Theocracy In America

Hey Guys,

Give the church a place in the Constitution, let her touch once more the sword of power, and the priceless fruit of all the ages will turn to ashes on the lips of men. - Robert Green Ingersoll “Individuality”

Since birth most of us have been indoctrinated with some creed.  We have suckled at the breast of our mothers while they taught us to accept some idea unthinkingly.  We have sat at the feet of our fathers while they lamented on the wisdom of gods and the ignorance of man.  Our parents taught us to revere the the unknowable and revile the proven.

“What do men know?” They ask with scorn.  “What can science teach us, that God cannot?

To these questions those that follow the faith of their fathers, there are no answers but God.  However, to those of us who have come from the unending darkness to the ever brightening day those questions lead to more questions and to some they lead to answers the parents of religion would not have us come to.

What do men know, indeed.  The very book that holds such sway over the minds of men was written by men, with man’s frail mind.  The God that takes up residence in men’s hearts was given reality by man, created by man.  We were not made in the image of God, conversely god was made in the image of Man. God is a jealous God, the bible says.  God is slow to anger and quick to wrath.  Do not test the Lord.  It is better to fall on the rock and be broken than to be ground into powder.  God is infinite in mercy and infinite in vengeance.  These are traits that make sense to man.  An all-seeing big brother who loves you but will annihilate you if you disobey.  God is the sadist father and religion is the dysfunctional family.

Every religion is animism or anthropomorphisation.  We look to the best qualities in ourselves, our love,  our joy, our grace, our mercy and give those characterizations to god then follow them up with our worst traits: Jealousy, revenge, hatred and pride.

God is boastful, and swaggering in the bible.  He made imperfect beings then punishes those beings for being imperfect.  Oh, but it’s not god’s fault we’re so bad we ate the forbidden fruit, that’s why we have to be punished.  This is the logic that some people actually proscribe to.  That of course is with odds of an all-seeing god.  God saw what would happen before he made us and didn’t change the plan or god didn’t see what would happen before he made us.  Either way something is screwy.

What can science teach us that god cannot.  Everything.  If god wanted the bible to be convincing by todays standards he would have included quantum physics, the science few know and even fewer understand.  (Actually nobody understands quantum physics, even the people who had a hand in creating it.)  If god wanted to make a book that would be impressive in the modern world, he would have included electromagnetism, general relativity, astrophysics, physics, biology, mathematics and chemistry, not superstition and barbarism.  The Bible, the Koran, and the Torah are filled with barbaric rituals: How to kill you impure daughter, how to kill your son, how to kill an infidel, how to murder a family, how to commit genocide, how to commit rape and what to do to your wife if she commits adultery.  There is some love thrown in those books but it is far outweighed by the hatred and fear that permeates the pages from cover to cover.

The better questions to ask are:  What does religion know?  What can religion teach us that science, reason and logic cannot?

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