Can God Feel Regret?

Can God Feel Regret?

The Christian God is, if you talk to most Christian, omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipotent. So, when reading Genesis 6: 6-7, it appears that this all knowing creature can feel regret that something didn’t turn out the way he expected it to.

Genesis 6:6-7

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

 ⁷ So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

This leaves two puzzling questions.  If this god is omniscient, shouldn’t it have known how things would turn out?  And, it this god is omni-benevolent, how could it have made a mistake in the first place?

Christians will throw the free will rationale at you just about now.  Free will is an illusion at best.  An omniscient god already knows what will happen in every event and to every human being.

Regret has a definition of “a sense of loss, disappointment, dissatisfaction, etc.”

Now, I ask you, how can an omniscient being possibly be disappointed?  It knows EVERYTHING.  It sees EVERYTHING that will ever happen.

I’m not buying what the Bible is selling in this case.  Just another nail in the coffin.  Stick a fork in it.

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Why Was The Bible Written?

Why Was The Bible Written

All books have a purpose for their authorship.  School books are for education, philosophy tomes for their author’s version of the thought process, medical books…well you get the idea.

The Bible is no different.  When man first began to gather in tribes, there was always a struggle for power.  Before language, it was the most physically powerful of the group.  He would beat any challenger into submission and by doing so the rest of the tribe would fall in line.

Who knows if trade/money or language came next, but either way, they changed the way leadership was earned.  Who ever amassed the largest wealth, became the leader and eventually the King.  After the King’s leadership became traditional, the power was handed down through inheritance.

Language could have been used to gain power but I suspect it was through controlling “the gods” by the shamans.  He would demonstrate somehow that his magic incantations could heal someone or drive away the demons and the tribe would automatically give him all the power he wanted.

Of course, when his magic failed him, he could be in jeopardy of losing his position.  He might get away with one or two failures, but eventually several bad things would happen in succession and he would be thrown out of power.

As we progressed into more sophisticated languages, the shaman was replaced by the oracle.  The position was easier to maintain because once the oracle learned to speak in vagaries with multiple meanings, his or her position was very difficult to challenge.

Man invented gods early in the process and the shaman and oracle represented themselves as god’s messenger here on Earth.  Always with the eye on controlling the tribe, town or country the King often used the oracle to communicate with the god de jour.  And it was much safer for the King if the oracle failed.  Instead of the King being killed, it was ‘off with his head’ for the seer.  Early critical thinkers began to dismantle gods and goddesses with regularity, hence the progression of gods throughout history.  Gods died and new more powerful gods were invented.

Then came written language.  Now the world had a way to set down the rules from god in a formal setting and the word could be spread far and wide with everyone worshipping the same god the same way.  It was usually illegal for anyone to read or even own a Bible for centuries and to do so would be punishable by death.

So, why write a Bible if there was a danger of someone reading it and understanding its irrational rules?  It was used to control very large masses of people through fear and guilt.  As we know, the Jewish and then the Christian gods were vengeful creatures and would kill you for looking at him wrongly.

The Jews started to relax their attitude toward their god so an eternal punishment had to be invented to regain the control of the people.  Hell isn’t mentioned until the New Testament came along and a whole new period of fear and self-loathing started.

The downfall of religion started when people were allowed to learn to read.  There were some early critical thinkers who read the words of god and realized how ridiculous they really were.

That brings us to today.  Now that a goodly portion of the world is educated and can think critically, the last gods are beginning to die.  And, they aren’t going peacefully.  If you notice, the most violent people left on Earth are the least educated. Specifically, the Muslim world in the Middle East.

Let’s hope these final gods of mankind die quickly as it will limit the bloodshed.  The longer they take to pass on, the more danger mankind is in.  We stand on the threshold of two possibilities, one is a bright future of rational thinking and the other is too awful to contemplate.

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Atheist or Agnostic

Atheist or Agnostic

Which are you? Atheist or Agnostic?  And, how does one know?

I won't bore you with the definitions but, I will challenge you to think about it.  We call ourselves atheist but I sometimes wonder about the level of "disbelief".  I can, of course, only speak for my self but perhaps something here will ring true for you.

Richard Dawkins uses a scale of 1 - 7 to judge disbelief.  The number 1 being full belief and the number 7 being full disbelief/rejection of a god.  It doesn't matter the religion in question.  The scale is still the same.

My own disbelief varies from 6.98 to 6.99 and I'll debate my stance with just about anyone.  My particular religion to reject is Christianity but, where ever you come from, it's all the same.  Why so strong a rejection you ask?  It comes from all the injustices I see in the world around me.  I became aware of them quite early with the death of my little brother from cancer when he was 5.  Why would a merciful god kill a 5 year old after years of suffering?  Why would a just god put a mother through that?  As my world view widened, I saw so much of these incongruencies that I completely lost whatever faith I might have had.  I am now at a point where I actively reject the worship of such an evil thing known as God.  And now, I add Allah to that list. 

I believe we all start out as an atheist. Then we are taught whichever belief system we happened to be born into.  Sooner or later, we begin to question our learned beliefs and become agnostic.  We must then make a choice to stay the course or further doubt/reject the teachings of our youth.

So, to be honest, we must ALL consider ourselves an agnostic first, even me.  That .01 - .02 of me still admits that, if real testable proof was offered, I would change my mind. Although an eternity of mindless worship to any god would be a hell for me.

Knowing the perverse nature of the Christian God, maybe that WILL be my punishment.

Prove This!

Prove This!

Logic is rare from our fundie friends. They approach the world from a singular point of view and it colors everything.  When they're looking down a tunnel and they see a light, it's usually a train coming at them as opposed to just the end of the tunnel.  Our fundie friends usually get run over by the train when their logic fails them.

We are often challenged to prove that a god does NOT exist.  This is a dishonest and immature debating technique that attempts to ask us to prove a negative.  Of course, proving a negative is impossible.

The onus of proof is ALWAYS on the positive side of the argument and we must never fall for this challenge.  Of course, they never stop trying and it gets quite irritating.

I've come up with a response that usually stops these types of challenges.  We can deflate their attempts by saying the following.

Fundie: If you can't prove my god doesn't exist, he/she must be real.

Atheist: I can't prove a negative and this is a dishonest attempt to manipulate the argument.

Fundie: You either believe or you don't.  If you can't prove he/she doesn't exist, why don't you believe?

Atheist: Although I'm 99% sure no god exists, I'm open to proof. What do you offer?

Here's the last bit that throws them:

An atheist is waiting for proof that your god exists.  We don't hate you for believing.  We just don't want you to force your beliefs on us without proof. So it's on you, Mr./Mrs./Ms Fundie!

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Good Story Telling

Good Story Telling

WondieBee from Twitter reminded me that a good story needs a protagonist and an antagonist.  Without enemies juxtaposed, the story goes nowhere.  It becomes just another dull featureless and very boring tome.

The Old Testament was a problem for a few thousand years because God, The Creator was also God, The Destroyer.  He was his own worst enemy.  Imagine that! A dichotomy that defies a solution.

The Christians, on the other hand, solved that issue by inserting Satan into their pantheon. It turned 50/50 good/bad guy into 100% (being very generous here) good guy.  Of course, God is still the ultimate bad guy but that's for another post.

That's why I often ask Christians if they worship Satan.  Of course, they reject it out of hand but I submit that they do.  Here's why.  Satan is so ingrained in the Christian mindset that they cannot help but think of "the dark one" every time they hear their god mentioned.  They simply cannot separate the two.

When challenged on it, they deny it because they have to.  To admit worshipping Satan would, in their minds, doom them to eternal punishment.  Or worse yet, they begin to doubt.  They just might start down the road to disbelieve, heaven forbid!

Another question the subject of Satan brings up is who is more powerful.  The faithful are preached that their god is the omega.  The apex power.  Omnipotent.  That being said, I then ask, "Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan and be done with it?"

There is no logical answer to that one.  If God destroys Satan, the need for a god disappears.  If their god doesn't want to destroy Satan, God is evil.  If God can't destroy the dark one, the Creator isn't omnipotent.

So, the bottom line is....wait for it....they are both imaginary.  Let's hope the 'faithful' realize it soon.

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An Atheist's Standards

An Atheist’s Standards

We are always being challenged to compare our standards of behavior to those of believers.  Believers will strut and bang the drum of superior morality while accusing us of being lower than slime.

But, there’s a double standard. They know it and we know it.  The believer will tell you that they are sure they are going to an eternal reward.  It gives them a self-indulgent attitude that allows them to misuse us. They can be as rude as they like without fear.  They can accuse us of heinous actions while they feel that they’re entitled.

All they have to do is ask forgiveness before they die and everything is permitted. Imagine ending up in their heaven next to Hitler or some serial killer who was forgiven three minutes before he died.  And, the believer would have to accept it.  I think the concept is quite funny.

So, they have the ultimate loophole.

We atheists, on the other hand, hold ourselves to a higher standard.  We have our own internal morality that guides us and we must own it.  If we are honest, we must never consider their type of loophole. 

But, our situation is a double-edged sword.  We can never behave like they think we do.  It gives them a chance to say, “I told you so.”  We must behave in a calm and assertive manner without the drama that is so tempting.  All it does is make us feel superior for a little while and it loses our case during the discussion.

So, my friends, here’s what I recommend.  Stay calm. Use your knowledge of their holy book and debate them peacefully.

You never know, you might just start one of them down the road to de-conversion.

Walk the Path in Grace

On Morals

On Morals

We are often asked where our morals come from. Or worse, “’Atheists don’t/can’t have morals without God.”  Of course, these statements are patently dishonest.

Since the first tribes were formed, rules were made to keep the group under control and productive.  We even see basic rules in some higher animal groups.  Even chickens have a pecking order.

Humanity has taken societal rules to a much higher level and turned some of the rules into morals.  The only way a society can stay healthy is to control its members with written in stone rules.  Without morality, a society will degenerate into a lawless, selfish and very dangerous group.  Just look at Germany before and during World War Two.  The Germans didn’t keep their Christian morals and, instead, descended into a sub-human morality that, hopefully, will never be repeated.

We are seeing disturbing behavior in the Muslim world and, sooner or later, someone will be forced to bring them back into the humanity that we all dream of.

Morals don’t come from a holy book or a charismatic leader.  They come from tried and true methods developed over millennia. 

Never let the Twitter Christian tell you that you can’t have morals without the Bible.  Tell them that morality predates the Bible, and all other holy texts, by thousands of years.  Christianity is late to the party.

Our morals are the same the world over, or at least should be.  If we can get the Muslims back in line, this world could be a peaceful place. 

Almost a Garden of Eden.

Walk the Path in Grace