wobblygod

WELCOME

There’s lots about religion I get.  I get the sense of community and support, both physical and emotional, at a local level.  I love the sense of peace and the atmosphere of an English country churchyard.  All the religions Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism etc have produced wonderful art and architecture and music (we will gloss over who ultimately paid for all of that but I guess it wasn’t really the rich guy with his name on the plaque!).  I get the sense of belonging and identity.  I also get the comfort from believing that your deceased  loved one is in safe hands and you will meet them again when you die. 

I was brought up a Christian, went to Sunday school and was confirmed (a sort of initiation process that you go through when you are supposed to be old enough to understand what you are doing). For decades then I ignored religion as it didn’t seem to offer anything I needed.  It was much later in life I actually read the bible from page 1 – and that’s when it hit me that, far from the cuddly stories of Sunday School, the god it describes is more like the Taliban than the God of Love I had been led to believe.

I now have a number of friends, including some who were brought up in deeply evangelical communities, who have gone through the same journey – although for them, as you can imagine, it was more dramatic.  As they read, particularly the first 5 books of the bible, they realised that, all their lives, their priests and pastors had carefully guided them towards the few well-known safe passages within the bible and kept them well clear of its mainstream horrors; and horrors there are a plenty as you will see if you are brave enough to read on.

I struggled with the concept of a god and to get my thoughts straight I read lots around the subject before putting pen to paper.  Now, I hope, what follows are compelling arguments as to why there are definitely, 100% sure, no gods. I hope that by the time you have read on you will agree with me. 

For some this might be a disturbing prospect particularly if you feel being a christian or a muslim or whatever defines who you are.  But my friends who came from deeply conservative religious backgrounds will tell you that, on the contrary, they found it to be a wonderful release from faith in the supernatural and superstition to the comfort of enlightened, rational truth. From Darkness to Light. From Faith to Freedom.

Far from losing something valuable, what I do hope is that, instead, you will more deeply appreciate and feel the awe, wonder, excitement and delight of the beautiful earth we live on, the amazing universe we are part of and all the creatures, and indeed humans, with whom we share our home.  

This, I think, is what many people would call spirituality.  I don’t really like the term but if it works for you that’s great.   I hope you will find joy in what is beautiful and true rather than in religion, which you may come to agree with me, is neither of those things.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Some of the content herein is my original thought but much, if not most, is from erudite thinkers such as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Ricky Gervais, Rajendra Choudhari and others – my thanks to them all.  Also of course for the injection of some gentle humour, Dave Alan and the wonderful Jesus and Mo cartoons

TWELVE REASONS WHY I CANNOT BELIEVE IN GOD.

No.1 It’s ALL about wealth, power and control

Ever since man formed in tribes and wondered at the stars and sun and why the rains haven’t come and where all the animals and humans came from, there has been some bright spark who jumped up and said “I know, it’s the Mumbo Jumbo xyz god, we must do ABC ritual, and bring gifts and make sacrifices – and I am the only one who can speak to him”

…… and said bright spark became powerful and wealthy just like the Vatican, the CofE, the Evangelists, the Brahmins, the scientologists etc etc. 

It’s all about wealth, power and control.   That’s all it ever has been and ever will be about.

No.2 Thousands of gods – why chose this one?

It’s estimated that at least 18,000 gods and other deities have been worshipped over time – and 4000 of those still are.

Christians, Jews and Muslims think that 3999 of these are stupid.  Atheists think 4000 are stupid. 

Every religious adherent thinks their god is right and the rest are rubbish.

Seriously, what makes you think your god is any better than the rest? 

What’s the probability that all the rest are rubbish and, coincidentally, miraculously, the one you have chosen to worship turns out to be the one that is real?

If you are Christian think about Islam.  According to the Qur’an, both you as a Christian and I as an atheist are doomed to eternal damnation.  Does this cause you sleepless nights?  Probably not because, of course, YOU are praying to the real god.

If you are Muslim think about Christianity.  According to the bible, both you as a Muslim and I as an atheist are doomed to eternal damnation.  Does this cause you sleepless nights?  Probably not because, of course, YOU are praying to the real god.

But one of you MUST be wrong. 

You laugh at the stories of creation of other religions, for example in Greek mythology human beings were created by Prometheus, who fashioned them out of clay or mud, while the goddess Athena breathed life into the clay figures ……. Er ……excuse me! STOP THINK – how is that ANY different from the stuff you were taught as a child to believe in?

Please proceed to No 3. For me, No 3 is really the killer argument. Any god you can think of is totally not up to creating the universe.

No.3 Let’s get our puny gods in perspective – there’s no way they created the universe

• The universe is HUGE.  If the universe were the Sahara Desert, ( or the USA covered 3m (10ft) deep in sand) then our solar system would be just a single grain of sand (click here for an explanation)
• and our earth is not even one millionth of the diameter of the solar system
• and we are but microbes on that millionth of a grain of sand.  
• READ THOSE BULLET POINTS AGAIN – SLOWLY – and again till it sinks in.
• But all the gods we dream up are nearly always just big humans (OK occasionally elephants).  The bible even says that we “are made in his image”
• So even if this god thing was as big as the earth or even as big as the solar system, it would still totally not be up to creating the universe. 
• Alternatively, if it were big enough to create the universe, then it sure ain’t going to be interested in any gifts of food or gold we give it or whether we sing songs to it!  

Think about it.  Supposedly this biblical god (Jehovah, Allah, whatever) made the whole universe.  In our Sahara Desert model of the universe, he looks at this one millionth of a grain of sand with his super powerful microscope and sees that there are some microbes on it – us!  

He sees that some of the microbes are slightly different and decides they are going to be his “chosen race of microbes” and they can have that bit of the millionth of the grain of sand and he’ll kill off any that come near them.   In return he’ll make them chop off the end of their willies. 

He worries about the morals of the microbes on this millionth of a grain of sand especially about how obedient the females are to the males or whether any of them have naughty thoughts.  Then he demands that they bring him gifts of food and gold. 

It is just hilariously, insanely stupid.  How much food or gold is there on this millionth of a grain of sand that could possibly be of importance to the thing that owns the whole of the desert and, more ridiculous, how much less can the little microbes hold in their sweaty little hands?  But 100 pages of the bible are given to him specifying the gifts he wants.   Then the priests point out that god isn’t here at the moment “but if you leave the gifts with us, we’ll sort it out”.  And the priests get richer and more powerful.

If you are already atheist, you’ll be screaming “how can people be so gullible that they don’t smell the same rat that runs around in every religion ever invented?” 

But, if you have been religious so far, don’t beat yourself up about it because:

• if you are told it’s true as a child
• your priests reinforce it and keep you away from the bad bits
• blasphemy laws whip up your peers to attack you if you dare question it
• , , , the bible is far too boring (and such tiny print) to actually read and
• you are too busy anyway

– so until someone actually presents you with the alternative view you just go along with the story. Even then it is soo difficult to accept because if I show that, say, christianity is nonsense, the non aligned person will assess my arguments and say yes that makes sense and accept it but the christian cannot (or finds it very hard to) accept it because “being christian” is part of who they are – their identity. What I hope is that I can convince you that there are far better identities to build your life around and that it is OK to change.

There’s a lovely, fun, mind-boggling thing you can do (especially with kids) to try to get your (or their) minds around the insignificance of the earth in the solar system, let alone its insignificance in the universe.  It’s called the 1000-yard model and you can find it here.   We can do it today because of what we know about the universe but, of course, the writers of the bible or the qur’an didn’t have that knowledge nor, spookily, did their god!

No.4 God has less knowledge of the universe than the average 10yr old and I’m supposed to believe he created it!

So, this thing created the universe, right?

So how come he forgot that:

• the earth is spherical not flat
• the earth isn’t the centre of the universe
• the earth is a bit more than 6000 years old
• he twice created dinosaurs but they are not here anymore
• he once created Neanderthals, Denisovans, and others who lived, interbred with us, and went extinct—which doesn’t quite fit with his Adam and Eve story.

Oh no say the diehard bible apologists:

• “God didn’t forget anything; humans misunderstood.
• Sacred texts were never meant as science textbooks.
• Ancient descriptions reflect the worldview of their time, not divine error.
• Truth can be layered: theological meaning vs. empirical explanation.”

In the gentlest possible way may I suggest that it is obvious (to most people) that his ignorance reflects exactly the ignorance of the people who wrote the bible.  It is beyond any doubt that he was just an invention of the time – just like every other god.

No.5 A god of Hate NOT a god of love.

It is the reading of just the first five books of the bible (which are also the basis of the quoran- click here if you didn’t know that) that makes it quite clear that this being is definitely not a god of Love but a god of hate and bigotry. He is inconsistent, capricious, torturing, murdering, raping, genocidal, infanticidal, homophobic and misogynistic.  He unquestioningly supports slavery and it seems he will do anything that pleases the Israelites (who invented him)

May I ask you a question?  Do you believe that of the way the Taliban live and enforce their views upon their people represents a good way to live?  I’m guessing, if you are a normal westerner (and not an incel, manosphere, Christian nationalist), that your answer to that is going to be no.  Sorry to tell you but the Taliban are the only group obeying the bible in all its horror and misogyny. 

Western Christians ignore the bits they don’t like or maybe they never knew them since they haven’t read the Bible themselves.  God supposedly says that women should never speak in public (even St Paul in the New Testament reinforces this) but women today conveniently ignore this – meanwhile many of them love the bit about hating Gays and want to enforce it because it plays to their natural bigotry.

To see examples and references for each of my accusations of the horrors of god click here.

No.6 God is either incompetent or evil – no middle ground.

Millions of children die in fear and pain from no fault of their own every year.  It is happening right now at this second.  Their parents probably believe in god and are praying for them.  But their prayers will not be answered. According to Christian bullshit this is all part of god’s plan. But if any god permits this and all the other horrors that beset us, he is either incapable of doing so or is unwilling.  He is either incompetent or evil.  There are no other choices.  He is therefore, by definition, not the loving all powerful god you had been told about. 

Apologists argue that God is mysterious.  When you pray and something good happens then god is good and great but when a tsunami washes away 1000s of children then he is mysterious.  It is not only tiresome when otherwise intelligent people talk this way but it is morally reprehensible.

And what about those parents praying for their children to survive.  If they are, for example, Hindu then, no matter how good and loving they are, according to the bible and Christian belief (or the qur’an and muslim belief) they are all doomed to eternal damnation in the fires of hell simply because they were born, as an accident of geography, into the wrong culture and praying to the wrong god.  How totally insane is this?  What sort of creator would have created such a ridiculous system.  (Thanks to Sam Harris for this section)

No.7 What has he/it been doing for the last 200,000years?

99.9% of all species that have ever existed have become extinct. 

Seriously do you believe that your god created all this huge universe, provided life supporting conditions on this little rock and, rather than just producing humans, invented evolution and, over billions of years went through all these iterations, leading to homo sapiens?

Homo Sapiens has been around for maybe 200,000 years.  Living, struggling and dying.  They have invented many gods in that time.  But the Christian god paid absolutely no attention to their plight for 198,000 years when he suddenly decides, with just 2000 years to go, that nailing some poor Palestinian to a cross will solve humanity’s problems.  He does absolutely fuck all for 200,000yrs until the Levite priests, Emperor Constantine or Mohammed need a new religion for their political/military purposes and, hey-ho, up he pops just at the right moment.  How convenient. 

How convenient too that he decides to show himself, not to the Chinese, Indians or Egyptians who all had reading and science at that time but to a particularly backwards tribe in the Middle East. (Thanks to Christopher Hitchens for this section)

No. 8 Where precisely, in this vast universe, is this god of yours hiding?

The bible said that he sat on a cloud – but now we have been up there and found he isn’t there, the bible apologists of course now say that that was just symbolic.

Perhaps he’s hiding in a black hole? But no, there are millions of black holes and he must be bigger than that.  If he created the whole universe, he is presumably bigger than it or at least on a similar scale so we should be able to see him as he must be bigger than millions of galaxies.  Since we can’t see him and in order to create the universe, he is presumably outside it.

And if he is just an invisible spirit then how did he create anything physical?

Therefore he/it must be at least 13bn light years away. So it’s hardly surprising that your prayers aren’t answered straight away! 

I really wouldn’t worry about him – he ain’t going to make an appearance in your lifetime!

 No.9 Show me something he/it has actually done

I have a friend who talks on a 1-1 with his God regularly – if you think you do, please re-read 3 above – I can assure you it’s not God you are talking to!

I met a Ugandan who had been held as a political prisoner.  “I prayed to God and I was saved”.  Oh dear! What about all the others in there who also prayed to God and were not saved?  And what about those who didn’t pray to God but were saved anyway?  You praying to God and something good happening are not cause and effect – just, for you, a fortunate coincidence.

Whether it is astrology, crystal balls, tarot cards or reading the tea leaves, the probability of them being right is just 50 50.  They have no influence on reality and have zero knowledge of the future.  Praying has the same success rate – or actually much lower if you are praying to win the lottery or for that gorgeous blonde in human resources to fall miraculously in love with you!

What about all the stuff he was supposed to have done in the Old Testament – you know, flooding the earth, parting the red sea, bringing down the walls of Jerico, burning bushes.  For most of it there is not a shred of archaeological evidence for it – just stories written by a bunch of priests whose self-interest included making up fantastical stories.

No. 10 I have held the hand of Jesus

I was lying on my bed for a week or more with spinal problems. I was taking Codeine (an opiate derivative medicine). Actually, I was not taking very much at all – much less than the allowable dose but it seems that I am quite susceptible to its side effects.

I started having wonderful, incredibly vivid, hallucinations. Generally, eyes closed but wide awake. After a while I was recording on my “Dictaphone” what I was seeing. Then, suddenly, without warning, there he was in his long white robe. He was right next to my bed towering above me, as tall as 2 or 3 normal men, a skylight above his head (there wasn’t one in my room!) shining light around his head. I laughed and said “what are you doing here, I’m an atheist” but nevertheless he reached his hand down and I took it.

If I had been religious, it would have been a moment of ecstasy – but I’m not and it wasn’t. So, what was going on?

Please, for a moment, scan your eyes around the room. The light reflecting off the objects in the room land on your retina. That light is converted into electronic impulses which pass up your optic nerve to the brain. The brain does not “see” the room, it has to model an image of it from the impulses it is receiving. It is amazing. Everything you see, even in a fast-moving situation, is modelled by your brain from electrical impulses. It’s doing it instantly in real time. A video camera can do this of course but your brain is also interpreting what it sees and filling in gaps from its previous knowledge to complete the images. It’s still faster than the best video camera with AI backing. But, just like AI, it can be fooled as it fills in the gaps and it can make erroneous assumptions. These errors are what we call optical illusions and you can find some great ones here or here.

It doesn’t need much to trigger your brain to produce images. To prove it to myself, I closed my eyes again and saw some random clouds. As I looked at them, I noticed that one formation looked a bit like a lion. Moments later I was scrabbling back against the headboard as this scary, utterly realistic lion was coming towards me.

If your brain can do this, it can cook up a virgin Mary or a Jesus for you without even getting out of first gear. Sorry guys, but your “visions” are just that.

In another instance, with my eyes slightly open the light flickering in the blurry moisture in the corner of my eye brought about a musician and then a group of them playing jazz. It was great music I could hear as well as see. I read somewhere of a couple driving down a tree lined road with the sun flickering between the trees in the side of their eyes. Suddenly they both saw a figure crossing the road and disappearing. So similar to my own experience. Later they found that many had seen the grey lady at that spot. Doesn’t the fact that they both saw it give more validity to the supernatural? Except that she saw an old woman and he saw an attractive young one. The mind models what it wishes to.

No.11 Inconsistencies of the scriptures show they were written by humans

The lists of inconsistencies in the scriptures, which (especially the qur’an) claim to be the true and unalterable word of god, are so long as to be boring. 

According to the bible and the Qur’an there are no errors or inconsistencies in either

Hebrews 6:18 — “It is impossible for God to lie.”

​​2 Timothy 3:16 — “All scripture is God-breathed.”

Surah An-Nisa (4:82), which states: “Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’an?  If it had been from [any] other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction.” I guess that proves it is not from Allah as it is brim full of contradictions!

Here are a just a few from the bible that contradict that – but you can google many more.

Creation –

there are 2 completely different accounts of creation following one another in Genesis.  They cannot both be right.

Will children be punished for the sins of their parents? ​​

YES: Deuteronomy 5:9-10 – “ . . .I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

NO: But in ​​Deuteronomy 24:16, “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”

Does god stay angry forever?

YES: Jeremiah 17:4 – “Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. . . . for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”

NO: Micah 7:18 – “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever . . . ”

Will faith or being law abiding get you eternal salvation?

FAITH: Galatians 2:16 – “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians 3:11 echoes that view: “So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” In Romans 3:20, it declares, “no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands.”

LAW: But in Romans 2:13, it says “For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God, but by doing what the Law commands.” And in James 2:24, it says “by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

Can god be seen?

YES: : Genesis 32:30 records Jacob saying, “I have seen God face to face,” and Exodus 33:11 notes that the Lord spoke to Moses “face to face.” 

NO: Timothy 6:16 describe God as dwelling in “unapproachable light” whom no one has seen or can see, and John 1:18 states, “No man hath seen God at any time.”

And Click here for a list of inconsistencies in the Qur’an

No. 12 The arguments of those still clinging to religion

Humans need a God, religion provides a moral framework

“The Bible is a good book, a holy book and gives us a safe guide by which to live our lives”. 

I beg to differ and if you have read the sections above, I would hope that you would too.  Rather:

“The human capacity of goodness arises from our biological, social and rational nature and not from any spiritual or supernatural entity.  Religion creates an illusion by claiming credit for this natural morality, and its entire system is built upon that illusion”.  (Rajendra Choudhari)

As a result, their children (including mine) have been brought up without any indoctrination into GATS, cannot say the Lord’s Prayer or know the 10 commandments.  Are they bad people?  Of course not.  My grown-up offspring are loving, caring, moral people and the population as a whole is certainly no worse than the religious population – indeed, I would argue that they are less bigoted and hateful than many christians and muslims.

Sadly, recently, the population is being swayed to hatred and bigotry by a right-wing media significantly funded by the Christian Evangelist movement.

Think about Hindus or Buddhists or Taoists – they don’t know anything of your bible (lucky them) so are they immoral?  Of course not – the whole concept is a nonsense.

Look at all the beauty around you, it cannot have happened by chance – there must be intelligent design

Well, if I were to take that at face value and agree with it, it would totally rule out the pathetic, ignorant little god of the bible as a contender. Christians and muslims need to start looking for an intelligent designer!

But that aside, think deeply about the cosmos, the trillions and trillions of stars and planets stretching out for billions of light years. The vast majority are too hot or too cold to sustain life. Where does intelligent design come into all of that? Intelligent design had some traction when all we knew was the earth and all its beauty but now we know it is a millionth of a grain of sand in the Sahara desert, it does not look like a lot of intelligence or concern for beauty went into the creation of the rest of the cosmos.

99.9% of all species that have ever existed have become extinct. 

Seriously do you believe that your god created all this huge universe, provided life supporting conditions on this little rock and, rather than just producing humans, invented evolution and, over billions of years went through all these iterations, leading to homo sapiens?

Some postulate with so many bits of rock out there it is improbable that life does not exist elsewhere and some postulate the opposite.

But what are the odds that self replicating life could have formed on earth by chance? Well in just the last 70 years we have discovered:

• In the famous Miller-Urey experiment (1953) and subsequent research that basic organic compounds like amino acids, nucleotides, and lipid bilayers can form spontaneously from inorganic precursors under simulated early Earth conditions. 
• that nucleic acids can polymerize without enzymes and that autocatalytic micelles can form spontaneously, with some molecules capable of self-replication. 
•  synthetic cells can be created by synthesizing genomes and transplanting them into host cells, and protocells can be engineered that exhibit basic life-like properties such as growth and division. 

The complete “creation” of life from matter has not been yet accomplished. However, the results from the experimental work done so far suggest that it is only matter of time.

You have to put the bible into the context of the time that it was written

People say this without thinking because, contrary to supporting the argument that it is the word of the lord, it is clear evidence/proof that the bible was indeed written by the men of the time.  If god was all powerful, omniscient, loving and caring he wouldn’t have been supporting slavery and the murder of innocents. His words would be true for all time.

Sure, the bible says that – but what it meant to say was …..

Evangelist and fundamentalist nutters aside, the mainstream of religion now accepts the earth is round, evolution occurs, the big bang most likely happened 13bn years ago etc. – even though accepting each one of these was a massive climb down from their previous positions.

We now have the likes of William Craig arguing for the existence of god through the laws of physics, evolution and string theory. Then, in the next breath suspending all these things so he can still have a virgin birth, miracles and a resurrection.

I found this humorous but pointed take on this point by the Atheist republic – it made me giggle. I hope that by now you will be coming round to the view that the best response to religion is to laugh at it and say “really, in the olden days people actually believed in all this stuff”

So, what about Jesus and Mohammed?

Jesus

No, I’m not going to talk about all the other Gods born of virgins on 25 December or that Emperor Constantine made the Christians formulate the new testament at the Council of Nicacea because, sadly, neither of these things appear to be true.

Let’s just stick to the simplest, irrefutable facts.  Assuming he existed, he was not born of a virgin, he did not carry our miracles nor was he resurrected and flew up to the right hand of a god we have already established does not exist.  Simply because we know those things are impossible and, just because some old book and your indoctrination says they are possible, does not make it so.

Again, Sam Harris eloquently compares this situation to a modern day supposed Messiah, Sathya Sai Baba, who carries out miracles all the time which his millions of followers totally believe in.  No one else of course believes in it. Click here starts at minute 9.

Seriously, which is more likely, that a bunch of gospel writers who, while they may have actually believed it just like Sathya Sai Baba followers do, also stood to gain prestige from the messianic properties of Christ, made the stuff up – OR that all the laws of the universe were suddenly reversed or overcome to make this convenient story of a messiah?  Or, for that matter, that a Jewish girl who found herself in a difficult situation told a few fibs?

To the rational mind it is incredible that people today will still accept this stuff so uncritically.

While, on balance, there probably was someone called Jesus around that time. the evidence is pretty thin.  Not a single contemporary Roman or Jewish chronicler or other source mentions him.  Not one.  About 80 years later the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 116 CE) makes a solid reference to Jesus.  He did have access to Roman records as a senior official but, equally, it could have been based on hearsay 80 years after the event.  There is a slightly wobblier reference from Josephus (c. 93 CE) and perhaps more compelling, Paul says he met Jesus’s brother James and there are references to Jesus’s siblings.

The gospels, meanwhile are all over the place.  Matthew and Lukes stories of the birth of are completely contradictory and Mark and John did not even mention the virgin birth – which one might have thought significant!  Matthew’s nativity story is particularly silly.  Just try following a star (or a comet) to any building you like and see what happens when you get there – “oh! It’s now over the next building!”   When you set off last night it was in the east, “oh no! now it’s in the south – no, now it’s in the west!”

Mohammed

Mohammed, on the other hand, was very real.  If you had been in the Byzantine or Persian armies as his forces defeated you, you would not have doubted it. 

His first visions and subsequent teaching got him into trouble and persecution for nigh on 20 years but he persisted.  He obviously believed in it.  Eventually he became a wise statesman known for his good judgement and he then managed to bring the disparate Arab tribes together into a very effective army to defeat their Byzantine and Persian oppressors.  His early writings were protective of the oppressed, of women, widows and orphans.   His most bloody cries of death to the non-believers, we are told, were cries to rally the troops before battle and not general instructions to violence – although unfortunately they are used that way by Jihadists and Islamists. Islam was undoubtedly a very useful creed around which to unite the tribes and his later visions were described by his wife Aisha as being often “convenient” especially just before a battle!  However, he clearly believed his earlier visions were real.  I am sure they were every bit as real as my meeting with Jesus.

Life after death? Yes – sort of!

Is there life after death?
I would rather say that:
“The people I loved who have died, live on in my heart and my memory. They will be with me, loving me, guiding me and comforting me till the day I die. When I am dead maybe my memory might help those I have loved and have left behind.”
Of course, I KNOW that neither they nor I will know anything about it because they and I will be dead – but that does not stop me feeling it while I am alive. I do not need some poxy religion to tell me to feel this way. I do not need to believe in a god or in heaven or hell to feel this way. I just need to be a human being.
Do I fear being dead? No, of course not, why should I? As the wonderful Mark Twain said “I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit.”
Of course, the actual process of dying is worthy of concern but that is entirely an earthly matter.

The 1000-yard model of the solar system

It’s an amazing thing to do with kids for real but for the moment just imagine it.  You need to gather the following for the elements of the solar system at the right scale – for real or just in your imagination, (we’re using imperial measurements because it works out to a neat 1000 yards and a metre is a bit too big for kids to pace out).  The following is courtesy of Noirlab.

Sun-any ball, diameter 8.00 inches
Mercury-a pinhead, diameter 0.03 inch
Venus-a peppercorn, diameter 0.08 inch
Earth-a second peppercorn
Mars-a second pinhead
Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan, diameter 0.90 inch
Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn, diameter 0.70 inch
Uranus-a peanut or coffee bean, diameter 0.30 inch
Neptune-a second peanut or coffee bean
Pluto– a third pinhead (or smaller, since Pluto is just a dwarf planet)

Put the peppercorn and the pinhead close to the sun and realise just how tiny our earth is compared to the sun.  But it is when we look at the real distances between them that it just blows your mind.  If you are doing it for real you will need to fix the planets to pieces of card otherwise you will lose them or maybe, if the ground is soft, to the top of tent pegs.  You need a space at least 1000yds long – maybe a beach, a long quiet street, a big playing field or open area.

Put the Sun ball down, and march away as follows.

10 paces. Put “Mercury’s pinhead down

Another 9 paces.  Put down the Venus peppercorn.
Another 7 paces. Now the Earth peppercorn

Already the thing seems beyond belief. Mercury is supposed to be so close to the Sun that it is merely a scorched rock, and we never see it except in the Sun’s glare at dawn or dusk-yet here it is, utterly lost in space! As for the Earth, who can believe that the Sun could warm us if we are that far from it? Or that its gravity can hold us over such distances.

Another 14 paces. Mars another pinhead

Now come the gasps, at the first substantially larger leap:

Another 95 paces to Jupiter

Here is the “giant planet”-but it is a chestnut, more than a city block from Mars!

From now on, amazement itself cannot keep pace, as the intervals grow extravagantly:

Another 112 paces. Saturn
Another 249 paces. Uranus
Another 281 paces. Neptune
Another 242 paces. Pluto – a ¼ of a pinhead, ½ mile from our 8 inch sun. 

Now see the huge circles that these specks of rock describe going around the sun in their orbits.  We are a staggeringly small piece of rock in a vast space. 

The diameter of the earth is ~8000 miles.

The diameter of the solar system to Neptune is 5,600,000,000 miles (9 billion km).

The diameter of the solar system to the edge of its heliosphere (where the solar wind is still effective) is 16.8 billion miles (27bn Km).

So we are ½ of a millionth of the diameter of the solar system.

It takes Neptune 165 of our years to orbit the sun.

The Sahara (OR USA) Desert Model of the universe

So, we just boggled at the insignificance of the earth in our local friendly solar system.  But that is just the beginning.  The sun is but one, mediocre star in the galaxy we call the Milky Way and the Milky Way contains 250,000,000,000 (250 billion) stars, each, no doubt, with its own bits of rock in orbit.  It’s not just the staggering number of suns and planets but also the distances between them.  It takes light 100,000 years to cross from one side to the other of just our galaxy.

But if that hasn’t given us mental vertigo, we now know that the Milky Way is only one of hundreds of billions of galaxies stretching 13 billion light years away. (For the scientists that’s 10 to the power 23 stars).

How can we get our heads around this? 

OK, the USA and the Sahara Desert are approximately equivalent in area.  Choose whichever you find easiest to imagine.  We’ll use the USA.   

Imagine if the USA, which is roughly 9,833,000km²), was covered with fine sand 3m (10ft) deep (That’s deeper than one guy standing on another guy’s shoulders) all the way from the Canadian border to Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  That’s a lot of sand, right?

There are 3000 grains of fine sand in a cubic centimetre (a sugar cube).  If you do the sums, you find that there is 1 grain of sand in the desert for each star in the universe!!!  Let that sink in.

So, our solar system would be just one grain of sand in the whole desert!  But wait, we just said that the earth is less than a millionth of the diameter of the solar system – so we are less than a millionth of a grain of sand in our sandy universe.

(Note of course that the grains of sand would also have to be flung across a great tract of space to be anything approaching realistic)

The Horrors of god

God/Allah/Jehovah is not a god of love. He is a god of hate and bigotry, he is inconsistent, capricious, torturing, murdering, raping, genocidal, infanticidal, homophobic and misogynistic. Obviously, he supports slavery or anything else that pleases the Israelites (who invented him)
Here are just a few examples to prove the point

Inconsistent
God, through Sarah, tells Abraham to have sex with Sarah’s Egyptian slave girl so she has a child by him because Sarah was too old and barren. When the child is 6 yrs old god changes his mind and enables Sarah to become pregnant – and lo, she has a child – leading to all sorts of problems – including, supposedly, the formation of the muslim faith.

Capricious
Abraham again, this time being told to kill his own son to prove his devotion to god – who, at the last moment, says, in effect, ha ha, only joking. Genesis 22:1-18

Torturing

• In the plagues of Egypt he tortured the innocent people of Egypt to persuade the Pharoh to release the Jews. Then, because he evidently so enjoyed the torture, when Pharoh was about to concede, god “hardened Pharoh’s heart” so he again refused to release the Jews so god could enjoy torturing the poor people some more – why else would he do that? And if he was so able to control the Pharoh’s thoughts, why didn’t he get him to release the Jews at the beginning?
• He ordered Satan to torture Job for a bet. Even christians struggle with the obscenity of this.

Murdering
Where to begin?

In the old testament he kills at least 30 million humans either to support the Israelites or because he cocked up and, for example, decided that all the people (that he had created) in the world were evil apart from Noah and his wife and had to be exterminated.

Genocidal / infanticidal
eg Numbers 31.16 – after attacking Midian and slaying all the males because they worshipped some other god (well why should they be worshipping the Israelites latest god incarnation?) the soldiers returned with their booty including the women and children. On the instructions of God, Moses was furious and told them to kill all the male children and their mothers but that they could keep the virgins for themselves. They took 32000 virgins. Genocide was repeated for the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Cannanites, Hivites, Jebusites etc. Moses claimed to be guided by god so you can draw your own conclusions as to where goodness does or doesn’t lie!

Raping
Just about everywhere! Eg.
• Abraham told to rape his wife’s maidservant and put her with child.
• The 32,000 virgins above!
• The elders of Israel instructed the men of the tribe of Benjamin to lie in wait in the vineyards at Shiloh and kidnap daughters of Siloh to serve as wives. Judges 21:19-23.

Misogynistic.
Genesis 3:16 In this verse, God tells Eve, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth; with painful labour you will give birth to children” (NIV) .
The ultimate misogynist. – I mean, he could have had a go at Adam instead “I will greatly multiply your pain during sex …” Now that would have solved a few problems! But no, it was written by men!
Ephesians 5:22–24 : “Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”

As I keep saying, religion is all about power and control – especially of women.
Genesis 19:8 – During the destruction of Sodom, a mob demands to sexually assault Lot’s male guests (angels). Lot responds:
“Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them as you please. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” Similar story in Judges 19:24.

If that’s what they think of you girls why on earth would you have anything to do with the bunch of loonies. Throughout the whole silly book you are made subordinate to men, slaves to your father until your husband buys you and then you are to be a slave to him.

Exodus 22

• A Hebrew male servant may win his freedom – a female may not (obviously – that would be ridiculous as females are never free!).
• A man can sell his daughter as a servant. The master can have sex with her or give her to his son (in which case he must treat her as a daughter – (so its not all bad!)

Who wrote the bible and why?

The earliest version we have are the Dead Sea scrolls which were dated from 300-100BC.  It is thought they were written by the Essenes – a Hebrew sect of fairly ascetic philosophers.  As with all religions it would have been for power and control and it is evident that the main beneficiaries were the priestly class and the Levites and that remains true right to the current day in the Jewish faith.  The Levites (descendants of Levi) were a favoured tribe a bit like the Brahmins in the Hindu faith.  Some of them were actual priests too and some weren’t.

How is the qur’an based on the bible?

Sarah (Serai) was old and barren.  She was over 100 years old.  Remember this at a time when, according to the bible, people lived to 900 years or more.  So, she tells her husband Abraham (Abram) to impregnate (rape) her Egyptian slave girl (hand maiden) Hagar.  This he does and Hagar presents a child to continue the line.  Then god messes things up by making Sarah fertile again so she has her own child. 

There was then rivalry between the women and Hagar and her son Ishmael were sent out into the desert.  The details differ between the muslim and jewish telling of the story but her water ran out and she ended up with a tribe that we now call Bedouin.  This, according to tradition, became the Arab and eventually muslim line.

The first 5 books of the old testament are called the Torah and are the common basis of the three religions.  The qur’an references this in its opening sections.

Laughter is the best medicine

Finally – Faith to Freedom – A journey beyond God

Above all, I hope that some of this has given you food for thought. If you were agnostic or did not hold any strong views about religion, I hope that it will clarify the reality of religion and the next time you face a census question on whether you are religious or believe in god(s) you will be more confident to say what you are.

If you are religious and have been brave or curious enough to get this far, I return to what I said in the Welcome, if any of the above has made you re-think, I understand that this might be a disturbing prospect particularly you feel that being a christian or a muslim or whatever is about who you are as a person, part of your identity.  But my friends who came from deeply conservative religious backgrounds will tell you that, on the contrary, they found it to be a wonderful release from unquestioning faith in the supernatural and medieval superstition – to the comfort of enlightened, rational truth. From Darkness to Light. From Faith to Freedom.

From Darkness to Light. From Faith to Freedom

Those friends changed their identity. Their new identity is founded in the understanding that this life is the only life we have, that the universe is a natural phenomenon with no supernatural side, and that we can live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. Their new identity uses evidence, and reason to discover truths about the universe and places the welfare of our planet, including humans, at the centre of their ethical decision making.

They are not alone. This philosophy has inspired many of the world’s greatest artists, writers, scientists, philosophers and social reformers, from renaissance figures like Galileo, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci to Einstein, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawkins to the likes of today’s Stephen Fry or Brian Cox and has a millennia-long tradition in both the western and eastern worlds.

Far from losing something valuable, what I do hope is that, instead, you will more deeply appreciate and feel the awe, wonder, excitement and delight of the beautiful earth we live on, the amazing universe we are part of and all the creatures, and indeed humans, with whom we share our home.  

 I hope you will find joy in what is beautiful and true rather than in religion, which you may come to agree with me, is neither of those things.

For many, this understanding, the enlightenment, is sufficient. For others a label is needed. Humanist is such a label but perhaps you will have the confidence and independence to be just an enlightened free thinker or to invent your own label.

If you feel in need of help and support or just more food for thought, there are a number of organisations such as the Humanists who have many local groups with all sorts of supportive activities. In particular they are well set up to help people trying to escape high control religions with their Faith to Faithless program which, despite its clumsy name, it is run by good, supportive people. Others include:

• The National Secular Society
• The Freedom from Religion Foundation (US)
• Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB)
• Also Skeptics societies in various countries

What other people say – it’s not just me!

Sam Harris is one of the calmest and rational speakers critiquing religion.  The following link is really worth watching.  Religion Makes Smart People Believe Stupid Things’ | Sam Harris

The comments below were largely made in response to the above   Contributor’s names removed.

Seneca wrote “Religion is true for the commoner, false for the wise, and useful for the politician.”

All of our cult-like religions in the US would not have become so prevalent without the ultimate gift of “tax free” status.

Religion means nothing to me, but human weaknesses – Albert Einstein

An atheist never went to war over their god

We were not born religious, we are taught to believe whatever our geography believes.

With all the information available to us now, it’s strange that people are still religious. Anyone can so easily learn science yet many choose not to.

I became a better person after my deconversion from religion. I’m responsible for myself, no god is going to forgive me. I was born being a loving person and didn’t have to learn to love my neighbour as myself.

The only thing every religion on the planet has in common, is that far more people disbelieve it than believe it. That alone should tell you something!

I am so very glad that in the later part of my life I finally realized that there is no god. I have become happier and less anxious about life. I am much more relaxed. At 87 I am not afraid of death.

To believe in religion, you have to throw out all of reality

There has been too much death over these ideas to embrace them in any way, shape, or form.

Religion holds us back as a species

Faith is what you have to have to believe in something that doesn’t exist.

Religion is the only form of insanity that is contagious. As George Carlin said ” When it comes to bullshit we should all stand in awe of the king of bullshit, religion”

Governments love religious people because they are so easily manipulated.

If ANY other organisation claimed “condoms are evil” – it would be ridiculed, taken to court for product defamation, bankrupted etc etc

I don’t have much of an issue with most religions. My problem is with forcing your beliefs on others, especially kids.

Believing in these books written by iron age people, who knew nothing of how the universe works, who thought the sun and moon were lights that a god turned on and off for their pleasure, is so insane that words cannot describe it. It is so sad that billions of people believe in this insanity. Men like Sam Harris or Neil Tyson or Richard Dawkins are the real lights of the world, not some mythical creature who was born of a virgin that was impregnated by a god. That is so insane that it should be criminal on the part of those espousing it.

When you start with believing that a talking snake and an apple can instantly teach people sex education…then you’re open to believe in anything.

Religion never made sense to me. They train you to not to question things and think critically.

I have a bible-thumping sister and when I asked her what makes her belief right and someone else’s wrong, she said, ‘Jesus told me so.’  Aaargh!

Much of the war and devastation in the world is in the name of religion.  More directly atrocities such as the inquisition and burning heretics, witches and Cathars.

“What stops you from going out and murdering if you don’t believe in God?” Answer: My complete lack of desire to commit murder. I find it very troubling that religious people keep asking that as if it were a salient question.

I’m proud to hear Canada included in the most ‘atheistic’ societies.

When I was 8 years old I discovered that Santa wasn’t real at which point I asked myself, what else are they lying about? From that point I started questioning everything about religion.

“You don’t make something true by saying it repeatedly and louder.”

I’m proud to say my parents didn’t soak us kids in religion. As such we grew up not believing such rot. We were never dragged off to church and when I first went to school and the teacher said a prayer, (rarely) we kids thought she was mad.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the hardest thing to do is admitting a delusion you believe in isn’t true.

America is not a theocracy. It surpassed that ages ago. It is now an idiocracy.

Religious freedom is not possible since religion doesn’t allow freedom

Religion offers a solution to a problem you don’t actually have.  It usually requires financial donations.

The sad fact appears that at the ultimate heart of all the thousands of religions today and throughout history, together with their vast and complex origins, is, ultimately; ‘Power and Control’.

Religion normalizes insanity. It’s NOT okay.

If you want to be free you need to remove religion from your life.

Religion is inherently contradictory and inhuman when on the one hand there is a loving, caring god, but on the other hand we see and experience so much evil and suffering – what religious individuals then do is try to excuse this saying there is place for it, a meaning, that is absolutely inhuman, true humanity is about doing everything to dimmish suffering, not to look for excuses and trying to normalize it

It’s so ridiculous to believe in god in this age. More so in the developed world with high levels of literacy and education. Baffles me how so few people have critical thinking skills!

Aldous Huxley said it quite beautifully – THE BIGGEST SIN AGAINST HUMANITY IS BELIEVING IN ANYTHING THAT COMES WITHOUT EVIDENCE

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” ~ Voltaire (attributed). Hence MAGA

Church: where lazy people gather to ‘not think’!!