A Sane and Logical God

Would a sane and logical God create as many as 80 sextillion stars (update–300 sextillion is new estimate-12-2010) in an observable universe that is about 93,000,000,000 light years ( a light year as distance is about 6 trillion miles) in diameter, all because he wanted to lord over a few people here on earth 6,000 years ago?

Why would a God this powerful and omnipotent want the adoration of a group of goat herders and set in motion the obscene sequence of events on this poor planet that has resulted in the unimaginable horrors that human history has witnessed?

Why would an all-powerful being that has an intellect and (reputed) powers that us mere humans could not even fully comprehend, want a bunch of savages to pray and idolize Him/Her/It and want to tell these “chosen” people how to live, what to eat, how far to set up a latrine from your camp tents, etc., etc.?

Why would an omniscient, all seeing, all knowing God even think up the god-awful stupid melodrama of “Original Sin” and sending a “son” to earth to be a “human” sacrifice to expiate our non-existent “sins”?

How can a loving, caring, compassionate God sit on His/Her/It’s throne and watch the millions and millions (probably billions) of agonizing, excruciating, horrible, bloody deaths of pure innocent humans…women, children, infants, and men who are doing nothing more than trying to care for their families.

How can this omniscient being possibly justify all the misery He/She/It has caused to be suffered by my brothers and sisters on this lonely planet spinning around a third rate star in a third rate galaxy?

But, the best question of all…how can so many people believe this crap with all the stupidly nonsensical,  non-logical, and seriously demented stories?
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Go To Seminary…Lose Your Faith

“…It’s true, here are these young people in seminary, they have come with the purest of hearts and the noblest of intentions and they’re going to devote their lives to God. And one of the first things they learn is textual criticism. They’re looking at all the existing papyruses and scrolls and so forth and learning about the recension of the texts — the tortuous and often controversial historical path from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin versions of the books of the Bible — and all the Apocryphal books that got rejected — to the King James Version and all the later English translations. And that’s not what they taught you in Sunday school.”

That’s the joke that we often provoke from people when we talk about this: Anybody who goes through seminary and comes out believing in God hasn’t been paying attention.”–  Daniel. Dennett  [my emphasis]

Bart Ehrman writes about this in his book “Jesus Interrupted”.  He says that he believed in God and that the Bible was inerrant and that he was a full blown fundamentalist.  Then he went to Princeton Seminary and learned the real story behind the Christian religion. He still teaches religion at UNC Chapel Hill, but he is no longer a believer.

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Humanity is Indebted to Humans

“We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins – they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones.

The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of today – of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.

These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars – neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience – and for them all, human is indebted to human.”  Robert Ingersoll
Amen brother!

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California Universities VS Religious Schools

Hey guys, do you remember a few years ago I wrote a post about some Christian fundamentalist schools suing the State of California’s university system for denying entrance to those Christian students because the High Schools science programs were bogus and taught “Creation science” instead of real science?

Well the California universities won their case, but the Christian schools appealed and took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.  On October 12^th of this year the Supreme Court refused to review the case, thus effectively ending the Christian schools suit, thereby denying students of Christian schools, whose curriculum teaches that magic was used to create stuff in this world, access to universities run by the state.

Those darn religious fundamentalists just keep up their crazy attempts to ride roughshod over real truths.  They keep trying to replace sanity and logic with religious dogma, and so far we have been lucky enough to have intelligent people see what is going on…and stop it.
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Muslims…Learn “Christian Values” or Get Out of Germany

Immigrants without Christian values have no place in Germany,” says Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Multikulti”, the concept that we are now living side by side and are happy about it, does not work.”

She said that the attempt to create a multi-cultural society has failed completely and she called for the countries immigrants to learn the German language and adopt Christian values.

“We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don’t accept them don’t have a place here,” said the chancellor.

“Subsidizing immigrants isn’t sufficient, and Germany has the right to make demands on them,” she added, “such as mastering the German language and abandoning practices such as forced marriages.”

Integrating Muslims has been a hot button issue since this past August when Thilo Sarrazin a member of Germany’s central bank touched off outrage by saying the country was being made “more stupid” by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants with headscarves.

In a recent study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation nearly 60 percent of the over 2400 people polled, thought that the four million Muslims in Germany should have their religious practices “significantly curbed.”

I couldn’t agree more. If the Muslim immigrants to America can’t integrate into our culture then they need to go back to their original home.  Islamic values as relates to women and how to treat them is totally unacceptable in our society.  That little Islamic practice of allowing the religious leaders to declare Jihad and encourage Muslims to go out and kill and bomb and totally disrupt order is not acceptable here.  The law of the land applies to Everyone, without exception.

I think that most Muslims here in America are here because they wanted to escape the oppressive theocratic regimes of the country they came from, and that is great…now you have to integrate and leave that religious inbreeding crap behind you.  You can practice your religion…in a modified form.  You have to realize, and accept, that some of your religious and cultural practices have to stop.

There are no freebie’s or excuses.
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What is the Purpose and Meaning of Life For an Atheist

About a year ago a evangelical Christian wrote to me and wanted to know how my life could have purpose or meaning without God

He writes:
“Hey, I have a question for you. What is the purpose and meaning of life?”

A big part of my purpose is to love and support my family and friends.

I think my purpose in life is kind of Darwinian…to pass on the knowledge of the past and present and to further the dispersion of the species, and to work to insure the survival of not only my offspring, but all of humanity. Further I think it is incumbent on all of us to work to alleviate pain and suffering in our world, to help those in need, to continually be learning and working to make our world safe for all of us.

We have only this life and we need to make the best possible use of it. We as a people need to learn that life is a fragile and beautiful thing and needs constant reinforcement and support from all of us from the greatest to the most vulnerable. We must learn to treat our world and environment with greater respect and do our part to stop the degradation of our only home in the cosmos.

I can tell you what it is NOT…”Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Just how egotistical is your God anyway?

If it were all up to Christian and Muslim religion we would be setting around on our butts waiting for Armageddon or some such crud. Research and learning would be a thing of the past…why research anything…God did it. We would enter another dark-age and the spirit of mans intellect, that glow in the dark vastness of the universe, would be extinguished forever…all for nothing…as there is no God.

I truly fear for this world as there are forces afoot conspiring to end civilization as we know it, and there is serious effort behind this plot. If religion is allowed to stand we are doomed as a people.
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End of the Monsoon Season

Gathering Monsoon clouds over the mountains.
Our Monsoon season ended here this past week and we are finally getting some cooler, dryer atmosphere again. Pretty good one this past year;  it lasted a few weeks longer than usual.  Monsoon is pretty important to Southern Arizona as we depend on it filling up our ground water reservoirs for another year, and cooling off those 100 degree plus days of our summer.

We returned from a conference at the Mayo clinic in Scottsdale, AZ not long ago and  thoroughly enjoyed it.  The weather was great and there was finally a (very small) hint of fall in the air .  Phoenix and the surrounding cities of Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Peoria, and whatever other burgs there are snuggling up against it makes a humongous metropolitan area now.  It has grown like  Los Angeles did in its early years…city after city incorporating and blending in with the surrounding cities. Writer Edward Abbey has called it “the blob that is eating Arizona,”  Population of the whole area is said to be close to 5 million now; and it is the fifth largest city in the US, and the second fastest-growing Metro area in the US…..Glad I don’t live there.

Weather I’m waiting for.
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