Is God Just Pretend- Part 4

Religion is Evil

During history of humankind, nothing caused so many violent deaths as religion. How many people died attacking someone's faith or defending it?

Remember the crusades. Crusades were nothing more than pillaging raids in order to expand Vatican's influence and were blessed by the pope.

Remember countless wars between Catholics and Protestants throughout Europe during 16th and 17th century.

In order to fight against various sects and preserve its power, in the 12th century church founded the Inquisition.

Over the next several centuries, Inquisition tortured and killed thousands of people, many of which were innocent or guilty for crimes that do not deserve death penalty.

The Inquisition tortured people with the blessing of the Pope. The very Pope church declares infallible.

Between 15th and 18th Century, in the name of religion and the church their believers burned tens of thousands of innocent women and men because they were accused of witchcraft. Sometimes, a reason good enough was ginger hair, but they often burned women that collected herbs or did not behave according to Christian dogmas.

1578 handbook for inquisitors spelled out the purpose of inquisitorial penalties: "for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit."

Remember Hitler and his persecution of Jews.

Remember wars between Catholics and Orthodox. Recent example is war in Croatia.

There are too many examples. The human race would be better off if religion never existed.



Paganism

Christianity is nothing more than a recycled version of Paganism. Long before anyone had ever heard of the Christian God or Jesus, many other religions especially the Pagan religion had stories very similar to the Jesus story. For more on this watch "The God Who Wasn't There."

Most of the Christian holidays were actually stolen from the Pagans, such as Christmas and Easter.

Do you know why Christmas is on the 25th of December? The origins of Christmas lie in the Pagan festival of the son of Isis , which took place on December 25th. Partying, drinking and gift giving were traditions of this feast in ancient Babylon . If a person such as Jesus actually did exist, he would have most likely not been born in December at all, but sometime in September or October.

Christmas coincides with the winter Solstice (Saturnalia), which honors the God of Agriculture--Saturn. This celebration existed many, many years before the 'birth of Christ.' In January they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season is marked by much merrymaking. The tradition of Mummers was born in ancient Rome . The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who would travel from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.

In northern Europe , many of the traditions that are considered part of the Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The Pagans of northern Europe celebrated their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the Pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.

Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule means 'wheel,' the wheel being a Pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Holly berries were thought to be a food of the gods. The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all of the northern European winter solstices. It was customary for live evergreen trees to be brought into the homes as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were often carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.

In the year 350, Pope Julius I declared that 'Christ's birth' would be celebrated on December 25th. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it easy for Pagan Romans (who were the majority at the time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion was a bit easier to swallow, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.

Christmas (Christ-Mass) as it is known today, began in Germany , although Catholics and Lutherans disagree about which church celebrated it first. Not that this is surprising, as they rarely agree on anything. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany .

Easter also has Pagan roots. The name Easter is the English derivation of the name Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of love and fertility. As with all mythology, there is always a correlation between the myths of the different cultures. In the Teutonic myth, the goddess is known as Ostern. The Phoenician name for this goddess is Asterte. The Europeans know this story as the resurrection of Christ.

The link between all of these myths is the concept of death, the underworld, resurrection and fertility. One part of the Ishtar myth describes how Ishtar descends into the underworld and is killed (crucified) there. As a result of Ishtar's death, the earth became infertile and neither birds, beasts nor humans mated. As the story continues, she was resurrected (sound familiar?) through magic incantations. Remember, this story emerged hundreds or even thousands of years before 'Christ.'

Uruk was Ishtar's holy city and was called 'the town of the sacred courtesans.' She protected prostitutes there. Is it any coincidence that in the story of Christ, Mary Magdalene was his good friend and a prostitute, and was the first on the scene of the resurrection? Mythology is there to reveal themes in this case, death, rebirth and fertility is the main theme. Christ, like Ishtar, was represented as God, who died into the underworld or tomb of earth, and was later resurrected by some miraculous power. It also describes the seasons of the year where there is no life, no vegetation, then at some point the seasons change, and abundant life springs forth from the fertile earth.

As the myths go, Christ was crucified, Ishtar was killed by her sister, and Astarte was forced to sacrifice herself as a gift to the sea. In all of these stories, the one sacrificed ended up coming back to life from the womb of the earth and being re-born. Christ was symbolic in that he represented the rebirth of the people.

All of this was long before the word Christ was ever uttered. Does all this sound very coincidental?

Eggs and Bunnies are a celebration of fertility. Eggs were sacred to many ancient civilizations and formed an integral part of the religious ceremonies in Egypt and the Orient. The mystic egg is the symbol of generative life. Babylon hatched the Venus Ishtar, and fell from the heavens to the Euphrates . Dyed eggs were sacred Easter offerings in Egypt . Christians have mixed the two stories to achieve what is known as Easter today.



Similar Gods

How did you do on the quiz? Did you know who this was based on the characteristics listed above?

Most people will answer Jesus, and although these are characteristics of Jesus from the Christian myth, here is something most people including Christians are unaware of, these exact characteristics were those of Horus an Egyptian God representing Light, worshiped around 3000 BC. These same characteristics also are the same as Mithra an ancient God of Persia. Horus predates Jesus by 3000 years and Mithra by 600 years. Both of these Gods were worshiped long before anyone had ever heard the name Jesus as it relates to the Christian myth.

These are not the only Gods either that have similar characteristics, and these Gods were all hundreds and even thousands of years before the Christian myth of Christ. The Christian story is not even an original story, it was stolen from a mixture of Paganism and other religions that had similar Gods long before there was a religion known as Christianity.

Mithra- The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.). The Orthodox Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version . Virtually all of the elements of Orthodox Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, alter, and doxology, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions. The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years. Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Savior came from.

Other Gods with similar or exact traits would include

Attis (Greece, 1200 BC) - Attributes 1, 2, 11, 12, 13

Krishna (India, 900 BC) - Attributes 2, 3, 8, 13

Dionysos (Greece, 500 BC) - Attributes 1, 2, 8b + Turning Water into Wine, 9 ("God's son", "Alpha and Omega", ...), 13

Mithra (Persia, 1200 BC) - Attributes 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 13, 9 ("The Truth", "The Light"), Day of worship: "Sunday"

And many others...

More than likely the Jesus character could be a pure allegoric myth to which historical details (possibly including an actual obscure 1st century teacher of the same name) were added later, forming a composite character. Some scholars contend that Christianity emerged organically from Hellenistic Judaism, drawing on perceived parallels between the early stories of Jesus and the gods of Greek, Egyptian, and other cultures (especially dying and rising deities).

The Gospel account of Jesus is so full of myth and legend that determining the historical accuracy of anything reasonably close to the man described is impossible. Is all this just a coincidence or is the entire Christian story a completely fabricated fairy tale, just as these other myths before were also fabricated?



Fairy Tale Number 1

Let's examine four different fairy tales.

Since there is nothing to substantiate the incredible claims made in the Bible, as well as the many other religious books of other faiths such as the Mormon, Muslim and Jewish religions should we just believe these claims without evidence? Is the belief in these things something that should be considered as the grounds for good mental health?

All religions have a story to tell. They are also remarkably close in detail. Let's examine how close these stories are and consider this when deciding the validity of the story. I will be using information from the website "God Is Imaginary".

Understanding religious delusion

Let's imagine that I tell you the following story:

There is a man who lives at the North Pole. He lives there with his wife and a bunch of elves. During the year, he and the elves build toys. Then, on Christmas Eve, he loads up a sack with all the toys. He puts the sack in his sleigh. He hitches up eight (or possibly nine) flying reindeer. He then flies from house to house, landing on the rooftops of each one. He gets out with his sack and climbs down the chimney.
He leaves toys for the children of the household. He climbs back up the chimney, gets back in his sleigh, and flies to the next house. He does this all around the world in one night. Then he flies back to the North Pole to repeat the cycle next year.

This, of course, is the story of Santa Claus.

But let's say that I am an adult, and I am your friend, and I reveal to you that I believe that this story is true. I believe it with all my heart. And I try to talk about it with you and convert you to believe it as I do.

What would you think of me? You would think that I am delusional, and rightly so.

Why do you think that I am delusional? It is because you know that Santa is imaginary. The story is a total fairy tale. No matter how much I talk to you about Santa, you are not going to believe that Santa is real. Flying reindeer, for example, are make-believe. The dictionary defines delusion as, "A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence." That definition fits perfectly.

Since you are my friend, you might try to help me realize that my belief in Santa is a delusion. The way that you would try to do that is by asking me some questions. For example, you might say to me:

"But how can the sleigh carry enough toys for everyone in the world?" I say to you that the sleigh is magical. It has the ability to do this intrinsically.

"How does Santa get into houses and apartments that don't have chimneys?" I say that Santa can make chimneys appear, as shown to all of us in the movie The Santa Clause.

"How does Santa get down the chimney if there's a fire in the fireplace?" I say that Santa has a special flame-resistant suit, and it cleans itself too.

"Why doesn't the security system detect Santa?" Santa is invisible to security systems.

"How can Santa travel fast enough to visit every child in one night?" Santa is timeless.

"How can Santa know whether every child has been bad or good?" Santa is omniscient.

"Why are the toys distributed so unevenly? Why does Santa deliver more toys to rich kids, even if they are bad, than he ever gives to poor kids?" There is no way for us to understand the mysteries of Santa because we are mere mortals, but Santa has his reasons. For example, perhaps poor children would be unable to handle a flood of expensive electronic toys. How would they afford the batteries? So Santa spares them this burden.

These are all quite logical questions that you have asked. I have answered all of them for you. I am wondering why you can't see what I see, and you are wondering how I can be so insane.

Why didn't my answers satisfy you? Why do you still know that I am delusional? It is because my answers have done nothing but confirm your assessment. My answers are ridiculous. In order to answer your questions, I invented, completely out of thin air, a magical sleigh, a magical self-cleaning suit, magical chimneys, "timelessness" and magical invisibility. You don't believe my answers because you know that I am making this stuff up. The invalidating evidence is voluminous.

Now let me show you another example...



Fairy Tale Number 2

Imagine that I tell you the following story:

I was in my room one night. Suddenly, my room became exceedingly bright. Next thing I know there is an angel in my room. He tells me an amazing story. He says that there is a set of ancient golden plates buried in the side of a hill in New York. On them are the books of a lost race of Jewish people who inhabited North America. These plates bear inscriptions in the foreign language of these people. Eventually the angel leads me to the plates and lets me take them home. Even though the plates are in a foreign language, the angel helps me to decipher and translate them. Then the plates are taken up into heaven, never to be seen again. I have the book that I translated from the plates. It tells of amazing things -- an entire civilization of Jewish people living here in the United States 2,000 years ago. And the resurrected Jesus came and visited these people! I also showed the golden plates to a number of real people who are my eye witnesses, and I have their signed attestations that they did, in fact, see and touch the plates before the plates were taken up into heaven.

Now, what would you say to me about this story? Even though I do have a book, in English, that tells the story of this lost Jewish civilization, and even though I do have the signed attestations, what do you think? This story sounds nutty, doesn't it?

You would ask some obvious questions. For example, at the very simplest level, you might ask, "Where are the ruins and artifacts from this Jewish civilization in America?" The book transcribed from the plates talks about millions of Jewish people doing all kinds of things in America. They have horses and oxen and chariots and armor and large cities. What happened to all of this? I answer simply: it is all out there, but we have not found it yet. "Not one city? Not one chariot wheel? Not one helmet?" you ask. No, we haven't found a single bit of evidence, but it is out there somewhere. You ask me dozens of questions like this, and I have answers for them all.

Most people would assume that I am delusional if I told them this story. They would assume that there were no plates and no angel, and that I had written the book myself. Most people would ignore the attestations -- having people attest to it means nothing, really. I could have paid the attesters off, or I could have fabricated them. Most people would reject my story without question.

What's interesting is that there are millions of people who actually do believe this story of the angel and the plates and the book and the Jewish people living in North America 2,000 years ago. Those millions of people are members of the Mormon Church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The person who told this incredible story was a man named Joseph Smith, and he lived in the United States in the early 1800s. He told his story, and recorded what he "translated from the plates", in the Book of Mormon.

If you meet a Mormon and ask them about this story, they can spend hours talking to you about it. They can answer every question you have. Yet the 5.99 billion of us who are not Mormons can see with total clarity that the Mormons are delusional. It is as simple as that. You and I both know with 100% certainty that the Mormon story is no different from the story of Santa. And we are correct in our assessment. The invalidating evidence is voluminous.



Fairy Tale Number 3

Now Imagine that I tell you this story:

A man was sitting in a cave minding his own business. A very bright flash of light appeared. A voice spoke out one word: "Read!" The man felt like he was being squeezed to death. This happened several times. Then the man asked, "What should I read?" The voice said, "Read in the name of your Lord who created humans from a clinging [zygote]. Read for your Lord is the most generous. He taught people by the pen what they didn't know before." The man ran home to his wife. While running home, he saw the huge face of an angel in the sky. The angel told the man that he was to be the messenger of God. The angel also identified himself as Gabriel. At home that night, the angel appeared to the man in his dreams. Gabriel appeared to the man over and over again. Sometimes it was in dreams, sometimes during the day as "revelations in his heart," sometimes preceded by a painful ringing in his ears (and then the verses would flow from Gabriel right out of the man), and sometimes Gabriel would appear in the flesh and speak. Scribes wrote down everything the man said. Then, one night about 11 years after the first encounter with Gabriel, Gabriel appeared to the man with a magical horse. The man got on the horse, and the horse took him to Jerusalem. Then the winged horse took the man up to the seven layers of heaven. The man was able to actually see heaven and meet and talk with people there. Then Gabriel brought the man back to earth. The man proved that he had actually been to Jerusalem on the winged horse by accurately answering questions about buildings and landmarks there. The man continued receiving the revelations from Gabriel for 23 years, and then they stopped. All of the revelations were recorded by the scribes in a book which we still have today.

[Source: "Understanding Islam" by Yahiya Emerick, Alpha press, 2002]

What do you make of this story? If you have never heard the story before, you may find it to be nonsensical in the same way that you feel about the stories of the golden plates and Santa. You would especially feel that way once you read the book that was supposedly transcribed from Gabriel, because much of it is opaque. The dreams, the horse, the angel, the ascension, and the appearances of the angel in the flesh -- you would dismiss them all because it is all imaginary.

But you need to be careful. This story is the foundation of the Muslim religion, practiced by more than a billion people around the world. The man is named Mohammed, and the book is the Koran (also spelled Qur'an or Qur'aan). This is the sacred story of the Koran's creation and the revelation of Allah to mankind.

Despite the fact that a billion Muslims profess some level of belief in this story, people outside the Muslim faith consider the story to be imaginary. No one believes this story because this story is a fairy tale. They consider the Koran to be a book written by a man and nothing more. A winged horse that flew to heaven? That is imaginary -- as imaginary as flying reindeer.

If you are a Christian, please take a moment right now to look back at the Mormon and Muslim stories. Why is it so easy for you to look at these stories and see that they are imaginary fairy tales? How do you know, with complete certainty, that Mormons and Muslims are delusional? You know these things for the same reason you know that Santa is imaginary. There is no evidence for any of it. The stories involve magical things like angels and winged horses, hallucinations, dreams. Horses cannot fly -- we all know that. And even if they could, where would the horse fly to? The vacuum of space? Or is the horse somehow "dematerialized" and then "rematerialized" in heaven? If so, those processes are made up too. Every bit of it is imaginary. We all know that.

An unbiased observer can see how imaginary these three stories are. In addition, Muslims can see that Mormons are delusional, Mormons can see that Muslims are delusional, and Christians can see that both Mormons and Muslims are delusional.



Fairy Tale Number 4

Now let me tell you one final story:

God inseminated a virgin named Mary, in order to bring his son incarnate into our world. Mary and her fiancé, Joseph, had to travel to Bethlehem to register for the census. There Mary gave birth to the Son of God. God put a star in the sky to guide people to the baby. In a dream God told Joseph to take his family to Egypt. Then God stood by and watched as Herod killed thousands and thousands of babies in Israel in an attempt to kill Jesus. As a man, God's son claimed that he was God incarnate: "I am the way, the truth and the life," he said. This man performed many miracles. He healed lots of sick people. He turned water into wine. These miracles prove that he is God. But he was eventually given the death sentence and killed by crucifixion. His body was placed in a tomb. But three days later, the tomb was empty.
And the man, alive once again but still with his wounds (so anyone who doubted could see them and touch them), appeared to many people in many places. Then he ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the father almighty, never to be seen again. Today you can have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. You can pray to this man and he will answer your prayers. He will cure your diseases, rescue you from emergencies, help you make important business and family decisions, comfort you in times of worry and grief, etc. This man will also give you eternal life, and if you are good he has a place for you in heaven after you die. The reason we know all this is because, after the man died, four people named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote accounts of the man's life. Their written attestations are proof of the veracity of this story.

This, of course, is the story of Jesus. Do you believe this story? If you are a Christian, you probably do. I could ask you questions for hours and you will have answers for every one of them, in just the same way that I had answers for all of the Santa questions that my friend asked me in Example 1. You cannot understand how anyone could question any of it, because it is so obvious to you.

Here is the thing that I would like to help you understand: The four billion people who are not Christians look at the Christian story in exactly the same way that you look at the Santa story, the Mormon story and the Muslim story. In other words, there are four billion people who stand outside of the Christian bubble, and they can see reality clearly. The fact is, the Christian story is completely imaginary.

How do the four billion non-Christians know, with complete certainty, that the Christian story is imaginary? Because the Christian story is just like the Santa story, the Mormon story and the Muslim story. There is the magical insemination, the magical star, the magical dreams, the magical miracles, the magical resurrection, the magical ascension and so on. People outside the Christian faith look at the Christian story and note these facts:

The miracles are supposed to "prove" that Jesus is God, but, predictably, these miracles left behind no tangible evidence for us to examine and scientifically verify today. They all involved faith healings and magic tricks - see this proof.

Jesus is resurrected, but, predictably, he does not appear to anyone today - see this proof.

Jesus ascended into heaven and answers our prayers, but, predictably, when we pray to him nothing happens. We can statistically analyze prayer and find that prayers are never answered - see this proof.

The book where Matthew, Mark, Luke and John make their attestations does exist, but, predictably, it is chock full of problems and contradictions - see this proof.

And so on.

In other words, the Christian story is a fairly tale, just like the other three examples we have examined.

Now, look at what is happening inside your mind at this moment. I am using solid, verifiable evidence to show you that the Christian story is imaginary. Your rational mind can see the evidence. Four billion non-Christians would be happy to confirm for you that the Christian story is imaginary. However, if you are a practicing Christian, you can probably feel your "religious mind" overriding both your rational mind and your common sense as we speak. Why? Why were you able to use your common sense to so easily reject the Santa story, the Mormon story and the Muslim story, but when it comes to the Christian story, which is just as imaginary, you are not?

Try, just for a moment, to look at Christianity with the same amount of healthy skepticism that you used when approaching the stories of Santa, Joseph Smith and Mohammed. Use your common sense to ask some very simple questions of yourself:

Is there any physical evidence that Jesus existed? - No. He left no trace. His body "ascended into heaven." He wrote nothing down. None of his "miracles" left any permanent evidence. There is, literally, nothing.

Is there any reason to believe that Jesus actually performed these miracles, or that he rose from the dead, or that he ascended into heaven? - There is no more of a reason to believe this than there is to believe that Joseph Smith found the golden plates hidden in New York, or that Mohammed rode on a magical winged horse to heaven. Probably less of a reason, given that the record of Jesus' life is 2,000 years old, while that of Joseph Smith is less than 200 years old.

You mean to tell me that I am supposed to believe this story of Jesus, and there is no proof or evidence to go by beyond a few attestations in the New Testament of a Bible that is provably meaningless? - Yes, you are supposed to believe it. You are supposed to take it on "faith."

No one (besides little kids) believes in Santa Claus. No one outside the Mormon church believes Joseph Smith's story. No one outside the Muslim faith believes the story of Mohammed and Gabriel and the winged horse. No one outside the Christian faith believes in Jesus' divinity, miracles, resurrection, etc.

Therefore, the question I would ask you to consider right now is simple: Why is it that human beings can detect fairy tales with complete certainty when those fairy tales come from other faiths, but they cannot detect the fairy tales that underpin their own faith? Why do they believe their chosen fairy tale with unrelenting passion and reject the others as nonsense? For example:

Christians know that when the Egyptians built gigantic pyramids and mummified the bodies of their pharaohs, that it was a total waste of time -- otherwise Christians would build pyramids.

Christians know that when the Aztecs carved the heart out of a virgin and ate it, that it accomplished nothing -- otherwise Christians would kill virgins.

Christians know that when Muslims face Mecca to pray, that it is pointless -- otherwise Christians would face Mecca when they pray.

Christians know that when Jews keep meat and dairy products separate, that they are wasting their time -- otherwise the cheeseburger would not be an American obsession.

Yet, when Christians look at their own religion, they are for some reason blind. Why? And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that the Christian story is true. Your rational mind knows that with certainty, and so do four billion others.


I Want Gods Job

I want 'god's' job. What other profession in the universe would you get all the credit and none of the blame? If something good happens, then you would get all the credit, but if something bad happens, well that was someone else's fault.

God, considering He is all knowing, always knew that He would create us and He knew what results that creation would bring.

He must have known that Eve would eat the forbidden fruit, that He would send the great flood, that He would send Jesus Christ, and that majority of the people on Earth would not be Christians.

If He knew all that in advance, why didn't He create a different world; or different people who would not be so flawed and would not act so badly? He could have created a world where all people would believe in Him.

Knowing all this in advance and letting it happen anyway would be an act of futility at best. Why would anyone do something like this?

If God is almighty and all knowing, He should have been able to create a perfect world.

Is this the best He could do?


So...is God just pretend?