- Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire(1694-1778)
- Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
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Superstition is very simple: It is merely belief without evidence.
Carl Sagan - That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle [supernatural claim], unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish. David Hume (1711-76)
etymological roots. Hence, the word "Bible" suggests that it is a collection of books and that is how the chapters are named though some are only half a page to three pages long. The Bible or Christian scriptures consist of the Old Testament, which is about 76% of the text, and the New Testament. This work comes in different versions and editions. The protestant King James version, from which the Ten Commandments below are taken, contains a total of 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox versions of the Old Testament contain additional books called the Apocrypha. The most read books (chapters) are probably the New Testament Gospels, which are, however, not historic, and the Old Testament creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2, which are, however, not scientific. It is the vagueness, contradictions, and an overwhelming lack of tangible evidence in these books that allows numerous interpretations and counts for the fact that there are presently (2008) 33,000 distinct and separate Christian religions worldwide. Except for about half of the 14 books (actually letters) credited to St. Paul in the New Testament, all other of the 66 books have been written by anonymous authors. Names were attached later to enhance their credibility. The books have been re-written by numerous authors and editors for hundreds of years. These books, as are all the sacred writings of the world religions, are the product of human creative powers; at least there is no plausible evidence to the contrary. Moreover, the reader can come to the same conclusions when actually reading the Bible and noting its many contradictions and advocated atrocities. But first the summing up by two Christian scholars: Dr. W. Graham Scroggie of the MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE, Chicago, one of the most prestigious Christian Evangelical Mission in the world, answering the question — "Is the Bible the Word of God?" (also the title of his book), under the heading: IT IS HUMAN, YET DIVINE. He says on page 17: Yes, the Bible is human, though some, out of zeal which is not according to knowledge, have denied this. Those books have passed through the minds of men, are written in the language of men, were penned by the hands of men, and bear in their style the characteristics of men.
Kenneth Cragg, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, who is another erudite Christian scholar, says on page 277 of his book, "The Call of the Minaret":
"Not so the New Testament . . . There is condensation and editing; there is choice, reproduction and witness. The Gospels have come through the mind of the Church behind the authors. They represent experience and history.
As shown in Origins and Growth of Christianity and other chapters of "The Religious Realm," both, the Old and the New Testament contain pernicious tenets or instructions that contradict the characteristics of a morally perfect and compassionate God. Thomas Paine (1737-1809) concludes correctly when he answers the question is "The Bible, the Word of a God or a Damon?": Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. From the perspective of an educated and intellectually honest believer in God, it is an insult to ordinary human intelligence, as well as an insult to God--an ultimate blasphemy--to call these calamitous absurdities, the indisputable word of God.
b. An Evaluation of the Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:2-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The two renditions differ significantly in the language in which they are expressed; hence, it supports those who claim that the Bible is a fallible human document. The Exodus version is stated below unabridged (my emphases). This is the most commonly used arrangement, Catholic and Lutheran. The Lutherans use the word "murder" instead of "kill" in the 5th Commandment.
AND God spake all these words saying,
Evaluation: How did the listener, Moses, know it was God who spoke? He, Moses, may have been mistaken, for he offers no evidence. The only evidence, the stone tablets handed to him by God, was smashed to pieces and thrown away by Moses in a fit of anger.
1. I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:
for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity [wickedness] of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; - And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Evaluation:
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This command is clearly not universal but limited by its cultural context. It cannot form the basis for legislation in democracies since it prohibits the freedom of religion.
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It appears that Moses, as God's mouthpiece, demands unconditional obedience while allowing no alternatives. He promises that those who disobey will be punished. But what makes it particularly cruel and morally reprehensible, he also punishes the completely innocent, that is, the offenders children, grandchildren (third generation) and great-grandchildren (fourth generation. If true, all Christians who make "graven images" (and most do), and their innocent offspring shall be punished. For example, Catholic churches, cathedrals, and chapels are filled with graven images of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, etc.
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Finally, the punishment scenario contradicts the claim that God is perfect, for a perfect being cannot be offended. Moreover, this being would offer unconditional mercy and not make it available for only those who "love" him.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Evaluation: Again, it contradicts the claim that God is perfect, for a perfect being cannot be offended. Why would such a being punish a human for the beneficial act of releasing some tension or built up anger? Moreover, from a God's eye point of you, a person's action are largely determined by circumstances over which she or he has little or no control. Hence, God would punish the innocent for consequences of conditions that could have been otherwise, God willing. It would not make any sense to base legislation on this commandment since this rule itself does not make much sense.
3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Evaluation: This is an institutional requirement since it is for the Jews a Saturday, for Christians a Sunday, and for Muslims a Friday. It does not hurt anyone if someone works on these days, hence, it is not immoral or unethical to do so. If the all-powerful had to rest on the seventh day, why should humans do the same. There is no moral or logical justification to obey this commandment; hence, it is probably not God's but Moses' rule. To prohibit work on certain days as required by religious institutions has no place in the foundation of legislation in a democracy.
NOTE: The first three Commandments have nothing to do with moral rules regulating human relationships. They merely indicate an insecure God demanding obedience while apparently being afraid of losing his authority.
4. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Evaluation: To honor one's parents and take care of them if necessary has been practiced for thousands of generations in all societies. To unconditionally demand it, as this commandment does, is wrong for some parents abuse their children. This rule makes no sense in the case of abused children and it would be wrong to legislate it or make it foundational.
5. Thou shalt not kill.
Evaluation: The Lutheran version "Thou shalt not murder" makes much more sense because it is self-explanatory--for murder is the wrongful killing of people. However, "Thou shalt not kill" is not so simple because as carnivores people have killed innocent animals throughout history. Also, the God-created instinct to survive is often stronger than the rule not to kill particular in times of scarce resources. Nations have been cutting each others throat throughout history. Moreover, it has led to the extinction of all other human species including the Neanderthals. More recently, it has led to the extinction of the Tasmanians and the mass-killings of native Americans, Africans, and Jews. Yahweh could have prevented this by balancing birthrates with resources, by supplying more resources for survival, or by elevating people's consciousness to a higher level of moral awareness.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Evaluation: this is often interpreted as saying that sexual intercourse is only to be allowed within the confinements of marriage. This is wrong because the right standard for sex should be the harm principle. When two mature and responsible persons engage in sex without anyone getting hurt, then there it is hard to think of a valid objection. However, if two persons have agreed on sexual monogamy, then they have a moral obligation t keep their promise. Moses, the law giver, himself violated this commandment with impunity when he took a second wife and distributed the Midianite women to his soldiers after he had first their husbands killed.
This commandment deals with private morality and has gradually disappeared from the legislative agenda where it should not have been in the first place. Needless to say, this rule has no use to serve as a base for legislation.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
Evaluation: This is a worthy demand that existed thousands of generations before Moses re-discovered it. However, sophisticated stealing on a grand scale has been, and still is, widely practiced. It goes together with injustice, that is, people do not get what they deserve. Governments often favor special interest groups through favorable legislation that deprive the many of the deserved fruits of their labor.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Evaluation: This too is a good requirement because it is necessary for communities large and small to function. A society of liars could not function or at the least would be dysfunctional, and most societies are to a degree abnormal. However, as stated, this rule is too simplistic, for it does not emphasize that one's testimony should be scrutinized, be the product of, an intellectual and moral conscience. It means that one cares about what one says and what one believes.
Without granting knowledge and reason free play, while practicing a high standard of intellectual honesty, testimony is often false or at least suspect. This commandment is already part of legislation but should be expanded to provide for universal education that generates an intellectual and moral conscience in citizens; hence, there is much less of a chance that they will be unknowingly false witnesses. The rabbis, priests, mullahs, gurus, and monks of the world religions are probably the most active practitioners of the art of knowingly and unknowingly advocating false testimony with a solemn voice and a straight or poker face as the case may be.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, [and]
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's.
Evaluation: To covet is "to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others." A desire arises initially involuntarily when a person's mind is confronted with certain objects or ideas. It may then even turn into a strong longing. So far no harm done to anybody. Therefore, it does not make sense to make the prohibition of it the grounds of legislation. Moreover, the actions to materialize those desires, such as stealing or to bear false witness, are already prohibited; hence, there is no need to legislate these two commandments or base legislation on it. What is objectionable to the modern mind, however, is that the wife is listed as the neighbor's property and second in importance only after the house but before the ox and the ass. In sum: Since the Old and New Testament advocate moral and immoral tenets often without distinguishing between them, one cannot sift a better morality from the Bible than the one that is brought to the task. Fortunately, most believers of the Abrahamic religions have an innate or acquired sense of the The Common Moral Decencies and Ethical Excellences and are able to detect the genuine moral pronouncements and live more or less accordingly. From the explanations stated in this article, one must conclude that the following two claims are false. One is that the Bible is the indisputable word of God, and the other is that the Ten Commandments are the foundation of Western morality and the American Constitution and Government. Moses accomplished to unite the tribes of Israel with his declarations, which was a good thing for the Hebrews but not for their neighbors who would be massacred in the name of their God, Yahweh. However, to credit Moses with the invention of ethics, democracy and civil rights is a completely unfounded exaggeration. C. Creationism and Intelligent Design Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.” Ashley Montague (1905-99)When you endeavor to explain the mystery of the universe by the mystery of God, you do not even exchange mysteries--you simply make one more. nothing can become mysterious enough to become an explanation. Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) Introduction When one observes physical and biological systems such as what some call the "clockwork" universe and the "perfect complexity" of the human eye -- while ignoring their origins, development, and flaws -- one may indeed conclude that these systems reveal intelligent, purposeful design by a creator rather than mere chance or undirected processes. Implied in this myopic conclusion is the inference that an intelligent design of nature requires a creator who is outside or above nature, that is, a supernatural being, God. To the originators of these ideas, the universe may have appeared as a perfect creation in their time, that is, in 1691 when John Ray's Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation appeared, and a little later in 1802 when William Paley followed up with his work Natural Theology. Their conclusions, wrong as they are, are excusable, for it was at a time when astronomy and astrophysics were in their infancy. Furthermore, it was prior to Darwin's 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species that expounded the theory of evolution. But to continue this ignorance in the 21st century is inexcusable. Creationism and Intelligent Design is an ideology that reflects an extreme conservatism in order to halt and reverse religious, social, and political progress. Its promoters must have a very weak belief in the God idea when they need to buttress it with theories contrary to fact, and in religious language, contrary to natural revelation. Moreover, they demand that this ideology, this not very intelligent creation, should be taught in public schools equally with evolution. They want to impose it today on the United States and tomorrow on the rest of the world perhaps in the name of democracy. Evaluating Creationism and Intelligent Design At the most there is room for a creator or designer at the very beginning of the universe that started with the Big Bang. It may be claimed that the potential of all that developed since was designed into matter, energy, and the regularities of what is called the natural laws. However, as one may conclude from an explanation of The Physical World above, the creator or designer worked extremely slow and was not intelligent at all as indicated by the facts from this realm. a. Creationism Since the Big Bang, it took 14,700 million years for the Universe to unfold as it appears now. The theory of evolution of higher life forms from lower ones is a well-established scientific fact. These two facts negate the creationists' two key claims grounded in the Genesis story of the Bible. One is that all that is now was created in six days about 6,000 years ago according to some calculation based on data from the Bible. And the other is that it was created in its present form thus denying the evolution of a lower or simpler species into a higher or more-complex species. Conclusion: Creationists are immune to sound arguments, that is, arguments grounded in evidence and logic. Their denial of obvious facts, and their refusal to acknowledge what follows from those facts, makes them irrational. And just like one cannot go swimming with a non-swimmer, so one cannot reason with an unreasonable individual -- one gets only frustrated. b. Intelligent Design Facts from the natural or physical realm refute Intelligent Design but uphold evolution. Two arguments will do:
1. The argument from "irreducible complexity" is probably Intelligent Design's strongest argument against evolution by chance. The idea was defined by Michael Behe:
By irreducibly complex I mean a single system [such as the eye] composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning" [Meaning in the case of the eye, unless all parts of the eye come simultaneously into existence, the eye cannot function.].
The argument, then, is:
1. Irreducibly complex things cannot evolve.
2. If it can not have evolved it must have been designed.
Charles Darwin (1809-82), who was familiar with a like argument by William Paley (1743-1805) responded as follows in his On the Origin of Species (1859):
If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.…We should be extremely cautious in concluding that an organ could not have been formed by transitional gradations of some kind.
A closer look: The eye, designed or evolved? How a complex structure like the human eye could have developed is often said to be a difficult question for the theory of evolution. Darwin famously discussed the subject of eye evolution in his On the Origin of Species:
To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree. Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real.
- And today's scientists support Darwin's reasoned observation:
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They demonstrated that a primitive optical sense organ could evolve into a complex human-like eye within a reasonable period (less than a million years) simply through small mutations and natural selection (Nilsson and Pelger in Proc Biol Sci, 1994).
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About 700 million years ago, the ancestors of today's vertebrates already had organs sensitive to light that were beneficial to them when dwelling in environments pervaded by sunlight. Succeeding generations, thru mutation and natural selection, would improve the performance of these preexisting, functionally less-perfect eyes.
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Some scientists claim that thru parallel evolution different kinds of eyes have independently evolved at least 40 times in different animals. Others claim that the variety of today's eyes are due to monophyletic evolution; that is, from a single ancestral proto eye that existed some 500 million years ago. However, none of these scientists denies the evolutionary process.
Conclusion:
Complexity does not evidence intended design; it evidences the opposite.
2. The argument from cruelty and imperfection in nature is probably evolutionary science's strongest argument against an intelligent and compassionate creator or designer. If these deficiencies are indeed the doings of a creator or designer, then he must be either viscously incompetent or sadistic. A short list of mortal defects should make this a persuasive argument:
Deadly and harmful "creations" in nature
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There is an abundance of natural disasters. These events take human and animal lives. Moreover, they destroy property that often leaves survivors destitute:
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There are earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.
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There are blizzards, cyclones, hurricanes, and tornados.
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There are heavy rains that cause floods and mudslides.
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There is a lack of rain that causes droughts and famines.
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There is lightening that causes devastating wildfires.
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There are outbreaks of diseases that kill millions at a time
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HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus causes AIDS. AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) is one of the worst pandemics the world has ever known. HIV was first discovered in 1981 in a remote area of central Africa. It has since spread across the globe, infecting millions in a relatively short period of time. AIDS has killed more than 28 million people that we know of, with about 3.6 million people dying in 2005 alone. Presently, 2007, the disease is still on the rise. Also, the virus changes (mutates) constantly; hence, it is difficult to develop a vaccine.
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The influenza virus causes the flu. It is a respiratory illness that has caused the death of many and still is. The flu epidemic of 1918 killed approximately 20 million people throughout the world. In many countries it infects 5-25% of the population every year. In the U.S. alone more than 200,000 people are hospitalized with the flu or with flu-related complications each year, and more than 30,000 people die from it. Around the world, the flu kills close to a half million people every year. This virus too comes in many forms as it changes (mutates) from time to time.
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The variola virus causes smallpox. This is a highly contagious feverish disease that has killed millions around the world. Until 1967, when the United Nations World Health Organization launched a worldwide inoculation campaign against smallpox, about 10 to 15 million cases of the disease occurred each year and with more than 2 million deaths. Introduced by colonists in the Americas, it killed large parts of the native populations in Canada, United States, Central and South America. Also, the Australian Aboriginals suffered substantial losses from the disease. It appears that human intervention, vaccination, has this curse now completely eradicated.
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The Yersinia pestis bacillus causes the bubonic plague. It is a bacterium transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas. The Black Death or bubonic plague devastated Europe and Asia in the 14th century. Between 1347 and 1351 was the first cycle of the bubonic plague in Europe (it would continue intermittently until the beginning of the 18th century). The mortality rate varied between one eighth and two-thirds of the population in the different regions. By the end of the 14th century, the population of England was possibly half of what it was 100 years earlier. In England alone, the Black Death caused the desolation or total disappearance of about 1,000 villages.
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There is a large number of hereditary diseases. These inherited diseases are passed on from one generation to the next. They are defects in the genetic code (DNA). Prevalent hereditary diseases are: some forms of anemia; some cancers, e.g., breast cancer; Down Syndrome; chorea; color blindness; cystic fibrosis; hay fever; hemophilia; muscular dystrophy; sickle-cell anemia; schizophrenia; Huntington's disease; and spina bifida.
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Deadly instincts in animals. Numerous animals have to kill others in order to survive. And worse, many predators eat their prey alive. In many species of spiders and insects, the females devour their mates. Some parasites destroy their living hosts from within. Animals suffer and die from diseases just like humans.
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The fertility of the female and the sterility of the soil has periodically led to severe, life-threatening shortages. The afflicted, then, conquer the resources of others while systematically killing them.
Deadly and harmful imperfections afflicting the human body
- 182 million potential humans are naturally aborted every year due to the female body rejecting fertilized ova (30-50 percent, average 40 percent) before a pregnancy is detected and later miscarriages (20 percent). Worldwide there are 210 million detected pregnancies annually.
- Harmful changes of the hereditary material (DNA) are frequent while improving changes are very rare as the virtual unchanged human species for the last 100,000 years demonstrates. These mutations create new hereditary diseases and suffering by those afflicted. Most of these disorders are eliminated by natural selection, that is, the afflicted are less likely to reproduce and pass on the defective genes.
- The undersized birth canal. While head-size increased due to the evolution of larger brains, the birth canal remained the same. Until delivery by caesarian section was made possible babies and mothers were condemned to die. The first recorded procedure on a living women was performed in 1610; however, she died 3 weeks later. Primarily due to a lack of infection fighting antibiotics and infection preventing antiseptics, the recorded mortality was about 75 percent until the middle 19th century.
- The undersized human jaw. As the brain cavity increased to accommodate an ever larger brain, the jaw reduced its size to the point where it no longer did have enough space for all teeth. The third molars, or wisdom teeth, often become impacted and need to be removed.
- The superfluous appendix. It does not serve anymore a useful purpose as a digestive organ in humans. It is believed to be gradually disappearing in the human species over evolutionary time. However, it does get inflamed, and prior to surgical procedures, starting at the very end of the 19th century, many died an excruciating death.
- The dual function of the pharynx (Greek "throat"). This cone-shaped passageway leads from the mouth and nasal passages to the larynx (voice box thru which the air to the lungs has to move) and esophagus (the tube connected to the stomach). And since it is used for both ingestion and respiration, increases the risk of suffocation thru choking on food (self-applied or applied by others, the Heimlich maneuver may clear the passage).
- The urethra is partly surrounded by the male prostate gland. Increase in size of this gland after midlife may occur as a result of inflammation or malignancy. This enlargement may fully or partially block the membranous canal, urethra, thru which urine is discharged. This usually resulted in death until corrective surgery became available.
- Two weak points in the male abdominal wall. They exist because in the human male, the testes develop initially within the abdomen but later migrate thru the abdominal wall into the scrotum. In these two places, hernias, protrusions of an organ or tissue from its normal cavity, may occur. Complications such as intestinal blockage, gangrene, etc., may result in death unless corrected in time by surgery.
- Inability of the human body to synthesize vitamin C. It leads to one of the oldest-known nutritional disorders of humankind, scurvy. Although almost all animals and plants synthesize their own vitamin C (ascorbic acid), humans can not because the gene to produce this enzyme is defective. Lack of vitamin C results in scurvy characterized by weakness, anemia, spongy gums, bleeding from the mucous membranes, and eventual death if not treated with intake of this vitamin.
- The absence of all or most of the brain in some infants. This congenital malformation is known as Anencephaly. Babies born with this disorder usually have an open skull, are blind, deaf, unconscious, and unable to feel pain. Some, however, are born with a rudimentary brainstem that controls autonomic and regulatory function; thus, reflex actions such as breathing and responses to sound or touch do occur. Infections of the brain due to the open skull usually kills the infants shortly after birth. Based on the incidence rate of 1,000 to 2,000 per year in the U.S., worldwide about 30,000 babies are born with this deformity. However, and again in the U.S., 95% of the women who learn, perhaps thru an ultra sound examination, that they carry such a baby choose to have an abortion.
Side view of an anencephalic fetus. (Photo source: Wikipedia)
Conclusion
Creationism and Intelligent Design, as popularized in the U.S., attempts to demonstrate the existence of an intelligent and compassionate God. There arguments, however, fail. For the evidence demonstrates that if there is indeed a designer or creator, he or she works thru evolution, that is, by trial and error like a tinker, as the enormous cruelty and imperfections of nature indicate. It follows that this tinker cannot be both intelligent and compassionate. For if the tinker is compassionate and there is cruelty, then he does not have the intelligence to eliminate it. And if the tinker is intelligent and does not eliminate cruelty, then he is not compassionate.
But not all believers in God are as wrong as the creationism and intelligent design crowd. Enlightened Protestant and Catholic theologians call Darwin a "disguised friend" and his theory "Darwin's gift to theology." And why? Because according to them, the evolutionary process convincingly removes the need to explain the world's imperfections as outcomes of God's design.
Moreover, clerics are speaking out against it. Warren Eschbach, a retired Church of the Brethren pastor and professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania helped sponsor a letter signed by more than 10,000 other clergy. They wrote:
We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests.
Even the Catholic Church accepts now the theory of evolution as God's way of creating. Vatican Observatory Director George Coyne, an astrophysicist who is also ordained, stated: The intelligent design movement belittles God. It makes God a designer, an engineer. "The God of religious faith is a god of love. He did not design me.
Lastly, an evaluation by the U.S. scientific/educational community
The consensus in the scientific community is that creationism and intelligent design is not science. Modern evolutionary theory, however, is a well-established scientific explanation. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has stated that "intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life," are not science because they cannot be tested by experiment, do not generate any predictions, and propose no new hypotheses of their own. The National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science say it is pseudoscience; others have concurred or termed it junk science.
D. Divine Saviors Here is a short list of saviors that were believed by their followers to have lived and died for the sins of the world. Most of them were said to have been born of virgins, were crucified, or died otherwise violently long before Jesus:- 100 BCE -- Salvahan of Caribec
- 506 BCE -- Quirinus of Rome
- 552 BCE -- Wittoba of Telingonese
- 547 BCE -- Prometheus of Greece
- 587 BCE -- Quetzalcoatl of Mexico
- 600 BCE -- Sakia of Hindustan
- 600 BCE -- Alkestus of Aegeia
- 622 BCE -- Iao of Nepaul
- 725 BCE -- Indra of Tibet
- 834 BCE -- Hesus of Stonehedge
- 1100 BCE -- Tammus of Syria
- 1200 BCE -- Krishna of India
- 1200 BCE -- Atys of Chaldea
- 1700 BCE -- Thulis of Egypt
- 2400 BCE -- Osiris of Karnak
- Mary's immaculate conception by her mother, the impregnation of Mary with Jesus by the Holy Spirit .
- Jesus turns water into wine, heals the nobleman's son, heals the woman with the satanic spine bent for 18 years, performs ten plus miracles after the Sermon of the Mount (Mathew 8 and 9), stills a storm, throws demons out of two men of Gadara, walks upon water on Lake Galilee, feeds thousands by turning a loaf of bread into many loaves, thus, creates matter out of nothing, raises Lazarus from the dead, rises himself from the dead and ascents bodily to heaven, etc. There are at least 46 miracles by Jesus. Also, there are about 23 miracles by his disciples:
- Peter raises Dorcas from the dead, causes the death of Ananias and Sapphira, together with John cures a lame man, has two miraculous escapes from prison.
- Paul is cured of blindness, vision of Ananias, strikes Elymas (Bar-Jesus) with blindness, throws out an evil spirit, raises Eutychius to life, shakes a viper off his hand and is unharmed.
- If one analyses an ideology, it is prudent to ask who benefits and who loses. Obviously, in the country of its origins, India, it was, and still is, a scheme where the lighter-skinned Arian invaders or settlers benefited at the expense of the darker or very-dark-skinned native population. The color of the skin if light or white indicated the goodness, and the color dark or black the badness, of a person's life prior to reincarnation. Thus, the social hierarchy was arranged accordingly.
- All life forms consist of matter and energy that developed and were assembled according to instructions transmitted in genes that started to evolve some 3.5 billion years ago. So, each individual's genes can be traced back as an unbroken chain to this beginning. However, unless a person has offspring, these genes get destroyed upon a person's death.
- It follows that new life too is part of this unbroken chain of genes. Its personality, being, and characteristics, etc., what some call its soul, is completely dependent on matter and energy that is put together according to its nature as transmitted by its genetic makeup -- it is not determined by the behavior of another and different life form.
- The Numinous
- Ecstasy
- Enthusiasm
- Mystical Experiences
The German theologian Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) argues that there is one common factor to all religious experience that is independent of a person's cultural background. He identifies this experience as the numinous in his book The Idea of the Holy (1923). In this work he explored specifically the non-rational aspects of the religious dimension, for which he coined the term numinous, from the Latin numen (“god,” “spirit,” or “divine”), on the analogy of “ominous” from “omen.” Otto contended that the numinous, the awe-inspiring element of religious experience, evades precise formulation in words. Like the beauty of a musical composition, it is non-rational and eludes complete conceptual verbalized analysis. The mystery is the 'Wholly Other', beyond apprehension and comprehension. It is expressed in the idea of 'the wrath of God' in the Old Testament and is connected with the consciousness of the absolute superiority and supremacy of a power other than oneself. It can only be evoked or awakened in the mind, for it is a realm or dimension of reality, which is mysterious, awe-inspiring and fascinating. Otto claims: . . . we are dealing with something for which there is only one appropriate expression, 'mysterium tremendum' [a magnificent mystery].
- The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship.
- It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant, until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its 'profane', non-religious mood of everyday experience.
- It may burst in sudden eruption up from the depths of the soul with spasms and convulsions, or lead to the strangest excitements, to intoxicated frenzy, to transport, and to ecstasy.
- It has its wild and demonic forms and can sink to an almost grisly horror and shuddering.
- It has its crude, barbaric antecedents and early manifestations, and again it may be developed into something beautiful and pure and glorious.
- It may become the hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of—whom or what? In the presence of that which is a Mystery inexpressible and above all creatures (my emphases and bullets).
Ecstasy
In religious ecstasy and ecstasy in general, the person experiencing it is being overpowered emotions such as joy, delight, grief, passion or even rapture. In case of the religious believer it manifests itself in the claim that the individual's soul or spirit can leave the body. The focus is on the soul leaving the body and to experience realities beyond the natural or a deeper natural. This type of religious experience is characteristic for the priests among North Asian people known as shamans. Religious ecstasy is an altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness which is frequently accompanied by visions and emotional and occasional bodily euphoria. Although the experience is usually brief, there are records of such experiences lasting several days or even more, and of recurring experiences of ecstasy during one's lifetime. The individual may get lost in his perception of space and time or may even loose self-awareness during an ecstatic experience.
Enthusiasm
When in the 17th century the English founded a scientific body, the British Royal Society, part of its objectives was to temper religious enthusiasm, which ment fanaticism at the time. Historically, when the early Christians would see someone convert to Christianity there was this overwhelming joy that followed the gift of Salvation but they had a problem there was no word to describe this feeling so they combined the two words (in God) creating the word (entheos) from which we get the English word Enthusiasm. The use of the term is now confined to a belief in religious inspiration, or to intense religious fervor or emotion. When enthusiasm means possession, God is understood to be outside or beyond the believer. A sacred power, being or will enters the body or mind of an individual and possesses it. A person capable of being possessed is sometimes called a medium. The deity, spirit or power uses such a person to communicate to the immanent world.
Mystical Experiences
Mystical experiences are in many ways the opposite of numinous experiences. In the mystical experience, all 'otherness' disappear and the believer becomes one with the transcendent. The believer discovers that he or she is not distinct from the cosmos, nature, the deity or the other reality, but one with it. There are two distinctively different mystical experiences, natural and religious mystical experiences. Natural mystical experiences are quite common. It may be a wonder of: the infinity of the cosmos and time, the complexity and variety of life, the phenomena of the self, the ability not only to think, but also to think about ones thinking, the feeling of deeper self, and the oneness with nature as part of it. Although, natural mystical experiences are not considered to be religious experiences because they are not linked to a particular tradition; nevertheless, they are psychological experiences that can have a profound effect on the individual. K. Revelations and Prophecies He that takes away reason, to make way for revelation, puts out the light of both…" John Locke (1632-1704) Revelations Revelations in the religious sense are communications, insights, and illuminations received from higher powers, such as God, or by being in touch with an absolute or divine reality. These are powerful impressions that often change the conduct of those who experience it. Moreover, these individuals experience sometimes a calling that urges them to communicate these revelations to the multitude and form a new religion in the process. The means by which these disclosures occur vary and may be in a waking state when hearing voices with or without the appearance of the speaker such as God, or it may be in various states of altered consciousness such as induced by fasting, dreams, meditation, meditative trances, self-hypnoses, ecstasies, etc. All the world religions allege revelation in some sense for their founding idea, sacred writings, doctrines, and practices.
- In the Judaic, Christian, Islamic, and Zoroastrian tradition, revelation is claimed to be a communication by God to worthy persons known as a prophets who then spreads it to an entire people. This message is accepted as the authoritative "Word of God" and as such allows the prophet to speak with certainty about how humanity should behave according to God's wishes, plans and intentions. Moreover, it is disclosed that obedience to the "Word of God" is rewarded with for example "an eternal, blissful life." Disobedience, however, is punished with, for instance, an eternal life of torment and damnation.
- In Hinduism, the many ancient religious traditions of India covered by this term, revelation is mostly seen as coming thru meditation into contact with an ultimate reality. This is possible when the devout meditator uses his inner, deep spiritual powers to escape from this world of change and illusion.
- In Buddhism, the other religious tradition that evolved in India, revelation is perceived as an enlightenment achieved thru discipline and meditation. The best example comes from the founder himself. The Buddha, after a period of ascetical contemplation in which he envisioned human life as a transitionary period, received an illumination (a skill, ability) that allowed him to pronounce a code of ethics and the path to liberating truth.
The Trinity is in Christian theology the dogma of the union of the three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in one godhead or a three-personed God. This concept, however, with different gods is also found in other religions such as Hinduism (see picture below).
To many, this idea is unintelligible, but Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) elucidates its implications and reaches a conclusion.
The Trinity:
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Christ, according to the faith, is the second person in the Trinity, the Father being the first and the Holy Ghost third. Each of these persons is God. Christ is his own father and his own son. The Holy Ghost is neither father nor son, but both.
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The son was begotten by the father, but existed before he was begotten--just the same before as after. Christ is just as old as his father, and the father is just as young as his son.
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The Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and Son, but was equal to the Father and Son before he proceeded, that is to say, before he existed, but he is of the same age as the other two.
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So it is declared that the Father is God, and the Son and the Holy Ghost God, and these three Gods make one God.
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According to the celestial multiplication table, once one is three, and three time one is one, and according to heavenly subtraction if we take two from three, three are left. The addition is equally peculiar: if we add two to one we have but one. Each one equal to himself and to the other two. Nothing ever was, nothing ever can be more perfectly idiotic and absurd than the dogma of the Trinity.
In some religions the trinity is depicted by three heads on one neck, and often even three faces on one head with each looking in a different direction.
(Photo source: Wikipedia)
The Trimurti (English: "Three forms"; Sanskrit: trimūrti) is a concept in Hinduism "in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva respectively." These three deities have been called "the Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity". The three faces behind the left figure are the wives of the three gods.
Vishnu is the second
member of the trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva) and held to have had at
least one human incarnation as Krishna, often called "the savior of men,"
and whose life story parallels that of Christ. Christ too, was a human
incarnation of the second member of the Christian trinity (the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit). It is claimed that Krishna lived around 1,000
years prior to Christ's appearance.
N. Transubstantiation
Priests who claim that they can create the body of Christ whenever they want to are blasphemers. John Hus (1373?-burned to death 1415)Transubstantiation is the miraculous change of one single substance into another with other than the known means of chemistry or physics. In particular, transubstantiation is a doctrine of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church that the bread and wine, or simply a bread wafer, of the Eucharist (Holy Communion) are changed into the flesh and blood of Jesus though their appearance does not change. Ceremonies like that of the Eucharist, but usually with bread and water, were also observed by the Essenes (an ancient Jewish sect of ascetics and mystics that existed to the middle of the first century C.E.), Persians, Pythagoreans, Gnostics, and further away from their area by the Brahmans and Mexicans. The Eucharist is probably bogus because there is no evidence that if a priest talks to bread and wine in Latin saying "Hoc est corpus meum" (for this is my body), that it changes. On the contrary, those who are allergic to eating the bread show the same symptoms when swallowing it after its alleged change. The priest's "Hoc est corpus meum" is the origin of the lay person's and magician's saying of "hocus pocus." O. Virgin Birth Is the claim that Jesus "the Son of the Most High was conceived in the womb of his mother, the Virgin Mary, by the Holy Spirit alone and not with the help of a human father." This should not be confused with the doctrine of the "Immaculate Conception" of Mary by her mother. Mary is often referred to as the Queen of Heaven, While impregnation without the sperm from males has been observed in almost all major vertebrate groups, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and even in fish as large as sharks, it has never been observed in humans and other mammals (animals with milk-secreting mammary glands). Christianity at its founding had to compete with other and much older religions who had like claims. In ancient times it is was quite common to assert that Divine Sons were conceived without the help of an earthly father:
- Miss Yashoda . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Khrishna
- Miss Celestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Zulis
- Miss Chelmalma . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Quetzalcoatl
- Miss Semele . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Bacchus
- Miss Prude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Hercules
- Miss Alcemone . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Alcides
- Miss Shingmon . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Yu
- Miss Mayence . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mother of Hesus
angelic and shepherd visitors and their mothers were called by the devotees
"Queen of Heaven." P. Supernaturalism in Occults vs. in Religion Followers of mainstream religions often consider much less popular religions as occults, for example:
- Kabbala is a Jewish mystical movement that appeared in the 12th and following centuries. It is based on a symbolic interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures. Kabbala is also spelled Kabala, Kabbalah, Cabala, Cabbala , or Cabbalah.
- New Age is a contemporary cultural movement that spread through the occult and metaphysical religious communities in the 1970s and 1980s. It looked forward to a “New Age” of love and light and offered a foretaste of the coming era through personal transformation and healing. It includes a broad range of philosophies. It is characterized by a concern with spiritual consciousness and variously combining belief in reincarnation and astrology with such practices as meditation, vegetarianism, and holistic medicine. Moreover, it may be considered a modern development of esotericism (that which is understood only by a chosen few), which has been popular in the West since the 2nd century CE, especially in the form of Gnosticism.
- Neo-paganism is an all-inclusive term used to identify a wide variety of new religious movements, particularly those influenced by historical pre-Christian Pagan religions. These movements are extremely diverse, with beliefs that range widely from animism to polytheism. Often, like people with romantic feelings toward nature and deep ecological concerns, Neo-Pagans centre their dramatic and colorful rituals around the changes of the seasons and the personification of nature as full of divine life, as well as the holy days and motifs of the religions by which their own groups are inspired. Many Neo-pagans practice a spirituality that is entirely modern in origin, while others attempt to accurately reconstitute or revive indigenous, ethnic religions as found in historical and folkloric sources. The largest Neo-pagan movement is Wicca followed by Neo-druidism, Heathenism and Slavianism.
- Satanism is the worship of Satan or the Devil who is considered by the Judeo-Christian tradition as embodying absolute evil in complete antithesis to God who is all-good. Traditionally, ritual has centered on the “black mass,” a corrupted rendition of the Christian Eucharist, and ritual magic calling forth of Satan. Since there is so much evil in the world, it makes sense for Satanists to appease the evil doer. By their insistence on the existence of Satan, the Christian churches support and maintain this occult. Moreover, humans have attempted to pacify evil spirits throughout history.