This is awfully funny given its based on a man-made.story.
Anonymous
I don’t want to be as massively annoying a prick as you but all stories are man-made, dickhead. But how the story came about has no influence on this post’s hilarity. It is, in fact, funny. Man seemingly forgot to give you an asshole that wasn’t puckered tighter than a dolphin’s blowhole, though, so I can understand how the ‘douchey’ smell just wafts off of you.
Oh, look. Another evangelical atheist dickhead can’t just enjoy a funny joke without taking a shot at religion.
Anonymous
Where is this evangelical atheist dickhead? Do you mean the person that called this a man-made story? Maybe it was a theist but not a Christian, did that occur to you? You seem to be jumping to conclusions here.
1. The death issue is an inference from some of his (your?) other posts. 2. The only philosophy that is devoted in its entirety to the problem of death and that proposes the most feasible solution to it is that which has been taught by Christ and his early followers (“Christianity” if you will, but not to be confused with the myriad of movements that has used and are using the name). I would imagine that it is smart to see the link between the only real problem that we have and those teachings. The post above does not reveal such insight.
Tobias
Rambling nonsense
Anonymous
Death “issue”? “Problem” of death?
sounds like YOU have a huge issue with death, and are totally projecting.
What if the most “evil” people to ever exist, didn’t die because they solved the “problem” of death?
I think you are all mostly “catfish” and I know the biggest douchebaag one of all!
Evan Schein
Great article man. All so true!
Anonymous
Hmmmmm,a joke about God’s ego no comment,i wonder wat God thinks about this.
Suan
Hi, I really like your blog. I just want to comment on what we believe as Muslims regarding this issue: we believe that God is an existence way higher than human beings, and is beyond having a son. Jesus, peace be upon him, was a human Prophet of God, not His son. That’s why he (pbuh) had to pray to God, too.
Here is a short chapter (chapter 112) from the Qur’an describing God’s most essential attributes:
“Say: He is God, the One and Only;
God, the Eternal, Absolute;
He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;
And there is none like unto Him.”
Mike
*sighs*
Who the hell cares?
onTopic: Lol. The pickle part killed it. 🙂
NA
Great, now your belief in an imaginary man in the sky can conflict with the beliefs in an imaginary man in the sky of a bunch of other assholes, and you can duke it out with everyone-killing weapons and ruin it for the rest of us in the process on your way to his magic sky party.
What if ‘god’ is not a man, but more like a ‘thing’. Like the universe. Or like the universal principles. By the way, violence does not come from religion.
NA
Sure, but then why anthropomorphize it by praying to it, or thinking you can change it by your thoughts and actions? That notion of “God” is equally irrelevant as if it didn’t exist in the first place since you would be equally unable to affect or interact or observe it. That’s pushing the pointlessness of philosophy.
Yeah, praying doesn’t do a whole lot. It’s fine to hope for something I guess, it just doesn’t make it more likely to happen. However, having faith in god/ the universe/ universal principles does have an effect on our behavior, I think. If I truly believe that the universe and everything in it is one really big ‘thing’ and therefore we as humans, and everything else, are just a tiny part of this one ‘thing’, this will change my perspective of the world around me and even of myself. I might be more humble because of this belief, I might be more kind to others, I might be more respectful towards nature, etc.
But like you said, some people kill for their god and their religion. There is definitely a downside of having faith. Ultimately, I think there are a lot of factors that can result in to violence. Religion can be, but definitely doesn’t have to, one of these factors.
NA
We can apply the same reasoning to any object or idea, it’s *all equally pointless*. If I believe this toilet paper is “God” and it changes my behavior, it is not the toilet paper that does so, but rather my own idiocy that causes it. All those internal changes come from within, for the strong human, but need an external locus of influence, for the weak. So it becomes a mental and intellectual crutch for the weak. Worst of all, it promotes *further* weakness, when it is spread from parent to child, or from Person A to B in society. There’s a lot of detriment to this kind of belief, and it needs to end. I’m not ONLY complaining about the violence of religion — violence is but one symptom of a larger problem — stupidity one is not aware of (hence anosognosia). Look it up, it’s a great word, and highly, highly, highly applicable to religious people.
Interesting. I think ‘weak’ minded people are very happy with the already established values and lifestyle that come with a religion. They don’t have to constantly think what’s good or bad, it’s being told for them. It’s very practical in a way. But they’re not always aware of the freedom they have to choose their own values and lifestyle. Just like you said, it’s like they’re not aware that they’re ‘sick’, anosognosia.
I always was strongly convinced that religion was the biggest bullcrap there was. But lately I’ve come to realize it’s just a different perspective on life, and the universe. It’s like a filter, or a lens. It can be very practical, highly spiritual or even like you said, idiocy. Interesting stuff to think about.
NA
Religion is a disease of the intellect. It damages the host mind and spreads by way of this damage. Biggest bullcrap there ever was? You bet.
I disagree. Religion, spirituality, faith, it can be enlightening or damaging. A grand realization or a rotting disease.
Aldo, I don’t think there is something like a single truth. Not yet. The universe can be perceived in many ways. It’s too big and complex for our monkey brains to even comprehend it all. So when we try to understand the universe, we come up with shit like god, philosophy, spirituality and science. But since no one has all the answers yet, there is no single truth that we know of. We could be wrong about many things. People living 200 years from now might look back at us like we’re the idiots. Yet we act like we already know everything.
Whether religion is some bullcrap idiocy disease, a practical way to live life or a different perspective of the truth, I don’t even know man. I don’t have all the answers, I just believe in what works for me.
NA
So it’s enlightening to have the religious belief that an invisible tea pot circles the sun between Mars and Jupiter? There’s actual enlightenment in holding that dogma steadfast in the light of the Scientific Method which claims that thou shalt not holdeth dogmatic beliefs and useth them to confirmeth thy biases?
Science does NOT act like it knows everything. Actually, religion does that. Science does the opposite. It says we know NOTHING until we show that we actually do know something. Religion says we know something despite what is shown to be true. I don’t have all the answers either, but I know enough right now to know very clearly that the answers of religion are all literally wrong, and that my beliefs are not what set reality, but vice-versa. Reality sets my beliefs.
There is no enlightenment in the “holding that dogma steadfast in the light of the Scientific Method which claims that thou shalt not holdeth dogmatic beliefs and useth them to confirmeth thy biases” part. It sounds like idiocy at its finest to me. It might have some It might have some practical use though. “Almighty invisible teapot, give me strength, with you on my side I can finally get my shitty life together!” Dude, this should really be a religion.
I’m not the most spiritual man on this planet but I’ll try to explain what I meant by enlightenment. So there is this big fucking universe. We are on a tiny piece of rock surrounded with our neighbors from the milky way galaxy; a shit ton of gigantic flaming balls of gas, some other rocks, some shit we don’t even know what the fuck it is like dark matter and what not. There are also countless of other galaxys where the weirdest space fantasies come true. Yet everything is build from the same building blocks, atoms. And everything follows the same universal principals, like gravity. All these thing, everything that we know of is build from the same material and follows the same rules which makes everything connected in a way. Thus, the universe a whole can be perceived as one. This would mean, we are a very tiny part of the universe, but nevertheless, we are the fucking universe. When I perceived it this way, and for a moment truly believed this was the truth, I felt great. I felt humble, grateful, happy, my fears just melted away and I just felt very relaxed. This was the only enlightening experience I have ever had. That feeling is pretty awesome though, and that’s what spirituality and religion can do to you. I think this feeling is enlightenment and it can definitely have a positive impact on your life.
Right now I see this ‘We are all one’ perspective/belief as just a different way to perceive the universe, not as the only truth. Way less exciting but I too try to set my beliefs in reality.
Science does not act like it knows everything indeed. I meant to say that science happened when we tried to understand the universe. I love science man.
NA
But none of what you describe has anything to do with religion, per se, or the belief in a god or gods, anthropomorphized and interactive, and specifically interested in humanity (as all the gods we invented are described). What you describe is a spiritless spirituality that behumbled you. That’s great, and that’s personal to you and your interests and level of understanding of the universe and behumblementness. Why feel this way about the constituence of the universe and not feel this way about calculus and algebra? If it’s ok to feel it about calculus and algebra, why not about literally everything? What demarks the boundary by which you should and shouldn’t feel this way about ideas? If you don’t have such a demarcation, you run the risk of having to feel this way about everything, for consistency’s sake. I toss it all in the garbage and say the universe is awesome and interesting and I love learning about all of it, but petty human ideas like religion add no value, and in most cases cause more harm than good because of how they’re implemented (or even the fact that they’re implemented).
True, it doesn’t have to do anything with religion or god per se. A good friend of mine strongly beliefs in this “we are one” perspective I described. He says that the universe is god, and god/the universe is love. So essentially he’s saying everything is love. I have no idea what kind of religion that is, maybe Rastafarian or something, but he’s an awesome dude. Partly because of his belief and perspective of the universe.
You actually do feel great about literally everything when you’re having such a perspective about the universe. It’s a pretty overwhelming feeling. I remember that moment very well, it’s like the feeling never completely went away. I suspect this is why so many people believe in some god or religion or the universe. It just feels good man.
Ultimately it’s cool that everyone can choose their own beliefs and their own “reality”. If we can respect each others differences it’s all good. Religion has had it use in the past and still has use to some people. It has caused a lot of death and suffering but also gave meaning to a lot of lives.
NA
I guess he hasn’t encountered the brutal child rape and murder part of the love of the universe, who knows, Most people who have that kind of perspective in life, I find, don’t have a lot of exposure to the real world and have little understanding of Game Theory, competition, and of the universe itself from a science perspective.
If you want to use a crutch to “feel good” in an overwhelming way, may I suggest heroin? I had a very close friend in New York who said it was the most overwhelming feeling of euphoria he had ever experienced. He died of an overdose of it in 2012. But he sure “felt good”, he said. (True story, btw.)
I don’t think he has encountered any of those things. He’s got a pretty good understanding of the universe, has traveled a lot and definitely has been exposed to the real world. It could very well be delusional, he could be on to something, who know for sure right. I see no harm in it.
That’s a sad story man. I’m sorry for your friend. Heroin is not really the the kind of feel good experience I’m looking for. I’ve tried some other drugs, smoke weed once in a while, drink sometimes. It can be fun
and feel good for a moment but it fucks you up.
Which is exactly what religion does in your opinion I guess, it fucks you up. I think it’s more nuanced than that. But I can see where you’re coming from. It fucks a lot of people up for sure.
Jen
“9:30 is too early for a pickle.” LOL
I need a shirt of this!
myanon
This is now canon. Burn all bibles.
I dont have a name
Random post button keeps sending me here. Super annoying. Ridiculously awful article, please delete it completely.
Kamran
“Life is short” is something of a pet peeve of mine, and I’m pretty sure hearing it is what turned me into a procrastinator. The truth is that life is too long to live like you’re going to die tomorrow. It’s also too long to keep worrying, because you’re going to worry for a really long time. sustanon 250
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