My Argument With God

I wonder if this article will be re-written and dumbed down by Steve Carell

Best article I've ever read on Huffpo.

And I must admit I'm jealous. It took me until my late teens to face up to the truth.

In my experience, a lot of people tend to be "Sunday Christians" - they go to church on Sunday so they can be "forgiven", then go out and raise hell for the rest of the week.

What people need is a conscience, not a deity.

If god is good and is on America's side, why did it give us Bush and Cheney?

This is a parallel of my early life. Except my parents never tried to make me believe in hocus pocus. Kudos Mr. Gervais.

The word Argument is misleading, How can you have an argument with something that you don't believe in? It's like having an argument with the Loch Ness Monster.

My parents were doubters who nevertheless believed that if the masses lost faith, society would collapse into an orgy of murder. So they made me go to church with them but had me discount all the nonsense about creationism, virgin birth, the mystery of the trinity, etc. I learned early on that the whole going-to-church exercise was just hypocritical keeping up of appearances.

Mankind is a social animal and the rules of its society, like everything else in nature, are self-organizing. Most children come to realize that their Christmas presents don't depend on their continuing belief in Santa (or Jesus, for that matter). We too eventually will learn that the gifts we enjoy don't depend on supernaturalism.

And lest I forget . . . nice job, Ricky!

Any -isms or belief systems that cannot withstand the closest examination under the clear, cold light of day are suspect. The Christian bible is a Catholic version of Jewish history for its basic documents have been secreted in the Vatican for hundreds of years. There is nothing in the bible that does not comport with Catholic doctrine and theology. Herr Guttenberg put a quick end to dickering with biblical documentation by orthodoxy. Once in print, further diddling was futile. Organized religions are formed and nurtured on unquestioned authority. To expose the shaky framework of these isms would render them unenforceable. The tiny mind of man can be compared to the subatomic parts of a virus when stacked against time, space, God, the Infinite. A good rule of thumb where organized religion is concerned is follow the money. Remove money from the equation and the cult of religion collapses. You have only to check out the extant mega-churches and the hypnotic affect these snake oil salesmen have on the gullible masses. What's the saying, a fool and his money......

I was nine or ten years old when I found the Christmas present I had asked for in the closet. (It was a "Sorry" board game.) I asked my mother what was going on and she made a nervous excuse about Santa dropping it on the roof while doing errands. I had been forcing myself to believe that Santa must exist because my parents would never lie to me. Now it didn't work any more. What were the chances that he'd drop the present I wanted on our house?

That night I wondered what was wrong with me that made my parents weave this elaborate web of lies. I realized that my mother simply wanted to create a little magic for me. I wondered what kept the magic alive for her and immediately knew the answer.

God is Santa for adults.

Since then, the world has made a lot more sense, and hasn't lost any of it's wonder or spirituality.

Love the prison stats. An interesting fact for those Christians who think Athiests lack a moral core. Apparently we're considerably less likely to steal, murder, etc than our Christian brothers. Or maybe just too smart to get caught? ;o)

I wonder what would happen more 8 years olds were asked "Why do you believe in God?". People of any age should probably ask themselves the same thing.

Of course, the mythological god does not exist. The big daddy in the sky, the angry parent, the benevolent mother these are the mind's attempt to know things that are unknowable. On the other hand, the generally positive flow of history, the fact that some folks come to love Truth, and aspire to being decent, this must have some meaning.

It is not that there is a boogy man, or earth mother who will save us, punish us and so, it is that the world is orderly. This tendency toward order, while there is still an allowance for diversity and support for benign outliers is quite elegant. The fact that love between people is so helpful during the trials of life is not likely to be a result of random forces. Perhaps, the universe itself is worthy of our admiration, without the anthropomorphism.

That's a very young age to have torn down that wall of lies.
Bravo!

Welcome to the real world folks. Open your eyes. Do you still believe in Santa and the tooth fairy?
Every time I am in a church and someone says, the king is coming, I get angry. Intelligent beings do not need a king. That's just being lazy. Go out of your house and get started on your own life. If you have questions, get answers. Blind faith is dangerous in any circumstance.

when he meets jesus he should let the rest of the world know because dude's been dead almost 2000 years. he'd be the first person alive. what's huffpost doing letting people like this write for them...?