God's Plan

I write this for my Christian friends with the following caveat:   I do not believe there is a god and if there is a god his/her plans are terrible.  Christians for some reason are loath to discuss their god’s plans as though it is beyond them to fathom and that is how it should be.  I disagree.  I think we can look at results and see what kind of plans, if any, their god makes, and in doing so confirm atheism.

I see five possibilities here.  One, god makes a plan and is carrying it out and we do not, cannot understand it and cannot influence that plan.  Two, god makes a plan that is rolling along and is only altered when pleas from his/her followers reach his/her ears to alter the plan to fulfill the wants, wishes, and needs of the follower.  Three, god has no plans, he/she simply watches the universe unfold and intervenes only sometimes when his followers request a change to fulfill their own wants, wishes and needs.  Four, god has no plans, he/she sits back and watches the universe unfold and does not intervene.  Five, there is no god, there is no plan.

If option one is in play then two things become obvious.  There is no point in praying because god’s plan is going to happen anyway.  And there is no point in giving him/her praise for the plan or anger for the plan depending on the outcome.  If god’s plan is that you die in an airplane crash there is nothing you can do about it.  When it happens fellow believers will say no one knows god’s plan and the lord works in mysterious ways.  It also means that we do not have free will.  We are simply marching along according to plan, so there is no point in seeking insight or route change on our march because it is pre-determined.  And finally it demonstrates how mean and heartless this god is.  He/she plans for some children to get cancer and die, some people to die in car wrecks at an early age, some people to become murderers and others to become billionaires and there is nothing we can do about it.  I would argue if option one is in play there is no reason to even recognize such a god.  From a human point of view since we cannot know the plan everything will look random.  Stuff is going to happen anyway.  Stop praying and take another day off each weekend and save your money for golf.

If option two is in play then god is wimp and plays favorites.  If he/she has a plan that is rolling along and a believer’s loved one gets ill, the believer prays for a cure and the loved one is cured by god, then that person is one of god’s chosen and obviously that person had a better plan than god, or at least from god’s point of view.  It’s a miracle!  It also becomes very clear that god intentionally does not intervene for people he/she does not like.  Those folks do not get answered prayer.  Things do not go their way.  They die in the car wreck or the airplane crash or of cancer.  It is crystal clear that god does not intervene every time there is a prayer request.  I know hundreds of Christians who will gather and pray and pray for a sick person and that person still dies.  So what is the message?  God plays favorites?  Or option one is in play and you might as well give up.  If you act in the hope that you are one of god’s favorites then I would ask how in the world can you love and worship a supernatural being who helps some humans and hurts other humans?  Is that your kind of god?  If so, you are a lousy human.

If option 3 is in play then god set the whole thing up and just sits back and watches his universe unfold in ways that obey the operating laws.  He/she rarely intervenes because he/she sees the operating laws as perfect.  But, sometimes god will intervene, altar the laws of operation and save a sick person, part a sea, burn a bush, make wine.  Believers call these events miracles because we cannot explain them and they occur in opposition to the natural laws of the universe.  Believers see miracles every day.  Non-believers see the same random outcomes that everyone else sees.  We still have the same problem we had with option 2 and that is that god is playing favorites and only intervenes when he/she chooses to do so.  That keeps everyone on their knees praying to a mean, bigoted, judgmental deity.  Not for me, thank you very much.

If option 4 is in play and god has set up the universe and is simply watching it unfold and does not intervene then we are in the opposite state of option 1.  We have free will and everything that happens is either random or happens according the laws of nature.  But if god will not intervene, why would you pray to him or her?  What will be will be.  No point in praise for this deity because he or she did not intervene.  So there is no point in this deity.  Funny that some will argue bad things happen to good people because they believe option 4 is in play:  god has set up a perfect universe governed by his perfect law and that results in bad news for some good people sometimes because god is loath to alter his/her perfect plan.  And that is the most confounding cyclical argument I have ever heard.  If god has a plan and is simply watching it unfold there is absolutely no point in recognizing, much less praising such a god.

So, given that there are no really good options if you believe in god then I invite you to consider option 5.  There is no god.  There are no plans.  There are discoverable laws of nature and as a species we have been about that business for thousands of years now.  More and more knowledge has allowed humans to be the ones to alter the plans and perform miracles in medicine.  We even fly.  We even can go underwater for days.  We can go into space.  Wow.  Now there are some miracles I can get excited about.  I will warn you, however, that if you realize that there cannot be a god as I have done you will be punished by believers.  But believers have always punished those who did not believe as they did.

A concrete example.  On March 25, 2015 German Wings Flight 9525 took off from Spain and headed for Germany.  There were 150 people aboard, men, women, and children.  The disturbed co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cockpit and aimed the plane straight down at maximum speed from 38,000 feet.  The plane crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 people.  It took 10 minutes for the plane to descend from that height.  One can only assume that all aboard realized a crash was imminent as the pilot was yelling and screaming to get back in the cockpit.  So, for 10 minutes what do you think happened?  I think many if not all on board were frantically praying for intervention by god to save them.  It did not happen.  So, was this option 1, god was simply allowing his/her plan to happen?  If so, what kind of god would allow a random 150 to die?  So, was this option 2, god could have intervened but chose not to.  If so, what kind of god would allow a random 150 to die?  Was there no one worth saving?  Is that the kind of god you wish to worship?  Was this option 3, god had no plan, simply watched the event evolve and there was no one worth saving?  Was this option 4, god set up the universe and just sits back and watches it unfold.  If so, and he/she had the power to save those people, is this not an example of negligent homicide?  Is that your kind of god?  Or is it, as I believe, clarity that there is no god, there is no plan, random events occur and to expect intervention from either a non-caring, impotent and/or mean god is not going to happen.

So relax.  There is no god.  There is free will.  You do not have to march in some pre-ordained path.  You do not have to plead to a supernatural deity for exceptions to the law of nature because there are no real exceptions except statistical and random exceptions that have nothing to do with a god.  But most importantly of all, I think, is that you will not be worshipping a mean spirited, bigoted, supernatural, imaginary being.

The Day Will Come

I truly hope the day will come when collectively humans will know the following:

We will understand that so-called holy books written thousands of years ago in totally backward areas by uneducated people, are anti-science and obsolete, and have little value other than humor.

Deities (that plead for more money, more devotion, and more anger toward all the other deities and/or humans that do not worship this deity or that) will be known to be imaginary.

By definition there is no “after life”.  No heaven.  No hell.  Death is death for all living things.

The belief that reducing regulations on producers will somehow help workers will be proven false so many times that finally everyone knows it is nonsense.

The belief that giving the wealthy more money will somehow help those who are less wealthy will be proven false so many times that finally everyone knows it is nonsense.

The recognition that allowing the “market” to make decisions is incompatible with a good sense of right and wrong and with the preservation of the only habitable planet we have.

The understanding that those who argue for reducing regulations, giving the wealthy more money, and freeing the market represent the wealthiest among us and only do so to enrich themselves, not all of us.

The recognition that all human beings are precious beings worthy of love will make more sense than earning more money.

The understanding that investing in human education and human well-being is the most profitable investment we can make.

The understanding that people do not get shot where there are no guns; people are shot less where firearms are restricted.

The understanding that men should not determine female reproductive rights, nor should extinct religious beliefs determine such rights.

We will know truth matters.  Science matters.  “Belief” in conflict with truth and science is false.

The understanding that fear, hate, dogma and anger are obstacles to peace, love and advancement.

The knowledge that collaboration yields more good for more people than competition.

When that day comes we will enter the second era of enlightenment and truly progress as a species.  And though we have taken a major step backward since 2016, more people now understand these concepts than ever before.  That gives me hope.  And hope advances the day that will come.

Advantages of Being an Atheist

Two full-day weekends.

Can participate in or be a spectator of sporting and entertainment events on Sundays without guilt.

Can give money to charities that actually help people.

Not monitored by a supreme being 24/7 who has eternal life or death power over me.

Do not have to engage in conversation with an imaginary friend who never responds.

Can do the right thing because it is right, not for future reward.

Can do the right thing because it is right, not to avoid future punishment.

Do not have to sell all that I have and follow some mythical person.

Do not have to leave my family to follow some mythical person.

Do not have to seek forgiveness from anyone except those I have offended or aggrieved.

Can celebrate my humanity and all my appetites rather than stifling my humanity.

Can accept scientific development, discovery and implementation as exciting.

Can make rational decisions, not fearful decisions or decisions made by some mythical being.

Can accept the randomness of the natural world and do not seek to find a curse or supernatural explanation.

Do not have to engage in public cannibalistic rituals.

Do not have to engage in any public or private confessions to relieve guilt or to achieve future reward.

Do not have to worry about where I will go when I die. 

Do not have to engage in public self-flagellation for certain condemned behaviors.

Do not have to attempt to reconcile or explain some so-called holy book written thousands of years ago that is in conflict with what we currently know to be true.

Do not have to take some course of instruction to discover what I believe.

Can totally support the equality of women despite what some so-called holy book says.

Can totally oppose slavery despite what some so-called holy book says.

Can totally support equal treatment of all regardless of religious preference, ethnicity, sexual identity or preference despite what some holy book says.

Do not have to defer to someone else or a so-called holy book to know right from wrong.

Do not have to shave or wear special clothes on Sunday.

I am a Simple Minded Man

I am a simple minded man.  It cannot be true that the Bible is the holy word of a supreme being with ultimate and total knowledge and power because the Bible is often wrong.  Men who wrote the Bible did so, according to myth, via divine inspiration, recording words as though dictated by this Supreme Being.  If so, the Supreme Being is flawed.  One cannot have it both ways:  The Bible is true.  The Supreme Being knows all and is all powerful.  One or the other must be flawed.  If it is the Supreme Being, then we should stop worshipping the charlatan.  If it is the Bible then we should stop reading it.  Regardless, we are done with faith in the false, belief in the beyond, and hope for a life everlasting granted by a flawed and fallacious being that does not exist and is supported by a book full of false statements, errors and omissions.

I am a simple minded man.  If the Holy Spirit can enter me and control me and speak through me (and in the case of Mary, have sex with me, so the story goes.  A host of other simple minded questions comes to mind:  does God have sperm?  DNA?  I’ll stop there) and if God knows all that I am thinking and all that I am doing and holds me accountable for everything, then in what way am I free?  In what way do I have free will?  In what way can I escape the surveillance of a deity?  If I cannot escape such surveillance, and if I am accountable for all that being sees me do and hears me think, and that being is capable of taking over my body, I am in no way free.  I believe I am free.  I think, therefore I am.  I can find nothing in my life that I have ever done that was not a result of my doing that thing.  No other entity has ever made me do anything.  I hear that I have said or done things while unconscious or under the influence of anesthetics.  Things I do not remember.  Things I do not feel accountable for.  But, everything I do remember I am accountable for.  Therefore, there must not be a supreme being who constantly surveils us or controls us or punishes us.  Is my sense of freedom and my sense of personal accountability false?  How would I know?  I would know if I performed in some way as a puppet contrary to my wishes.  That has never happened.  Therefore, there is no supreme being who monitors and controls me.

I am a simple minded man.  If I pray to a supreme being and he or she does not respond, is there a supreme being?  Can I say that he or she simply disapproves of my request, or that he or she has a plan for me that is more powerful than what I plan for me?  If the plan of the Supreme Being yields the death or injury of those I love and yields my failure to obtain those things I wish to obtain, why would I worship a deity so hell bent on being mean to me?  Sometimes my prayers seem to be answered, but in retrospect the things I wanted came to be by direct action on my part or on the part of some other person.  I see no divine intervention.  If prayer results are random not predictable, why pray?  How could a supreme being listen to 7 billion prayers?  No, prayer is totally irrational, or is heard by a selfish and mean deity and therefore I shall cease.

I am a simple minded man.  If the Supreme Deity sent his son to earth then allowed him to be killed, why would I want to follow such a being?  If the Supreme Being proclaims that he or she is love, then why would he or she condemn me to an everlasting hell because I act as though I am a human being?  If the Supreme Being created me in his or her image, why does he or she not allow that my appetites are by his or her own design and therefore I cannot be responsible, much less cursed for all time?  No, the Supreme Being cannot be love and cannot love us if he or she is so eager to send us to hell.  Why would I worship a being so eager to hurt us forever?  I will not.  And why couldn’t this all powerful all-knowing being figure out another way to offer humans forgiveness for being human other than allowing his son to be executed?  Dah. 

I am a simple minded man.  I am an atheist.

Things You Will Know, Or Not

One of the great joys that occurs on the completion of 68 orbits around our star is that I have had the time to reflect on a host of issues, theories, beliefs and paradigms.  And I have reached some conclusions based on logic and fact and science and math that give me great peace.  I would hope you will learn these truths as well, that you will know, not believe, but know certain things that are extremely clear when the cultural scales fall from your eyes.  Sometimes learning these truths is painful.  Sometimes some are so unwilling to see the truth they will attack the source of truth, much like Galileo was attacked and Copernicus was attacked and Newton was attacked and Darwin was attacked.  But each discovery, each theory confirmed by millions of observations becomes fact.  Undeniable.  Fact.  Not alternative fact.  Not a belief.  A fact.

So here is my list of things I hope you will know as I now know them.  Things that may be different from what you once thought, but things you will know based on science and math and logic.

There is no god.  Never has been.  Humans have invented thousands of gods to explain reality, to provide purpose and meaning, and each group of humans has believed their god is the right god, the only god.  They are all wrong.  There is no god.  God is an invention made by human beings, not a supreme being discovered by human beings or self-revealed to human beings.

There is no life after death.  For that matter, there is clearly no life before birth.  We die like every other life form on the planet.  We cease to exist.  We stop having consciousness.  We end.  I think it must have been funny to Billy Graham to discover at the instant of his death that there was nothing else.

Morality is not something imposed or prescribed on us from some set of mystical beliefs, or via some supernatural being or recorded in some kind of holy book.  Morality is individually adopted.  Atheists are as moral as Hindus, or Buddhists, or Christians or Muslims.  In fact, atheists are probably more moral than most believers.  Everyone who establishes their own moral code based on the belief that there is a god who ordained right and wrong has just empowered themselves to do horrible things to others in the name of their god.  All religions have done this.  Christians do it now to homosexuals.  Muslims do it now to anyone who is not Muslim.  Those acts, by my morality, are immoral.  But believers believe them to be moral because that is what their god said.

All the arguments for a creator are merely circular arguments.  If it took a creator to design such complexities as we observe on our planet and in the universe then by the same logic it would take another being to have designed that creator, and the creator of that creator, and on and on.  If one argues that The Creator randomly sprung full grown with creator abilities, then we must allow that life on earth, including humans, must have randomly evolved the same way.  Any effort to force schools to teach such folly as creationism must be blocked at every turn.  What happened before the Big Bang?  We do not know.  Yet.  But we will.  Basing what we know to be true on science and logic and math does not mean we know everything right now.  It does mean we are not willing to assign mystical and mythical attributes to those things we do not yet know.

90% of all life forms ever on the planet are now extinct.  Therefore, we can become extinct.  We can die from a variety of causes and if we do not care for our environment we will kill ourselves, if we do not curtail our conflicts we will kill ourselves, if we do not curtail our numbers we will kill ourselves.  We are not likely to become extinct because we were eaten by some beast that feeds on us.  We will extinguish ourselves unless we realize that extinction is a real possibility and act immediately to postpone such an event.  Sending a few of us to another planet to live may preserve the species, but we are not able to do that yet and it won’t be any fun for those of us left behind.  Plus my fear is we will send those few with a Bible.

Now that I know all these things, I mean know it, not believe it, know it, I am free to live my life as best I can.  Number one in my moral code is do no harm.  My number 2 is do unto others as I would have them do to unto me.  That influences how I drive my car as well as how I treat people who are hurting and are without power.  That includes homosexuals and transgender and all the possible sexual identifies and preferences.  That includes all men and all women.  That includes all races.  That includes all nationalities.  That means I want everyone to have an education, to have food, shelter, clothing and medical care.  I won’t wall anyone out.  I won’t support depriving others of the technological benefits I have, like electrical power and internet.  There is no such thing as a human being on planet earth that is an illegal alien.  We are all indigenous.

Once I know these things political decisions become very easy, and most of our conflicts become either tempests in teapots or immoral.  Weapons that can be used to kill people are immoral.  Polluting the atmosphere is immoral.  Ordering groups of people to not use contraceptive devices is immoral.  Ordering groups of people how to regulate and control their own reproductive system is immoral.  Insisting that my religious views become law is immoral.  Standard stuff like stealing, assault, murder, etc., remain immoral.  Doing immoral acts for money is truly immoral.

Doing harm to others is immoral, especially if one is doing such harm in the name of some non-existent deity.

Arrogance of Belief

I feel the need to apologize to everyone I know and interacted with while I considered myself a Christian.  I was arrogant.  I had no patience for conservative Christians who supported military over human needs, I had no patience for believers of other religions, and atheists just amused me.  I said public prayers.  I gave a lot of money to the church.  I raised my kids in the church.  I was present for thousands of sermons, thousands of Sunday school lessons, hundreds of Sunday and/or Wednesday night services, lots and lots of choir rehearsals, tons of time serving on church committees, and hunks of time attending community services around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Good Friday and Easter.  I was a member of several “Prayer Warrior” groups quick to respond when the need arose for prayers.  I acted as lay leader reading scriptures in church.  I helped with communion services.  And I do not think I ever missed a covered dish lunch or supper.  Man, was I a Christian or what?

I was arrogant wrapped in the shroud of my belief.  I knew, really knew I was saved, my prayers were answered, and I made excuses for God when they weren’t answered.  I knew humble Christians, but I was not one of them.  Because I had a life-line to a supernatural being I figured I must be a super human being.  Blessed.  If I am blessed, and if God is on my side, then who the hell are you to assume a position different than my own?  I must be right.  I knew I was right even when I argued with other so-called Christians.

But no.  I was wrong.  And that has been a truly humbling experience.  Admitting I was wrong, admitting that all I believed was folly and superstition, and admitting that I thought somehow that I was superior because I was a believer is deeply shaming.  I am sorry.  I really am. 

Now that I see I was communicating with imaginary friends in the hopes of going to Never-Never Land I have been set free.  I can be a good person because I choose to be, not because I am fearful of some eternal punishment.  I can be open to discussing the scientific vanguard.  I can be open in interacting with others who are on the same path.  I am not defensive, I am not arrogant any more.  If you have facts you want me to consider I will consider them.  Please do not be offended if I point out that your facts are beliefs.  If Zeus appears to me on the road to Houston and asks why I am persecuting him, I will likely recant, but I know that will not happen.

What is obvious to me now is the arrogance of other believers.  Those who believe they know, who believe they are in contact with a supernatural being, who believe the Bible, and if not literally, they exempt from belief those passages proven wrong by science.  (Of course, if one can exempt any passage from belief, why not exempt them all?)  I laugh when they say they will pray for me because I know that is like saying they will sprinkle fairy dust on a graven image to make me immortal.  Those believers who firmly think God chose Trump, God supports adultery, sexual predators, bigots, misogynists, liars, and greed-driven people are not only arrogant, they are steeped in foolishness, stupidity and hypocrisy of the highest order.  I now fluctuate between laughter and tears at their positions.  And yet to challenge them reaps the same wrath as though they speak for God. 

Science will win.  Math will win.  Biology will win.  Chemistry will win.  Archeology will win.  Psychology will win.  Believers will lose in this debate because they have no facts.  Yes, I know arrogant atheists, or if not arrogant, patronizing.  But as humans we are capable of logic and questioning, and facts will ultimately win the day.  In that I can admit I do not know all the facts but am eager to learn more.  And that is humbling.  And if nothing else sets me apart now, it is that I am willing to learn more.  Not true of the blind, arrogant believer who already knows all he or she ever wants to know.  For them I feel sadness and pity as they deny their capacity for learning, cooked in the juice of their own arrogance.

Dear Creationists and Fundamentalists

Did you hear that the Episcopalian Diocese of Washington DC adopted a gendered language resolution so that they will stop using gender specific terms for Father, Son, etc., and use gender neutral pronouns?  Ha!  You right wing Christians must be blowing a gasket.  Imagine trying to update the Bible to the 21^st Century!  Blasphemy!

Of course the Bible cannot be updated to current knowledge, science, understanding and culture.  To do so would admit it is flawed and not a divine holy book.  If God dictated and or inspired this book and there are boo-boos, then all of the book is now in question.  Burning bushes?  Red Sea?  Resurrection?  Water into wine?  Yaadaayaadaayaadaa.  Why if we can change any of it, we could change all of it and at that point it has no meaning and no authenticity.  But there are problems in the Bible.

Have you decided which creation story is the right one, the holy one, the one you believe?  There are two, you know.  One in Genesis 1 and the other in Genesis 2.  In Genesis 1 God takes 6 days to separate light and dark, land and sea, make all the animals and all the plants, then makes man in his own image.  God takes a nap on the 7^th day.  Genesis 2 God does similar things, but when it comes around to making man He forgets to make a female.  He made male and female plants and told them to be fruitful and multiply, male and female animals and told them to be fruitful and multiply, but He forgot to make a female human.  Duh.  Silly God.  Now he has to knock out Adam and steal a rib.  He can’t make a female from scratch evidently.  Now he has it right.  Which creation story is true?  Smart God in Genesis 1 or dumb God in Genesis 2? 

And while we are at it, dear Creationists, how do you account for the fact that God made us in his own image and gave us dominion over everything, but placed us on a planet where trees and turtles out live us, we can only live on about 15% of the planet, and our legs and spines are designed in a way that they give out about the time we are 60 because of gravity?  I won’t mention when breasts give out.  Why don’t we have gills?  That does not sound like intelligent design to me.

I for one applaud the Episcopalians.  They should keep going.  I think they should re-write the beatitudes to condemn misogyny, racism and slavery.  They should take out all those references to homosexuals and should just say abortion is OK and a fundamental decision assigned to all women.  They should clearly say the earth is round, the moon orbits the earth and is not a light source, and the earth orbits the sun, and they should make clear that carbon dating is a valid scientific process so the earth is way more than 10,000 years old and dinosaurs and humans were never alive at the same time.  They should recognize that evolution is a reality.  I think they should re-write the technical specifications of the ark to include the tech specs for the internal combustion engine, light bulbs, computers, rockets, cell phones, microwaves, etc.  The Bible is touted as the only source of wisdom we need and yet it really is pretty well stuck in the Bronze Age.  They should make it clear that free enterprise is based on greed and should be avoided.  They should also re-write the story of Jesus so he does not have to die at the hands the Romans and Jews, and therefore there is no need for us to remember him with cannibalistic rituals.

I am so glad I am not a creationist or a fundamentalist.  I would hate to profess a faith so full of ignorant beliefs and be laughed at by everyone with at least a high school diploma.

And yet, if one claims to be a Christian and is not a fundamentalist, and believes the Bible has errors, how can one be a Christian?  The Bible is either holy or holey.  So, I avoid that claim as well.