Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Religion

I've never really understood religion; you have to accept that certain things are true and those things might seem impossible. So why do so many people believe?

The christian bible is riddled with inconsistencies, contradictions, violence, and mayhem all ruled over by a very vengeful, mean-spirited god. Why does that god, if it exists, deserve anything but contempt?

So I am an atheist; life is simpler that way. I try to do the right thing and not because of an invisible sky fairy who will fry me forever if I slip up. Doing the right thing is what an ethical person will do.

The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism

2 comments:

Jack Jodell said...

Hi Anne. I think religion is so confusing because organized religions are bureaucracies run by imperfect people who make mistakes, just like we do. Also, the Bible was written by men, not God, but men who were repeating what was told them. Just as 5 witnesses to a car crash may have 5 different accounts of it, so it is with the Bible. I would recommend going to Google and keying in thomas aquinas 5 proogs. Click on the first entry and read down. It is fascinating and humbling to see that this man, who lived from 1225-1274, was able to come up with 5 very profound truths for the existence of a God. WOW! :)

Anne said...

Hello Jack

I've read the so-called proofs and they do not sound like proofs at all. They sound more like a description of a believer's ideas about his god.

Many of the writings of old scholars are spot-on. Isaac Newton's description of gravity and laws of motion are brilliant. They apply to the macro world we live in which is what Newton could perceive and measure. Quantum physics has a more accurate description in the quantum world but that was beyond Newton.

There are, however, many writings of ancient scholars that are just plain wrong. The solar system of Ptolemy has been shown to be wrong. We now know that the Earth is not the center of the solar system. There are many other examples of error in ancient thought.

As I have stated religious faith requires accepting seemingly ridiculous/impossible things on faith without any proof.