Heaving Dead Cats

Sometimes a post is handed to me on a silver platter. If only I was superstitious and religious, I'd think god his bad self had Mark write this just to help me out when I was in a tight spot. Unfortunately, I'm a godless heathen. Let the blasphemy begin!

I wrote a post on HDC awhile ago called 10 Reasons Atheists Are Morally Superior To Religious Fundamentalists. I toned it down then cross posted it to de-conversion a month ago, and I still get comments on there. Yesterday a guy named Mark wrote the comment below. After each reason, I'll leave a reply:

Try to read and see who is really ignorant.. (by Mark on deConversion - comment 196)

Ten reasons to believe in God

1. Are you sure God doesn't exist? You are willing to contend, aren't you, that there is a tiny chance that God does exist? If you don't believe in him, and he DOES exist, you're screwed. You HAVE A CHOICE. When the day comes to choose who enters Heaven, it is highly doubtful you will be chosen, if you don't believe. Isn't it safer just to believe?

Puh-lease. Pascal's Wager, Mark. I am not wasting my life on the off chance that some jealous sky daddy is up there messing around with my afterlife. I prefer to live my one life now, instead of groveling and begging to an invisible friend that ignores me.

2. So you have moral dilemmas? They're annoying, aren't they? What is right and what is wrong? Who knows? The law? Crap, you cross the street at a red light. God knows what is right and what is wrong. Believe, and all your moral problems are solved. If you are ever stuck again with a moral dilemma, just ask your local priest, rabbi or equivalent. He'll explain it all to you.

Nice, condescending attitude coming from a christian. I am an ethical atheist. I am good for morally superior reasons to you. I am good and kind simply because it makes sense and I choose to be, not because I am afraid of hellfire and torment everlasting. I don't need an invisible parent watching my every move to make me feel like I have to do the right thing. I just do it because it's right. Religious people are not pure and innocent. Ask the catholic church about that one. Or bible thumping assholes that fill up our prisons. I got my morals from school, teachers I admired, role models from my life. I saw what was good, and how I wanted to be treated, and I realized it was best to treat others well too. Common freaking sense.

Not to mention, your god is a total asshole. He demanded death, murder, rape, slaughter,war, slavery and the death of innocent children at every turn when he talked to people. Then he came up with some stupid idea to kill his son to save us, even though he's the one who set us up for failure in the first place. I aspire to be much nicer than god ever has. Anyone who tries to be godlike will surely end up in jail for heinous crimes, because god was completely amoral and downright evil. Not that he existed.

3. You have sinned, you know. And you DO know it. Even if you don't call it sin. So you call it "a mistake". But you can't forgive yourself. God knows you've tried. You can't forgive yourself. Well, if God can forgive you, you'll be able to forgive yourself too. All the major religions have methods of forgiveness. For example:

* Christianity : confession,
* Islam : Ramadan,
* Judaism : Yom Kippur.

No, I haven't sinned because sin is simply a control mechanism for keeping sheep like you in line by the church. I also take personal responsibility for my mistakes and errors in my life. I made them and I will live with them. That's what grownups do. We are personally responsible. We don't dump our problems on our invisible friend then go "sin" some more because we feel we can just apologize for it later.

4. Can you explain infinity? I can't. I'm talking about two dimensions of infinity. Spacial and temporal. Talk quantum mechanics, and dimension folding all you like, the human mind can never grasp it. I don't think anyone can comprehend infinity. If you believe in God, no problem.

Maybe I can't explain infinity but that's why I look to science for such awesome concepts. Maybe god conveniently answers your few little questions, but science never stops asking and searching and learning and observing. We don't give up at the first sign of amazement, throw our hands up and say god did it. We are creative and thoughtful and searching. It's a wonderful thing you in your narrow world view can never appreciate.

5. You can't possibly believe that evolution theory completely. Oh, I'll agree, natural selection exists. Of course it does. Creation theory does not conflict with the belief in natural selection, don't make any mistakes. Of course, many people believe it does, but that's mostly because they are misinformed. Natural selection hardly explains Man. And where is that missing link? You can't possibly believe that Man (a conscious being) originated from the monkey, which is so far below him?

I accept evolutionary theory and understand that we learn more and answer more pieces of it all the time. That's what science does. YOU are misinformed. You are getting your view of the world from a 2,000 year old text written by bronze and iron age goat herders who thought donkeys and bushes talked to them. If you believe that man originated from the monkey you are an ignorant fool who never read the first thing about evolution. You simply "know" what your preacher told you. And you are wrong.

And why are monkeys below man? They are just as perfectly evolved as humans. They simply took a different path than us. The snail and the scorpion have evolved perfectly. They are awesome. Man is simply better able to manage his environment, and much more able to destroy it. Yeah, we're so superior. At any rate, read a freaking book that was actually written in the last 100 years for a change and you might learn what real evolutionary theory is all about.

6. What happens when we die? Scary, isn't it? Don't you have a soul? Of course you do. You can't possibly, deep in your heart believe that we just die and disintegrate? There has to be an afterlife.

You don't know any more than any other living thing on the planet what happens when we die. And we all die. We were not living for billions of years before now, so the worst part about dying is who we leave behind to miss us. That's it. I don't need to be afraid of what happens after we die. I accept that this is my one life. Your fear of death leads you to subjugate yourself in this life to a supposed higher power for which there is no evidence. I don't want to die because I still have things I want to do and learn, and I want to be with my family and friends. And I certainly don't want to leave them. Grow up and deal with it. We all die. It's natural.

7. The bible contains predictions of the future. Many predictions have already happened, so if you are a disbeliever, you can see for yourself. No other book in the world has so many prophetic words and codes interwoven into it as the bible. Many experiments have shown this. Coincidence?

The bible is a collection of a bunch of cobbled together stories and stolen myths from other religions from 2,000 to 4,000 years ago. It has never predicted the future, any more than Nostradamus has with his vague ramblings. Seeing patterns where they don't exist is the sign of someone who feels out of control. Why do you feel so out of control if you have your precious god watching over you? Maybe because deep down you know that god is totally made up in your head? Perhaps. I am not superstitious and have no need to read into ancient texts for hidden meaning that isn't there. Read a real book, about science, and maybe you won't feel so out of control.

8. The world today is full of pornography and gore and is low on moral fiber. You know it's wrong. And you sure as heck don't want your children to grow up in such a society. The return to morals is the only solution, and the only way to do that is through BELIEF.

The world is full of porn and gore and yet so many millions and millions of people are god fearing. Funny. How about the fact that divorce, teen pregnancy and children out of wedlock happens more in the bible belt in America than anywhere else? Being religious does not preclude you from beating off to porn on your computer. Go to Google Trends and look up pornographic terms and see which countries search for those terms the most. You'll find a lot of perverts in very religious areas. Coincidence? I think not. What about child molesting priests? Where did you ever get the silly notion that religion = morals? You couldn't be more flawed in your logic. Critical thinking and empathy makes for moral people. Your god has no corner on the moral market. He's devoid of it. And the idea that belief (which is simply accepting that something is true with no evidence) leads to morals which leads to a better society is asinine. That sentence is devoid of meaning. Seriously.

9. Most of the world does, in fact, believe in God. How could this be, if God didn't exist? If you've strayed off the path, you must return to it. Everyone was born capable of believing in God. Some haven't found Him yet, others have lost Him. He WILL take you back.

A majority of people believing in the brainwashing they've been indoctrinated with means nothing. A majority of Americans believe SUVs are safe. They're all wrong. They believe the marketing of the car companies. See, a majority opinion doesn't make something right.

Everyone is born atheist. Only dogma and indoctrination make people into mindless sheeple, believing whatever the church and their hapless families teach them. Only careful thought and questioning of the mindless dogma they've been subjected to will save them from being led around all their lives, constantly fearful of an invisible man watching their every move.

Plus, if most of the world believes in god, why are so many children dying of starvation and why are so many people dying of AIDs? Why are there so many wars and conflicts the world over? Hmm... I wonder... maybe because belief in god doesn't make you a good, happy person?

10. Look deep inside your heart. God is there.

I don't have a god shaped hole in my life or my heart. I live a  happy, honest life without false beliefs in Santa, gods, angels, leprechauns or fairies. I am not delusional. I have no need of regurgitated myths and superstitions. And I have no need to go around patronizing people who think differently than me with threats and cajoling pleas to force them to believe like I do. Funny how an amoral atheist can be so, well.. moral, isn't it?