When faith crumbles.

A friend of mine is beginning to crumble, and I think what is really crumbling is his faith.  The five stages are:

1. Denial and isolation.
2. Anger.
3. Bargaining.
4. Depression.
5. Acceptance.

The first stage, denial and isolation, has been happening possibly for years.  Mine didn't last as long, but I definitely needed to isolate.  I needed to gather my thoughts, inspect the world, my life and my values.  I had to decide, with as little influence from others, where I stood in the world.  How I felt about myself, in light of what my father and our church had always told me about Hell.  Whether I could feel love, happiness, charity or any other emotion that Christians always said was theirs alone.

My friend displayed his isolation by removing himself from our typical after-work activities, which mostly include playing cards.  This was a passion of his and he was very skilled - but now has given it up, nearly completely, without any reason.

My friend has passed the second stage.  He is very good at suppressing and squashing his anger.  In private, I know how angry he is, even though he doesn't come out and say it out loud.  His actions speak louder than his words.  The anger came out when we were alone and in decisions he made.

After anger comes bargaining.  During this time, my friend tried to align his Christian values and the Christian teaching he received with a secular world-view.  My friend spent a lot of time trying to negotiate a truce with me - a truce that already existed.  He spent a lot of time trying to make sure that he could disagree and we cold still be friends - a proposition I was 100% behind and always had been.

My friend is now on the stage of depression.  He is starting to recognize the world as it is - a wicked, cruel place, ruled by stupid people who only care about themselves, their job, their profit, their personal desires and their rulership over their "flock".  This truly is the world we live in.  And, this world is depressing.

However, I have decided that since this world sucks, someone needs to do something.  What needs to be done is:  destroy everything that is dividing the world.  Remove the #1 reason for hatred, intolerance, prejudice, guilt and fear.  That reason is religion.

My friend hasn't made it that far.  I feel the need to pounce on the situation - to help him finish his deconversion.  However, the thing that is holding me back - is that is the exact thing a Christian would do.  Christians pounce on the poor, down-trodden, homeless, funerals and such.  What a wicked thing to do.

I hope later my friend understands.

Braaaaaaains!

The human brain is so complex that science is nowhere near untangling its mysteries.  It is likely we know more about space than we know about the brain.  Here are some things science has discovered, though:

• The brain is where thought takes place.
• The brain is where memories are located.
• The brain is capable of storing more information than the world's largest computer, is faster than the world's largest computer and more capable of drawing from different sources to reach conclusions.
• The brain is the most powerful computer that has ever existed, and likely will ever exist.

Christians attribute this powerful brain of ours to God.  They say that God created Adam and Eve and endowed them with this amazing organ so they could control the world, dominate it and make decisions on their own.

Hellfire and Brimstone

Preachers and priests (I'll just refer to them as priests for the rest of this entry) have found the cash-cow of Christianity in the form of Hell.  There's no better way to keep those pews full and nothing takes less work for a lazy priest than scaring the "hell" out of his congregation.  The congregation becomes as sheep - instinctively following the priest on whatever whim grabs him in the moment, because without the priest, they would surely suffer for all eternity in a fiery torment which was created and set aside just for doubters like them.

The point of this blog entry, is that Hell is just as imaginary and just as baloney as everything else the priest is describing.  I'll break it down from a Christian perspective:

Luke 16:14-31 details a story of a man lamed Lazarus, and an unnamed rich man.  The Lazarus in this story is likely not supposed to be the Lazarus who was resurrected.  Instead, this is just some other guy named Lazarus.

In this story, the rich man goes to hell, and Lazarus goes to Heaven.  Lazarus receives a message from the rich man, who begs for just a drop of water on his tongue.  So the question is:  Is this a story about eternal suffering?  To answer that question, let's look at the story.  Lazarus, supposedly is a good man, honorable, worthy of heaven.  The rich man is... what?  He is not described as being evil.  Neither is he described as being an unrepentant sinner.  He's just rich.

Jesus is known for delivering parables to try to teach lessons to his followers, and that's just what this story is - a parable.  This is not a story of eternal torment in Hell for those who don't go to Heaven.

The lake of fire, as described in Revelation is a description of destruction, not violent torment.  The gnashing of teeth is the weeping before the destruction.  The worm which never dies describes the trash heap outside of Jerusalem where fires burned up the trash.  Living people were never thrown into the trash heap to be burned - ever.

So, the whole idea of a place/dimension of torture is silly.  There is no Biblical evidence of such a place.

The next question is, then, why do priests constantly scream about Hell and suffering on the pulpit?  MONEY!  What better way to get you to follow of the rules, like tithing (cha-ching!), bringing your friends and family and making them tithe (cha-ching!) and giving more till it hurts?  That's right - Hell is all about money.

Now that you know, every time you hear a priest talk about Hell, and then pass around the offering plate, the preacher is only after your wallet.

Defend The Faith

Ephesians 6: 10-18, in the Bible, describes the Armor of God.  It involves a sword, a shield, a girdle (likely a belt), a breastplate and shoes of some sort.  One has to ask, though, why God needs you to be armed to the teeth?

Modern theologians explain that this is because Satan and the wicked ways of mankind are out to get us.  We must protect ourselves from evil things like temptation, false belief and Teletubbies.  However, just considering this brings up another question:  Why do Christians get so defensive when you question their faith?

"Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense." 
-- Chapman Cohen

This quote really sums it up.  Christians have to become apologists with even more vigor than skeptics or Atheists, because their beliefs are harder to defend.  I say they are impossible to defend.

The typical tactic for a Christian who has had his or her religion challenged is to try to calmly explain that the questioner just doesn't understand.  When the questioner invalidates that statement, the apologist has a series of arguments in their arsenal, all of which are equally worthless, but together form a confusing brier patch that not every Atheist is willing to trudge through.  For instance, when the power of prayer was offered as a subject of debate, one reader responded:

"The problem is your just taking snipits out of the Bible without understanding the whole context."

Really?  I thought that is what Christians do all day long?  They preach that the Bible is a whole and complete book.  They claim that the Bible is factual, including historical events (which will be discussed in a later blog post).  They also claim that each individual part is as truthful as the whole... until you show them three verses, which all say the same thing, but question their faith.

Here's another quote from the apologist:

"As far as moving mountains go. Is it likely to happen-no. Is it possible yes."

The Bible says that if you have the faith the size of a tiny, little mustard seed, you can move a mountain.  You will tell the mountain to move from here to there and it will - period.  There are no caveats listed at all.  The apologist admits that the Bible is true, by saying it could happen, but also admits that it's not likely to ever happen.

That's exactly the point.  Christians say they believe it, but admit that it is false - yet they keep believing it it!  They defend a faith which I'm sure at least most of them, deep down inside, know to be completely wrong.