| Okay, once again, not wanting to turn into a lyrics poster, I am very fond of the new Fray song "You Found Me." it's very good and I have pretty much been listening to it non stop since yesterday. And actually, it kind of goes along with my post today... I recently came across a blog (by Papillon_Mom) about Christians needing to tell non believers that they are going to hell. It's all about being more aggressive in "saving souls," and not pussy footing around the "fact" that those who are not born-again in Jesus Christ are damned to eternity in hell. Of course, me being the person I am, felt compelled to reply. By the time I saw the post there were close to 300 comments and I think it eventually passed 500. Anyways, there was a lot being said in those comments, but I tried as best as I could to reply directly to the post itself. I'm going to repost everything here and hopefully try to expand on the points I made before. Okay and then this reply I made was actually in response to someone else's comment and because there are so many now, I can't find it, but it basically said something to the effect of Christianity equals freedom.Or, only once you get saved, can you truly be free. Here's the reply I posted. @Kim@revelife - i'm sorry but freedom is not living your life bound to the imaginary ties of some people's imaginary friend. that is authoritarianism. it is intellectual slavery and I for one am happy I "saw the light" before I wasted the rest of my time in a church. The BOTTOM LINE is you don't know what is going to happen to me when I die. I don't know what is going to happen to you when you die. You may have an idea, but that is all it is: an idea. A theory. But not even a good theory because it can never be proven one way or another. You cannot have a logical argument with a religious person about the afterlife or any of it because they do not stick to the rules of logic. They have the trump card: GOD! It doesn't matter if what I am saying makes sense, because it is blasphemous and that's the end of the story. For instance, if I say there is no scientific proof of any "creator" or design, intelligent or otherwise, then the theist will respond with something along the lines of "God proves himself everyday by speaking to people's hearts and saving sinners." Now, in this sentence, the supposed proof would probably be God's speaking. Of course that is subjective because the nature of God is to speak to a person individually and pass along his message that way. So the fact that God speaks to anybody could range anywhere from zero to one hundred percent true. We have nothing to go on besides the word of the person spoken to. Of course, there is a perfectly sound scientific alternative to God "speaking" to people. The obvious is that the person hearing God is suffering some kind of mental problems. A less obvious, but more likely reason, is the brain's capacity for imagination. The brain is always trying to convert sounds and sites that it doesn't immediately recognize into something familiar. It's why sometimes people see faces in shadows, when there's nothing there but shadows! Sometimes all the brain needs is a something resembling eyes, a nose, and a mouth (or any combination of them) and the brain does the rest! All of the sudden, one sees a face where there is nothing but shadows. The same is true with sound. When I was a kid, I would sleep through my alarm. The beeping would be loud, but for some reason, I would just incorporate the alarm sound into whatever dream I was having. It would keep the illusion of my dream going, rather than wake me. So if I was in school in the dream I was having at the time, and my alarm went off in real life, I might have translated that into, say, a ticking time bomb in my dream. Or some other kind of beeping, like a fire alarm. That way my subconscious adapts to keep the illusion from being shattered by realty. you don't have to be asleep to have your brain play tricks on you. If it is particularly windy outside, and maybe the wind is whistling through a crack in the window or something, that could sound like a mumbling voice, depending on the timber and pace of the sound. All that's needed is perhaps a lower toned whistle, and it doesn't take much for your brain to interpret it as a male's voice. The point is, the alleged proof of God is all subjective. There may have been a need for a "god" back before Enlightenment, but it's the 21st century. We should stop telling these fairy tales to our kids, and stop believing them ourselves. Only once we rid ourselves of the most divisive aspect of culture--religion--can we truly begin to bring the world together and stop needless war and genocide. Besides, it's absolutely apalling that we elect people in America who believe in the Bible verbatim. When the leaders of the world think that the world is destined to come to an end, and that they are going to heaven when it does, what incentive do they have to stop the next World War? |
