Brand New Atheist

This morning I was sleeping when all of the sudden I woke to my house shaking. My first thought was my wife was washing something and the washing machine was off balance during the spin cycle, only the vibration was about 4 times that. When I sat up to understand what was happening the house had been shaking for about 15 seconds, then all of the sudden it got about 10 times worse. I stood up and headed down stares with the house shaking and by the time I made it to the bottom of the stairs it was over.

Is God angry with me for being an atheist? What was God trying to tell me? Should I sacrifice a goat? What? These are questions you and I would have been asking ourselves 1000 years ago. This something that religious people don’t get, God was created by man to answer questions they couldn’t. Science has continued to answer every question the Gods were created to answer.

As it turns out this is the 21st century and we are all aware of what an earthquake is. The goats are safe.

Can you be considered rational and still believe in something that remains unproven and in many cases disproved? I don’t think you can. Once you’ve been shown that what you believe in is false you have two options, ignore them completely or do some serious homework. If no one has ever questioned your own personal beliefs to your face then you probably believe whatever you were taught as a child and took it as truth.

Sometimes I consider using the shock factor and saying something so outrageous about their God that they would seriously think he would strike me down where I stand. But I am 100% confident that long after they had that thought I would still be staring them in the face with a condescending look. Your God can’t touch me because he is imaginary, which means I can whatever I want to him or about him and nothing will ever happen to me. Here’s the kicker, so can you.

The reason I don’t use the shock factor is respect of the person, not their beliefs. I made a joke to my nephew that I had killed God and he could worship me now. He took that as a personal attack and asked that I refrain from such things, I doubt he would have felt the same if I made a similar comment about his choice for president, etc. I agree 100% with Richard Dawkins about people thinking that their religious beliefs are above criticism. Why do believers think their religion deserves a level of respect that puts it outside of criticism?

Typical believers view God as something that watches over them, like a parent watching their kid through a window playing in the back yard. Most believers think God has a hand in their daily lives, helping them make the right choices. Almost all believers think God answers prayer, which is why they spend so must time praying. All believers think God made the universe, but they rarely consider the universe outside Earth’s atmosphere.

So what happens when I tell you that the universe is so big you can’t even understand it, you’re not able to comprehend it’s size? Does your mind play tricks on you and try to convince you that God is powerful enough control the universe? Do you make your God as powerful as he needs to be for you to believe in him? Let’s take for instance this image of the Omega Centauri. This is a tiny image through a tiny pinhole of the universe. And it contains hundred of thousands of stars. You can’t actually see the stars with your naked eye, but you can see the cluster of them which is Omega Centauri.

When scientists refer to the universe they use phrases like millions of billions of stars. Millions of Billions, not only can you not convince me of God here on Earth but take into account the Million of Billions of stars, those star’s planets and those planet’s moons and you don’t have a chance. There isn’t anything that made this, their isn’t anything controlling this and the universe will still be here when humans no longer exist.

Here’s the original article with higher quality images of Omega Centauri. Want to be reminded daily of just how small you really are?

This is my first Easter as an atheist.

First I’m going to explain what Easter means to me now, then I’m going to look it up online.

Before Research: Easter is the one day a year that children hunt artificial or boiled and painted eggs. It seems to have no relevance to adults. Why does Easter exist? I have no idea. Is Easter related to some other event? None that I’m aware of. I look at Easter and Halloween as very similar. Kids gets candy. Easter has never meant more than kids and candy to me.

After Research: Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus three days after he was killed. I didn’t know that but it doesn’t really surprise me. Easter is also linked to Passover. As far as I’m concerned Easter will remain about kids and candy. If I can age 36 years in America and not know what Easter meant then it doesn’t deserve more than a colored goose egg.

This is my first Saint Patrick’s Day as an atheist.

First I’m going to explain what Saint Patrick’s Day means to me now, then I’m going to look it up online.

Before Research: Saint Patrick’s Day is the one day a year that Americans pinch each other for not wearing green. People also like to make things green that normally wouldn’t be. Why does Saint Patrick’s Day exist? I have no idea. Is Saint Patrick’s Day related to some other event? None that I’m aware of. I assume Saint Patrick’s Day is something they celebrate in Ireland and we do it here just for fun.

After Research: Saint Patrick’s Day turns out to be religious. Are you serious? I thought it was about a place or a thing, it never occurred to me that it was an actual person. I was partly correct, it’s celebrated in Ireland. The story of Saint Patrick’s Day isn’t very interesting either. The day was mostly over before I even knew it was Saint Patrick’s Day. And it still doesn’t mean anything to me.

Last night Karen and I watched “Stargate: The Ark of Truth”, this was the first time I really noticed how much religion plays a part in Sci-fi. Most of the bad guys in Stargate are false Gods. But they have people worship them and they have books to live by. The Gauld were more hands on but the Ori were more inline with the religions in the world today. They had their holy book and if you didn’t worship you would spend eternity in hell fire. Very original.

I think what amazes me most is how I watched this show for 10 years and never thought about it’s relationship to real religion. Now it seems almost comical. The crazy stuff they come up with isn’t any less crazy than the real stuff. Have you seen the drama with Scientology.

Even the robots in Battlestar Gallactica “Praise the Gods.”

I wonder if almost all Sci-fi writers are atheists? One of my favorite Sci-fi writers, Joss Whedon, is an atheist. He produced the awesome TV series Buffy and Firefly.

I sometimes am judgmentally challenged. I tend to think that many high level politicians actually make decisions with my best interests in mind. That is their job, right?

It doesn’t matter if you’re atheist, christian or muslim, the more I learn about our government the more I realize these high level politicians aren’t as concerned about my rights, as they are their inflated salaries. It’s amazing that politicians live a better life (financially) than 99% of the people they are making decisions for. Even after receiving an inflated salary from the tax payers the same high level politicians will make decisions favoring big business rather than the people.

Not only are they paid well, but they do it without having to do their job. Their job is to do what’s right for the people. It’s only a small number of them but it’s enough when one of them is the President.

So who are these high level politicians? We can start with the President of the United States of America. If Homeland Security reads that they will probably flag me as a Domestic Terrorist. Simply for speaking out against the government. Yes, Homeland Security violates many of your inalienable rights.

You see, as American citizens you have your constitutional rights (inalienable), those rights are not given to you by the government. Many people willing give them away because they don’t understand what government is doing or how the government works. Most people believe their rights are provided by the government, this is false.

So who are the rest of these politicians that are not doing what’s best for the people? (here I go again) It’s probably a relatively small group, the Clinton’s, it’s certainly not the majority but it’s enough to mess with your state of living.

I get the feeling the only reason we went to war in Iraq is because they walked on George W. Bushes Daddy’s face at the Al-Rashid Hotel.

I try to vote for the one that I think is concerned for the right of the people. I’m so glad Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are out, I guess God didn’t want them to be president or have Huckabee change the constitution. I voted for Ross Perot twice because he made sense to me. This time it’s a toss up between Ron Paul and Barack Obama. John McCain, does the constitution change meaning when read by a christian? McCain thinks so.

I voted for Bush twice, so sometimes I’m definitely Judgmentally Challenged.

It doesn’t matter how you say it, The Son of God, The Sun of God, The Sun God, God of the Sun, God’s Son or God’s Sun.

I haven’t done much research on this but it’s crossed my mind several times. Many civilizations worshipped the Sun. It seems to me that the Sun may be the most worshipped item ever. If you think about this coincidence it’s almost seems farfetched. Of all the things Jesus represents, he just happens to be called the son of God. Think of the things he or she could have been called or referred to as. Mother, Father, daughter, King, Queen, proper name. There are many more examples of what the name or reference could have been. But of all the possible references it just happens to phonetically the same as Sun. That’s a pretty big coincidence.

Christmas was the hijacking of an existing Winter celebration (The Winter Solstice). Jesus’ life is littered with plagiarism from previous prophets. Unicorns, really?

Now take into account that Mary was not a virgin, but a maiden (mistranslation, look it up) and you have a man, “Jesus”, who was born to a man and a woman (if in fact this individual ever existed) not the immaculate conception (a product of the original mistranslation) that is claimed in the current translations of the Bible.

You can begin to see that the current beliefs of Christians are founded in plagiarism, mistranslated text and Bible books that have been selectively removed (Book of Judas and Book of Jasher).

Why can Christians read the Bible and see the mistakes (the Earth is not the center of the universe) yet think other parts are without error? Even a simple story of the Bible will be taken as a exact representation of the real story. This doesn’t make sense, if any part of the Bible is in error, then that proves that any other part of the Bible can also be in error.

I’ve begun to understand that Karen doesn’t care what the Bible says. What I mean by that is she’s not concerned about the accuracy of the Bible. She believes in a personal God. I’m not really sure how you can separate God from the Bible because without the Bible there is no God. Regardless of any inaccuracies I point out in the Bible it doesn’t affect her relationship with her personal God. I understand it but I don’t think it makes sense. The only way I can relate is to imagine an imaginary friend that you love like a real person.

Now we have the problem of God and Jesus. If you can only speak to God through Jesus and the Bible is wrong about Jesus then how do you know what to believe? What I’ve found is that most Christians simply believe whatever comforts them. So the nuances between two Christians beliefs are small and the main difference is that each is comforted by something different. I don’t think it’s even possible to convince a Christian that something they take comfort in could be in error.

So who or what do you believe in?

Which one? From which religion? Which translation?

No. I have never read the Bible from beginning to end (though I tried in the Army). I have never read the Bible entirely (every single page). I have never read the Bible to prove a point. I have looked to the Bible for wisdom. I am reading the Bible online.

I’m not a book reader, I could probably list all of the books I’ve ever read in under 60 seconds. Karen couldn’t list all of the books she’s read in 2007 in 60 seconds.

I do, however, spend about 8 to 12 hours a day on my computer, I read more online in a year than most do in a lifetime. I’m a research fanatic and since becoming an atheist I have researched and read the Bible online. I still can’t bring myself to read it from beginning to end or try and memorize it for the sake of knowing it.

Since becoming an atheist I know more about the bible than my prior 36 years. Because I now have an interest in why it’s so messed up and why people believe it. If I could quote the Bible like some can, I would be a horribly obnoxious atheist.

I’m bothered by people who trust the Bible yet discount the Old Testament because of the New Testament. If the New Testament changed the rules then why hasn’t God updated the Old Testament and removed the unnecessary rules? Imaginary characters can’t make real changes, that’s why. There isn’t another single book I can think of that would leave in the old rules after changing them. If God was real, and he wrote a book, it would be the best damn book ever written and everyone would read it. But he’s not. The Bible is not a good book, it’s schizophrenic, hard to understand, contradicts itself and difficult for people to agree on the meaning.

Now that I’m and atheist I don’t really care that I never read the Bible. I know people who have and they don’t understand what they read. Besides, now that I’m an atheist I’m well aware that the Bible was written by men for men. So I don’t really feel like I missed out. Had I read the Bible before now, I would have become an atheist much sooner. I believe we have so many christians in America simply because they haven’t read their Bible.

Never accuse me of simply passing along or believing what I’ve been told by others about any subject. My opinions are mine, after my own research. If I simply believed what I was told I would still be a christian and I would believe banks are looking out for my financial interests.

Most of the time when someone ask me how I’m doing, I reply, “I’M BEAUTIFUL!”. It’s nice to invoke a pleasant reaction from someone. It makes people smile.

I say “I’M BEAUTIFUL!” instead of “I’M DOING BEAUTIFULLY!” because the reactions are funnier. And it’s easier to blurt out.

I’ve been doing that for about 8 years now and “I’M BEAUTIFUL” represents how I feel on the inside.

I’m quite happy, with my wife and girls, with my job, with my things, but I definitely strive for more.