I find during this season I am challenged more and more on my position as an anti-
theist. I would never back down from a challenge, even in the face of the holidays. The season
of the Winter Solstice belongs to all of us, pre-dating Christianity, the fact that the majority of us
believe in a God who doesn’t even exist only encourages me to harden my resolve.
What does that say about the credulity of the world’s most technologically advanced American’s who’s 64 percent believe in a “God”? A God who reads our thoughts, punishes us, takes sides in wars, and guides our affairs (Hamilton,2013). What arbitrary silliness. Religion is entirely man made and must be kept out of our laws and governments.
The fact the scripture’s within the Bible are a terrible blueprint for building a functioning society, as well as there isn’t even any evidence for the existence of one of its main characters, Jesus. Further that its moral relevancy is completely out of date. The same case of course could be made for Islam, or Judaism but the issue would take an entire book. But it must be said that the main religeons make very large claims for themselves!
As the astronomer Carl Sagan says, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence.” (Kanazawa,2011)
(If you wish to digress to hearing about Islam, I implore you to the video made by the late Christopher Hitchens who summed it up very well in this video below).
The idea that Canada’s (and many other Western nations) law system is built on Judeo Christian laws is the wrong way to put it. It’s true that it comes from their history, but the fact of the matter is our laws exist in spite of the ideology expressed in the bible. Outlawing slavery,having free inquiry, human rights, and the development of reason are the brainchild’s of the secular; humanist; and libertarians who turned away from the teachings of the bible.
The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explained this referencing in the ‘Humanist Manifesto’:
“We don’t need to get morals from our religions … We don’t want to find morals from the holy books. We can have our own enlightened secular values.”(Sun, 2012) Look no further than the trial of Galileo by the Roman Catholic Church to see how Christianity has dealt with views that stray from its dogma. Even the simpering old Prince Charles calls his discovery of the heliocentric system a “scheme” and held him responsible for “de-souling” humanity (Hitchens, 2010). Yet, if you are among those who have walked away from the establishment of the Church, and emancipated yourself even from the Bible’s literal teachings, that isn’t enough.
The core teachings of the bible’s leading protagonist Jesus are only backed up by his word that he is the son of God. There is not one shred of historical evidence for such a claim. In fact, it is entirely plausible that his message was designed by the Roman Empire during the Roman-Jewish wars to pacify the Judeans (Atwill, 2013). Love your enemies; Give unto Caesars what is Caesars; turn the other cheeks; walk the second mile (Hooke, 1982), all these virtues Jesus preached at the sermon on the mount serve the purposes of Rome very well. In fact his execution was done in a context that puts the Jewish authority as the blame for killing their own savior (Atwill, 2013). Even if one chooses to stand by the bible as a moral compass rather than a reference for historical fact, you have nothing to stand on if the view is that our morality comes from Jesus and the Bible. For even the Christian Apologist C.S. Lewis admitted, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic…or he would be the devil of hell.” (Seidensticker, 2013)
An insult to dignity and self-respect comes when the pastor or reverend looks upon his audience and lovingly calls them his ‘flock.’ The core teachings of Christianity are that humans are weak, rudderless and prone to greed without the over watch granted by a celestial dictator who’s judgment is absolute, with no hope of appeal. A God Who convicts you of thought crime, commits genocide, takes sides in wars, and cares about your sexual orientation, how you bear children, and in what position. But let no one say there isn’t salvation; all he asks in return is for one to surrender his critical faculties, as Pope Francis put it, “Don’t give into curiosity.” (Zaimov, 2013) Leave no thought for the morrow; give up your family, friends, and follow Jesus or his representatives who are infallible. Pardon the figure of speech but Heaven help you if you’re a woman; Genesis 3:16 – “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” (King James Bible, 1973). To say that these are valuable morals is to accept that a man and a woman is just a slave in a cruel experiment with a Creator who made us sick then commands us to be well.
No, never believe it, for what becomes the point of building a civilization, building relationships with one another and becoming a part of this universe if all its for is just to spend an eternity worshiping a deity that has let 99.9 percent of his other creations die off, in often brutal and painful circumstances (Powell, 2013). This is not to be tolerated, or a belief that is to be respected for the three reasons mentioned above: The bible is a terrible blue print; its plausible Jesus never existed in the first place; and the morality of Christianity is medieval at best. If there is one point the author wants to express with respect to the fact there is many other religions, and so many more facts on its fraudulence, it’s that faith isn’t a virtue. To ignore evidence and appealing to our credulity over our skepticism serves only to enforce ignorance that can only lead to inequality and arbitrary tribalism.
This Holiday season my comrades and friends, raise your heads and get off bended knees. Share and encourage discourse and the pursuit of reason, not just for the coming week, but live up to the potential your dignity demands. And remember, even though there may be no God, we still have each other, thank you for indulging me, have a great Winter Solstice.
-Comrade R
Refrences
Hamilton, Rebecca. “Polls Show Americans Believe in Jesus and the God of the Bible.” Patheos. 5 Mar. 2013. Patheos. 04 Dec. 2013 <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2013/03/polls-show-americans-believe-in-jesus-and-the-god-of-the-bible/>.
Kanazawa, S. “Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence?” Psychology Today. 20 Mar. 2011. Psychology Today. 1 Dec. 2013 <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201103/do-extraordinary-claims-require-extraordinary-evidence>.
Noahide. ““What Profit has not that Fable of Christ Brought Us!” – Pope Leo X 1513 -1521.” Noahide Ancient Path RSS. 10 June 2011. WordPress. 20 Nov. 2013 <http://noahide-ancient-path.co.uk/index.php/pagan-godssaviours/2011/06/what-profit-has-not-that-fable-of-christ-brought-us-pope-leo-x-1513-1521/>.
Atwill, J., J. Huddson, and K. Humphreys. “COVERT MESSIAH.” IS CHRISTIANITY THE GENESIS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE? 2013. Covert Messiah. 20 Nov. 2013 <http://www.covertmessiah.com/>.
Hooke, S. H. The Bible in basic English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982.
Zaimov, S. “Pope Francis Warns Against ‘Spirit of Curiosity'” CP World. 15 Nov. 2013. The Christian Post. 20 Nov. 2013 <http://www.christianpost.com/news/pope-francis-warns-against-spirit-of-curiosity-108843/>.
Hitchens, C. “Prince Charles’ sinister speech attacks science and good sense.” Slate Magazine. 4 June 2010. Slate. 20 Nov. 2013 <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2010/06/charles_prince_of_piffle.html>.
King James Bible. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible, 1973.
Seidensticker, B. “C.S. Lewis Gets it Wrong: Liar, Lunatic, Lord … or Legend?” Cross Examined. 28 Nov. 2013. Patheos. 30 Nov. 2013 <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexamined/2012/11/c-s-lewis-gets-it-wrong-liar-lunatic-lord-or-legend/>.
Sun, E. “Richard Dawkins: Morals Come From Enlightened Secular Values, Not Religion.” Christian Post. 25 Jan. 2012. CP World. 20 Nov. 2013 <http://www.christianpost.com/news/richard-dawkins-morals-come-from-enlightened-secular-values-not-religion-67883/>.
