Up In Flames / A Hopeful... Transmission? / 'I struggle with the feeling that my life isn't mine' / Major Minus / Up With The Birds / One eye on what you do. / (still) MYLO XYLOTO / MYLO XYLOTO / Flawed logic. / CLEARANCE /

-Sufjan Stevens.

— Lorraine Hansberry

Her: What do you gain if you choose to believe God doesn’t exist?

Me: Scientific literacy. Present applicable knowledge of the universe, biology, chemistry, physics, astro-physics, humanity, passive resistance vs active resistance, complacency vs action, humility, empathy, individualism, originality, the goodness in everyone underneath their religious or political masks, deep & meaningful conversation about life, corruption, environmental responsibility, evolution, the future of our civilization, sustainability, positive alternatives for a higher & more purposeful living culture, the respect & precious reality of our existence on a finite planet, realism, consciousness, fact-based understanding & above all, the simple realism that, to quote Carl Sagan, “we have no one coming to save us from ourselves”. That alone is something that we as a species cannot become distracted away from. No one is going to come save us from ourselves. When people stop deluding themselves with iron-age fairy tales that dissuade their brains from embracing the reality around them, they will awaken to the destruction around them & realize their purpose, all of our purposes to keep our species alive, but more importantly, to grasp the world we currently exist in, take responsibility for their actions & educate others around them on this responsibility that will appear before everyone whether they like it or not, as many have been conditioned to ignore the warnings that already foreshadow are inevitable future along the current path our species has chosen.

Whether it happens in our lifetime still remains to be seen but we cannot hope to fight back or defend ourselves from having our only place of existence ripped apart by passive prayers, mega-churches, growth groups, missions trips, charities, supporting tax-free establishments that reap the benefits of influencing the brains of their patrons by encouraging them to “recruit people to Christ” & promote such slogans & moral guidance as “Christ Saves” when there is absolutely no proof of that. Christians & nearly all religions have absolutely no proof of the afterlife they suggest & arrogantly portray. To convince herds of consumer sheep to simply “surrender” or “submit” to God actively directs people to finding their purpose, as long as that purpose involves organized religion. This has much more to do with believing in God. If it were that simple, people wouldn’t feel the urge to attend church & all these growth groups & cult camps. It’s a book. Some of it is recorded history, most of it contains tidbits of philosophy, stories, metaphors & miscellaneous stories pertaining to the culture & beliefs & traditions of that time, which no longer apply to a civilization as enlightened & scientifically/technologically advanced as we are now.

To take these things (in the Bible or written religious scripture) as accurate accounts of history word for word is a slap in the face to all we’ve accomplished as a species. And we have so much knowledge of all that has happened to our tiny world & the events that shaped such a vast universe. It’s all there, black & white & some fuzzy because we are still discovering more & more each day. That’s what our species is currently doing.

What our species, a specific percentage of our species is also doing, is holding onto these ancient fables because they have become dumbed down, passive & intellectually ignorant due to a government hierarchy which prefers its people to be non-violent, complacent, following orders, contributing their money to fund more of these indoctrination programs to keep people in fear of the apocalypse (which they can almost guarantee anyway, due to the way we allow corporations & corrupt governments to operate amongst the people, control their “freedoms” & perpetuate the impending collapse of society altogether).

But there will be no mystical being rising up from the ashes to take his “followers” with him. However, there is a wave of reason that is sweeping across the globe in rising numbers to combat this ignorance & misinformation with appropriate, scientific, proven understanding we’ve attained through open skepticism via the scientific method. There are a lot of people who believe in God or gods that aren’t Christians, but it’s the Christians I’m referring to because I don’t live in Japan, Europe, Venezuela, Africa or Greece, I live in North America, where the predominant culture believes in Christianity.

That wasn’t my choice. However, this is what the present state of the world is in: We have down to about 99% accuracy that evolution is real. We have down to about 98% accuracy that climate change/global warming, more specifically, man-made or industrial civilization-inducing global warming is an absolute real threat to our existence (the 98% count of climate scientists was recently achieved due to climate-deniers stepping forward & admitting they were paid off to support the denial of man-made climate change) & amongst all of this, you have these mega-churches & organized religious groups infecting everyone with this notion that the world is going according to “God’s plan”.

Let’s take the side of the Christian & say there is a God. And he created intelligent beings. Well if he created them to be intelligent, they’re doing the worst job of displaying that intelligence & if you look around, it’s the utter most embarrassing display of intelligent design we could hope to use for an example. We claim we are the highest intelligence on this planet, yet no other species actively works toward destroying their environment & killing their own species. We’re the only one. I didn’t mean to go off on a rant but I personally see the effect this belief structure has on our society every single day & it takes the sting out of living on this earth. Instead of having deep, philosophical conversations about society or history or the universe or environmental science or skepticism on certain issues, or simply using our brains to explore the unknown curious issues of life we all have contemplated from time to time, I’m presented with daily, mundane conversations, small talk & monotonous behavior with no real in-depth questioning or admiration for the natural world except for a conceited, vain & naive certainty that this world was somehow made for us. And when you try to question someone of this faith on any of this, on the validity of the Bible, on the importance of scientific literacy & true scientific knowledge of the world, the universe, the laws of science, nature or physics, they begin this predictable downward spiral called circular logic or circular reasoning.

Example: So how do you explain the Bible not citing any reference to the existence of dinosaurs? Do you understand that before during & after that book was written, there has been no proof to show that by taking a part of someone’s rib, you can create another human being? Do you understand that by blindly believing in the Bible & accepting it all as the truth, you are investing your own energy & willpower to cosign & recycle information into your brain that actually is suggesting to you that the Earth is 12,000 years old? You do know it’s not 12,000 years old don’t you? It’s around 4.5 billion years old about now.

These kinds of questions should yield skeptic responses or confirmation that a lot of the information in the Bible is not accurate at all & the person is willing to accept that for some reason because truthfully, no religion can state anything anymore without using the only “proof-verifying” tool that has advanced the survival of our species - science. Instead, the responses & dialogue you will go through are around the extent of: Well, it’s God’s will. Why, how do you know that? Because it’s in the Bible. So? Why do you have so much faith in such an old book? Because it’s God’s word. Who says? God/Jesus. Yeah, where did they tell you that? The Bible. And you’re willing to turn your brain, your inquisitiveness, curiosity, wonder, common sense, critical thinking skills & evolved sense of reasoning over to the pages in a book that we can literally fill another book up with, half the size of the Bible, with the contradictions & hypocrisies throughout the Bible that undeniably weigh on its obvious invalid explanation of our existence & actually go AGAINST the knowledge & understanding we currently have of our life, our development, the universe & creation itself achieved through science? Yes, because it’s God’s word, the way, the truth & the light.

This is called circular reasoning/logic. And it’s poisoning people. Happy people, satisfied with the life they lead does not mean they are doing the right thing for their own species.

When you look at any other species, some are unaware of the complexity of their existence, then you have other species that are well aware of their existence & act in accordance with the laws of nature to survive & love & apply their own critical thinking skills around their way of life. Our species however, has used man-made opinions, fairy tales & theories, along with paper currency, planned obsolescence, consumerism, capitalism, elitism, environmental genocide, non-sustainable practices, media/distractions, false scarcity, weapons, military, profiteering, war, terrorism, fear & other controlling methods to not only belittle civilization into killing one another or taking their own lives or committing acts of violence against their own species amongst the struggle we live in from day to day due to this destructive & adolescent behavior based on a system our own species put into place, but those among that small percentage of people who are behind all of this corruption have worked twice as hard to keep everyone happy about all the choices we have & perpetuating this perception that third world countries/problems overseas are “theirs” not “ours”. It was inevitable that these problems were going to get worse & it’s only going to continue. I’m prepared mentally, emotionally & spiritually for this because I understand our place in the universe to a certain degree & embrace change & welcome new knowledge & understanding into my life. We as a species are much better than the small percentage of us that have chosen to dominate the majority by manipulative, greed-propelling measures that undermine the best interests of all, including our survival on this planet.

I understand our responsibility to Earth. No God or gods are going to come to the rescue or intervention of our planet. No matter what happens in the afterlife, it will certainly be better than this. And you know what? We won’t care about what anyone thought of us or how convinced they were that we were certain to go to hell or heaven due to their confident belief in their man-made religions. The origin of religion was ignited & conceptualized through the analyzation & subjective/objective study of the skies, the stars & the universe on a primitive level. I’ve moved past that & have felt closer than ever to the universe & everything that exists within it, especially our own species because I understand how we originated here on a biological level & what our duties are to this planet in order to preserve our own future & existence. There is no other mission or purpose. We are all here & we all have to work toward the mass awareness of this purpose to prevent the annihilation of our own species. Period.

I don’t care what anyone’s personal faith is. If it allows them the ability to exercise their spiritual development & higher sense of being while still contributing to the support of furthering our species via hundreds, hopefully thousands if not millions of generations after us. And at the end of this life, I will be fulfilled as a human being because I encouraged the education & open-minded pursuit of truth amongst others, conversed freely about the issues plaguing our world in an effort to assist in social change & activism with respect to the 7-10 billion people who are living here when I pass on.

I will not allow my son to unknowingly become influenced & subject to the entrapment of religion at such a vulnerable age when he has so much to experience on his own without the distorted & biased lens of organized religions he isn’t equipped to adequately interpret, research & understand. My son’s brain & understanding of the world belongs to him. As a responsible human being, it’s unnatural & wholly immoral to allow him to be influenced by a relgion/relgions that encourage the miseducation & following of a pseudo-reality to future generations even before they are able to appropriately & maturely process the world around them.
In short, I gain a higher understanding, appreciation & connection to the world/universe surrounding me & all those who share this existence with me

Her: “No matter what happens in the afterlife, it will certainly be better than this. And you know what? We won’t care about what anyone thought of us or how convinced they were that we were certain to go to hell or heaven due to their confident belief in their religions.” - Why do you believe in an afterlife…. “Christians & nearly all religions have absolutely no proof of the afterlife they suggest & arrogantly portray.” …if you say that there is no proof of it?

Me: Are you asking if or why I believe in an afterlife?

Her: Why.

Me: We all dont have any proof of an afterlife. That’s reality. But what is also very real is what we currently understand about the universe. Every speck of energy produced in the universe is cause for something else to be created. We see it every single day throughout the cosmos. Everything is recycled in one way or another. There’s a lot more complexity to it than this (research “panspermia”) but either way, the term cosmos has been around before religions were even created & we have seen more structure & chaotic organization throughout the universe than anywhere else, which indicates that, as we already know, things are going to happen the way they happen & the way we can easily see they are happening elsewhere.

There’s no need to fret over an invisible god interfering with life when everything just IS. there’s no need to fear an “apocalypse” because one fragment of an asteroid could change life as we know it on this planet very quickly. So personally I don’t believe in heaven as defined in biblical terms but I do believe in the subconscious & higher state of being. So the afterlife would or could be similar to a lot of different things we as humans have tried to interpret but none of us know for certain. Meanwhile, back to reality…we have a planet to take care of to prevent the eradication of our own species. I’d say that takes precedence over anyone’s vague & unproven biblical predictions or infatuations/indoctrinations on whether or not this or that person has a “personal relationship” with a deceased man who once existed & did great things for people yet didn’t have the “power” enough to prevent the genocide we face today. Nothing else matters but right now in the present moment & it’s direct effects or alterations to our future as an entire species.

Her: It sounds like you want people to be inquisitive and wise, care for others and the environment, and to be peaceful. These things do not contradict religion or God.

Me: I never said that they do but that statement is not entirely accurate. There are many religions that encourage the appreciation of our planet & preservation of our species. Christianity is not one of them & again, that is the dominant religion we see existing in society today. Those kinds of complacent, ho-hum values that encourage sitting on your hands & awaiting God’s “call” are producing stagnant people who are unaware of the real dangers we face right now.

I encourage you honestly to to take some time & watch these documentaries which do a very good job of bluntly pointing these things out. There’s only one specific part/chapter on religion but everything else is where the real guts lie. The Zeitgeist Movie, Zeitgeist: Addendum, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, The Corporation, Jesus Camp & above all if you don’t watch any of them, watch the documentary END: CIV. I’d love to hear your feedback after you gain a wider, more introspective but concentrated perspective on all of this.

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I am Christian but that is something to ponder about.