Sunday, 25 May 2014
Did the Resurrection really happen?
"Not so!" Christians argue, "More than 500 people saw Jesus after the Resurrection. That is proof enough!"
They are, of course, referring to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. But read the entire chapter and you will not see the testimonies of 500 people—you will see one person, Paul, making this claim. Paul, who was writing years after Jesus' supposed execution, was not present at the time and never met Jesus.
How reliable is this evidence? We have to wonder when we read in Matthew 27:51-53 that whilst Jesus was meeting 500 people, the long-dead saints emerged from their graves and walked around the city greeting people.
Did the people mistake the zombies for Jesus or did they mistake Jesus for a zombie?
We shall never know.
But with this quality of evidence one conclusion is clear. Christianity is a project of faith—not of fact.
___________________________
Matthew 27:51-53
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Sunday, 18 May 2014
Who really is arrogant?
Honestly, I am astounded when believers tell me atheists are arrogant.
Here's the thing, believers can hardly help but be arrogant. It's the nature of the beast.
To be a believe in a god, you have to be sure your god is real (despite there being no evidence that it is so) and, for most believers, that entails being equally sure that billions of other people who believe in other gods are terribly wrong.
Actually, it's worse than that. Most believers subscribe to a religion and they have to believe their religion is true which means other religions are false—even if they worship the same god. Look at Judaism. Christianity and Islam for an example of that.
Let's not stop there. Religions have denominations and, again, the believer has to be sure his denomination is true and all the others are false. Just look at the murderous internecine warfare between the Shia and Sunni denominations of Islam to see how strongly denominational beliefs can be held.
All major religions have denominations; Christianity has thousands.
So atheists are the arrogant ones despite the arrogance of the believer, being sure his god is real, his religion is true and his denomination is the correct one and all without a shred of evidence.
The atheist says, he cannot be sure God exists because there are no valid arguments and no evidence to substantiate the claim. So the atheist will not believe God exists until good evidence is found. This is not arrogance—it is humility. It is being prepared to say, "I don't know".
And it is rational...
Read More
Here's the thing, believers can hardly help but be arrogant. It's the nature of the beast.
To be a believe in a god, you have to be sure your god is real (despite there being no evidence that it is so) and, for most believers, that entails being equally sure that billions of other people who believe in other gods are terribly wrong.
Actually, it's worse than that. Most believers subscribe to a religion and they have to believe their religion is true which means other religions are false—even if they worship the same god. Look at Judaism. Christianity and Islam for an example of that.
Let's not stop there. Religions have denominations and, again, the believer has to be sure his denomination is true and all the others are false. Just look at the murderous internecine warfare between the Shia and Sunni denominations of Islam to see how strongly denominational beliefs can be held.
All major religions have denominations; Christianity has thousands.
So atheists are the arrogant ones despite the arrogance of the believer, being sure his god is real, his religion is true and his denomination is the correct one and all without a shred of evidence.
The atheist says, he cannot be sure God exists because there are no valid arguments and no evidence to substantiate the claim. So the atheist will not believe God exists until good evidence is found. This is not arrogance—it is humility. It is being prepared to say, "I don't know".
And it is rational...
Thursday, 15 May 2014
Why don't Christians bring slavery back?
In the Bible, God clearly condones slavery—the type of slavery where slaves where bought and sold, where slaves were included as a man's estate when he died, where a master could split up families, where beating slaves was no crime, even if they were killed, so long as they survived the beating by a day or two.
A man could even sell his daughter to act as a bonded "wife" (sex slave). Slaves could be taken as the spoils of battle. All this ordained and legitimised, apparently, by God.
Some Christians defy logic and tell us the Biblical rules on slavery were a kindness; a way for people to repay debts and survive.
They are clearly wrong but why do they go through hoops to excuse their God for this? If God is the absolute moral authority for all of us, they should assume the moral high ground and argue that slavery is moral, right and proper.
They should fight for slavery to be re-introduced today.
But they don't because they know owning other people is a terrible, inexcusable moral evil and they know their God condoned it. And that is hard to take.
Read More
A man could even sell his daughter to act as a bonded "wife" (sex slave). Slaves could be taken as the spoils of battle. All this ordained and legitimised, apparently, by God.
Some Christians defy logic and tell us the Biblical rules on slavery were a kindness; a way for people to repay debts and survive.
They are clearly wrong but why do they go through hoops to excuse their God for this? If God is the absolute moral authority for all of us, they should assume the moral high ground and argue that slavery is moral, right and proper.
They should fight for slavery to be re-introduced today.
But they don't because they know owning other people is a terrible, inexcusable moral evil and they know their God condoned it. And that is hard to take.
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
How faith rescued Christianity
Imagine the men who invented Christianity sitting round a table...
At the head of the table sat an old man with an unruly beard, a checked shemagh covering his head. He looks at the men around the table, "OK, we've agreed Jesus is the son of God, we've added the ancient Osiris story about the death and resurrection—we know every god has to have that. But, we still need a strong rationale for the death. Ideas? "
Silence.
Long silence.
At last, a young, clean-shaven man at the end of the table said, "If I may sir? We could link the death right to the beginning and say Eve brought sin into the world and Jesus died to take it away? We could make Jesus a sort of human Kapparot chicken!"
Collective intake of breath followed by nervous laughter.
A grey-bearded man wearing a kippah, seated halfway down the table shook his head, "Please everyone, we need to take this seriously. No-one is going to believe that story!"
Nodding of heads around the table.
The young man courageously stood his ground, "But they will. They will. With faith they will believe ANYTHING."
The young man was dead right. Two thousand years later, two billion people believed the story. Pity I never asked his name.
NOTE for fundamentalist religious readers. I don't claim this actually happened—it's just a story. Like Christianity.
Read More
At the head of the table sat an old man with an unruly beard, a checked shemagh covering his head. He looks at the men around the table, "OK, we've agreed Jesus is the son of God, we've added the ancient Osiris story about the death and resurrection—we know every god has to have that. But, we still need a strong rationale for the death. Ideas? "
Silence.
Long silence.
At last, a young, clean-shaven man at the end of the table said, "If I may sir? We could link the death right to the beginning and say Eve brought sin into the world and Jesus died to take it away? We could make Jesus a sort of human Kapparot chicken!"
Collective intake of breath followed by nervous laughter.
A grey-bearded man wearing a kippah, seated halfway down the table shook his head, "Please everyone, we need to take this seriously. No-one is going to believe that story!"
Nodding of heads around the table.
The young man courageously stood his ground, "But they will. They will. With faith they will believe ANYTHING."
The young man was dead right. Two thousand years later, two billion people believed the story. Pity I never asked his name.
NOTE for fundamentalist religious readers. I don't claim this actually happened—it's just a story. Like Christianity.
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
How sin kills Christianity
God devised a plan to forgive human sin and save us from the eternal torment he had prepared for sinners. His plan was to impregnate a virgin with his son, Jesus, and to have Jesus executed. This perfect human sacrifice would enable God to forgive sin and save the eternal lives of those who accept Jesus as their lord and saviour.
If we had not inherited a sinful nature, there would be no need for Jesus to forgive our sins.
This theology, at the very heart of Christianity, is its most vulnerable point. If the Adam and Eve story is not true then nor is Christianity. No Adam and Eve, no sinful nature, no need to be saved, no need for Jesus and no Christianity.
Many Christians believe Adam and Eve were the first two human beings who were created by God between 6 and 10 thousand years ago. This cannot be true if we can show that human beings pre-dated Adam and Eve.
What does the evidence show?
Fragments of pottery have been found in a cave in China's Hunan province dating from at least 15,400 years ago.
Rope has been found in Lascaux cave which was made approximately 17,000 years ago.
A flute-like musical instrument was found in the Geißenklösterle cave dated at 30,000 years ago.
The earliest known cave paintings were found in Spain at a cave known as El Castillo. These are more than 40,800 years old.
Archaeological evidence from New Guinea shows that boats were being made 60,000 years ago.
The earliest known anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) were found at the Omo river in Ethiopia dating from 200,000 years ago. All the discoveries prior to this relate to creatures that were very similar, but not identical, to modern humans.
Pigments and paint grinding equipment has been found in a cave at Twin Rivers, near Lusaka, Zambia dating from more than 350,000 years ago.
There is widespread evidence that fires were used to cook food by 1 million years ago.
Knives made from sharpened stones were in common use by 1.4 million years ago and some date back to 2.5 million years ago.
This small sample of evidence shows that human beings were thriving and living around the globe thousands of years before Adam and Eve were said to have been created. This shows the Adam and Eve story cannot be true.
Which means that Christianity cannot be true.
Sunday, 6 April 2014
Finally, proof that God is stupid
God is said to be omniscient and unchanging. But what are the implications of these characteristics?
1) Stupid people cannot learn
God cannot learn because he knows everything.
2) Stupid people won't change their minds
God cannot change his mind because he has a perfect plan. If he changes his mind, his plan would become imperfect.
3) Stupid people cannot make decisions
God can only do what is in his plan and nothing else. All God's decisions are predetermined by his plan.
4) Stupid people can't make plans
God cannot have made his plan because if he had made it, there would have been a time when he didn't know everything so he would not have been omniscient. But God cannot change so he must always have been omniscient. Therefore, the plan must be older than God. Therefore God cannot have created his own plan.
So we have a God that functions like a computer program, doing exactly what he has been told to do—no more and no less with no intelligence required. Is there any point in praying to such a God for help? What do you think?
Of course God is not really stupid because God does not exist. But the men who invented him, now they really were stupid.
I wonder how many millions of people would have lived longer, happier lives if it were not for the invention of the Abrahamic God?
Read More
1) Stupid people cannot learn
God cannot learn because he knows everything.
2) Stupid people won't change their minds
God cannot change his mind because he has a perfect plan. If he changes his mind, his plan would become imperfect.
3) Stupid people cannot make decisions
God can only do what is in his plan and nothing else. All God's decisions are predetermined by his plan.
4) Stupid people can't make plans
God cannot have made his plan because if he had made it, there would have been a time when he didn't know everything so he would not have been omniscient. But God cannot change so he must always have been omniscient. Therefore, the plan must be older than God. Therefore God cannot have created his own plan.
So we have a God that functions like a computer program, doing exactly what he has been told to do—no more and no less with no intelligence required. Is there any point in praying to such a God for help? What do you think?
Of course God is not really stupid because God does not exist. But the men who invented him, now they really were stupid.
I wonder how many millions of people would have lived longer, happier lives if it were not for the invention of the Abrahamic God?
Friday, 4 April 2014
Female circumcision: What it is and why it must stop
It is carried out at any age from soon after birth to 15 years and, of course, it is done without consent. It involves removing a girl’s clitoris and inner labia and sometimes the outer labia too. The wound is sewn up leaving a small gap for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid. The exact nature of the procedure varies in different cultural groups.
The cuts are made with a razor blade, scissors or knife, frequently by a person with no medical training, without anaesthesia and without sterilisation of the blade, sutures or dressings.
Immediate complications include fatal bleeding, retention of urine, urinary infection, wound infection and septicaemia. It is known that girls die from this procedure but no country, to my knowledge, keeps statistics. It seems that fatalities are rarely reported.
Eventually, if complications are not fatal, the wound heals and scar tissue forms, bonding the two sides of the vaginal opening together. The small opening left for urine and menstrual fluid is insufficient to allow for sexual intercourse, so the scar tissue must be broken apart before intercourse can occur. There are several ways this is done—all of them very painful. Of course, the woman is able to experience little or no sexual pleasure.
Immediate complications include fatal bleeding, retention of urine, urinary infection, wound infection and septicaemia. It is known that girls die from this procedure but no country, to my knowledge, keeps statistics. It seems that fatalities are rarely reported.
Eventually, if complications are not fatal, the wound heals and scar tissue forms, bonding the two sides of the vaginal opening together. The small opening left for urine and menstrual fluid is insufficient to allow for sexual intercourse, so the scar tissue must be broken apart before intercourse can occur. There are several ways this is done—all of them very painful. Of course, the woman is able to experience little or no sexual pleasure.
Female circumcision is mainly, but not exclusively, a Muslim practice. According to UNICEF, the top rates are in Somalia (with 98 percent of women affected), Guinea (96 percent), Djibouti (93 percent), Egypt (91 percent), Eritrea (89 percent), Mali (89 percent), Sierra Leone (88 percent), Sudan (88 percent), Gambia (76 percent), Burkina Faso (76 percent), Ethiopia (74 percent), Mauritania (69 percent), Liberia (66 percent), and Guinea-Bissau (50 percent).
Why is it done? Some say it is done for reasons of hygiene but this is not credible (and even if it were, would not justify it). In fact, the opposite is the case. Urine and menstrual fluids can be retained beneath the scar tissue and cleaning becomes very much more difficult.
It is a part of culture and is supported by both men and women in those groups that practice it. But it is painful, dangerous, done without consent and robs women of sexual satisfaction for their entire lives. The most likely reason for the practice is to control women—to reduce the likelihood of a wife having sexual relationship outside of marriage and as proof that a bride is a virgin.
I can’t think of a single good reason that would justify this vile practice. But they have no good reasons—they have only very bad reasons.
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About Me
- Nildogma
- As a 20-year-old I was insatiably curious about the world and passionate about rejecting superstitions and all kinds of false beliefs. I still am today. Sometimes when people believe things that are not true, it make little or no difference but sometimes the consequences can be disastrous and deadly. Now, I do what I can to help people improve their thinking skills, especially in how they impinge on core beliefs, such as cultural values and religious beliefs. I have an active Facebook page for which I create memes and write articles almost daily. I also engage people in on-line debates. You can find me here: https://www.facebook.com/bill.flavell.1 I lecture at universities around the world and present or debate at public meetings. I also, draw on my management consultancy background to help freethought groups, almost anywhere in the world, to get organised, develop strategy and improve their media and presentation skills. If you would like me to present at your university or for your church group or freethought group, please contact me.
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