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Hi Bart,
I love your site. I spend half my time "outraged" and the other "en-raged".
Your site fits perfectly. I do have a question for you.
Would you please tell me why you do not believe in God?
You could simply give a half-dozen reasons why you do not believe in God.
As I said, I love your site, but I stumble whenever you say it.
This is no sort of judgement. I am also an air breather and water drinker
as you are, but I would perhaps understand site better.
Thanks,
Jackson
Jackson, there is no evidence God exists.
Someone told you there was a God and you believed them.
Let's start from the beginning:
Odds are you have the same religion as your parents.
You believe in God because your parents told you he exists and your parents
were the ones who told you the stove was hot - so you believed them about God.
If you had been born in India, you'd worship a different God.
Same for Iran and Saudi Arabia, so why let the accident of geography
decide which "God" is the real one? It makes no sense to me.
People pray to the non-existent God when they're afraid or need a favor.
Prayer doesn't work and I've got money to prove it.
Religion is a crutch for people who can't make it on their own.
If you're in a dark alley at night, you illogically convince yourself that God is
with you and that he'll protect you, but if a gang of muggers shows up,
that belief in God won't help you in the slightest.
Religion also gives people an excuse to hurt and kill others - that's just crazy.
We have war in the Middle East because both sides are angry that Isaac kicked
David's ass 4,000 years ago (whatever - don't correct me) and that's pure crazy.
Archie Bunker famously said, "Faith is when you believe in something
that nobody in their right mind would believe in." He's right.
When you die, you're not going to Heaven or Hell.
When your lungs stop working, your mind dies from lack of oxygen
and your body starts to decompose like 4-day old hamburger meat.
When someone tells you about God, odds are they'll want some money.
You know what the difference is between going to church and praying at home?
The collection plate.
What gall it takes for some preacher or priest to say you owe him 10%
of every dollar you earn your entire life - that's just flat-out extortion.
If you don't give the church money and follow their stupid rules
you're going to burn for eternity but don't forget - God loves you.
Some Commandments make sense - don't kill, don't steal.
When I was a wee lad, they told me it was a sin to covet that
brand new ten-speed bike that my neighbor got for his birthday.
Since I didn't have a bike, fuck yeah, I coveted his bike. That's being human.
Why does religion punish you for being human?
And if I see a pretty woman on TV or on the street, it's a sin if I wonder
what it would be like to have sex with her? Who made these stupid rules?
Madonna said she stopped being Catholic when they told her tongue
kissing was a mortal sin, just like murder and rape - that's super-stupid.
The only way I can see God or religion making any sense at all is if
you consider Mother Nature a force, but even that is stretching things.
In America, you can't even get elected dog catcher unless you say,
"There's a bearded old man who lives in the clouds and listens
to the thoughts and prayers of billions of people every day."
Santa visiting every child in the world on Christmas Eve makes more sense.
Religion is a racket, run by racketeers. Think of Oral Roberts, pre-TV,
going from town to town with his phoney-ass revival tents and his actors.
An actor would stand up and say, "I have a broken back."
Then Oral would touch him and wave his arms around and now the guy's
a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers - it's all about the Benjamins.
Now the jackals have satellites and they fleece tens of thousands of
victims each day - all with the power of the US government behind them.
Look at your TV dial.
They made it a law that the religious fleecing channels have to be near
the network channels, so it'll be easier for the wolves to eat their sheep.
If you get comfort by talking to God, hey, it's a free country.
But we need to keep than insanity far away from government.
Remember when Bush said "God told me to fuck Saddam?"
Plus, they drill this stuff into you when you're a defenseless little kid.
Even if you're just a year old, you hear the hushed tones of the people,
you hear the droning of the church organ and you smell that Frankincense
and it can't help but have an effect on you.
If they waited until you were old enough to drive to spring this on you,
most people would say, "That's crazy," and then where would religion be?
That's probably more than you wanted to hear, but it's been a while
since I did my anti-religion rant so I thought I'd get back into it.
BTW, why was your e-mail titled "A call to reason?"