Keith Cleversley and His Pea Brain

Archive for the ‘Delusions of Religion’ Category

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” – Jesus, ”Prince of Peace” (Matthew 10:34)

Something odd that I find myself doing more often than I ever imagined is alerting Christians, whether fundamentalist, moderate, true, or modern, of what their universal “job description” as described in the Bible.

The most common argument is that once Jesus came, he annulled the Old Law (Old Testament, Old Covenant), and ushered in the New Law (New Testament, New Covenant).  This belief is directly opposed to what Jesus taught (Matthew 5:17-19, Matthew 23:1-3).  Also, many modern Christians argue that the Old Testament only applies to Judaism and Jews, and the New Testament is for Christians.  This again, is a false claim as borne out in the words of the Bible in more than one example, including (2 Tim. 3:16-17), where followers are reminded that ALL scripture is inspired by the God of the Bible, even by Jesus Himself who swore to uphold the law. Read the rest of this entry »

“Whenever we read the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind. And, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.” – Thomas Paine

The overwhelming facts have convinced me beyond any shadow of a doubt that the timeline in the Bible, for both the amount of time it took to create the universe as well as the time humans have existed on the planet is simply not true.  After exhaustive and continued research, which included Darwin’s “Origin of Species”, the Bible, and countless books arguing for or against evolution, intelligent design, creationism, god, and everything in-between, I don’t doubt that evolution happened. Read the rest of this entry »

Shaman were held in extremely high esteem by the Ancient Mayans and for good reason; not only were they healers who utilized the vast storehouse of plant life that circled them in the lush rainforests they called home, but they were the ones who communicated with the Divine in order to get answers to everything from the source of illnesses to discovering the will of the gods.  As a matter of fact, all of humanity (at least according to the Popol Vah) was created in a divinatory ritual conducted by the gods.  And divinatory rituals were, at least in early Mayan culture, performed exclusively by Shamans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Definition: red herring: any diversion intended to distract attention from the main issue

There are two main arguments that armchair philosophers or moderate Christians confront me with more than any other argument.  To me, the fact that these two arguments are more copious than any other, is extraordinarily revealing in itself; they’re the “fallback” arguments relied upon when all other arguments fail.

Argument #1: “Those in power, including the Church itself, as well as a cast of other characters are responsible for altering, bastardizing, modifying, changing, or hiding, the true essence of who Jesus Christ was and what he stood for.  The true essence of Jesus’ message was one of peace and love, and that over time, for countless reasons, it was changed from what Jesus himself preached.”

Read the rest of this entry »

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction; jealous and proud of it; petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochictic, caprciously malevolent bully.” – Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

There is no disagreement that the Bible is a “Book of Laws;” an outline for the moral code that Christians are to live their lives by, or they risk eternal damnation in the depths of the Biblical Hell.  At its core, whether one takes a literalist view of the Bible or not, it’s further agreed that it contains the solemn word of God as told through God, Jesus Christ, or His Prophets.

Further, there can be no disagreement about which parts of the Bible any follower of the Christian mythology must base their life on; the God of the Bible makes it quite clear on several occasions.  The “cherry-picking” the Bible is one of the most frustrating conversation I get into with Bible defenders, and especially with those who’ve never actually read the Bible (I’ve seen statistics that less than 10% of Christians have actually read the Bible.)  I chose to read the Bible when I was questioning my Roman Catholic upbringing, hoping to gain clarity and strengthen my beliefs.  I had absolutely no idea what I would discover, and I firmly believe that if that 90% of Christians who haven’t read the Bible actually read it, they would be as shocked and appalled as much as I was.  I didn’t set out to be in the position I am now, of feeling the need to at least speak the truth of what I’ve found.

One example, quite early in God’s teachings (God of the Christian Bible), is when He spoke through one of His most famous prophets; Moses:

Deuteronomy 5:32 (New Living Translation)

32 So Moses told the people, “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail.

So with this common ground and agreement about the basic, undisputed truths regarding the nature and purpose of the Bible, let’s begin.  It’s from these facts, taken from the Bible’s own passages that Christianity reveals itself as a religion of heinous cruelty and violence against all of humanity, with followers unwittingly forced by their God into being hypocrites and murderers, as they worship one of the most brutal, vengeful, wrathful mass murderer humans have ever known.

Being raised a Catholic, I wanted to read the contract before I signed the rest of my life away to it: I wanted to take comfort that the God I was following was a kind, loving, and compassionate Being, who held great reverence for His creation and his children; a wise and tolerant Creator who understood more about human nature than I could ever hope to, shining the light of truth within me, inspiring me to live a life that is just and moral and good.

So I decided to do what most Christians reportedly have never done; I read the Bible, cover to cover.  I certainly found answers, but not the ones I ever dreamed I would find: There were countless passages of violence, murder, revenge, anger, rape, the taking of virgins and killings of first-borns, massacres, deceptions, beheadings, plagues, dismemberment and human sacrifice that were all ordered, carried out by, or condoned by a God that possessed anger so vast and destructive that entire races were condemned to fates worse than death.  Parents saw their children killed or torn from their pregnant wife’s womb, husbands watched their daughters get carried off to be sold to the highest bidder, hands and feet were cut off, followers had their God behead their own people as he put those heads on stakes for all to see, as entire races and/or cultures were destroyed out of anger by fire, plagues, floods, and countless other crimes against humanity.

If this were the example followers were to base their lives on, started to research what the rules of conduct were that this God instructed His followers to live by. Most followers are familiar with only the “G-rated” version of the 10 Commandments; the “Hollywood” version of Christianity that the leaders of this religion would like you to believe, but this is not the true God of the Bible.  The God of the Bible, in no uncertain terms, instructed parents to kill any child who disobeyed or rebelled, took no exception when fathers took on many wives, gave men virgins as spoils of war (32,000 of them in one war alone), and fathers were given permission to sell daughters into slavery to pay debts without any repercussions.

I couldn’t help wondering if I had some biased and bizarre translation of the Bible, peddled by some vast conspiracy trying to discredit my God and the religion that was pumped into me almost daily most of my early, impressionable years.  So, I bought different versions and compared the passages.  But, the truth was vividly clear:  tales of atrocities and cruelty to both humans and animals on a scale larger than my brain could comprehend formed the landscape and framework of the Bible, vastly outnumbering a few scattered tales of peace, love, and hope.

A light went on in my brain and has never gone out since.  I felt sick, dirty; I felt deceived and an unwitting accomplice to some of the most inhuman atrocities ever committed.  And to make matters worse; none were the fallible human actions of some rogue dictator or some boy-loving German Roman Catholic with a funny moustache; they were all a result of the God described in vivid detail within the pages of the Bible.  I think Thomas Paine put it quite chillingly eloquent:

“Whenever we read … the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind. And, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.” – Thomas Paine

For me, I was left with just one overwhelming question:  How could anyone, with even the slightest glimmer of sensibility, after reading the Bible, ever make the conscious decision to not only listen to and believe, but structure one’s entire life around this belief system?

It simply didn’t make sense that anyone could read the contents of the Bible and have even the slightest inclination to be a part of a religion that holds such obvious contempt for humans.  In fact, humans were given dominion over animals, but no animals (except the ones God ordered to have the “tendon of Achilles” of captured horses to be severed) ever suffered the brutal fates that hundreds of thousands of our fellow humans suffered at the hands of their God.

My answer was found in a simple statistic:  As i mentioned earlier, most of those who claim to be Christians reportedly have never read the Bible, and out of that massive percentage, they are only taught an extraordinarily small percentage of the stories that their clergy has chosen to share with them, and out of that already miniscule percentage, most of the stories that are relayed are from the New Testament rather than the Old Testament.

Biblical Engagement Problems

In an attempt to circumvent this serious issue, there are some to try to argue that once Jesus walked the Earth, it nullified the laws of the Old Testament.  But, when looking to the New Testament, we see several passages reinforcing the fact that the Old Testament is the Word of God and to be followed to the letter to the ends of the Earth.  One is found in Matthew:

Matthew 5:17-19 (New International Version)

17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

For clarity, “The Law” is in reference to the Old Testament, so the argument of the Old Testament being invalid itself is invalid from the start.  So, let’s move forward.

Another common argument is that kind of violence only exists in the Old Testament, but that also is not true.  Look to Matthew in the New Testament to negate this argument:

Matthew 15:3-4 (King James Version)

3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ [a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

Taken as the Law is required to be taken, to be a good Christian, one must then kill any child who gets unruly or disobeys.  And none of this would seem quite as serious to me if it were an isolated example from some random corner of the Bible, but it’s not.  It’s one instance of many that detail a code of conduct that involves these kinds of atrocities.  Knowing this, I can’t help wondering how the God of the Bible has risen to the status He has.

Whenever I have posed these kinds of questions to those who claim to be followers of Jesus or the Bible, have only offered me a singular answer:

“I’d have to speak with [enter clergyperson here] about that.”

The bottom line is that Christians simply can’t have it both ways; it is made clear on numerous occasions throughout the Bible that it’s “all or nothing” and if one chooses “some,” serious repercussions will follow, including eternal damnation.

So if one is about to choose to be a Christian, which comes with the implicit task of spreading the Word of God to as many as possible, there can be no argument that one must first get to know, at least in broad strokes, the essence of the religion, its belief system, and the true nature of its intent as well as the intent of the God described within the pages of the Bible?  It seems odd to me that followers of the Bible have typically have spent more time researching what car they’re going to purchase than they’ve spent researching the Bible (which for me was a 70 hour, extremely tedious and laborious task that felt like Hell on Earth).

This is why it comes as no surprise to me that as the information superhighway of the internet has spread to every corner of the world, membership in the Christian faith has dropped more 10% recently, and is still dropping.  According to present statistics, at the present rate, Methodists won’t have any followers left by 2037.

So, when I hear reports of priests molesting boys, going to Alcoholics Anonymous, stealing money from their own congregations; I wouldn’t expect anything different from them now that I too have read and understand the Bible.  And what often surprises me is that there have been so few stonings or similar tasks one is saddled with when taking on the position as a mouthpiece for the God in the Bible.

Once one actually takes a look into the messages of the Bible, it’s frightening the amount of murdering, raping, and pillaging that goes on, and not just in the name of the Bible God, but ordered by the Bible God whenever His feathers get ruffled.  Entire nations die, and often in the most vile, inhuman, and tortuous of ways, yet Christians choose to ignore these basic truths, perhaps because by being a part of this religion, they are accomplices to the most unthinkable crimes committed.

And yes, these are incredibly harsh words, but I wouldn’t even think to say them if I didn’t have large tracts of an entire book that vehemently claims to be the Word of God to back it up.  Below are a select few passages supporting my statement, and I would lay down all the money I have in the world that most Christians who claim to follow the Word of God, don’t actually know what that Word truly is.

And this is where a common argument defending the atrocities in the Bible often appears.  It goes something like; “God was waging war to protect His people” or “God only killed those who were not righteous.”  These arguments are intended to give the God of the Bible justification for killing millions, often in such heinous ways, but this killing also included thousands of children, at a minimum.

The main problem with the first argument, is that God’s killing wasn’t limited to the times he was waging war or in an attempt to protect His own people; his killing sprees went far beyond righteous preservation as outlined below:

Numbers 11:1

11:1 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

And again, this is but one example of countless, of the God of the Bible getting angry at His people and destroying them out of anger alone.  (For the curious; read God’s Position on Burning People to Death to find out more.)

The second argument states that all humans, including babies (born or unborn) were no longer “righteous” in God’s eyes, and therefore, when He chose to kill His own people through various means such as plagues or the Great Flood (which killed unborn babies, of course, as well as newborns, children, and every other human on the planet, including His own people), it was justified.

And this is where I fall silent, believing there has to be some way to get through to those who choose to use this argument as a valid way to defend the Bible.  We, as humans can’t kill unborn babies, but the God of the Bible has the right to do it whenever he chooses, and it’s justified because He knows right from wrong.

I can’t help wondering what it takes to take a step back and question such a supposed God.  To me (and call me crazy, but) a God who kills the unborn because they are not “righteous,” who chooses to burn people to death, to string up horses (how can animals not be “righteous?”), to decapitate His own people, to simply destroy every last living creature on Earth because He was displeased”¦is there any chance that maybe this isn’t actually the work of God but of the Devil?

Could the Devil be the one who is actually in control of the world and the words of the Bible, tricking us all into believing that all of the heinous atrocities that were committed in the Bible are justifiable in some way?  What if we’ve all been fooled this entire time, and the Devil has the true God locked in some Eternal Hell, hoping that we, as His people come to our senses, that we finally take a look inside our hearts as informed, intelligent beings, and finally REJECT the Bible and all it espouses, choosing instead to live truly righteous lives, caring for our fellow humans, choosing compassion, love, and tolerance rather than hate, destruction, and anger instead?

The Devil would have no quarter, he’d be powerless, and we could finally greet our God with pure hearts and the knowledge that we saw through all these atrocities, that we have risen above as a people, and that we have seen the light, embracing a morality that includes all humans instead of just a chosen few.

And yes, I’m being a bit extreme to make a point, but the point still remains:  If we look closely at the true essence of the Bible, if we empower ourselves by reading the entire book with an open mind and an open heart, which will allow us to come from a position of power instead of blind faith, if we look inside our hearts and compare what we find against the words of the Bible, would there be a single one of us who wouldn’t at least question the validity of at least some of the acts described in such vivid detail in the Bible?

And if one falls into question, all must fall into question, and this is where the entire system starts to crumble.  We can deny the truth for a time, but I have great faith in humanity and its inherent goodness as a whole, and firmly believe that if Christians actually read their own Book of Law (the Bible), that they would be as horrified as I was when I first made my frightening journey through a book that left me with no option but to run as far as possible from what was drilled into my head the first 18 years of my life.

And actually, never have I found a being to be less “God-like” (at least from my understanding of what a God might be like) than the God depicted in the Bible.  And this is the part that is so difficult to both accept and simply wrap my head around.  It’s not that these passages are hidden, they’re not some wild translation by some obscure scholar; these passages are there, and in great number, for anyone to simply discover for themselves if they have the time, desire, and open mind enough to do it.

To me, questioning is not only in our nature, but our duty.  To deny ourselves that right is to deny ourselves our humanness.  And to me, this is one of the greatest tragedies of organized religion:   We are taught to deny that which makes us most human, regardless of the religion.  I have an extremely deep and personal connection to my own personal Divine, I live by my own Golden Rule of “Treat others as myself,” and I believe that we best serve our Creator by fully realizing our own potential: by living as awake, alive, and as self-aware as possible, and that ultimately, the God that created this reality is within us because He/She IS us.

My point in writing this dense and lengthy article is in the hope that someone who may not have otherwise, might open their mind to the extraordinary and difficult truths that will undoubtedly shake entire foundations.  Self-awareness, questioning that which we have been brainwashed into believing is the truth, and finding what is true to each of us, to me, is one of the greatest gifts we have been given as humans.  Doing so, by default, results in one taking a great leap closer to God.

And this is what touches me deeper than any of the other controversy that inevitably arises when people who have based their entire lives on a delusion:  If God were so powerful, if he had just one loving bone in his ethereal body, if he had just one drop of compassion anywhere within him, even if any of the many murders could be justified in some way, why did he always resort to such macabre methods of dispatching any of his perceived enemies?

Without counting the Great Flood, while accounting for the argument that “numbers are the easiest thing to mistranslate” in relation to the numbers of deaths that the God of the Bible is responsible for, it makes that God of the Bible the most successful mass murderer in our known history.  No matter the reason for the murders of unborn children, first-born children, babies, or humans in general; did every one of them deserve the heinous and painful deaths that were dispatched upon them?

Christians argue that unborn babies don’t have a voice of their own, they don’t yet have anything other than the “Breath of God” within them, yet every time they defend the Bible, they are defending the God of the Bible killing unborn children.  And there’s no arguing out of that simple fact; if one defends the Bible, the God of the Bible states that it must be the whole of the Bible, as the entire Bible makes up the whole of the Law.

I have included a brief snippet of a few of the atrocities of the Bible below.  There are many far more complete lists available, and one can make their own list by simply sitting down and reading the Bible”¦

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Genesis 3:16 (King James Version)

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

- GOD THE SADIST: God clearly condones pain, including during childbirth.  This passage has often been used to prevent women from using anesthetic during childbirth

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Genesis 36:6 (King James Version)

6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.

- GOD THE POLYGAMIST: God condones polygamy, plain and simple.  This is one example of a great number of passages that speak of multiple wives; a practice that was common in that time.

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Exodus 21:7-11 (King James Version)

7 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

- GOD THE SLAVE TRADER: God said that it’s O.K. for daughters to be sold into slavery to pay for a debt, and that they shall be treated just as other slaves.

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2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (King James Version)

11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

- GOD THE DECEIVER: God was knowingly deceptive to have a reason to condemn those he saw as wicked.

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Ezekiel 20:25-26

25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; 26 And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.

- GOD THE ANGRY TYRANT: More evidence of an angry, deceptive god.

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Numbers 25:1-10 (King James Version)

4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.

- GOD THE PERPETRATOR OF GENOCIDE: A God so angry that he killed 24,000 Israelites (his own people) because the men started “having sex with the Moabite women,” ordering the head of the men to be placed onto stakes and put on display.

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Numbers 31: 9-10, 14, 29-30 (Massacre of the Midianites)

9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. 10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.

- GOD THE PILLAGER: A God who condones burning entire cities and then gifting half to the victors as spoils of war

14 But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, with the captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, who had come from the battle.

- GOD THE WOMAN AND CHILD MURDERER: And His chosen representative (Moses) was furious that the Israeli Army spared the lives of the women and children.  So, he ordered them to kill all the women and children, keeping the 32,000 virgins for themselves.

29 Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for an heave offering of the LORD. 30 And of the children of Israel’s half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.

- GOD THE ENGINEER OF MASSACRES: This is one of MANY massacres, which include Amorites, Bashanites, Aradites

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Deuteronomy 20: 13-14 & 16 (King James Version)

13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: 14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. 16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

- GOD THE PLUNDERER: God is commanding that all males be killed and that women, children, cattle, and anything else are spoils of war.  Eek.

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Joshua 11:6 (King James Version)

6 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

- GOD THE ANIMAL TORTURER: A God so cruel that he even tortures animals for no reason whatsoever. (Hough means this: to hamstring, to sever the “tendon of Achilles” of the hinder legs of captured horses – an extremely cruel and painful procedure)

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Acts 13:22 (King James Version)

22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.

2 Samuel 8:14 (King James Version)

14 And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

- GOD THE DEVIL?: This is referring to King David who is responsible for at least 100,000 murders, which included (but certainly not limited to) beheadings, cutting off the hands and feet of some of those he’s slain, hamstringing horses, and so on.  Yes, God made himself David’s personal guardian, He assured David victory wherever he went so He could continue the atrocities whenever he wished, and clearly stated the David was a man after His own heart.

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2 Kings 2:24 (King James Version)

24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

- GOD THE CHILD-KILLER: God again condoned the killing of children.  (http://bible.cc/2_kings/2-24.htm) Multiple translations translate this line into “mauled 42 children” or “put forty-two children to death,” but the message remained the same.; kids were killed for making fun of a bald-headed man.

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2 Kings 10:19 (King James Version)

19 Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.

- GOD THE LIAR: God used deception again to trick an entire congregation of Ball worshippers into getting brutally massacred.

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Isaiah 13 (King James Version)

15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. 16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

- GOD THE CHILD-KILLER AND RAPIST: More child killing and raping of women condoned by an angry, vengeful, and cruel God.

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Hosea 13:16 (King James Version)

16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

- GOD THE BABY-TORTURER: God orders babies to be ripped apart, and if that weren’t enough, he orders any pregnant women to be torn to pieces as well.

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Mark 16:17-18 (King James Version)

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

- GOD THE LIAR: Not true and many people have died believing this statement.  The evidence mounts.

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I’m not altering any words, I’m not making up any of the translations, and I’m not taking any of the passages out of context.  I am simply using just a few of the countless examples of the methods the God of the Bible employed to dispatch those he’s upset with, in hopes of shining a little light in a very dark and highly controversial place.  After making my way through the Bible, I no longer wonder that so many atrocities in the name of this God have been committed and are still being committed; followers are simply following the truths and traditions of the Bible, believing they are carrying out the Word of God.

From the Inquisition to the Crusades, to unfortunately all too-common stories of child molestation by Catholic Priests, to condoned genocide through the Vatican’s banning the use of condoms even if to stem the spread of deadly diseases (plagues), to the growing number of TV Evangelist scandals, to priests revealing they’re gay, to continued wars in the name of the God of the Bible”¦millions still desperately cling to their beliefs at all costs.

But who can blame them?  If one has based an entire life on a belief system, if one has spent countless hours trying to do what one believed was the necessary path to Salvation, and one subsequently found out that this belief was false”¦wow.  It would invalidate entire lives, it would seem to make lifetimes meaningless, often for many generations, it would upset the balance of power, if would cause grief and suffering on a level that is difficult to comprehend.  As a result, most resort to one of the mist basic of human reactions: Denial.

And that denial takes many forms; to believing even more vehemently in their religion, in getting outwardly violent at anyone who challenges them, to quietly burying the truth so deeply inside so as to not upset the order of things.  When I presented these facts to my mom (it was an extremely difficult decision, and the only way I could justify doing it, was to arm myself with only the facts, leaving personal bias and opinion out of the equation, letting the Bible speak for itself) she simply said this: “Keith, what am I supposed to do about it and what effect can I let it have on my life, even if I heard and believed what you were saying?”

She didn’t want to upset the balance, she knew that even if family members (devout Roman Catholics) were presented with the facts, that they would most-likely choose to keep believing what they believe, labeling her and I as the “troublemakers” or “crazy” or whatever other label they needed to put on us so that they could continue the lives of blissful ignorance they were accustomed to.

Many have already armed and empowered themselves with the truth, with the courage to take a step back and look inside their own hearts, realizing that they’ve been tricked and lied to by an intolerant religion with a history of violence that far surpasses any other.  All of this is simply another drop in the bucket to add another voice to perhaps the greatest debate we can have as humans, and it started because of one simple human act:  I decided to seek the truth for myself.

Little did I know what I was in for, but one thing is certain above all else:  Never have a felt closer to God, never have I felt more awake and self-aware, never have I felt more compassion for those around me, and never has the fire burned so deeply inside me to try to shine as brightly as I can, hoping that, in some small way, it will give others the courage to simply question that which they have been told is true.  If not, despair and hopelessness is the only alternative, as the truth gets buried deep within ourselves, manifesting as all the grief and anger and horrors that we still see on a daily basis on both a grand scale.

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Passages are taken from http://www.biblegateway.com; a foremost and accepted repository of all known Bible versions and interpretations.

Through my work, I’ve had many opportunities to speak candidly with a lot of Christians.  Raised a Catholic, I have a personal interest in finding if there’s something I’m simply not “getting” about this seemingly heinous and hypocritical system of beliefs based on the myths of the Bible.  Rarely have I taken the opportunity to speak with a member of the clergy in equally as candid a way as other Christians, and when I finally had the chance, to my disappointment, I only found more circular arguments, hypocrisy, and blind adherence to a system that requires its followers to never question its wisdom and authority.

And has always been my position, my intent has never been to “debunk” this religious system; I started out simply trying to find answers; to find as many facts about the beliefs that I was brought up with.  This particular religion requires a great deal of time and energy to participate in and our lives are so much shorter than any of us often realize, so it was important to me to be comfortable with the way I chose to spend my brief time in this fragile human frame of mine.

So, right to the point:  It seems to be a consensus among all of the clergy I spoke with, that sin is at the root of all suffering, that we live in a “fallen” world, and that “original sin” is the root of all pain and suffering in this world (which includes all terminal diseases such as cancer and countless others).  Also, it has been reiterated to me that it’s not our place to question the wisdom of the Biblical God (a necessary detail to get any follower to accept the vast brutality and cruelty inflicted upon the Biblical God’s creations), but that some things simply have no answers other than the ones the Biblical God privately possesses.  As an integral instrument of my own creation, this didn’t seem quite fair to me.

Something that frustrated me most is that whenever I spoke with the non-clergy Christians I met, the “safety-catch” response that prevented me from delving any further was simply; “I would have to speak with my clergyman about that.”  After repeatedly getting this answer once things got a little too close to a rational truth that jeopardized almost mechanically-held beliefs, I decided to go directly to the source; clergy.  I hoped to get the answers that the Christians I spoke with were certain their clergymen had. 

Unfortunately, whenever I reached a similar place of discussion with the clergy I spoke with, I received slightly modified “safety-catch” answer of; “Only God has those answers.”

Knowing that this was my starting point, I still tried to get rational and logical answers from those who are so convinced of their beliefs, that even when faced with overwhelming evidence, facts, and truths from their own Bible, they will simply recite the same arguments that they have memorized, instead directly addressing the facts presented by saying; “Only God has those answers.”

So, in the forthcoming articles on this topic, I will offer my favorite examples of the typical strings of logic that exemplify tactics I’ve personally seen used seemingly exclusively by those who desire be in a position of power, especially when it comes to religious systems.

TACTIC ONE: Equating two unrelated issues that seem to share some similarities, and then using them to arrive at an “objective” conclusion:

CLERGYMAN: “Hitler believed that what he said was true, that all Jews needed to be exterminated, and that whites are the superior race.  He had many who believed him and agreed with him.  Charles Darwin was also convinced that he spoke the truth; that humans evolved into the superior race/species, and this is the reason we have dominion over this planet.  Two powerful people shared a belief that what they each spoke was the truth.  But, if there was no objective truth, then both of these men would be right and that, obviously cannot be true.”

On the surface this seems like it could be a valid argument:  After all, there’s no way I could argue that Hitler is beyond defense (although he has a lower body count than one other entity I can think of).  But, what he was really doing, was trying to convince me that since Hitler was so passionately convinced he spoke the truth, then anyone else who also thought they spoke the truth could also be wrong.  Ironically enough, the clergyman felt that he was exempt from this argument because he had the God of the Bible on his side supporting his position.

Either way, images of Hitler can evoke deep emotions in any of us, automatically giving this argument weight.  But it’s false weight, and the only thing the clergyman was proving is that Hitler has as equal a chance of being right as he could be wrong”¦and nothing else.  His basic assumption is based on the premise that since Hitler was wrong, so could (and in his mind “must be”) Charles Darwin.  So, by consciously or unconsciously connecting and then misinterpreting the only valid conclusion, he seems to arrive at a logical conclusion when in fact, his conclusion couldn’t be further from the actual truth.
 
And that’s the same message presented by thousands of clergymen to their many followers.  Using invalid conclusions from fundamentally flawed arguments as proof of the existence of something such as objective truth (the very “objective truth” that the Bible requires in order to have any authority over its followers) does nothing more than push the system they need to prove is true, especially since they’ve often chosen to devote their entire life to it. 

And this is the same Bible that prevents anyone from questioning something that any relatively reasonable, rational person I know would have no choice but to question.  The Bible has a finely-crafted method of excusing the vast number of atrocities outlined in vivid detail all in the name of the Biblical god.  To have a God who goes against the basic moral values that he demands from His followers is one of the most incontrovertible pieces of evidence that the God of the Bible is a false god, created by fallible humans who’s agenda was to maintain power and control over a large mass of people.  It seems to matter little to Christians that the Bible was written and re-written numerous times, edited by rulers who often used it an a tool to maintain control and stay in power.

And what disturbs me most perhaps, is that pro-Bible arguments have become such intricately-weaved devices, that it takes great effort for anyone to unravel them and find the unforgiveable truth that often lies at the heart of them.  I also believe that many of the seemingly logical and rational arguments are specifically intended to go “over the head” of followers so they cannot be questioned by anyone other than those to take the immense amount of time and energy and risk to seek the actual truth contained within the pages of the Bible.

No one wants to feel stupid, so a desire to be a part of the “enlightened few”, led by arguments that seem so rational, researched, and so well-thought out, drives most to blindly agree, simply because the arguments sound so well-thought out and intelligent.   Clergymen are supposedly the experts, so if this person who seems so smart is stating something as if it were fact, then who are any of us to question?
 
And this is the basic requirement that both the clergy and the Bible require in order to maintain control over its followers.  It’s, by its very design, is a religion of lemmings who, statistically-speaking, never took the time to read the fine print of the pamphlet telling them to jump off the cliff to their deaths.  I will never be convinced otherwise that simply reading the Bible, cover to cover, might have and still could save millions of lives.

We are human; it’s typically in our nature to question and to seek out truth.  Adhering to just one Golden Rule of “Treat others as you would yourself,” if we don’t fully embrace who we are as humans, then I don’t feel we’re truly living our lives to the fullest, and therefore certainly not fulfilling our critical mission of living as awake and alive as possible.

Finally, some have accused me of using a passage from the Bible to guide my life by, but this only further reinforces my position; the above passage can be found in the writings of the Buddha, an entity who lived long, long before the man known as Jesus Christ ever walked the Earth.  And this is just one passage of countless in the Bible that bear uncanny resemblance to stories, legends, and myths that existed long before the Bible was conceived. 

I believe that writers had no way of conceiving that there would ever be something as all-knowing and powerful as the internet, which has united worlds of disparate information, placing it at billions of human’s fingertips.  And as the internet advances, so does the continuing decline in the membership of some of the major organized religions.  This, to me, is simply more evidence that information and education is what those in power have often feared most, because finding the truth is the surest way to lose that power.

Despite the ongoing rhetoric by religious and present-day political leaders, the United States was not, in any sense of the word, founded as a Christian nation.  Just as the Bible has been misremembered, misused, and misquoted by those who wish to hold sway over large groups of people, so have some of the foundations of the United States of America.  Just as I hold Christians accountable for using their own Book of the Law (See “Be a Good Christian: Kill Your Children?“), I can just as easily do the same when using the words of our founding fathers.  Their own words provide more than ample evidence against the Christian right that works tirelessly to rewrite history in order to further their justifications and rationalizations for everything from teaching Creationism in schools, to fighting to have the 10 Commandments on display in the lobby of court houses.

And this should come as no surprise since the Bible has been translated, re-translated, shaped, re-shaped, and molded to the whims of whomever happened to be in power at the time, so why would we expect Christians to stop when it comes to American History and the cornerstones of our nation?

How the Christians hijacked and entire nation is perhaps the greatest conspiracy of all-time, but the voice of our founding fathers have been drowned under the loudmouths and murderers who have come since them, all but drowning out the original dream and vision for this country.  And what further evidence do I need than the simple fact that if I do not profess my faith as a Christian or speak out against the fact that the United States is not and never wan intended to be a Christian nation, I risk a slew of unpleasantness ranging from insults to branding from my community and/or family, or, as has happened in the past; threats of death?

Christians like to use this as evidence of how they must be “right” but that is also another one of their many tactics that hold no validity whatsoever.  “Mob mentality” is the closest analogy I can provide to what the Christians are now faced with.  Despite the disturbing fact that most who claim to be Christians or followers of the Bible, have never read the Bible for themselves.  Couple that with Christians who have never read the Bible but claim to be Christians with Christians who claim to be Americans but who have never read the United States Constitution.  Should they be doubly dismissed?

In fact, when I alert my fellow Americans that the word “god” doesn’t even appear once in the Constitution, they look at me as if I have just sprouted antlers.  When I show them the words of founding father Thomas Jefferson, who publicly criticized Biblical truths such as the Great Flood and the 6,000 year-old age of the Earth, nostrils flare and faces turn red.  Also, not to add insult to injury, but once Thomas Jefferson became president, he took steps to ensure there was a continued wall of separation between church and state; he firmly believed that religion was a very personal matter and that the government had absolutely no business meddling in religious affairs.  (See Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 for his own words on this subject.)

It is reasonable to assume that a document who’s purpose was to guide an entire nation by vividly defining its future down to the detail including how they intended about going about achieving it, would not have accidentally left out something as critical as the deity that they wanted to have as part of their government.  Although Christians like to tell us what god “really” meant in relation to many of the disgraceful passages in the Bible, they often try to do the same with the Constitution.  But this argument does not lessen the plain fact that the founding fathers intentionally kept religion separate from government from the earliest days of this great nation.

Declaration of Independence

What typically happens next, is Christians who have learned some of the talking points in relation to American History sometimes shoot back with the fact that “God” is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.  The problem is, is that it’s not the God they believe it to be and via the typical centrist thinking and lateral reasoning by Christians who feel that the mere mention of “God” is “proof” that we were a Christian nation founded on Christianity.

Unfortunately, most of the Declaration was penned by aforementioned deist, Thomas Jefferson (who believed that religion was far too personal to be any business of any government).  Furthermore, the Declaration describes “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” and not “the Laws of Nature and of our Christian God” like many Christians like to believe.  When rights that were “endowed by their Creator” was mentioned, if there was such a unifying belief in the God of the Bible, it is more than reasonable to arrive at the conclusion that there would be some specific mention of this is in at least document, but it is conspicuously left out of this one as well.

And, compared to the Constitution, this was nothing more than that; a formal Declaration alerting England that ours was going to be a government of people and for the people, rather than one based on tradition, religion, superstition, or kings and queens who hold the ultimate power.  Our founders were radicals, but Christians do their best to not only forget these things, but to make those who disagree with them seem un-American to boot.

More Inarguable Facts

If none of these facts are enough for Christians, I offer a few, among many, of the most devastating and inarguable piece of evidence I have encountered, taken from the mouths of the very people they often hold up as emissaries of their assertions:

Taken from the opening line of a treaty signed by George Washington and John Adams in 1797: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”¦”

A quote from Abraham Lincoln: “The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.”

I offer three quotes from our 4th President of the United States; James Madison: “What have been the fruits of Christianity? Superstition, bigotry and persecution.” He offered further clarification of his position by stating; “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries,” but perhaps the most damning observation he made is taken from “A Memorial and Remonstrance” in 1785: “Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.”

Despite these impossible-to-misinterpret words of some of our founding fathers, many like to point to the religion that each of these men was brought up with as evidence that they were indeed Christians.  Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and many more went to great effort to separate themselves from the dogma of the Church’s they were raised in, offering a much wider and more tolerant view of their religious leanings, yet somehow that original spirit has been trampled, buried, murdered, and shouted away for many unfortunate years now.

Freemasons and God

The fact that 15% of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were confirmed Freemasons should also be a clear indicator of the meaning of the term “God” as well.  Freemasons believe in a Supreme Being that they often refer to as “God” but certainly not the God of the Bible as Christians like to try to claim.  I actually find it extraordinarily arrogant that Christians attempt to argue someone else’s beliefs regarding their own meaning of the word “God”.

And, in relation to this “God” concept, Wikipedia states: “Supreme Being is often defined simply as ‘God’, and it is used with this meaning by theologians of many religious faiths, including, but not limited to, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Deism. However, the term can also refer to more complex or philosophical interpretations of the divine. Many fraternal organizations, especially those which admit members of diverse religious backgrounds use the term as a generic description, allowing the candidate to adhere to whichever deity or concept he holds to be appropriate.”

Some Conclusions

Despite these numerous quotes, Christians will still often repeat their mantra that the United States was founded on Christianity, and all people like are attempting to do is rewrite history.  Or if that doesn’t work, they’ll throw their original examples to the wolves and shift their argument to; “This country was built by many founding fathers, and singling out just a few does not express the ideals of the Christian majority,” even though we have the very words of the widely accepted most notable founding fathers; the ones who most shaped our early government proving otherwise at our disposal.

But any thinking being can see how shallow and desperate all of those arguments are, and for me; I just feel bad that something has been so deeply ingrained in these people’s heads, that even when faced squarely with the facts; they are unable to accept them.  But that’s been the tactic of Christians since the early days of Christianity, so it, unfortunately comes as no surprise.  And it’s really just another tool (as explained in my “Christian Tactics Revealed” section) that Christians have no choice but to use, hoping that by saying something enough times, loudly enough, or with enough force and intimidation, that it will transform their assertions into the truth.  Oddly enough, this tactic has proven far more effective than one might imagine possible, and if one believes this is a far-fetched claim on my part, it only takes looking to a history rife with examples that would take up entire volumes on their own.

In fact, it doesn’t take looking too deeply under the surface of things to see how powerful the religious right has become; they have a lobby so powerful that Congressmen and even candidates running for the presidency MUST appeal to if they have any hope of being elected.  Although not nearly as fanatical then as politicians are now, anyone in early government office still had to put on religious airs if they hoped to remain in office.  Despite our founding fathers being adamant and vividly clear about keeping religion out of politics, I hate to think what they would think about the hijacking of this country by the religious right.

I can’t help imagining what a different world we might live in if Christians took the time to at least read the few things that they base their entire belief systems on; the Bible, their own Constitution, and their own Declaration of Independence.  I have a feeling that there would be far fewer Christians, and what I find most interesting, is that coinciding with the advent of the internet in households the world over, those who claim to be Christians have their numbers dwindling. Could the walls of ignorance be crashing down and being rebuilt with truth, facts, and education, at least in relation to religious dogma?  I like to think so, and only time will bear out whether I’m a prophet or a fool, but I predict that this isn’t an isolated trend, and that membership in the Christian Church will continue to fall as the internet grows.

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“Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” – U.S. Constitution, First Amendment

Where humans are from and why we’re here is perhaps the question that has most fascinated and perplexed me for many years. While researching, I looked to philosophers such as Descartes, Plato and Jung, but they were all too heady for me. I wanted cold, hard facts. I wanted the raw data that showed us exactly who we were and where life came from in the first place. This, then, led to an immense string of books, from ‘Evolution From Space’ by Sir Fred Hoyle, to ‘Darwin’s Black Box’ by Michael Behe, to ‘Finding Darwin’s God’ by Ken Miller , the atheist’s bible; ‘The God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins, and a still-growing collection of books that’s verging on obsession on my part.

I poured through journals, books, essays and articles from all sides of the debate that offered theories of evolution and the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.  I couldn’t get enough and could sense this overwhelming sense of “something’s not right here.”  And one day, like the proverbial light going on in one’s head; it hit me:  It became abundantly clear that each author was compelled to prove or disprove the existence of a god couched within the very narrow framework of “atheism versus Christianity with dashes of agnosticism.”

It was as if the only legitimately arguable positions by the leading thinkers on the topic are atheist, Christianity, or agnostic.  This baffled me at first until I looked at the statistics:  All of these books were by Westerners, and the overwhelming majority of Westerners are either Christian, atheist or agnostic.

Spirituality, especially when coupled with physics, is a fertile ground of answers and explanations.  When one frees oneself of the bounds of these limited perspectives of atheism, Christianity, agnosticism or nothing, there is much more latitude to construct answers to one of the most fundamental questions that we humans ask ourselves.

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In simple terms; quantum physics states that we cannot predict the outcome of any single quantum event.  A favorite example is the photon that bounces off a reflector 95% of the time, but decides, completely randomly, 5% of the time, to go right through it, or to not go through it at all.  This means, without needing to twist the facts even slightly, that the underlying fabric of our material world is in a continual state of sheer, utter, unpredictability down to an atomic level, and especially at an atomic level. There are countless billions of atomic events occurring within every moment, all of which are predictable only in a statistically significant way, but never with the knowledge of the outcome of any one of those events. Humans, holding this form as humans, exist only because enough quantum events occur in our favor, tenuously holding these carbon-based frames together.

In other words, we, as humans, are somewhat insulated from this unpredictability (such as an atom randomly deciding to go through a reflector rather than bounce off of it), because we are composed of more than enough atoms to create a statistical probability that is so reliable, it can hold form as a solid object such as a human being indefinitely. But the fact still remains that we are really nothing more than the statistical, but completely unknowable and unpredictable result of the actions of these atoms.

Quantum mechanics can show a pattern over time, but each event that makes up this pattern is completely unpredictable and unknowable. More interesting, though, is that this conclusion about atomic events being unknowable is not a result of a lack of preciseness in any of our measuring equipment or because of gaps in our knowledge pertaining to these events; we can measure any event at an atomic level precisely, but the event itself can never be predicted with 100% accuracy.

Therefore, the concept of time being non-linear couldn’t make any sense in terms of the world we are able to observe now, at least in an absolute sense. Why? – Because the future is unknowable due to the unknowable outcomes of atomic events. The best we can hope for is a statistically possible future, or a series of future events that are nothing more than a set of probabilities.

To further complicate the issue, time changes depending on our position in time and space when we observe it, and as mass grows to infinity at the speed of light, time also comes to a crawl, making it impossible to travel faster than the speed of light in these forms. Even if the theoretical speed of light barrier could be broken, it is agreed that our space traveler wouldn’t suddenly be catapulted into the future; they would instead experience the reversal of time, growing younger as they continued their journey through the universe.

So, an external, all-knowing god bound by physics or quantum mechanics would only be able to see every one of the potential timelines that may come into being the exact moment a particular outcome to a random atomic event occurs, making the predicting an event past the present moment, nothing more than an informed guess.

To me, this unpredictability is humans witnessing the mind of this god at work.

My god does his/her work within the unpredictability of quantum mechanics and quantum events. Since there is no way for us to predict with any precision whatsoever, what the outcome of a single event might be, there is vast room for endless tinkering, endless experimentation if this god, this cosmic intelligence, were not bound by the laws of physics that we, in these carbon-based frames are bound to.

This is a lovely thought, and makes god more alive than ever in my fanatically skeptical mind. I am constantly seeking answers, and despite my desire for a Nisargadatta freedom from desire, this body, this mind, and this spirit desires. I like desire; it brings me untold joy, and lets me experience this existence as fully as I feel I am able to, the short time I am here.

This musing was an addendum to a question that asked me if DARWIN KILLED GOD.

Like many others, I grew increasingly dissatisfied with all organized religions (I was brought up Roman Catholic), especially after my extensive research into all the major ones I had any interest in such as Buddhism. Each seemed like little more than organizations intended to control unsuspecting masses, with scriptures of each twisted and conformed by whoever happened to be in power at the time in order to maintain control and power at any cost.

To me, much to my surprise, the worst offender was Christianity (Like the Church of Scientology who also espouses hate as the basis of their religious system, and relies on their members never actually taking the time to do any of their own research into the validity of their own religion and religious histories).

Being brought up Catholic, I started my research into world religions, and naturally started with my own. What I thought would be a quest for spirituality quickly turned to a grim discovery of atrocities, countless murders, hate, violence, oppression, fraud, plagiarism, and a host of other events that I never imagined could be at the core of the only religion I knew growing up.

Before stepping onto any soapbox, the only “religion” I found that suited me in any capacity was Mysticism, and in Mysticism, there can be many varieites.  But none of it was necessary to give my life meaning, and certainly didn’t answer the question I was most interested in which was simply:  ”Is there a god at all?”  Sufism is a form of Mysticism movement based on direct connection to the Divine (whatever that may be for each of us), which teaches of personal control, power, and definition as to what any of it means for each of us, with an emphasis on love and loving.  To me, it provides far more of a moral compass that Christianity and the God of the Bible could ever hope to provide.

But my true passion and belief system resides in the kind of Mysticism that the American Indians or the Mayans (see “Shamanism and the Mayans” for one example) guided their lives by.  It’s the kind of belief system that puts the power and responsibility squarely in our own hands.  It provides countless pathways to the Divine through deep meditation, often assisted or accompanied by teacher plants known as entheogens.  Even Christianity has sacraments born not of the strange concept of eating the “flesh and blood” of their God, but by working with Teaching Plants brewed into a sacrament called Ayahuasca.

But back to the Sufis; my discussions of Shamanism, Mysticism, and Teaching plants is another topic entirely.

So, Rumi was the most famous Sufi; an ambassador to those who wished to learn about Sufism, and one of the books I would put near the top of my list of favorites (next to books like “Finding Darwin’s God”, “The Holographic Universe”, “Kafka on the Shore”, and “Dune”), would be the ‘Way of Passion’ by Andrew Harvey. The book opens with Rumi’s poem about his direct connection with his Beloved:

One breath from the lover would be enough to burn away the world
To scatter this insignificant universe like grains of sand.
The whole of the cosmos would become a sea,
And sacred terror rubble this sea to nothing.
No human beings would remain, and no creature:
A smoke would come from heaven: there would be no more man or angel:
Out of this smoke, flame would suddenly flash-out across heaven.
That second, the sky would split apart and neither space nor existence remain.

Anyway, back to Christianity for a minute: I couldn’t come to terms with all the hate that was rampant in my church; I was invited to anti-abortion rallies where participants held pictures of dead and decapitated bodies, I was encouraged to burn music and books labeled as “evil”, and I was told that those who didn’t believe in my religion were doomed to Hell, and needed to look elsewhere for my own sanity.

I also couldn’t come to terms with the vast violence of the Bible (See my “Be a Good Christian: Kill Your Children?” article for a detailed list of atrocities).  I simply couldn’t understand how the God who we were supposed to love and worship, and the God who was supposed to love us in return, could do things like ask Abraham to kill his son to prove his love, or command such death and destruction to those who did not believe in him, including an entire world’s population in the story of Noah’s Flood (which sounds an awful lot like Gilgamesh; a flood story that existed LONG before Noah and his Ark), or an entire army in the parting of the Red Sea, or entire nations that angered him, and even the first-borns of His own people to ensure that there would be no chance of Him losing His “rightful” position as the one and only true God.

I mean really, why kill all the animals on Earth except for 2 of each; what did the animals ever do to God?  And I have this burning question about what exactly those animals ate for 40 days and 40 nights, since a large number of them are carnovires…if there were only 2 gazelles, 2 zebras, etc., what would the 2 lions, the 2 tigers, the 2 leopards, and all the other meat-eaters eat on this ark, and what animals would be left to re-populate the Earth? – Maybe all the carnivores turned to vegetarianism for the duration of the flood…

Either way, look no further than the Inquisitions, the Crusades, the more recent Ku Klux Klan movements, racism, as well as wars waged in the name of God to see what a history of death and destruction that has been in the name of Jesus Christ.  See ‘Crimes of Christianity‘ also available in PDF format on this website, or research on recent atrocities by Christianity in early America.

This doesn’t even take into account the very recent discovery of the Lost Tomb of Jesus; something that most Christians are ignoring, and doing their absolute best to debunk. Unfortunately, they are relying on misinformation, misdirection, and outright lies in the hopes that most people won’t take the time to do the research themselves, like many other organized religions have done throughout time.

But, once I stopped banging my head against the wall and took a step back, I decided to look to the reason why Christians cling so irrationally to their beliefs.  It all became vividly clear and my “Clinging to Irrationality” sets forth a clear and irrefutable explanation of the irrationality.  It can be summed up in a single word:  Indoctrination.

Back to the question:  “What Religion Do You Ascribe To?”:

Many people think I’d be a Buddhist, and although I think their peaceful way of living is a beautiful way to exist, Buddha believed that we are “temporal creations born to lives of sorrow and suffering”. I think we are temporal creations born to lives of whatever we choose for ourselves, whether it’s hate, love, joy, or anguish, or the infinite number of options we are given as humans. I deeply believe that we have the power to choose our own realities, and Buddhism is at odds with that.  Two quick overviews of Buddhism and its beliefs can be found on this website and another on this website, and the strict set of rules, the need for suffering, eating once a day, giving up all my worldly posessions (despite the few I actually have); not for me, thanks.

I live by my one Golden Rule: Treat others as I would myself. Chrtistians often immediately jump on this as evidence of how I DO ascribe to Christianity no matter how much I claim I don’t, but unfortunately, that quote is not taken from Christianity; it’s taken from a Buddhist saying that existed LONG before Christianity stole that one.  (Sorry again, Christians.)

Despite anyone’s religious affliction, I think the above is where most of us fail on multiple counts.  Anyone who knows that many name brand clothes and sneakers are made in sweat shops in Taiwan, where workers are forced to put in 18 hour days, starting work at 13 years old, and working for less than $5.00/day, shouldn’t buy those clothes or sneakers, but most of us don’t think about it or don’t care.  But that’s your business, and like my vegetarianism, it’s a choice I have made for myself, and as long as I’m not hurting anyone else, no one has the right to butt into my life and my world unless I’ve specifically invited them.

So, what religion do I ascribe to? My own. I take issue with at least one element of all organized religions, and have never really seen the purpose of them for the people who belong to them, other than giving them a way of feeling hope, or to feel that their lives have some meaning, or to have a moral code dictated to you. My life has plenty of meaning, and I can’t imagine anyone else possessing a greater ability to define my personal religion and connection with the Divine than myself, period.

I offer clear evidence as to why people cling to irrational beliefs in my “Clinging to Irrationality” article and in the Delusions of Religion section I offer much more explanation that may be of use by many who question the validity of Christianity as a belief system, who question morality of the God of the Bible, who wonder if the Christian loudmouths have managed to distort facts and even have many believing that this country was born on Christianity (Easily refuted in my “The USA: Hijacked by Christians” article), and need some factual data to help you arrive at a more informed and fact-based opinion.