Here is an example:
(click-on for best results)
I don't know what I was hoping to disprove. "Conversations" on Facebook often end this way, with abbreviated resignation and hopeless surrender. I think it perfectly fitting and appropriate that they are referred to as "threads." A thread is used in sewing but on its own it is somewhat incomplete, easily broken and does not function as fabric. Well, that's the gist of it anyway...
I really don't know why I get involved in this sort of thing. There is some trigger inside of me that takes me from casual browsing of Facebook to my involvement in all manner of lunacy; truncated and telescoped quasi-debate. Then somebody will use the fantasy word "unlogical" and I can't help myself. I feverishly check my phone to see what new words will get created in this outpouring of religious belief, this moment of extraterrestrial creation, this linguistic birthing of universal worlds.
Ok, I went back and read even more and have to post it. This is among the most bizarre collections of beliefs that I've ever been witness to:
(click-on for best results)
I'll stop. It is too much for me. "Your" probably tiring of it also.
I have a sickness, atheism is perhaps but a ghost symptom. The thing that I find so unexpectedly funny about atheism is that ultimately it is a disbelief in man, not god. Once you can accept that belief systems are uniquely man-made, that they arise and then flourish at certain points in man's history, out of need, developed over time, then it is simply a denial of that creation. Atheism is merely a rejection of man's collective fear and accepted ignorance. God has very little at all to do with it, other than being the main talking point from one side of the debate.
In other modes of thought a premise that is found to be faulty is discarded. We no longer believe the earth to be flat because we have made other discoveries concerning it. But the older a religion is, no matter how absurd and twisted, the more credence people will likely give it. Judaism is a famous example. The Red Sea was never parted, Jonah did not sleep in the belly of a fish for 3 days, there were no giants named Goliath, bears don't maul 42 children to death at god's command for making fun of Elijah being bald, god does not kill people for masturbating, donkeys don't talk, and on and on and on.
Oh wait, there's more.... god tries to kill Moses because his son's not circumcised.
Oh wait, there's more.... god tries to kill Moses because his son's not circumcised.
He has the power to have children magically mauled by surprise attack bears but he's not able to take Moses down for having not sliced off part of his son's penis. Don't worry though, Moses's wife quickly does the job then throws the discarded flesh at Moses's feet, prompting god to quickly walk away.
Sensible. It's what I would have done also.
If anybody can read the entire old testament and still believe any portion of the judeo-christian myth then you will be gladly received in heaven and spend eternity in blissful harmony with your creator.
But it's not just this biblical blathering, it's from all sides. Each of the religions has these absurd tales, some worse than others. But what do I know? I'm just a "spiritual light being" trying to make some sense of it all.
I fluctuated back and forth for several years, wanting to find some belief system that did not sound hysterically ill informed, but there really isn't much of one out there. I needed a replacement for christianity, or the feelings that christianity gave me as a youth. I wanted some celestial comfort there in the darkness. None came. Not mother nature (pictured above), not pantheism, not even agnosticism sat very easily on me for long.
Then in the last few years it's finally dawned on me... I'm an atheist. I don't believe in any spiritual or religious doctrine but I also don't deny the benefit of faith to believers. I have witnessed the rewarding feelings that arise from yoga and I don't deny the possibility of order in the universe. In fact, I still very much believe there is order in the universe. I just don't assign this recognition to deist sources. I simply don't have patience any longer for spiritual whimpering and gibberish from my fellow mankind. Too much damage has been done to the heart of man with it.
Oh christ almighty... I took a break from writing this post and just went and read Selavy's post from this morning... He is right of course.
I will stop here. It is more than enough wisdom for a lifetime.
"But I must not allow myself to forget that drifting, bored look in her eye and hearing my voice coming at me from all sides like talking in an empty room or seashell. " - Selavy
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