Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Life Expectancy


What is it that everyone wants? What is probably prayed for most often? Longer life. Everyone prays that they live long and happy lives, and that their loved ones do as well.

Now you would think that if prayer had any power, then the fervent prayers of the deeply religious, god-fearing people of yesteryear
would have had some positive impact on their life-expectancy.

Today's population is less religious than ever.
Yet our life expectancy has increased dramatically and steadily over the last century or two. That is due to modern science and medicine, not God.

If anything should highlight the futility of prayer it should be the statistics represented by the above chart. Prayer will not extend your life. Only science and medicine will.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Jesus Died For Our Sins?

That's not as noble as it sounds. Dying is easy. Everyone dies.

Why didn't he live for our sins?

I can think of far greater suffering that has been endured by mere mortals than what Jesus had to go through.

Any parent who has lost a child would have gladly endured the suffering of Jesus if it would have saved their child.

Sure, he suffered. But maybe it should have been for 100 years. Shouldn't it have been the greatest suffering endured by any person ever? His suffering and death was for the salvation of ALL mankind for Pete's sake. And he only suffered for the last few days of his 33 years.

I'm not impressed.

The All-Knowing

There is a problem with an all-knowing God. Not a problem for me, but a problem for those who believe in the concepts taught by religion such as sacrifice and reward and morality, etc.

If God knows all, then he knew all that would happen with his creation before he created it. He planned it all. Just like an architect plans a building...he knows exactly what it will look like before it is built.

If God knew all that would happen throughout all time before he created the universe, then he put his stamp of approval on it. So everything that has and will happen is by God's plan.

Is your brain screaming "Free Will" ? Well, I've discussed how that is an illusion in a prior post, but I'm willing to explore it further.

Every choice you make is made for a reason. You choose to eat pizza instead of fish, BECAUSE you don't like fish. You CHOOSE to go to a job you hate BECAUSE you need the money. So where is this so-called freedom? You are merely fulfilling wants and desires. And would not an all-knowing god KNOW your wants and desires even more intimately than yourself? He put them there after all. He IS the designer, programmer, and builder of you.

So worry not, ye believers. Your fate was decided before the universe was even created. Your final resting place in heaven or hell was planned by your creator.

Heavenly Reward

It is a common belief that perfect happiness awaits those who go to heaven.

This poses a problem.


It is also a common belief that those who suffer greatly in this life receive a higher reward in heaven.

How can that be? Is perfect happiness perfect, or isn't it? Is Mother Theresa happier than Joe Schmoe who simply did the bare minimum to get into heaven? If she is, then that implies that there is something about Joe Schmoe's existence in heaven that makes him not perfectly happy....which opposes the assumption that Heaven = perfect happiness.

Here's another problem. The thing that made Mother Theresa WHO SHE WAS, was her caring for the sick, poor, orphaned, and dying. This is what fulfilled her and made her happy. So, if there are no sick, dying, poor, or orphaned in heaven, how can she be happy? There is nobody to care for. The essence of who she was can no longer function.

Is she somehow reprogrammed, or stripped of her essence upon entering heaven so she no longer has the desire to help others? If not, then she will forever have an unfulfilled desire, and thus, not perfect happiness.

See, there are many problems with the concept of heaven, that most people don't even consider.

Ponder heaven for a while, and you will see that it is a superficial concept, akin to the fantasies and wishes of a young child.

Fair Play

If God is not fair for those who are living, why should one assume he is fair in the afterlife?

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Mysterious Ways

The religious among us can go on all day about what God wants, how we should please him, what makes him angry, and on and on.

But when asked why didn't God save an innocent child from suffering, or prevent some massive disaster, or some other questions that reveal a distinct absence of a loving god, they respond that God works in mysterious ways, and we cannot know his mind.

If his ways are so mysterious, stop preaching about him.