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Hi everybody,
When I comment on Christian videos I am accused of being a Muslim.
When I comment on a Muslim video I am being accused of being a Jew.
And so on. Only when someone really wants to insult me, I am labelled as Atheist.
So when I read in the News that 20 people from different countries were killed during
a love-parade in Germany it triggered something in my brain. So I strained both my brain cells
and came up with an image.
Picture this, if you will:
An aeroplane flying from Chicago to London crashes into the Atlantic. All on board die.
The cause can’t be established.
The casualty list is published and out of the 200 dead people, we find that
25 were Catholic, 20 Protestants, 30 other types of Christians, 24 Muslims and so on
and amongst them 30 atheists.
The leaders of the various religions all console the families and tell them their beloved ones
are with their god and much better off anyway.
I will ignore these morally sick messages by the pope and his colleagues and concentrate
on the cause.
Was this crash just fate or was it actively organized? Was there a meeting of all the
different gods who decided: these people need to die and then organised everyone to get
onto a single airplane with the intent of crashing it?
But then what about the atheists? Who organized their sudden demise?
Was this one god who took the responsibility of killing off those people? Did anyone get
a message from him or her or it taking responsibility or giving a reason? Did anyone learn what
those people did wrong or what they could have done better?
Or were they simply killed because a god didn’t like them because they were wicked in god’s
eye, like Er in the Jewish and Christian Bibles (Genesis 38:6)?
As anyone can see, this does not make much sense.
In ancient times this line of reasoning was acceptable: a war during the crusades between
Christians and Muslims was clear-cut: one group against the other. Today, in the age
of globalisation, GROUPS of people with DIFFERENT religious beliefs are killed and the argumentation
is not so easy anymore. Alleged punishment is arbitrarily distributed and not attributable
to a specific religious group or person.
If the Taliban kill an American GI it is well possible that they just killed an American
Muslim. While I don’t know or understand the intentions of the Taliban, it seems to
me that their primary goal is not killing other Muslims, even though this is what they
are mostly achieving. This is what happened when they stormed the hotel where I was staying
in Kabul and just narrowly escaped one of the shooters.
So today, the claims of a monitoring and scorekeeping god are more difficult to uphold. In addition,
the knowledge we have today on historical facts does not show any of the assertions
in any religious book to be true or stand up to even superficial scrutiny.
We know today that praying to an imaginary friend in the sky does not yield results,
so I would really welcome if people would stop selling something that does not work.
That a god creates all life is absurd as there are so many errors and defects. Just because
we don’t yet understand life down to the last nitty-gritty fact does not automatically
require, necessitate or validate the existence of a god. That gap will be filled, I am certain
of this. I am not certain, however, that we will in any way get closer to demonstrating
the existence of a god.
So all the ca. 200 active gods we have today will have to remain in the realm of faith
- without any form of substantiation.
And now please stop labelling me as anything other than hard-core skeptic, non-theist,
infidel, atheist or anti-theist, as I don’t see the existence of ANY god and don’t need
or want one or two or three or whatever.
If anyone can explain how a super-natural being can exist and justifiably kill off entire
groups of people with different beliefs, I would be interested to hear this. If a god
does not care what a person believes in and just assumes control here and today, I consider
this as a terrorist action by this god and not a merciful act.
If a single god were out there somewhere, why would it choose a very human means of
communication, like a book? Why would it choose language at all, when we see the problems
associated with this means of transporting messages and contents? Why not communicate
with each human individually?
Yes, I know I am blind to the transmission of the one god as my heart is too hardened
to hear the message. Maybe this is because my ears are located on either side of my brain
and not on my chest.
Let me look at a different area of the human brain: symbols. Anyone on this planet understands
some common symbols, such as a smile or a lifted empty hand. These are universally known
gestures. They are hard-wired into our genes and brains. A thumbs-up can mean different
things in Toronto or Tehran. Or when under water. A smile cannot.
So, if there are universally understood signs, why did a creator not program the universally
accepted god into our brains? Muhammad received this individual treatment, as did Paul. Why
can’t a god provide the "Road to Damascus" experience for everyone if this god is so
powerful and has all the other claimed abilities?
Another question I have: why are there more than 200 religions, along with their different
gods, when humans are so important to this one god? Does free will account for the differences
when we get the similar story of humans having started from scratch after a flood by Sumerians,
Babylonians, Hindus, etc. all the way to the three Bibles?
If humans are created only to worship their creator, as Muslims believe, then humans are
more important for this god than god is to humans. A King without subjects is nothing,
least of all a King. Or everyone is a King to himself. That’s fine. But if a god really
did create worshipping humans, what would it do if ALL its worshippers stopped this
prostrating? Would it go and play somewhere else? Maybe create a new Universe with new
subjects it can tyrannise.
I am very interested in hearing from people with different explanations or ideas - as
long as it’s not verses or ayat or the ubiquitous command to watch some fake science video.
Thanks for your time, interest and comments.