THE SLACKER FAITH
A big problem for Christians is choosing between the idea that God is omniscient and the idea that he gave us free will. If God is omniscient then even before we are born God must have complete knowledge of every decision we are going to make, every second of our lives. Conversely, if we do have free will, and the outcome of our decisions is not pre-determined or coerced, then God cannot be omniscient, since he would not know in advance our decisions. Human actions cannot be unpredictable and simultaneously known in advance by a supreme being. An action of free will cannot be known until that action happens, and there is no free will if all actions have already been decided. Consequently, omniscience and free will are mutually exclusive.
So this presents a real pickle for Christians - because if God is omniscient, then any choice they make regarding the acceptance or denial of Jesus as their savior has already been predetermined, which means God creates one set of individuals predestined for heaven and another set predestined for eternal damnation - which of course would be unjust, and pretty much destroys any argument that God is benevolent. God's omniscience also presents an inevitable roadblock for prayer as a real phenomenon. If God is perfect and knows everything that will happen in advance then he becomes less than perfect by changing it which makes prayer is null and void.
It's painfully obvious that through history, theists have built their god to such a high standard that they forgot to think things through when trying to cram this nonsense down people's throats.
Christianity is the cheesiest religion ever and I'm sure that's why it's so popular - because morality and how you live your life really doesn't matter all that much when it comes to salvation. The Christian god has done all the heavy lifting for you by nailing his son to some wood to take one for the team –which is what Easter is all about. All Christians have to do is say "thank you Jesus!" and they're good to go.
Most Christians have never read the Bible and only know selected passages their pastors spoon feed them on Sundays - mostly from the New Testament because the Old Testament is so embarrassing - passages like John 3:16 which every Christian knows, and you probably do too: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It's the core selling point of Christianity - all you have to do to be saved and live forever in heaven with God is accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, believe he died for your sins, and that's it – even if it's the last thing you do on earth! Whether you lived a decent, moral life is completely irrelevant - and yes it really is that easy, and it's right there in the Bible.
As a Christian you can be a total piece of shit all your life and it doesn't really affect your chance at eternal bliss because even if you're an axe murderer or child molester on death row, you can still save your rotten ass just by kissing Jesus's ass - even if it's the last thing you do with the last breath you take!
Meanwhile billions of non-Christians, including innocent little children who've never even heard of Jesus, are doomed to eternal torment for the only sin Christianity actually punishes – not believing in Jesus. You can be a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, or an atheist who lives a picture perfect, compassionate, moral life – feeding the hungry, helping the needy, caring for the sick, spreading peace and love and whatnot. You can dedicate your entire life to making the world a better place, and even win a Nobel Peace Prize, but unless you accept Jesus all you're going to get is butt fucked by Satan in a lake of fire 'til the end of time while the born again axe murderers and child molesters in Christian heaven look down their holier than thou noses at you.
And that is why Christianity is the ultimate slacker religion.
WHY SO ANGRY?
First of all, the question seems to imply that because all Atheists are angry, the Athiest position is somehow invalidated, which just doesn't make any sense. Many blacks in America are angry about racism, but does this mean that the Civil Rights movement is invalid? Of course not. The emotional state of the Athiest is completely irrelevant to the debate, and does not detract or add anything to the argument on either side, so why ask the question at all?
Secondly, the people who ask this question seem to think that all Athiests are angry at religion. Not ALL Athiests are angry. There are enough angry Atheists that one can get the impression that this is how Atheists are. But an Atheist could just as easily get the impression that all Christians reason very poorly and know nothing at all about logic or critical thinking. There are many Athiests who are not angry at all, and never attack religion, even when there might be a good reason to do so, in my opinion. The idea that Athiests as a group are angry is simply an over-generalization.
So, now that my objections to the question have been stated, here are SOME of the many reasons I am personally angry at religion:
I am angry that so many parents and religious leaders terrorize children (who have brains that are hard-wired to trust adults and believe what they're told, and are very literal-minded) with vivid, traumatizing stories of eternal burning and torture to ensure that they'll be too frightened to even question religion, and I am angry that religious leaders explicitly tell children and adults that the very questioning of religion and the existence of hell is a dreadful sin, one that will guarantee them that hell is where they'll go when they die. I am angry at the priests who molest children and tell them it"s God's will, and I am angry at the Catholic Church that consciously, deliberately, repeatedly, for years, acted to protect priests who molested children, and consciously and deliberately acted to keep it a secret, placing the Church's reputation as a higher priority then children not being molested. I am enraged when I think about all the child abuse that children have suffered in "Gods" name because of religion.
I am angry that public policy all over the world on important issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion, stem-cell research and sex education in schools, are being based, not on evidence of which policies do and don't work and what is and isn't true about the world, but on religious texts written hundreds or thousands of years ago, and on the policy makers own personal feelings about how those texts should be interpreted, with no supporting evidence whatsoever. I get angry when religious believers base their entire philosophy of life on what they interpret the Bible to mean, and when they ignore or reject or rationalize any evidence that contradicts the Bible, and then accuse atheists of being close-minded and ignoring the obvious truth, while they try and force everyone one to live their lives based on the same Bible, or any Holy Text. for that matter, instead of letting people live there own lives.
I get angry when believers glorify religious faith without evidence as a positive virtue, a character trait that makes people good and noble. And, FINALLY, I get angry when believers trumpet every good thing that's ever been done in the name of religion as a reason why religion is a force for good... and then, when confronted with the horrible evils done in religion's name, say that those evils weren't done because of religion, they were done because of politics of greed or fear or something else, and, would have been done anyway even without religion, and shouldn't be counted as religion's fault.
Points: 109
Reviews: 37
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