I have been looking for a simple reference to cover the basic ideas of God’s existence and found this handy reference.
http://www.400monkeys.com/God/
Use it frequently and try to commit as much as you can to memory. It should be helpful as you continue to pursue truth and good in life.
Best of luck!
The Naked Pastor posted these random thoughts the other day…
1. People don’t change their minds. Only rarely. Transformation is not a desirable option to our brains. It seems to require trauma, the threat of imminent death, to provoke real change of mind and bring about true transformation. Is it possible to enter death and be transformed while we are alive?
2. The greatest enemy of community is fantasy… visionary and wishful thinking. The lack of gratitude for what is, the unwillingness to appreciate what is, or the disdain for what is, erodes the fabric of community. Can we love unconditionally without coercion?
3. Our gross naiveté about the principalities and powers and their persistent desire and ability to enslave groups and individuals perpetuates the abuses institutions, including the church, are notorious for. Can all people be free?
4. Avoid naysayers as well as yes-men. You can always find complainers to agree with you. You can always find encouragers to agree with you. Can we find the courage to form our own minds independently, wisely, and compassionately?
I thought, hey… I like him. He’s is talking about deconversion in #1, because that’s what it was like for me to step away from faith. Constant bombardment with strange teachings in the Baptist church forced me to reevaluate the world we live in.
THEN, in #2 he nails it with typical religious thinking about the fantasy of a higher power vs. just appreciating this temporal gift of life on Earth, not just mine, but the whole human experience. We just got here (relatively speaking), and the Earth will be here long after we have faded to extinction. I already love unconditionally without coercion and don’t know how else you could.
#3… tell me about it.
And, regarding #4, don’t “seek approval” for your point of view. Establish it intellectually, with reason, and knowledge of the world and your fellow man. You don’t need other people to tell you what you should believe.
Holy crap, this dude’s batting 1000 in my book so far… but then came #5:
5. Listen to what the atheists are saying about the unprovability of God; discern the Christ-Principle in all things; have compassion for all beings. Is it possible to see all things as being reconciled?
Wha?! I rarely discuss the “unprovability of god”, but since you brought it up, what exactly is the evidence for God? If you look at the sum total of the things the Christian God gets credit for in the Bible, why would you WANT to believe in him? He wasn’t a good or just god. Jesus tried to correct all that, but please… look at the “miracles” he performed. His teachings were in line with to Mohammad, Confucius, Buddha, Plato, etc. (borrowed, ex post facto, by reasonable men writing down “history” many years later). Other than these writings, what evidence is there for god? For everyone good work, “divine” occurrence, or saved soul you can conjure, I can cite a dozen horrific, sad, disgusting things about the world that a good and just god would not allow… even a passive creator (with any “heart”) would not have created such a chaotic place.
Also, how would I find the “Christ-Principles in all things”?” As I understand it, the Principles of Christ are roughly, first, Faith in the Jesus Christ; second, Repentance… it really doesn’t matter after that because I get hung up on the FIRST one. I have faith that the human race has been duped for several millenia, for sure. With regard to “sin”, seriously, Catholics (et al), get a grip and just be good people… forget about all the EXTRA rules and regulations that the church has piled on. It’s not a “sin” to eat meat… ever. Weird.
How about we all just skip ahead to “have compassion for all beings”? I can get on board with that… why make it sound like I need belief as a crutch. See “The Golden Rule“.
The last sentence is stupid… no, we can’t reconcile all things, particularly mystical belief with intellectual reason. They are incompatible. Even less likely, reconcile your Christian mythology with a Islamic stranger an ocean away. Good luck.
However, abandon your fantastical beliefs, and then living with your fellow man, particularly the ones not like you, becomes much easier. I guess his thoughts were pretty random after all.
For starters… No. No you are not. There is no such thing. You are not going to hell either. But, wait, I am getting ahead of myself.
The other day I stepped into a Walgreens for some allergy medication (because I was pretty sure I was going to die), and during the 5 minutes I was inside on a Saturday night at 10pm in North Atlanta, some douche jammed a card into my door handle with this tease on the top:
Am I Going to Heaven?
It’s worth quoting from, if for no other reason than to make this easily searchable by web zealots bent on converting me (back). I just don’t feel like typing it all, so here are some choice highlights:
The greatest book ever written was published in 1611. It’s name – The Holy Bible – authorized by King James. The reason for it’s greatness is that it is God speaking to us in English words.
Huh? What a weird way to start a Christian track. Who cares when it was published in English (words)? Authorized? Well, thank goodness… then there’s no way it could be manipulated or untrustworthy, right?
The king gave the translators instructions designed to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its beliefs about an ordained clergy.
- Wikipedia
But I digress… it’s not terribly relevant when or how Christian mythology was further corrupted and usurped four centuries ago. Several billion people don’t believe any of that crap. Around a billion people actively do not believe in any god or gods, and you won’t be converting them because they have already been saved… by reason.
A couple of more highlights:
If you want to have joy in your heart under all circumstances…
If you want to be totally free from guilt…
If you want the power to overcome things you would like to change in your life…
If you would like to truly care about others, not for what they can do for you, but what you can do for them…
If you would like to never be alone again…
Hey! That’s a lot like me! I live that way, but I didn’t need God to make it happen. Getting rid of God, in fact, freed me to live that kind of life. I won’t address each one, but suffice it to say that you can realize these aspects of your life by being kind to others, living by the Golden Rule, getting an education, and generally not being an ass. Things tend to fall in place when you live responsibly, god or no god. People who naively cling to god as savior without squaring up the rest of their life are surely up for serious disappointment. Examples of failures, misery, and hypocrisy are everywhere.
If I get the energy, I’ll type in the rest and say more about it… I’ve attached a scan of the entire thing if you are inclined to dissect it on your own.
Hey, and special thanks to Ken at:
Inprint, Inc.
P. O. Box 76147
Atlanta, GA 30358
inprintincorporated@yahoo.com
Stay away from my car.
I am totally blown away. Almost makes me want to believe in myths. Based on the creator’s bio (not THE creator… the creator of the website, Marcus Shepard), he has been doing this since 1999. Not that the guy doesn’t have talent, but it’s a bit of a one-trick-pony sideshow.
It’s like Judge Dredd meets the Matrix meets World of Warcraft meets the Terminator meets Ted Haggard (with a dash of Denzel Washington).
Take a look at the SharperFX web site… look for the “WEBSITES” link — it has a “NEW SITES” sign sticking out of it with a pop-up laser shield behind THAT (wait for it…) contains eight pages of MAXIMUM FLASH… for God. Crowd favorite seems to be ICCM-1 (dash 1?). Ah, turns out all the other “good” ICCM website URLs were taken.
What would be amazing is if someone spoofed it and went WAY over the top — with flash animation, spinning logos, swords, lightning, voiceovers, random steel foundry noises… aw crap. He already has all that in there. How do you spoof a caricature?
Anyway, in the spirit of the WWE, please to enjoy some wacky propaganda for… The Holiest of Holies… The Alpha and the ChrOmega… The Master of the Universe… The reigning Heavyweight champion of the world… (closest challenger is Islam the Destroyer)… the ONE… the ONLY… CHRISTIANnnnnn… FAITHHhhhhhh…. [CROWD CHEER].
Rafael… Dude, you rock. Welcome to the blog world.
Thanks for coming out for non-belief. You are on my list of favorites already.
I’m just an average Joe. I do not believe in any dogma or any powerful being. I don’t like labels but I guess I’m an atheist, although I think of my self as just plain rational. I don’t claim to disprove God’s existence, I make no such claim because I cannot prove that God doesn’t exist. No religion can prove that he does either. It’s all faith. I know that I cannot compete against faith. I am just talking about having reasonable doubt.
I think that’s fantastic… if we took God to court, he would surely lose on that basis alone.
Update: Weebly sucks and Rafael’s site may be down.
2nd Update: Weebly still sucks but whygod is back up with minor damage. Why would they have taken every weebly site down for several hours during peak US surfing hours? Idiots.
And the people replied…