To an Atheist

this entry really struck my interest and I ended up putting my easter entry in his notes anyway this is my thoughts in a free flow rant to an anthist on the violence of Religion.

i believe you are falling pray to the same logic you cry against. (ref. entries of school prayer and (un)fun-damentalists accusation that the lack of prayer is the root of societies ills) you see since the believe in the holy boogie man is so wide spread (over 90% of the planet) it is statistically inevitable that a portion of the faithful would be nut jobs. and yes i have seen your precious logic turn horrors as well (ref. H-bomb and the science of War, and the meandering logic of Rhetorician and Politicians ).

frankly i fear that religion and god are not the cause of our violence it is just that our violence is reflected on our notions of god. That is to say, there is a fundamental violence that resides in our primitive brain. we tend to meet what we don’t understand with fear and violence. And if there is anything on the planet that is confusing without bounds, it’s religion. So yes, Religion is a source of fear and violence but so are Germs and the logic of a Rhetorician and Demagogue. yet you are suggesting that we throw the baby out with the bath water. Sure it is dirty (it has the blood and sin of countless generations saturated in it), but in it are the gems of Buddha, Christ, Mohammad who preached tolerance and peace. From these men come works that inspire men like Marten Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Dali Lama,  and the countless other such men (who are martyrs unnumbered and unknown) who have channeled the same self sacrifice to god that you reference in this article yet doing it in Non-Violent, Loving methods.

You have to admit that if those ideals of tolerance, peace, acceptance, forgiveness and love were to really catch on… well the violence you complain about would be stopped (wouldn’t it be worth it). if we simply followed the laws, commandments and such that “came from god” well maybe they just came from our own better nature to fight against the violence of our lower nature.

so if one is relegated to the position of making up imaginary horrors to scare people strait or describing beautiful rewards for the faithful or even if it is just blind faith of DUTY. all are ways to control the masses. Marx had it right but the masses need control. without it the multitude is a mob. not everyone can understand the Logic of being civil and nice and forgiving. it takes some significant mental effort to realize that charity, forgiveness and such are actually a selfish act. one that is the most effective way to increase the love and happiness in any situation. since most people can’t think it through (and most of the rest just plan don’t bother too) one must teach this lesson by Myth and Religion. make up an invisible Judge and Witness to all that everybody does. well intentioned, produces Zealots and Martyrs, but well intentioned none the less. i assert that this Psychotic would have been psychotic with or without the Religions. the fact that he turned to god when troubled is a testament to the fact that the system works (somewhat) as a failsafe for such destructive behavior. yet with all positions of power, Power Corrupts. like the apostles saying, yes, yes, JC good message but couldn’t you add in a touch of hate for Rome or the Jews it will improve our lot. or the dark ages where Logic left the west and found a home in tolerant, scientific, Islam. Over and over demagogues hijack the message and used it for there own greed and desires(sins). Thus, the reptilian (serpent) brain wins out again.

Belief in Souls and God adds value to Life and gives purpose to those who would otherwise wonder lost. I have much respect for your point of view however i don’t belief that the masses can handle a world with no god. it is a security blanket for Billions. And saying that we would some how be better off with out it, well look at china, yes the biggest problem is the 800 million Peasant farmers. but the lack of religion does not help matters, in fact it makes it a crime to believe in something that helps alleviate the pain and torment of being poor in the world. that’s just not fair, if deluding them selves of the existence of heaven improves the quality of their life. then why deny happiness for that person. just as you find your comfort and peace in Logic others must use god. But Judge not… you know, just because they cant find the beauty, love, truth, wisdom and Joy of Lojic, doesn’t mean they are any less of a human, frankly loGic is almost as contradictory as religion, it is simply just a different set of Assumptions. granted there are more assumptions yet that just simplifies the message. and the true messages of mystics is Passion (both love and hate) and it is a continual refinement of which things are in what column of Passion. yet always we try to love good and hate evil, but the lines of good and evil blend gray. we as a human culture are continually redrawing the lines. and religion is an archaic record of this effort.

and Allah u-ackbar (god is most great). so Phththhtthth

but more directly to your entry. to attribute the craziness to the religious belief is just as silly as attributing the rise of inter-city violence to the lack of school prayer. how can you make correlations like that when it is such a small part of the faithful that

suffer from such un-holy delusions. to fault the belief of god for something that most people who believe find an atrocity.

it is like you are playing the role of the Jews.

“Poor us, we are shat upon so…” yet give them some land and they go start a campaign of Genocide themselves. Judged not from the least of our brethren. try to see what we are trying to do and stop pointing so to the failures. what makes these things News is that they are the exceptions to the Norm.

anyway, i enjoy this very much,

with love,

Kit

ps. hey, you know i would really like to hear your take on the craziness that somehow a Man is God and there is only one god but 3 and there should be nothing (icons or people) that should be worshiped but god but the christians put a man on par with god and thus worship this mans image. (talk about a game of telephone from the message from a man described as humble).

just a thought [InTheSandBox]

pps. I believe that you find such resistance to your message is that you illuminate the fact that we made up the whole god thing.  Yet without the reward of heaven and the treat of hell they would have no reason not to let their greed and shortsighted selfishness have full reign and we are back to anarchy and might makes right. In such a world there would be little use for logic, ‘cus logic wont tell you were the next violence with explode. All that would be is fear,  fear of the unknown. To bring Joy and freedom for fear we make stories to explain the unknown. So let us have our security blanket, let us have our pat explanation for all that is beyond our personal understanding. And let the priests of science write their new religion, one built on Logic would be most welcome yet for what science can’t touch… the Why… why not leave god… truly we can never fully know what came before us we must trust what we find, nor can we know what will happen far ahead. Both are taken on faith. Things like death, science can only take us until the point we curious about and offers no solutions to what come next. Simply the assumption that since we have no evidence of anything else that there is nothing else. There are plenty of things that we can not detect. Magnetism without a magnet, Radiation without a gi-cker counter. Simply put things that are un-explainable are simply a lack of the information of what we don’t have the tools to ‘see’. I assert that god is a tool to explain the supernatural and the hereafter.