Religion Let's try and get this troublesome little topic out of the way.
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Let's make our first trip into the world of facts a discussion of god. First of all, there is absolutely no reason why an all-powerful
god should be assigned the male gender. Why would a god be either male or female? Would "god" have a penis, or a vagina, or a
bellybutton for that matter? If we were to take the Bible literally, as many demand, that "god" truly made man in "his" image then
"god" must have each of the aformentioned, not to mention an anus, a urethra. (If you disagree, then you must not believe that the
Bible is the literal word of god.) But what would a god need with those body parts, or any body at all? A god worth its salt would
simply imagine itself sated, for example, and instantly become so, would it not?
The Bible itself, of course, is really 2 books, the Old Testament and the New. The myths were carefully selected and crafted into
these texts for one purpose and one purpose only: to exert control over the masses. The OT is a curious collection of odd stories
passed down by word of mouth for centuries, eventually written down in one form or another by a few men (of course) who were skilled
in the art of writing. If these same texts were to be written today, they would certainly be only about half as long by the time a
computer got done lining out all the redundancies and astounding contradictions.
Fully 25% of the New Testament writings are attributed to St. Paul, heresay at best as he never knew Jesus, and some suspect that as
a persecuter of Christians he was a Roman double-agent. He elbowed aside James, the brother of Jesus, as the leader of the early
followers of Jesus, hijacked his Jewish "Jesus Religion" and turned it into "Christianity," an organization designed to serve the
Roman State. Jesus himself never wrote a word that we know of, and not one "fact" about what Jesus did or said would be admissible
in a court of law, or is agreed on by Biblical scholars. Harold Bloom, religious scholar, notes there is no verifiable fact about
Jesus's life. The "Gospels" were tendentious marketing materials used to establish a new religion--to sell a new product, as it were.
Are we all god's children? Is god a good parent? Hmmmm, let me think... hideously deformed babies are born, others get run over in
the street, drown in pools, fall out of trees, off bridges, out of windows, over cliffs.... This god is everywhere at all times,
watching, yes? This all-powerful being is certainly not doing a very good job parenting.
Prayer
Now here's an interesting activity. For a good number of the world's weak, sad humans it means dropping to the ground 5 times a day
and chanting. For others, it can be as simple an activity as silently (or not) expressing one's wishes and desires. Oh, please, let
us win this football game... let me not be pregnant, let me grow wings and fly.... There have been interesting studies done -- by very
religious people (who else) which are said to prove the power of prayer. So, let me get this straight: this god will listen to lots
of its children providing they make their pleas all at once, en masse, but not one at a time? Oh, please, give me a break!
It's a sad fact that in the name of religion more people have been slaughtered, no, butchered, burned and gutted alive, drowned, drawn
and quartered, had their hearts cut out...(must I go on?) than in all wars since the dawn of mankind!
Yep. God's watching and tending the flock all right. And there's Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, David Duke,
Gene Scott, Jim Jones, and so on ad nauseum who(d) continue to have thousands of followers even after suffering repeated exposures of
their hipocracy by the media. Yeah, the human mind tends to be weak and fearful, indeed.
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