and to the point. It is written in the format of a letter to all Christians in America, and it is loaded with tons of interesting points, and at just under 100 pages, its a quick and easy read. You owe it to yourself...

2. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
This was the book that really got me interested in my own "godlessness." It was the first book I read on the subject. It's no wonder this man is so well respected as a science educator... he has the ability to make an average reader understand incredibly complex ideas with ease (and maybe just one re-read ;-) haha!) Yes, I admit, there is a bit of daunting vocabulary, but as I said, Dawkins is an amazing educator and he'll have many of your questions answered in no time.

3. Atheist Universe - David Mills
This is, thus far, my favorite book on the subject. It would be a great complement to Dawkins' book. If you had a question that Professor Dawkins couldn't answer with his book, David Mills can surely clear it all up for you... so, I recommend reading this either directly before or directly after The God Delusion.

4. The Portable Atheist - Christopher Hitchens
Great collection of works by almost 50 authors on the subjects of atheism, skepticism, agnosticism, free-thought, etc... Despite sounding like a small, pocket-sized book, its actually quite large. About 500 pages... great to have laying around at all times for whenever you've got 5-15 minutes to spare. The bathroom comes to mind...

5. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
One of his earlier, and most respected works, the selfish gene is an amazing explanation about what drives biology today, and what has driven evolution up until this point (whats the deal with primordial ooze?). Caution: avoid leaning over a table while you read this one, because you may just bust your chin while dropping your jaw.

6. Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin
Awesome! This is another one that's quite easy to understand, incredibly informative, and highly entertaining. Written by a discoverer of the missing link, Tiktaalik, Your Inner Fish is all about where you came from. A must read!

Click on any title to be referred an amazon page for the book.

Why I Don't Believe

Q: Why do you believe this? Why are you an atheist?

A: [Disclaimer – after writing this I just wanted to return to the top to clarify something. I often refer to Atheism and science as if they were one in the same… this is not the case, but it just happens to be so in my personal case. I choose to be an atheist (to disbelieve in a god) because it is my belief that science and religion (in its current form) cannot peacefully coexist in one man’s knowledge structure. For me science does the basic job of religion, and that is to answer big questions about life. This concept is incredibly easy for me to consider because I’m happy to use one of my dumbed-down, alternative definitions of science, like “Learning what works best through trial and error.” I hope this isn’t too unreasonable for anyone out there.]

My doubts began when I was a sophomore in college at Indiana University. I think the first thing that happened was that I realized that I hadn’t really thought of god for a while… like he had been absent from my life for a long time. When I came to this realization I thought it was a little strange, considering God had been quite a large part of my life before college. At this time I was living with my friends Dave, Ben, Addom, and Nimai. Dave’s dad is Jewish and his mom is Christian, but Dave just seemed a bit apathetic. Ben was Jewish, Nimai was Hindu, and Addom was a Christian. I lived with these four guys essentially all throughout college, with the exception of Addom. Seeing them (and all the other students at this diverse school) every day and realizing how great they all were, with or without different gods of their choosing, made me realize that there was no way that just one of them could be right (and by this time I was projecting their beliefs respectively upon millions of others), but according to all of their doctrines, there was no way that more than one of them could be right. There was one thing they all seemed to agree on, however, and that was science.

If Christianity says the only way to paradise is through belief in Jesus Christ and repentance of sins, and Muslims say the only way is through the teachings of Muhammad, and Jews say the only way is through Judaism, then 2 of them are totally wrong, and totally fucked, because they just totally wasted their whole lives (“HA HA!!”). And how about all of the tribal cultures that until recently went undiscovered for centuries. They knew nothing of Jesus Christ, so were those tribes’ entire histories wasted? Were they all condemned to burn for eternity at the moment of their conception? As Susan Savage-Rumbaugh stated in her TED.com speech I mentioned earlier, “There were Tasmanians who were discovered around the 1600s and they had no fire, they had no stone tools… to our knowledge, they had no music.” I assume, however, that these simple people, like us, experienced moments of extreme joy, of pain, of sorrow, and of celebration. Each and every one of them might have very well been a perfectly good human being, with loving sons and daughters and friends and family, yet, obviously, not a single one of them ever had a chance to know Jesus, or to hear any of Muhammad’s prophecies, and thus, each and every one of them were hopelessly condemned to wind up in hell. None of them ever had a chance in the world for paradise, yet according to Christians, any serial killer who prays before he is put to death will be accepted lovingly into the arms of god in heaven.

If anyone tells you they know everything without error, you and I both know they are obviously loaded with bullshit. It makes little sense to accept something as true at face value, without further investigation. That is essentially the epitome of ignorance, and it’s often quite dangerous. This is why I believe that science should always outweigh religion in terms of how the natural world works, and has worked for billions of years. Not only can we show you evidence to prove our theories work, we are always open to new theories that could potentially replace outdated ones. It is obvious most Christians don’t believe every single word of the bible, considering that you don’t hear of too many newlywed wives being stoned to death by their new husbands on their fathers’ doorsteps for not being virgins (the bible tells men to do this in Deuteronomy 22… it also says you and your neighbors should stone your rebellious son to death in Deuteronomy 21). Yet they say their Bible is the only way to heaven… that it is the one true word of the all-powerful, all-knowing God. Now wait a minute… you can’t properly follow a religion that has the rule “don’t pick and choose your beliefs” as a pillar of its belief system if you are going around saying “no” to this verse and “yes” to this verse. And you certainly must stop using the Bible as your evidence to disprove science and rational thought if you prove to me every day through your actions and beliefs (as well as those of every single believer out there) that many parts of your religious works are outdated, unnecessary, or flat out wrong. It is obvious to me that Christianity (and Judaism and Islam, etc.) is wrong on many areas of morality, and several other things for that matter. So, why should I believe any of it... especially when it is presented to me as an error-free work of God, when it clearly is not? If you just bought a dictionary that incorrectly defined a couple of words every so often, I would hope that you would return it, and call the publisher to complain. With the Bible, however, asking its owner to do this, and pointing out the reason for it, could quickly result in an unreasonable slap upside the head.

Evolution, Evolution, Evolution… This was the big one… when I actually understood the concept of evolution; that was the moment I realized there is no need for a god. This is a big one, so I’ll get back to it later. (Maybe next week, maybe next year.)

Whenever someone asks me how I find meaning in life, I tell them that I already know the meaning of life (and I truly believe I do), that I am probably happier than they will ever be, and I refuse to tell them my secret, considering how piously they asked the question. Why can’t they accept the fact that their life’s only meaning is what they make of it? If their only meaning in life is to have God in it, and then go to heaven, then my question to them is what is the meaning of your afterlife? If all life has to have meaning, then what about the afterlife? Is there a superafterlife that the afterlife prepares you for, or is the meaning of the afterlife simply to spend time with the people you knew during your natural life? So from my point of view, Christians just believe they have a second meaningless life that lasts a hell of a lot longer, but has the exact same cast of characters. This does not sound fun… it sounds stupid.

In closing for today, I just want to add that I find it much harder to believe that a highly advanced and perfect creator came from nothing and then created all of this, rather than my belief that all of this is the result of a freak explosion and a lot of time. After all, a freak occurrence that releases random bits of dust, gas, and debris seems a hell of a lot more likely than a freak occurrence that creates a perfect being capable of creating everything that we now know to exist.

I'm a Slacker

So when I said I'll be seeing you soon I really meant I'll be seeing you in a month and a half... oh well... onward! This thing I'm about to post is just something I've been working on for the past few days, and I'm going to post little bits of it at a time. I have trouble organizing my thoughts, and the only reliable method I have found that works for me is to just ask myself questions, and then answer them... so I thought I'd write my answers down.... mostly for myself... but I felt like sharing...

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Q: What do you believe?

A: I believe a better question is “What do you disbelieve?” For me, the answer to this revised question is anything supernatural, be it gods, ghosts, spirits, karma, demons, devils, goblins, an afterlife, reincarnation, holiness, the power of prayer, prophets, or prophecies. To answer the original question, I would say I believe that everything we see around us has been formed by natural processes over billions and billions of years, and that in no situation is it necessary to bring a divine being into the picture to explain anything. I believe in the power and importance of knowledge, reason, skepticism, collaboration, and experimentation.

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Q: From where do you get morality?

A: Well, unlike most religious people, I don’t get my morality from any one place. Ask any scientist, historian, or college professor, and he or she will tell you how moronic it is to get all your answers to any question(s) from a single source. I must admit, however, that religion played a large role in the development of my own morality when I was a child. I was taught the Ten Commandments, and the “Golden Rule” (based on Leviticus 19). But that’s about it (of course there was more, but most of it just overlaps these two concepts). I later realized that commandments 1-4 and commandment 10 were all essentially useless, except in a purely Christian (AKA “wrong”) context. I also found the “Golden Rule” is mentioned in some form or another in most religious texts. Plus, all of these lessons (and many other important ones) can be learned through non-religious fables, or anecdotes. It seems as though any person, religious or otherwise, can base their morals off of their own religious texts, or any other decent story, yet most of the time the big morals are the same across the board. So why can’t a free thinking society exist in which God is absent, and everyone used the Golden Rule as their main moral guideline, with Commandments 5-9 to support that guideline? I know that seems ridiculous, but I think it would be optimal, and am confident it could be possible in the future.

Also, It has been shown that hominids (bonobos, chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and humans) regularly practice seemingly selfless altruism, good deeds, and community services in order to form social bonds, and power or dominance within the group (for instance, in Susan Savage-Rumbaugh’s speech on bonobos from www.TED.com, as well as Jane Goodall’s speech from the same service). This leads me to believe that many of our morals simply come to us: naturally, through trial-and-error, from parental guidance, and/or as matters of necessity.

My question is why is God necessary? It is sad to think that the only reason people behave these days is in order to appease a rather childish god, or to keep themselves from the fiery, make-believe, depths of hell. God is gone from my life, yet I treat everyone around me better than I ever have; I’m more honest than I’ve ever been (both with myself and with others); last, but certainly not least, I’m happier and more confident in myself than I have ever been (this one has little to do with morality, but it’s my favorite part, and thus worth mentioning).

Who the hell are you?

I'm Stewy, and I was raised a Christian. I was held back by Christianity for the first 20 years of my life, until I realized that it never really made sense to me, it was contradictory to much of what I was taught in high school and college, and I never truly believed in it. I only saw all my friends believing in it, and so I followed suit. I realize now that although I went to church for almost 20 years, I got fewer morals from church than I did from peers, family, and elders. I realized that I couldn't think of one thing that I couldn't explain without the use of God. I may not currently know the answer to every question that someone might have, but I guarantee that science will get them much closer to a useful answer than god ever will. It was this belief that god was essentially unnecessary that led to my formal renouncement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today I am 22, and a budding little atheist, but my knowledge is still drastically basic. I spend essentially all my free time (or at least 3 hours a day) reading works of science, or watching science documentaries. I was sheltered my whole life from decent explanations of these amazing phenomena, and now, with resources like Google and Wikipedia, I'm flooded with answers (which always means I'm flooded with more questions). Its impossible to figure it all out in your head, or to always have all the answers, but the great thing is with these "hive mind" resources its pretty likely you can find a reasonable, confirmable answer to any question in a matter of minutes, assuming you know how to use a computer (you could also try downloading an ebook torrent loaded with science popularization books--this requires slightly more technical skill).

The purpose of this blog is to increase atheist awareness (we are not bad people) and to promote rational thought in all aspects of human life. I am a little tired, and a new Mythbusters is on, so I'm gonna scat, but... I'll be seeing you soon.