Monday, August 17, 2009

Discussion With A Christian

A Deist and a Christian (let's call him Boomer) have a conversation on Boomer's blog.

Boomer's blog post was referring to one of those terrifying stories in the Bible, and at the end of his post he quipped, "I truly don't understand how the Deist can believe that God doesn't intervene into history. Left to our own devises, would we not all be aligned with Satan himself?"

I suppose the Deist was motivated to provide a response. Boomer's goal in their discussion, of course, was to save a soul, whereas the Deist wanted to be just a bit more pragmatic and reasonable. Kudos to them both for being very cordial - an interesting read.

A Boomer in the Pew: Brutal Rape, Dismemberment, and a Tribal War.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Stop Blaming God and Satan

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
-- Dr. Steven Weinberg

These words haunt me.

The entirety of all lives lost in the name of religion haunt me. Parents killing children, nations killing nations, one sect killing another sect - all in the name of their religion. It is all, in it's totality, insanity. Your religion is no excuse, your God is no excuse, your perceived superiority is no excuse.

It is all myth. There is no satan; and God would not ask these things of you. If you choose to do evil things, it is simply your choice to do so, not the choice of God.

I am to the point of equating religion with alcohol - people are drunk with their beliefs. There was a time when alcohol intoxication was a marginal excuse for the evils of man. Now it simply isn't so, and it should be the same with religion. If you kill or hurt anyone, in any way, in the name of your religion or your God, it shall be no excuse for your evil deed. You have done the evil deed at your own sad discretion.

To paraphrase the quote above:
There are good people and evil people in the world. Religion does not make you good if you do evil - you are simply evil.


One Deist Φ