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Of course not. But sadly people are blindly led into believing such a thing. It really is quite a shame. I once followed this belief (I am technically a baptized Catholic), and then realized what I fool I was. My explanations and opinions are odd and complicated, but I hope you can understand them, and that they will open your eyes to the truth.
Let me start off by saying that I do not hate Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, etc. I merely do not believe in 'god.' I do, however, support the charities that churches run. Help the world, but not because some supposed 'Holy Bible' tells you to, do it because you are human (Although in many situations there is this little catch where these misfortunate people are taught to believe in 'god').
(Note: I am NOT trying to pressure people into believing me. I am expressing my opinion and trying to get others feedback. Please no more insult PM's )
1. Gods 'Great Plan'
Uhm...Hello...This is the 'almighty god' we're talking about here, alleged creator of all existance. If he wanted to world to be a certain way, he'd make it that way. Unless he's some sick little creep who likes toying with the lives of his creations, in which case I really wouldn't want to follow his teachings.
2. The Afterlife
Sorry folks, no such thing. You see, many humans are cowardly, many are pompous...Most are both. Separate these things are fine, but together they create delusional and pathetic thoughts. Humans generally fear death. They can't comprehend, or cope with, the fact that at some point or another their existance will end. They cringe at the thought of it. So they think..."Maybe after death we can live on in some realm where everything we want will be given to us..." Quite sad. They use this thought to give them hope, to make themselves feel as though they have some purpose, some goal to work towards. This is one of many reasons why Christianity and its branches are so popular, they promise an afterlife where you will walk alongside 'god' in his kingdom, where your wildest fantasies will come true. Quite a good way to get followers if you ask me. Take someones fear and use it to your advantage.
3. The Bible
In my opinion it is merely a storybook written to teach good morals and explain the unknown. That what every religion does. It explains the unknown. (As 'Jane The Bane' puts it, the bible is "Man's desperate attempt to provide easily digestible, simplistic answers to questions that are so complicated that no one is ever going to answer them sufficiently." Thats why Greek Mythology had multiple gods. One for each phenomenon that they couldn't explain. Thats what Christianity does, except with one god. It gave and explanation of where we go when we die, why we are here, who created us, and so on. And if the bible was believed to be nothing but a storybook I would be fine with it, but people insist on actually believing what it says. They might as well be saying 'Hey, look at me! I just read LOTR and now i'm going to run around the world looking for the one ring of power!' We all know that LOTR is fictional, why should the bible be treated any differently?
Anyone can write a book. But when you start following like a religion you've gone too far. But why would someone just write the Bible then? Hmm...Power maybe? Fame? For example, the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages at one time was the most powerful organization. They had tons of money, and owned a majority of the land. What greedy human wouldn't preach about a false god to be at the head of the church?
3a. It's Pretty Easy To Decieve
Below are a couple examples of religions that are obviously false, but it shows how the incompetence of humans allows them to be fooled and how people WILL exploit it.
A. Scientology-
Scientology is based off of a book by the author L. Ron Hubbard. In this book the intergalactic ruler, Xenu, of the Galactic Confederacy launched billions of people to earth 75 billion years ago in ships resembling B-52 bombers. He hoarded them around volcanoes, and then obliterated them with hydrogen bombs. The souls of these people then attached themselves to modern day humans and cause us problems in our daily lives. Ok...pretty messed up, but it gets worse. To be cleansed of these souls, you must be taught the doctrines of Scientology's 'Advanced Technologies.' Only problem is that to do such a thing you must pay a large some of money to the church...Somewhere around $300,000 I think. Now if that's not personal gain for the leader of the church then im insane.
B. Mormonism
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Where to start...Geez...Mormonism. Mormonism was founded by a man named Joseph Smith in the 1830's. Joseph supposedly talked to god and jesus while praying in the forest. That night a Native American angel came to him and told him a few interesting things. Now this angel was white...A white Native American...odd...According to the angel there were two N.A. tribes. One of the tribes killed the others and as punishment jesus turned their skin red. (At this time jesus was supposedly living in america during a 'second coming'.) He said that they left four gold plates buried on top of a hill. So Joseph went to this hill and dug, where he found the gold plates in an odd language along with two Seer Stones, which allowed ONLY him to translate these plates. (Mind you no one was allowed to see these plates or the stones, because the angel said so.) He translated the plates into the Book Of Mormon and let his friend borrow them. This mans wife did not believe that Joseph was telling the truth, so she took them and told her husband to tell Joseph that he lost them and that they would have to be translated again. Well supposedly Joseph was not supposed to do this and that because of this the second translation would send the same message but in different words. Uhh huh...yeah...ok..sure...Oh yeah, and according to the B.O.M. Adam and Eve lived in Jackson County, Missouri.
It has been brought to my attention that my depiction of the history of the book of mormon is not entirely correct, so I will provide for you the 'accurate' portrayal. Alas, I will keep mine here for comparison (you will see that there really isn't much of a difference, nonetheless i'd hate to knowingly provide obviously false information).
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Ok seriously, don't try talking about stuff you have no idea about. The "Native American's" name was Moroni. He was light skinned because there were two large groups living in the America's during the time of Christ. One was rightious at first and the other lived in unbelief. As a result, the second group, the Lamanites, was cursed with dark skin. Eventually, the first group, the Nephites, fell into iniquity as well (except for a few including Moroni) and were destroyed by the Lamanites. Moroni was the last of the Nephites. The Lamanites are the ancestors of what we now know as the Native Americans. His visit wasn't that night, it was several years later. There were more than four plates.
The stones didn't ONLY allow him to translate it. Any seer with the spirit could have translated it. The language was a form of Egyptian. He even took a section of the lettering to a translator and showed him his translation. The translator agreed with the translation until Joseph told him how he had done it (by the spirit). The translator then changed his mind and told him he wouldn't support the translation.
One of the writers who was helping Joseph translate was having a difficult time his family accepting him helping Joseph. He asked Joseph if he could take a part of the translation to his family to show them what he was doing. Joseph prayed and was told not to. The writer continued to bother Joseph about it, he prayed two more times and was finally told that he could do as he chose. Joseph gave the writer the section, the section disappeared. Enemies of the church had gotten ahold of it. Joseph was told not to retranslate the same text because if he did, the enemies of the church would come out with the original (which they had altered) and say that Joseph couldn't have been doing it by the spirit if their copy was different. God had planned on this happening and had told one of the prophets of the Book of Mormon to create a separate set of plates. As a result, Joseph was told to use this other section of plates to replace what was lost.
See, really not all that different. This one's just a bit more descriptive. Doesn't really add much proof to back the religion up, but hey, whatever.
So yeah, pretty much what i'm saying is that...
The Book Of Mormon = The Holy Bible
(By that I mean that the obviously false Book Of Mormon is like the obviously false Holy Bible.)
Also, refer to lethal7's statements about the Mormon religion in the Memorable Posts section. It points out many flaws of Mormonism.
3b. Why Is Christianity So Widespread?
Well there are a few reasons, but the main one is a little thing called conquest. The Roman Empire was very powerful, and the primary religion was Catholicism, so of course they dominated everything in sight and conquered lands were forced into following that religion...That or be executed of course.
And then of course the ever popular Crusades. War for religion, very common. Another 'follow my religion or else' mindset that is followed today.
I've seen posts in topic where people say that the Crusades were 'not ethical' but were good ideas...So...you're saying that killing in the name of god is okay...even though the sixth of the ten commandments (The must-follow top ten rules of the religion) says 'thou shalt not kill.' Huh, funny.
3c. But There's Proof
People have found several pieces of 'evidence' that prove the bible. Alas this is all easily explained through science. Below are a few examples.
1. - Fish fossil's have been found on the tops of mountains. Religious fanatics claim that these are due to the 'Great Flood.' But the explanation is simple. When Tectonic Plates (large slabs of rock that float on the earths molten core) collide, the push up the earth above them. This is essentially how mountains are formed. Who's to say that the mountains with the fossils on them weren't once below sea level? Its very likely that this is true.
1a. - Anyone who has taken Chemistry has heard of the 'Law Of Conservation Of Matter,' which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only altered. This has been proven through experiments which show that during a chemical reaction the mass of the reactants are always equal to that of the product. But then how did all that water come to be? I guess god had to magically create enough water to cover every land mass on the planet, and then make it dissapear. And i'm sure you all know what erosion is. Well...If it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, then there would be signifigant current movement under the ocean surface. With this in mind, would the flood not have signifigantly altered the landscape by slowly flattening it out? Some of you may say "It takes thousands of years for erosion to take place!" Yeah, because it only rains every so many days. This is hundreds of millions of gallons of water swirling around the surface for 40 straight days. I think that would far surpass a few thousand years of small, farspread rainstorms.
(I've seen people in the topic say that 'some parts of the bible aren't meant to be taken literally, using the 40 day and 40 night flood as an example. Okay...if only some parts of the bible are true, then how do you know which ones are? And if we're only supposed to take certain parts literally, which are they? Why even take the bible as a whole literally if it is essentially flawed?)
2. - Archaeological finds have discovered horse skeletons and chariots in the Red Sea the Moses supposedly parted. This one leads back to conquest. Dominating neighboring lands and taking their resources was a popular thing to do way back when, so i'd assume that quite a few war transport ships would travel across the Red Sea. Well, when winds were weak the ships had to lose weight or be stranded at sea for days on end. So what did they do? They dropped chariots. As for the horse carcasses, well if the horses died they had to dump them overboard to. Why? Because a pile of dead bodies it a breeding ground for bacteria and disease.
2a. - Some people have told me that during the time that Moses parted the Red Sea the body of water itself was only about a foot deep. Ok...So some guy parted a foot of water. Rock on man, you rule. As for chariots and horse skeletons, maybe a few brilliant minds tried to walk throught moderately moist sand (remember, water + sand = quicksand). And in quick sand you, well, sink. So it is probable that the artifacts could be kept in tact.
These next few don't really deal with proof, but the have a point.
3. - I know you've all heard of the ever popular 'Ten Commandments' right? Well ya know, there's a funny story behind that. For those of you who dont know the situation, Moses was trying to lead his people out of Egypt. Alas, things weren't going too well for them and they started to turn away from god. I think they actually started making a golden cow to worship. No one would listen to Moses. So ya know what that sly little devil did? He went to the top of a mountian, by himself, where god miraculously spoke to him. And a few hours later he came down with the Ten Commantments. Kinda funny how that works out. People are disorderly and disobedient, and then all of a sudden the leader comes down with a message from god to get them to straighten up.
And dont give me that 'free will' crap people have been rambling on about. You can use it when you can prove it. Until then I am pretty damn sure that since the dawn of existance organisms have always been able to act on their own without the permission of some god.
4. - If there was really only one true god, and only one true religion was right (they all say that their religion is the only right religion), then wouldnt you think that we would only have one religion and only believe in one god? Alas there are at least 4 branches of christianity, multiple polytheistic religions, and then atheism. But seriously, you'd imagine that god would get a little pissed that people werent following his orders and set us straight. It happened in the bible, didnt it? Why isnt he doing it now? Is he on break? Is that why so many innocent people die every day? You cant blame it on us. Supposedly he created us so he should make sure we do things the right way. But, obviously, he's not.
5. - I dont see why people would want to believe in this religion anyway! (Aside from the promise of and afterlife and eternal salvation of course.) Especially women. I mean, do you know how sexist chistianity is? Women were created from a mans rib, women are responsible for the original sin (the sin that we are all supposedly born with). But I have an explanation for why the bible is so sexist. You see, when the bible was written women were still considered (I know im going to sound sexist for saying all of this, but I assure you im not) to be below men. So why not pin it on women? I mean if you go to the middle east today women cant go outside without a man. You think it was any better thousands of years ago?
6. - War. What a horrible thing. War is caused by the intolerance of man. The innability to accept/consider another persons beliefs, to even respect the fact that they have beliefs. And what is the hot topic of modern day society? Why religion of course. The Crusades, a war for religion. The War On Terrorism was started due to 9/11. The suicide bombers drove themselves into the Twin Towers because it was a 'quick-pass' into heaven according to their religion. We were also a target for our involvement in some other middle eastern holy war.
Such hatred acts on a much smaller level as well. For example, I guarantee that i'll be flamed like crazy for this post.
7. - The world as depicted in the bible is quite tiny if you ask me. I mean, the bible was created out of divine inspiration from god, correct? Then you'd think he'd mention the continents known today as north and south america, right? I mean, he created them. And since he created the entire universe, you'd think he'd mention the 8 other planets in our solar system. But he didn't. Why? Because the writer of this false book knew not of such things. If it were truely written through inspiration by god the world would be much more accurately depicted than it is by the bible.
7a. - Speaking of the solar system, I'd like to tell (or remind you, depending on what you know) you about a little man named Galileo Galilei. Some time between the 1500's and the 1600's this man made a scientific observation. This man studied the stars. And after years of studying their paths and patterns he realized something, the solar system is heliocentric (centered around the sun), and not geocentric (centered around the earth) like the church said. And why did the church say that the earth was the center of all existance, because they were pompous. They believed that they were so important because god created them that he would make them the center of all existance. They believed this so greatly that they brought Galileo in front of the pope and make him refute his findings. A couple hundred years later, however, the church agreed that the universe was in fact heliocentric and that what had been done to Galileo was wrong. So the church has been proven wrong...But that can't be! Why not? Because geocentrism was supposedly the word of the infallible (without flaw, never wrong) god. But we just proved him wrong, and therefore he cannot exist.
3d. Biblical Prophecies
I've heard alot of this talk going around about how 'the prophecies prove that god exists!'...But remember this...The prophecies are foretold in the bible, and come true in the bible. I have yet to see a modern day miracle that has been foretold in the bible.
4. Faith Not Factual
Faith is having no doubt whatsoever that something is true. No matter how much proof is pitted against you, you will not budge to believe anything else. This faith is what many people have. But remember, faith is all in your head. You create your faith and find your reasons to believe. Remember though, a crazy person doesn't know they're crazy, and the mind can create dillusions that seem real to you and only you. Keep this in mind when using faith as your belief in god...Its not really a good excuse.
5. An Alternative Thought
Could this 'god' be nothing more than the collective beliefs of multiple individuals? Quite possible if you ask me. God has been created and accepted as fact because so many believe it to be true, but belief is not proof. God could in theory exist, but as nothing more that a being created by the imagination of the populus. Funny eh?
6. Evolution
I had to put this in here, because after reading your posts i've found so many people to be confused about the evolutionary process.
First off, god does not assist in evolution, and evolution does not explain how we exist. Believing in evolution does not make you self-absorbed nor pompous.
6a. What Is Evolution?
Evolution is the process by which parent organisms pass on traits to their offspring. Over a long period of time some of these traits may assist in the adaptation to ones environment, which would explain why there are so many species of animals. Why a domesticated house cat is smaller than a lion, why our physical features match up with those of monkeys (Placement of the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, having 5 fingers and toes, similiar organs, etc.), or why some animals can only live on water, some only on land, and some on both.
6b. Natural Selection
The modern day theory of evolution is based off of Darwins theory of Natural Selection, which states that organisms with more advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, therefore increasing the likelyness of finding such traits. Because of this passing on of traits, some species will be more capable of surviving in the same environment than another. Lack of such traits may make it harder to obtain food or survive in harsh conditions, causing a large number of deaths for a species. With a low population of a specie's spread over a large area, that species extinction is almost inevitable.
Such changes however can take up to millions of years.
6c. Evidence
Morphological - Simply put, fossils. By comparing the anatomy of fossils of older organisms with the anatomy of organisms living today many similairities can be found. By the use of anatomical comparison an evolutionary connection has already been made between certain dinosaurs and modern day birds.
Genetic - Although we are unable to obtain the DNA of many extinct species, we are able to compare the DNA of those alive today. It is by this that we have determined the 95% similairity between humans and chimpanzees.
My Evidence - Its just plain obvious people! You cant tell me that a dog and a wolf dont look alike, nor can you tell me that all birds (flying or not) do not have wings. Plus there are all the things related to our bodily systems. All living creatures have some sort of digestive, resperatory, nervous, or skeletal system. These are advantageous traits that formed billions of years ago, which is why they are so very common today.
But back in the biblical days people did not have the technology to discover such things, and to answer the question "Where did these animals come from?" they simply say 'God made them.'
6d. The First Lifeform
Many people wonder how the first organism came to be, but sadly sit and ponder instead of researching. Now instead of putting my jumbled theory on this subject, i'll take an excerpt from and article I read on the web. This article explains how the spontaneous generation of an organism IS POSSIBLE contrary to popular belief.
"In 1953, Stanley Miller was the first to show that complex organic molecules could be made from simpler components. In his experiments, he used methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), H2) and H2 as substrates in a glass apparatus. Miller boiled the system over time, and also used electric discharges as an energy source. Over time the mixture changed color. So, Miller used a chromatograph to analyze the mixture for it's constituents. He discovered that certain amino acids had been formed. Amino acids are the building blocks for proteins, so this discovery that amino acids could be made from much simpler molecules (and within a relatively short time period) pointed to a chemical evolution before life could arise. Later, Miller and Urey used UV light as an energy source with a similar system, and they found that hydrogen cyanide (HCN) could be formed from simpler molecules under reducing conditions. Now, why is the generation of hydrogen cyanide important? Isn't it a toxic material? Yes it is, but conditions in prebiotic times were much different than now. Hydrogen cyanide has been found to react with other HCN molecules and can eventually form adenine -- one of the bases in the genetic code (overall, it takes five molecules of HCN to form one molecule of adenine under UV light). Many other experiments have been since carried out, under slightly different conditions, and the final reaction products end up being various amino acids and sugars, as well as nucleotides. These experiments are significant, in that they demonstrate possible reactions that could have been present during pre-biotic times.
Chemical evolution (during pre-biotic times) began with simple molecules reacting with others, eventually forming more and more complex molecules. Simple chemical reactions can only go so far by themselves. Some form of energy is needed to drive unfavorable reactions, or to aid in driving favorable reactions. There are many possible energy sources that could have been available on early Earth. Solar energy (UV light) is the most obvious source, but isn't UV light damaging to cells? On early Earth, there would have been no ozone layer to protect cells. UV splits an O2 molecule (photolysis), which forms oxygen radicals that can react with other O2 molecules to form ozone (O3). There wouldn't have been enough O2 early on to provide a protective ozone layer. However, an ozone layer would not have been needed in prebiotic times. UV light not only splits oxygen gas molecules, but can split other molecules as well, and so can drive unfavorable chemical reactions. UV would have been quite abundant early on, providing an energy source during chemical evolution. There are other sources of energy, such as electric discharge (i.e. lightening) and nuclear energy (e.g. uranium-23 . Today we know that lightening can fix nitrogen gas into a solid form. In Africa, there have been found six natural nuclear reactors -- i.e. deposits of uranium-238. Remember that man-made nuclear reactors (or bombs) generate enormous amounts of energy. Natural reactors would not have been as powerful in the short term, but could have provided sufficient energy over time to drive chemical reactions. One thing to note about nuclear reactions, is that they require water (a nuclear reaction then, is a "fire" that needs water to drive the reaction). This is significant, in that a water medium can bring in new materials to the reaction. As with UV radiation, nuclear radiation ionizes molecules -- H2O and other molecules would be ionized by a natural nuclear reactor, which could then go on to react with other molecules. Nuclear radiation is also mutagenic, so it would have generated variation in an early genetic system.
There is another source that can generate organic molecules on Earth -- metorites and dust particles from space. Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) are constantly bombarding the planet, and bring in about 3.2x10^5 kg of organics per year in modern times. Meteors large enough survive atmospheric entry to the planet can carry in organic molecules. In some cases, a meteor may heat up internally upon entry to such a high degree that they explode as an airburst, creating a shock wave. A relatively new field, "Shock Chemistry", has shown that organic molecules (e.g. amino acids) can be generated from such shock waves. Large bolloid impacts, such as the one responsible for the K/T boundary, can generate vast amounts of organics in the short term. "
7. Big Bang Theory
I swear, the american school system is a total piece of s**t. I've read so many completely wrong posts about the Big Bang theory. Well this section is here to clear it up.
The big bang theory DOES NOT explain how the universe came into existance, it explains the behavior of the unviverse, a contracting and expanding sphere of space and time.
According to the big bang theory, at one point in time billions upon billions of years ago, all of existance was in a hot, condensed form, with no definate mass or volume. It is believed that at some point this ball of hot matter became so unstable it expanded at an enormous rate and launched everything into space. This material formed rock, dust, gas, etc. Which formed together to make stars, nebulas, and asteroids. According to several studies everything in the universe is moving further away at a faster rate from a central point. This would make sense, considering everything was just spewed out of a big ball of matter.
7a. My Mini-Thoery
Now i'm not really sure whether or not something like this is already considered a part of the big bang theory, but here is my mini-theory.
All over the universe are these things known as black holes. Now the common misconception about black holes is that they are actually holes in time and space. No, this is not true. A black hole is what is left over from the collapse of a supergiant star. You see, when a star starts to die out, it expands and glows bright red (It is believed that this will be the end of our planet when the sun starts to die out). When the star runs out of energy and no longer support its own weight, it collapses on itself (known as a supernova or nova, depending on the stars size). It will either turn into a dwarf star, a neutron star, or if it is big enough it will collapse into a black hole. A black hole is all of the matter of a massive star (a star which must be much bigger than our sun), condensed into a tiny ball of matter about 30 times smaller than our sun. This would create an imensly dense object. So dense that not even light can escape its gravitational pull, and any light it emits is immediately sucked back in (And yes, light can be affected by gravity, according to Einsteins Theory Of General Relativity). Yes, I know it sounds like blind faith, but there is proof! On a regular photograph of a sector of stars there would appear to be nothing. But if you were to photograph the x-rays of that sector, you would see a massive amount them coming from what seems to be a black void in space. Where do they come from? The black hole. You see, when a black hole sucks in matter it condenses it so rapidly that it heats up and releases a massive amount of energy in the form of x-rays. Not only that, but the orbital pattern of stars and other satellites (objects floating throught space) are affected by what seems to be a black spot on a picture. This orbital change is accounted for by a black hole.
Now that we've gotten all that out of the way, I can get to the true heart of the theory. You see, a black hole has the equal distance all the way around it, a boundary, a point of no return. Once an object enters this area there is no escape (mind you the gravitational pull of a black hole reaches beyond this point of no return). And theoretically as a black hole continuously sucks in matter, it will keep the same size but achieve a much higher density, which would therefore increase the distance of its gravitational pull. I believe that slowly black holes (like the one believed to be at the center of our galaxy) will get larger, eventually sucking in another black hole, which would give it a massive boost in gravitational power. Slowly but surely all matter will be sucked into this one point of unison, back into the singular point of material unity at the beginning of the big bang. But then how did all that matter come back out if a black hole has such a high density? Well, you see, when something has such a massive density and such a low volume it is bound be very unstable. An atom for example. All elements on the periodic table from the atomic number of 83 and beyond are radioactive, meaning that the neutrons can no longer sustain the protons and the atom will slowly decay (i.e. Uraniam, with an atomic number of 92, would lose two protons and two neutrons (one helium atom) through alpha decay and become Thorium, with an atomic number of 90). This would happen on a much larger scale seeing as how this object has all (or approximately all) matter in existance within it. Not only that but black holes, like almost all celestial bodies, spin. Which would increase the instability within it.
8. Time
Now I speak not of the existance of time, that has absolutely nothing to do with this arguement, I speak more of a timeframe. You see according to the bible, some 4000 or so years ago all of earth was created by god. But then how is it, through carbon and radiometric dating, that we have determined the oldest rock on this planet is near some 4 and a half billion years old. It is a tiny piece of Zircon, no larger than two human hairs in diameter.
So how can the oldest known rock pre-date the dawn of existance? Well one of them has to be wrong. And i'd honestly rather believe in a solid object that I can see, hold, and know there is proof behind, than a few hundred pieces of paper written by man with little valid and no undeniable proof whatsoever.
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