Willows

We can only imagine how barbaric and crude life was thousands of years ago. Such was the (lack of) education and knowledge of the masses in those days, Ordinary folk lived in constant fear of the unknown and were profoundly superstitious.

The more informed ruling classes took advantage of such weakness and invented religion.

Instead of the traditional folklore that animals were Gods, the early architects of religion invented a more clearly defined lord and master who was invisible and totally incomunicado. Of course, such a master was so powerful beyond belief he (it) was everywhere. So nobody could escape his constant vigil. To put the icing on the cake, ordinary folk were convinced to believe that this invisible master somehow "made" all that lives.

Naturally, Our ruling class charlatans drafted up rules and codes to impose on the hapless lower-ranked wretches who were led to believe that such draconian dictums were related to a handful of spiritually gifted mediums by the invisible master. Quite coincidentally, Of course, These rules happened to favor the prosperity of the ruling class and oppress the masses. "it is virtuous to be humble and poor and you will go to Heaven". 

"Power tends to corrupt" yet what we see here is nothing short of pure evil; those who lust for power and self-fulfillment using those who are gullible and naive to achieve their demonic goals.

Nowadays we are well-educated, free and have unlimited access to quality information. To believe in God or any other supernatural phenomena defies reason and reality.

Yet we still have evil in those who take advantage of the weak and vulnerable and religion would probably be the biggest and most widespread form of evil.

But, Would we still have charlatans and parasites if it were not for the masses of those who are naive, gullible, weak and vulnerable?

Without one, You would not have the other.

Perhaps it should be more apt to say that "because of evil and stupidity we still have religion".

Caring Sensitive Home School Father: OK children, after supper tonight we are going to have a real treat. We are going to sit around the fire, sipping fresh, warm cow's milk and singing Kumbaya.

Kids: Yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!!

Caring Sensitive Home School Father: You are all God's children and everything you need to learn is right here in this one book, the Bible. I know you have all been studying earnestly, so, do you have any questions?

Kid 1: Oh father dearest, our provider, and protector from sin and debauchery......can you please explain Genesis 19?

Kid 2: Oh father dearest, our provider, and protector from sin and debauchery......can you please explain Exodus 21: 7-8?

Kid 3: Oh father dearest, our provider, and protector from sin and debauchery....can you please explain Luke 16:18?

Kid 4: Oh father dearest, our provider, and protector from sin and debauchery......can you please explain Deuteronomy 23:1?

Kid 5: Oh father dearest, our provider, and protector from sin and debauchery......can you please explain Revelations 21: 8?

Kid 6: Oh father dearest, our provider, and protector from sin and debauchery......can you please explain Genesis 38:7-10?

Caring Subservient Home School Mother: SUPPER IS READY!!

Caring Sensitive Home School Father: OK. I'll just unchain the kids first.

One accepts that theists are deluded.

If not, then one is deluded.

......between Jesus Christ, David Koresh and Jim Jones?

A: The latter two actually existed.

Well, here is one for sure having one heck of a hallucination.

.....talk about deluded.

Isn't it ironic that homophobes will lean on the Bible to justify their distasteful and primitive views.............

Yet, read a bit further in the Book of all that is wise and we read:

Do we see all Christians walking around with long hair and shaggy beards?

No, we don't and just goes to show how bigots will cherry-pick the Bible for their own devious ends.

Q: How do you teach a bunch of kids about God, who He is, and what He does?

A: Gather them all in a classroom. Then never show up.

Christians tend to be proud to claim that the Bible is the "best-selling book of all time", presumably because the insinuation is that so many copies have been sold.

One overwhelming and compelling argument against such a hollow claim is that a very high percentage of Bibles are given out, for example by missionaries and many recipients would not even read it or rather use it as a door-stop.

And, think of how many hundred thousand copies of the Bible sit in hotel room drawers; their only use being to stop the uneven table leg from causing your Dom Perignon to topple. Most uneven tables only require the said book of wisdom to be opened at say, Revelations 4:7. In such case, the hotel guest would want to refrain from reading the passage for fear of one's mouth spraying the champagne at the wall due to a spontaneous outburst of laughter.

Then, of course, think of even more hundreds of thousands of Bibles stored in classroom cupboards, a bit worse for wear owing to many years of Bible fights by students.

Therefore, the Bible must be one of the least read, least popular books in the world. The number of people who want and own a bible is far fewer than the number of Bibles. There is a ridiculous surplus of these books in the world.

How many other books ever published have such a low reader to ownership ratio?

Man: Dude. Hey dude?

Want some really bad-arsed sh!t that will get you right offa your face?

Dude: Like, what is it, man?

Man: It's called "religion" dude. It will get you so high that you'll be hallucinating.

Dude: No way man. I've heard about that crap...it's addictive and can get you really screwed up.

Just give me some meth man.

It's a lot safer.

Little Kid: Hey Mummy......see that creepy-looking man wearing a black hoodie over there?

Is he one of them real bad drug dealers?

Mother: No he's not dear, he's much worse than that.

He's a Catholic priest.

Given that Adam and Eve were created by God and begat children who in turn, begat children (take your time to think about it).....

And, given that God became utterly disgusted with all his subjects a couple of thousand years later, he started life again with one family (take your time to think about this one too)......

Wouldn't this be representative of the sort of human beings we see today?

/buy/bull

Definition: see pronunciation

Research has shown that theists tend to have a lower IQ than atheists.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mr-personality/201312/why-are-religious-people-generally-less-intelligent ;

The meta-analysis explains:

Surely, it stands to reason that anyone who maintains a quirky belief based on irrational, superstitious nonsense will need to shut himself or herself from any conflicting information thereby stunting intellectual development.........

Delusion: an idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.

Isn't it interesting that, when you think about it, theists and atheists talk the same language?

If we take a look at words commonly used by normal folk and religious followers we can see an example of theists using a normal word for their own use:

Blood: On the face of it, blood is merely an iron-rich, oxygenated liquid that circulates through the bodies of most creatures. Christians view this mundane fluid as being very sacred and practice mock necrophilia ceremonies to idolize the existence of an alleged charlatan who claimed to be the son of God some 2000 years ago.

Spirit: Well, here's an example of normal folk hijacking a religious term. To religious followers, spirit means something that is there, somewhere yet everywhere, that errrr, controls us and ummm, made us and is like all powerful and been there for eternity and invisible and ummm in another dimension and ......yeah, that's what a spirit is.

Yet, normal folk also have spirits that are beyond the realm of reality. 

For example, I have a spirit called Jose Cuervo.

I can tell you now that I communicate with this spirit every Friday and Saturday nights and He is real.

Soul: Now, this is a term that both religious and normal folk can agree on. That hard to describe "X-factor" quality that characterizes the essence of our unique individuality. God followers stretch the meaning a bit beyond the pale and think, for some reason such an abstract definition is something, errr tangible that ummm, lasts after we die,....somehow.

But then, us normal folk aren't that much different.

For example, I am a musician and we have soul music; many guitarists pay gazillions of dollars for old instruments that have soul built into them.

In fact, just recently I remember strutting down the street listening to some sweet soul sounds percolating through my headphones then, lo and behold, some guy connects his kneecap with the corner of my Fender hard case. 

He was cool though and knew what I was all about and shouted at the top of his voice, "YOU ARE SOUL".

Preacher: Now, I want all the liars, deceivers, child-molesters, and morons to please stand.......................

Preacher: Ah ha, admitting your guilt are you?

Parishioner: No. I just couldn't bear it any longer to see you standing there by yourself.

Of course, there would be no prizes for guessing which side of the debate these terms come from.

"Religion of life" presumably infers the principle that life is eternal or the essence of life continues somehow after expiry.

"Religion of death", on the other hand, seems to be a negative connotation referring to the atheist view that life ends and that's it baby, finito, kaput, no more, turn to brown, no more and no less.

Are theists scared of dying?

Or....

Are atheists scared of living for eternity, without end, getting sick of watching re-runs of Everybody Loves Raymond, worshipping a master and twiddling their thumbs?

It has been suggested that atheists should start a Bible study discussion.

After all, we should have a better understanding of what we are debating and make informed, responsible posts.

What better way to start than the very beginning of the Bible:

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

The original untranslated Masoretic text reads:

Alarm bells start ringing straight away so far as the King James translation goes.

My translation reads something completely different:

Surely, do we not have a completely different story unfolding here?

Every year approximately nine million children under the age of five-years-old die.

That's about 1000 per hour and most of those children's parents will be praying right now for God to spare their lives.

Surely a God who can either do nothing to help these children or just doesn't care is either impotent or just plain, outright evil.

I have heard it from many Church denominations that they do not hate homosexuals but rather, hate what they do.

Given that homosexuals are the same as everybody else then why hate what they do when it is the same as everyone else anyway?

What I am addressing in particular, is the doom and gloom aspect of religion; Christianity, in particular. Here we have a belief that keeps its followers hooked through guilt and fear that if they do not commit themselves, they will be punished in an afterlife with eternal damnation in Hell.

Apart from being a load of unfounded nonsense and lies, such threats are extremely primitive and unwarranted in this day and age.

We then have the bigotry and ugly discrimination for which Christian Churches are notorious for and embarrassingly and obscenely behind the times. It is just unacceptable in today's modern society for institutions to make a stand against the rest of society and the law of the land in the name of God.

Churches have had an unenviable history of oppression, abuse, and corruption. They have shown to be very slow, even reluctant to clean up their acts.

Have theists finally come to the end of the line so far as justifying their idiosyncratic beliefs?

Is religion well and truly past its "use by" date?

Let's just have a look at some of the reasons that theists try to use in justifying their delusional state...............

Unless you have been living on another planet for the past 100 years you would know that any notion of life having been created has been completely been kiboshed owing to the irrefutable and overwhelming evidence that life evolved through natural selection.

A completely absurd proposition to infer that this gives even an ounce of viability or credibility to the existence of God.

Probably the most hollow and deceptive delaying tactic used by theists and will, of course, be used forever and a day. We can assume however that since theists know we don't yet have the technology, they must know what technology is required and are frantically working hard to develop it.

The good old warm and fuzzy, we're special and you don't understand excuse. Belief and faith do not make god exist and are merely euphemisms for delusion.

"We" haven't always believed such nonsense, only the superstitious, naive and gullible have ever fallen for the fallacy. Others who say they believe, use religion as a tool to gain power and influence others.

I'm sure that if there is a God that is all-powerful, omnipotent and knowing, He would see straight through that sort of false front.

There are no such things as souls or consciousnesses except as metaphors to describe certain characteristics of brain functions.

So, there we have it......God does not exist.

If you have any other reasons to believe that you can dream up, let me know and I will gladly debunk them.

1) There are no such things as Goblins.

2) There are no such things as Tooth Faries.

3) There are no such things as pink winged elephants.

4) There are no such things as spiritual beings, including God.

5) Anyone who demands proof of the above or says that any of the above is beyond being physical is either stupid, deluded, deceitful or all three.

Attention all pedophiles and sexual abusers.

Duties include "grooming" and "liaising" with altar boys who are always willing to "bend over" to help.

That is unless you are an indigenous Australian.

So, all you Christians, Muslims, and Judaists can all go to Hell.

Quite literally.

You see, it has been found that the Aboriginies have had their "Dreamtime" for some 65,000 years the first recorded religion in the world which kind of precedes Christianity by some 63,000 years. That pretty well puts the kibosh on the Bible's credibility (what little it ever had, that is) since the universe was believed by Christians to have been created 6000 years ago. Unless of course, the Aboriginals were waiting around in limbo out in space for some 59,000 years waiting for the universe to be created.

No sirree....the Aboriginals knew who their Gods were......"These supernatural enigmatic creators were often referred to as men and women who had the ability to change shape into animals and other creatures such as the Rainbow Serpent."

Also, "they held the belief that the Dreamtime is a period on a continuum of past, present, and future" which makes the Christian copy of the original religion seem a bit one dimensional and simplistic, to say the least.

There you have it, who are we to argue the authenticity of the original and only true religion.

So, throw away all your crucifixes, yarmulkes and burqas, pick up a spear and a boomerang and start dancing around the fire.

Otherwise, you will end up in the fire.