Faith: Some Random Observations

From time to time you have a new considered, an concept, or eureka moment, but it is really not gutsy more than enough to increase into a reasonable length post or essay. So, this is a potpourri of irreligious ideas that won’t just place me in a favourable mild with any deities (if any) that are way too good not to file, but with not sufficient meat accessible to flesh out.

# We have in all probability all viewed movies of evangelical or fundamentalist prayer, revivalist, and so forth., etc. conferences. Now I assume that God, assuming a God of system in the first place, has 20/20 hearing. So why is it necessary for all and sundry top these meetings to scream their bloody fool heads off? Who are they definitely attempting to impress by risking not only laryngitis but their vocal cords? I necessarily mean it can be not tiny and standard “hallelujah, praise the Lord!” but “HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE LORD!!!” only in even larger sort than this.

# Is it my creativeness or have I discovered that the intense spiritual suitable wing, people vehemently anti gay, anti exact-intercourse relationship, anti abortion, anti national health care, anti environmentalism (i.e. – climate adjust), anti homosexual-adoption, usually satisfied to attack non-spiritual establishment and folks for their bucketing or disregarding of Biblical teachings, are absolutely silent when it arrives to providing a thumbs down on the boy or girl sex abuse difficulty by a variety of spiritual establishments and personnel. Any spiritual establishment is great and God-fearing by definition something else is just not very good and has turned their back again on God.

# Christianity, be it the intense right wing assortment of essential evangelism or the more middle-of-the-road types, is primarily based on one and only a person factor – that God exists. Nevertheless they in no way, at any time, offer you up any evidence, or even evidence of that alleged ‘fact’ besides to endlessly and endlessly estimate the Bible – a quite suspect doc IMHO. From the pope proper on down the theological line to your local vicar, no proof, even proof, is in the featuring.

If I accuse anyone of some thing, say murder, then the burden of evidence is on me to show beyond any question that that a person is responsible as billed, not on that a person to prove nearly anything to the opposite. In like fashion, if somebody promises that God exists and has selected characteristics, then the load of evidence is on that particular person to prove his or her assert.

# Most up-to-date loony little bit from the religious correct – God does not want you (or any person) to retire, since the word “retirement” or “retire” does not appear in the Bible! God does not want you to retire mainly because people today who retire get started to then experience the effects of fast deteriorating wellbeing – God would not want that!

# There have been many tries to obtain the Biblical Yard of Eden all have failed. But all you genuinely want to do is locate the Cherubim and the Flaming Sword that God remaining to guard the east obtain to the Backyard and the Tree of Life right after He gave Adam and Eve the boot out of Paradise (Genesis 3:24). What could be a lot easier? I indicate how a lot of Cherubim and Flaming Swords do you see day to day? You will find nowhere in the Bible that states that they have been relieved of duty, so they ought to even now be standing guard. Absolutely anyone need to have observed them in new moments.

See Also: Wilensky-Lanford, Brook Paradise Lust: Seeking for the Backyard of Eden Grove Press, New York 2011.

# There are quite a few hundreds of alleged relics connected with Jesus, his relatives, disciples, the evangelists, and many others. Sad to say, none surfaced till hundreds, from time to time a lot of, quite a few hundreds of yrs immediately after the fact. There are generally multiple copies of relics, all proclaiming to be THE a person legitimate relic. There are adequate parts of the holy [wooden] cross floating all over to establish Noah’s Ark! Something subjected to real scientific analysis and relationship has failed to date to the appropriate time body or when it should really of. Most church buildings refuse to let holy relics in their possession to be subjected to scientific evaluation – they possibly do not want their illusions shattered. But no quantity of evidence that a relic is a fraud will shake the perception of the accurate believer.

See Also: Nickell, Joe The Jesus Relics: From the Holy Grail to the Turin Shroud The Background Press, Gloucestershire, U.K 2008.

# Do you have increased trustworthiness for your particular worldview and biases, or are you taken extra significantly if you invoke God, Jesus and/or the Bible in guidance? Possibly you may well consider a wicked town like Las Vegas should be wrecked. Thumbs down, but then you say nicely glimpse what God did to Sodom and Gomorrah. You would get brief shrift if you advocate executing disobedient children, until you can cite the Biblical chapter and verse which states the precise same thing. Wacky suggestions get the thumbs down Biblical wacky situations that mirror those people tips – thumbs up.

# Any one looking at the tale of the crucifixion in Matthew, Mark or Luke will note that for three hours, involving noon and 3 pm evidently, it turned pretty dim. John won’t mention this, and Matthew and Mark only observe the 3 hrs of intensive darkness. But Luke (23:45) notes precisely that “the sun was darkened’. That evidently implies a photo voltaic eclipse. Nonetheless, there are various difficulties with this. The to start with is that the crucifixion of Jesus took spot at Passover. Alas, Passover takes place or is celebrated when the Moon is in its Complete Moon phase (or when the Earth is involving, but not rather in immediate alignment with, the Sunlight and the Moon). A photo voltaic eclipse can only materialize when the Moon is totally dark, that is when it is in its New Moon period (when the Moon is among the Earth and the Sunlight). So, when the crucifixion took place, that is at Passover, the Moon was Complete, not New, thus no solar eclipse. The 2nd issue is that the New Moon only handles the Sunshine leading to a solar eclipse hence producing extreme darkness, for a optimum just shy of eight minutes. That’s just a tad fewer time than Mathew, Mark and Luke enable for. The 3rd problem is that the crucifixion took place as much as can be established in April of 30, or 33 or 34 CE. There is no photo voltaic eclipse in Jerusalem in April in any of all those months and many years and is therefore irrelevant, misleading and immaterial. So, both it is really all just fiction, additional in for dramatic result, or it was a miracle (which is most likely the official church line). I might opt for the fiction myself.

# Be absolutely sure to check out out Wikipedia’s entry for ‘List of scandals involving evangelical Christians’ – incredibly, pretty enlightening. Also, if you have access, browse the subsequent:

Gardner, Martin: “Primary-time preachers” (in) The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher Prometheus Textbooks, Buffalo, New York 1988 p.223-245.

# This is an attention-grabbing Suitable Wing View Cindy Jacobs story.

“Cindy Jacobs’ 5-12 months-previous daughter can end tornadoes.”

Evidently her trick is to shout out “I informed you to be silent in Jesus’ title!” and the tornado just goes poof.

My response: Howdy, my identify is Alice and I’ve gone by the searching glass into wonderland – whee!

# Talking of the Correct Wing Check out, their coverage of the severe correct wing fundamentalist religious personalities like Pat Robertson, Bryan Fischer (especially Brian Fischer), Cindy Jacobs, Glenn Beck and dozens extra, clearly show that these individuals and the organisations they depict (like the American Relatives Affiliation) are stridently anti-President Obama, and have been because Obama rose to the fore in 2008. I have never witnessed any American president getting subjected to the vitriol and abuse that President Obama has routinely been by the spiritual right. Astonishingly, it doesn’t seem to be to be a racist matter, it truly is just Obama stands for every thing the extraordinary correct wing is in opposition to like homosexual marriage. So, Obama is the antichrist Obama does not believe in the Bible Obama hates The usa Obama is not even an American citizen Obama is anti-Israel Obama is pro-Muslim Obama is a closet Muslim Obama is a closet homosexual Obama is America’s Lenin or Stalin Obama hates the armed service Obama is an illegitimate president Obama should really be impeached. There is a great deal a lot more negatives, but you get the drift.

But it truly is not so substantially about what Obama is (sticks and stones may well break my bones but terms can in no way harm me) but what Obama’s agenda is. Obama will declare himself God Obama wants to damage the American financial system Obama desires to raise a black military and destroy whites, in particular proper wing Christian whites Obama wishes gun regulate to disarm his enemies Obama wishes to precipitate a different Civil War Obama will flip The usa into an Islamic condition Obama discriminates towards Christianity Obama declares war on white The united states Obama is out to wipe out the relatives unit and on and on and on it goes without having any shred of evidence what ever.

Although that could possibly be an case in point of America’s liberty of speech, I question whether or not or not any of these persons will apologise in January 2017 when Obama leaves workplace and practically nothing no matter what has occur to pass that even remotely verified these outlandish shock, horror, it’s the end of the planet or at least The united states, claims. My gut experience is that there would not be an “I’m sorry” or “I got it mistaken” from any person that’s a member of any a single of the severe appropriate wing fundamentalist spiritual teams. By then they will have moved on and will be bucketing some other person.

# Why is it that a pick variety of those people with a spiritual conviction really feel they have a moral and moral suitable to disturb and inconvenience you, at their usefulness of course, in buy to shove their religious worldview down your throat? The pleasant matter about atheists is they really don’t disturb and inconvenience you they do not do doorknocking!

# Historic art works that depict ‘flying saucers’ all seemingly have a religious, specifically New Testament, Jesus/Mary themed context: Why? Most likely since the spiritual figures central in the inventive is effective aren’t supernatural but flesh-and-blood of an ‘ancient astronaut’ range.

# Imagine the next: Destroy just about every spiritual textual content of any persuasion in existence remove every single spiritual institution sack anybody involved in organised faith (or even disorganised religion) purge the name of any and each deity ever proposed, and then for good measure wipe cleanse the reminiscences of every single human being with respect to anything at all and everything to do with faith in any form, way or sort. Let us convert the entirety of humanity into a flock of yet another variety, just like genuine sheep who presumably have no idea of all the sorts of matters religions go on, and on, and on about.

To start with, that would make for a much additional tranquil earth, but that’s not my genuine position right here. If the human race all of a unexpected had no inkling of religion and linked rituals like prayer, deities, and thou shall nots, and miracles, and related baggage – the slate wiped clear – would we invent it all more than once more and if so would it all be in the exact previous sort as we know it now?

All of our religions can not potentially be suitable, but all of them could be improper. Assuming which is the situation, could there be out there a truly bona-fide god or gods – supernatural deities – with some sort of related baggage that we have no comprehension of? Say these hypothetical supernatural entities have never ever manufactured call with Planet Earth.

# Why is faith (and background far too for that subject) so well-known vis-à-vis say science or economics. Religion (and history) is advised in tale type and we’re pure born story tellers and recipients of say bedtime stories. Whole bookstores and libraries are loaded with variations of “the moment on a time” “they lived joyful at any time soon after”. There are multi-tens of hundreds of flicks and Tv exhibits that play on our require for tales. So that’s one purpose. Another explanation that faith is so well-known is that it will come as a package deal deal. All the Large Inquiries (is there a God, your intent, the this means of everyday living, totally free will, your soul, an afterlife, and many others.) are wrapped up together in a nice box with a pretty pink ribbon. Reject faith, reject the rather box of solutions to your Massive Questions, and you have to basically do some hard mental yakka to discover out your have solutions to people concerns, individually, a single at a time. So most take the uncomplicated road, the bundle deal, as a substitute of placing out on their have, looking for their personal mental answers arrive what might.

# In May possibly of 2013, the latest Pope (as mentioned on the “Huffington Put up”) explained that atheists were being okay for salvation and a place in heaven providing they experienced lived the type of life that God intended. Alas, the really upcoming day a spokesperson for the Vatican refuted that – no way can an atheist get on the very good facet. Very well, so substantially for papal infallibility! It seriously is all so phoney – an complete joke.

# Miracles (if they exist) are God’s correction fluid (whiteout) – assuming God exists. If existence is affirmed on both counts that truly will make a mockery of an all-figuring out, all-highly effective supernatural deity because it would have been logical and preferable to have established in practice the necessary situations that would have negated the require for a afterwards miracle. For illustration, never trouble to raise the dead instead ensure they really don’t snuff it in the initially location!

# Irrespective of a lot of references in the Bible of God conversing to anyone, Adam and Eve, Cain, Jacob, Jonah, Moses, and many others. we hardly ever get an actual description of what God appears to be like like. He speaks in a cloud or as a burning bush. All pictures of God, artworks, are of the human creativeness. So, what did God genuinely look like and why was He ashamed to actually demonstrate His confront (a thing true unto this very day). Maybe God isn’t going to want to be observed simply because He was starkers – unquestionably naked – and potentially, assuming some mortal essentially observed God, nicely no a single dares point out the ’emperor’ who has no garments. If people were made in God’s impression, and God was ashamed of His nudity (as Adam and Eve were ashamed of there deficiency of clothing submit their nibbling on a forbidden snack), then probably that accounts for our reluctance in most community environments to present off our birthday fits.

# If you are truly truthful about matters, what is actually THE most essential would like record aspect or aim or aim or factor of your life? Is it money? Is it electrical power? Is it name? Is it winning the Nobel Prize? Is it success? Is it acquiring the most excellent household? Is it pitching a great key league ballgame? Is it becoming POTUS, or maybe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers? Is it (fill in the blank)? No! Extra probably as not, your number one particular priority it is NOT DIEING! Properly excellent luck with that ’cause it ain’t gonna occur.

So, what is actually the up coming very best objective? An afterlife! Why? What is seriously aggravating about snuffing it is eliminate of consciousness. The concept that your consciousness that you used a lifetime creating up from scratch will just dissolve into gray goo to be consumed by germs is really abhorrent. If you have an afterlife, the minimum amount you will have to keep is consciousness or self-recognition. You may possibly even now be aged and gray and can not get it up you may not have accessibility to alcoholic beverages and tobacco and other identical addictions you may possibly only get Television reruns and old magazine challenges to study you favorite pizza may perhaps not be on the menu you could even have to share your afterlife with your ex-boss, or your ex or your in-legislation, other folks you’d alternatively not share anything with or be within just 10 miles (or kilometres) of in short not every thing will be just hunky-dory, but at least you are going to keep your consciousness for all eternity (and be bored witless even right before the initially several thousand many years or so passes by). Is that a price you are willing to shell out?

# There are lots of, likely a majority of the population, who will assert to have had some kind of up close and personalized encounter with God, or Jesus, or angels, or some type of supernatural entity. They will of class use that really particular encounter as not only evidence, but proof that God, and so forth. exists. And it is exceptionally tough to counter argue their conviction dependent on their practical experience. Even so, I also have had an intensive up near and personalized encounter also, but one which I’m certain exhibits that these sort of profound religious activities are some combination of wishful imagining (a wish to feel) and mental hallucinations.

Now like many hundreds of countless numbers, even thousands and thousands of individuals, I like to put out food stuff for wild birds, specifically in environmentally tense moments like wintertime or throughout a drought. Above the system of quite a few several years, I have experienced 1000’s of visitations – what bird is heading to change down an quick cost-free feed? At the conclusion of the day, there is commonly some cleanup to be finished like sweeping up all the leftover birdseed husks, etcetera. And so it came to go a person early evening, I was waiting around for two birds to end up ahead of I did the every day cleanup. And in due class they flew off, up over my roof. And so I went outside to start the cleanup, but there sitting on the apex of the roof have been the two birds. As I looked up at them, they seemed back again at me, and for some inexplicable motive, I obtained a telepathic message from the two birds: “many thanks for all the meals we are going to be back tomorrow”. And then they flew off. It was so authentic an knowledge that I just stood there shocked, in fact so transferring was that knowledge, so bonding was that human-animal come across that tears instantly commenced welling up in me.

This was the first and only time I at any time experienced this kind of a vivid even non secular sensation that stays as vivid and as religious now as it did seconds soon after the truth. But clearly I was imagining the entire issue. Birds simply cannot converse the human language. Telepathy does not exist significantly fewer exist concerning birds and humans. Birds possibly have no thought of currently being presented a present and as a result no mental principle of providing thanks.

So sure, when anyone says they had an up shut and personal experience with God (or equal), I am certain that they are 100% sincere and a believer. But I’m equally persuaded it is a situation, as was mine with the two birds, of self-deception.

# Irrespective of anti gay, anti identical-sexual intercourse unions, anti relationship equality sentiments vehemently expressed advert nausea by extremists from the spiritual Considerably Proper Wing, and endlessly likely on and on and on about how the Bible states or defines marriage as amongst just one male and a person lady and hence the constitutional legality of gay marriage is a violation of God’s legislation, I fall short to obtain any these types of Biblical reference or conformation. It truly is definitely not 1 of the Ten Commandments!

I fail to location in Genesis exactly where Adam and Eve have been actually married, or for that subject even in like. Adam and Eve had been living in sin correct under God’s righteous nose! Perfectly one particular could counsel that Genesis 2: 21-24 implies marriage due to the fact the term “wife” is utilised in the last verse, but that was a generality assertion that is evidently nonsense due to the fact that same verse also uses the time period “mom” and “father” right before there ever was this sort of a issue as dad and mom or parenting. There is no place that claims Adam and Eve were being married or ended up spouse and spouse. There is certainly a kind of rehash in Mark 10: 6-9 Matthew 19: 4-6 and Ephesians 5: 31 whereby if you get the generality phrase, a single not referring to any precise pair or twain of persons, that phrase “a person flesh” might be a synonym for “marriage”. Having said that, because the Bible makes enough use of the word “marriage”, well it really should just come right out and say “relationship is among a person guy and one particular female” – but it won’t.

All round, relationship as outlined between one male and one particular woman could possibly be implied in the Bible, but it is never precisely mentioned. Even so, that failed to cease a large amount of the higher crust patriarchs from working towards polygamy (Genesis 29: 15-30).

# Of all the many worldviews individuals possess, they seem to be most inclined to combat around their strategy of God, not more than place, not about politics, but about their faith. It is been said there numerous moments that although superior individuals do very good factors and undesirable people today do poor points, it will take God and faith to make excellent folks do poor things.

# Any person who has created a lot more than a cursory assessment of the ‘ancient astronaut’ idea is aware how unbelievably well known the strategy is. Historical alien (was God as astronaut) books like Von Daniken’s “Chariots of the Gods” (and movie) are bestsellers. In reality I have an understanding of that the Heritage Channel’s documentary Tv collection “Historical Aliens” is their most viewed and the most effective marketing DVD they have set out. Then there have been sci-fi films and Tv set sequence like “Stargate” that have picked up on the theme, as very well as numerous documentaries, websites, and articles or blog posts. Collectively, all of this testifies that the thought has hit a very responsive neve indeed. Individuals possibly realise that there is anything remarkably strange, even anomalous about the human species, the origins of humanity and our ancient record that common religions and supernatural deities inadequately appear to phrases with, fail with plausible explanations, are unsuccessful entirely with respect to these hundreds of enigmas.

# If Islam is the religion of peace, how occur so quite a few Muslims destroy other Muslims (Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many others.)?

# Of all the follies that humanity has ever embraced, belief in a supernatural deity ranks head-and-shoulders over just about anything else. Hardly ever have so quite a few have expended so significantly time on certainly nothing at all. It boggles the mind. It would be absolutely hilarious were it not for the large degree of demise and struggling spiritual belief has inflicted on the somewhat helpless. It is really a pity that all all those correct believers will in no way have any coming to terms with their delusions due to the fact as soon as they snuff it, there’s no resurrection or afterlife to bask in.

# Title the most evil thing Satan or Lucifer did (previous tense) in the Bible. Now identify the most evil matter God did (past tense) as related in the Bible. Now ask yourself, who is the additional evil of the two? Who most approximates Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao, Saddam Hussein, and individuals of a comparable ilk? If you must spell that entity’s identify backwards, you ought to get a K9.