I am the Rational Response Squad: essay submissions (PRIZES)
This thread is part of the Great Big Submission drive, and it's where you should post your essays...
Write an essay entitled "I am the Rational Response Squad"
Do you remember the Tiger Woods commercials "I am Tiger Woods?" This essay and the "I am every atheist" essay are based loosely on that ideal. The notion that everyone is Tiger Woods is obviously absurd, however there are certain shared qualities and principles that embody a young golfer who strives for perfection, qualities that Tiger Woods has. In the same regard, there are certain similarities amongst people who speak up about the dangers or problems of religion. There are certain things we have in common, even though as atheists, the only thing we must have in common is lack of belief in a god, there are often many shared principles and ideals. You should write a paper of any length but preferably of about 1 page as to why you are the Rational Response Squad. Your piece should start and end with the same sentence "I am the Rational Response Squad." If you prefer to express yourself through poetry, please feel free to do so. Here is a list of some irrationalities the Rational Response Squad speaks out against. Keep in mind that being a Rational Responder simply means we are capable of responding rationally, and specifically to the irrationalities listed here. Essays can be as short as two paragraphs and as long as several pages.
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I wrote this essay in response to Richard Dawkins' post in his book tour journal
"The most interesting question was from a young woman not from Liberty but from Randolph Macon itself, and it really startled me. She wanted to know whether people who deconverted from a religious upbringing felt ‘anger’. In my naivety, I went blank. Why should one feel anger? Anger towards what, or whom? I asked the audience whether they understood what she meant, and there was a great chorus of “Yes”. I asked them again, why anger, anger towards whom? Then they started shouting from all around the hall. It was anger towards their parents for bringing them up religious, anger towards teachers and pastors for indoctrinating them as children. One young man came up to me afterwards in the signing queue and reiterated with some passion the intense anger he felt. I gave him the url of this website and encouraged him to write in. Perhaps somebody will start a thread on the theme of anger felt by the recovered victims of childhood indoctrination."
I am the Rational Response Squad!
I was extremely angry at the time immediately after my moment of deconversion(18 years old when I did so, I am 20 now), and to this day I still have animosity towards it. My life, my hopes, my dreams, my emotions, were all centered around God. I had grown up in a cold, stoic, unloving family. God was where I put my hopes of a better day. I STROVE to be as best a Christian as I could be. I made it a strict requirement that I listen intently to each scripture read in church, each sermon spoken. If this is what I believed in, then I will damn well give my life to it. And took my life it did. I went to Catholic school, where I furthered my study of God. I became a eucharistic minister, handing out the Body of Christ to eager believers. I served on the student government and read prayers over the intercom every day before school started. This was my life, my anchor in the world. But worst of all, I tried to be like Jesus as much as I could. I oft denied myself pleasure, and I refused to be angry. I even refused to express interest in girls who were clearly interested in me even when I secretly liked them.
This delusion that I lived caught up to me. My junior year in highschool was when I first became majorly depressed. Over the years, I had accumulated stress from leading such a regimented lifestyle. All it took was a girl who crushed my self-esteem to set the ball in motion. From my junior year on through my senior year I was extremely depressed, and I didn't know why. I had gotten over the girl issue, but there was something else that it had opened up. I started to crack.
My first semester in college shattered me completely. I hoped that I would be able to put my depression aside and really start anew. I couldn't. I couldn't ignore the state I was in. I felt so horrible I couldn't even leave my bed to go to class. Then, I began fighting with guilt. I was in college, going to one of the best universities in the world, and I was wasting my life. I was missing classes left and right, and growing more and more depressed. I got depressed thinking about how I was not living up to my parent's expectations, and God's. How can I lay in bed and whine about depression when there are other people who would die to be in your place? I truly had the infamous "Catholic Guilt"
When the depression was at its worst. I had had enough. I was litterally killing myself because of my beliefs. They had been the source of such pain, they made me feel like a failure. I finally told myself that there was something wrong about it all. That despite all the good things that had come from my belief in God, that it was in a way, twisted. I had come to the understanding (especially because of my psychology class I was taking at the time) that I was a human being, with human needs, and that I could never hope to be like Jesus. That I was killing myself over it. I started to get angry. Incredibly angry, more angry then I had ever been. I began to weep. Those thoughts, those words that had been cast out of my conciousness by fear finally broke through. "I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD! I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD." I began to DARE God to strike me down! "GO AHEAD, DO IT! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!"
I am the Rational Response Squad!
The Enlightenment wounded the beast, but the killing blow has yet to land...
What am I? I am the Rational Response Squad. I think like every Rational Responder, because I utilize, well, rational thought. Just like every Rational Responder, I have chosen to reject the backwards, superstitious ideas which are irrational. As with every other Rational Responder, I have rejected the common values of Christianity, and have embraced a new way of thinking. This rejection to which we have committed ourselves to embodies a thought that, more or less, follows the rational skepticism in the bible. For this reason, I have included a synopsis of the bible, in my own words, but in our own thoughts. (Let it be known that the most irrational points in the synopsis below have been numbered to let theists ponder on these irrationalities.)
Okay, so first, there was this dude whose name was "God," and this dude had been living for a really long time; like forever. So one day, "God" gets bored and decides to create a place called Earth in another place that "existed in eternity (1)." So he creates this Earth place, see, and only in like 7 days (2). So then he decides he's bored again, and makes all the different creatures of the earth, but, he creates one in his exact image and calls this creature a "human" and puts the ONLY two of these creatures in his special growing patch, which is somewhere near present day Baghdad, Iraq (3|4|5). But these two dirty humans disobey his instructions not to touch his bush, and bans them to live outside of the garden to live on there own, forcing their many children to procreate with each other to further the species (6). So the many children have lots of descendants who fill the Earth with other people, but the evil Egyptians enslave the Jewish (7) and God frowns, so he sends some new dude who then sees bushes burn but don't get destroyed to do things to the naughty pharaoh, which end up with this dude turning the red sea into a splash of vertical water and crosses with the other Jews while the pharaoh drowns ( 8 ). Then after only 40 years of only living on "mana," these finally reach Jerusalem (9). Then god does not like what he sees, so he impregnates a girl without her knowledge, and tells her to name it "Jesus"(11). This fella named "Jesus" then goes around making people worship him and wanders into the dessert where the devil tries to coax him into eating something (12).
Then "Jesus" is betrayed, and is hung, but through some strange stuff, resurrects himself, gets out of a burial tomb, and "chats" with the people that knew him (13|14). Then people write books about him, a cult gathers round him and things get hazy from there (this past sentence actually happened). So here we are, present day. Make sense?
Like it or not, the RRS is growing, meaning the United States of America CANNOT be just a Christian nation. I am every Rational Responder. I think and act like every Rational Responder. We all have chosen to use a more rational approach to life, and rejected any preaching that does not make sense. These skepticisms are why we have chosen not to relish in the ignorance of religion. These skepticisms unite us. In unity, we fight every battle as one, network as one, and grow as one. We embody the same message, and for this, I am the Rational Response Squad.
- by BocalBurger
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I am the Rational Response Squad. I do not look to some deity or divinity for guidance, but actively reject any idea that is not supported by reason.
To this end, I confront those who would impose upon me or others the contentious traditions which are derived from past ages and primitive peoples as necessary to appease a supernatural master. Moreover, I denounce the claims of those who attempt to delude the gullible and the ignorant at every available opportunity.
I am not afraid of confrontation, nor do I shy away from those who hold the air of authority. Neither priest nor laity can stay my tongue, as I will not be silenced.
This I do for the amelioration of the human race. I am the Rational Response Squad.
I am become death, destroyer of worlds
I am the Rational Response Squad.
I do not believe in any god or supreme being.
I lead a happy, active life. I have many friends that come in varieties of ethnicities, sexual orientation, financial standing, careers, interests and, yes, religious beliefs.
I believe in doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do, not because I'm trying to earn Brownie Points to get into a non-existent heaven.
I believe in being kind because it how I wish to be treated and because it feels so much better than being unkind.
I believe in volunteerism and spend a great deal of time assisting with worthwhile causes.
I believe in open and honest discussion to share rational thought.
I believe in showing how using intelligence and common sense can bring people to the only logical conclusion regarding deities.
I am the Rational Response Squad.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
From: livingxdeadxgirlx93
To: RationalRespons...
Subject: Essay: I am the Rational Response Squad
Date: Sun, 2006-10-08 13:04
I am the Rational Response Squad. Atheism, is a way of life, allowing one self to be a human, without specific guidelines or morals, based on a myth. In the Christian religion, it is believed that Jesus Nazareth or Jesus Christ descended from God, to teach morals, and to sacrifice for the sins of mankind. As you have been usually told by your parents every Christmas. Then, they tell you the jolly story about Santa Clause, which has nothing to do with the Christian religion. Only to make commercialism to increase funding of the major corporate companies which actually happens to run the economy in this country.
There are so many Christian groups which each have different idea/opinions based on the morality and myth of Jesus Christ. Maybe they make this so everyone doesn’t have to be left out from the so called savior that died for our sins. Even so, the religion that claims to be the most peaceful also is the most cruel against non-believers. Yet, to conform to Christian religion is a common thing among today’s people. To create a comfort zone, where they don’t really believe but are too brainwashed or to used to the common belief that they are afraid of change, thinking that maybe, just maybe they believed for so long that there has to be a reason for they way in which this Earth was created. Even so, the Atheist and Christian beliefs are split up fifty-fifty, so no majority of Christianity dictates America. So there is no reason to not believe what you feel you should believe, except the pressures Christianity puts on today’s people.
The fascism of Christianity can be explained in a simple metaphor. A king, the nobles, the peasants, and the slaves, which can be controlled so easily. A king or a pope, the nobles or a church, and the peasants or us the independent ones, or the slaves, or the believers. Only to be whipped and controlled and forced against their will to do what the pope or the nobles think is right, or the slaves are forced into a forever hell, like they haven’t already lived in one. Only in reality people are simply unaware of what is happening. When they bow down to their noble king, they are right, we are wrong, they are nice, we are mean, they are good, we are bad, or so they want to believe. Perpetually brainwashed or scared into the Christian religion, believing the unrealistic picture on the world. Theirs is a painting, ours is a photograph. I am the Rational Response Squad.
thank you for reading,
Crystal
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
"I am The Rational Response Squad" because I see no need to use ancient myth to guide my life. I see religion for what it is traditions of passing down fiction as truth. I am The Rational Response Squad because I do not need to live under fear of punishment or promise of reward to do what is right.
I am The Rational Response Squad because I see the needless division and bigotry that religion fosters amongst humanity. I am The Rational Response Squad because I want the great potential of the species to focus on practical issues such as hunger, dease and ending war insted of focusing on making ideology the alpha male of the world.
I am The Rational Response Squad because I see nature as just that without anthropromorphic magical characters manipulating atoms as a cartoonist would manipulate a character they were drawing. I am optimistic that the species is capable of breaking down these artificial barriers and can look at their neighbor as an individual. I am also practical in knowing that I am only one of 6 billion people and cannot dictate to all what should be in my mind.
We can live moral lives without deity belief. We are your neighbors and co workers and family. I am The Rational Response Squad because knowing that this is all their is makes it extreemly important to me to value what I have now.
We live in a great fantastic age where social barriers and labels and stereotypes are being shattered in the reality that every human has. WE all need food and shelter. WE all disire a stable life in our families and jobs and a future to look forward to. It does not take a deity belief to see this. It merely takes empathy for your fellow human. I am The Rational Response Squad because I see what we can be and am working to help free humanity from the shackles of fiction.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I posted this on the "How did becoming and atheist make you a better person" but I also decided to include it here as well. I'm not in it for the prizes....which is why this is unedited and unchecked. It's just me, and my story which is why
I am the Rational Response Squad.
I was born atheist converted to catholicism when I was very young (and not by choice), and remained a theist until my later teen years.
Once I started realizing that the bible had discrepencies I started to question and became agnostic (in the sense that I wasn't sure what to believe anymore). Years of catholic indoctrination had left me with a wanting for there to be something beyond me out there, something bigger. It also has left me, admittedly still today, with the very thing that catholicism uses to control, Mia Colpa (My Fault: the guilt). As I started educating myself, learning biology (and other sciences), the natural world, evolution....I became more and more critical of a supernatural being, I became more critical of religion in general. Still, Mia Colpa reigned over me and I still wanted to believe in something bigger than myself and this earth. However, I had started my intellectual journey to leaving theism.
I met a woman when I was 20, she was a master's student at George Mason University who was studying philosophy/thought. She introduced me to the Hegelian (and later incorporated to Marxist) theory of Dialectics, and I had what I needed to seal the mental coffin of theism. Through her, I started to learn about Idealism vs. Materialism the process of dialectics, and I finally realized that the world is much too complex to have a supernatural being watching over us. I started realizing the dangers of dogma and religion. The bloodshed, the control, the money. I started to see how politics and the xtian right started to melt together and how this was completely anti-thetical to our constitution. I started to understand how religion was more of a political power struggle than the belief and faith in an all loving god.
So....how has becoming an atheist made me a better person? I don't know if that is necessarily what atheism has done to me...made me better? I believe that there are many attributes that make one better or worse. What is better anyway?
I will say this, however, becoming an atheist has led me on a life journey that is more open to adaptability. This in a sense puts me in better light to understand the world. I am not tied down by a dogmatic belief, I can look at the world in a brighter and more rational manner. I am able to see the problems associated with this world in a way that I could have never done as a theist. I guess this makes me a better person. But...as the old saying goes...Ignorance is Bliss...I don't necessarily think that becoming an atheist will make you "happier". I do think that you need a strong heart and a strong mind...to realize that the world is really very ugly and that it is not blanketed by the love and grace of a god.
We are alone, and we are killing each other and this earth, we use the excuse of a god to do so. The picture that my mind paints is not a nice one. But it is a real one. One that allows me to realize that we need change. This is why I have become active in my atheism. I think people need to realize and see the horrors that religion has brought and continues to bring to the world. People need to realize how they are being exploited by evangelical leaders such as Ted Haggert, Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson who make millions from their followers. I think the type of enlightment that comes from becoming atheist is one that will allow for real change, and we have to work very hard at accomplishing this. We have got to help others...if for no other reason, than a selfish one. Our lives depend on this. We are seeing too much control from the xtian right on our lives....we cannot afford for these people to take over our government, just like we cannot let extremist muslims destroy our right to exist.
So yeah...being an atheist has made me a "better" person in the sense that through the realization that there is no god, I am now able to make decisions that are more adaptable to the natural world. I understand that since Jesus won't be coming back to earth, that we need to cherish this earth. Which brings me to a more brighter note....
This earth is a gem among the cosmos. The beauty we find here on this earth, Life, is something that we all need to cherish. Not just human life, but ALL life. We need to protect it because I think that is the most beautiful realization I have made since becoming an atheist...that life is beautiful, this earth and it's complex, dynamic ecosystems are beautiful. As an atheist, I understand the value of life....and we need to help conserve all of it, not destroy it under false religious pretense.
Let's all be the Rational Response Squad.
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I am the Rational Response Squad.
I am an Atheist.
I exist. I breathe. I bleed. I love. I have no need for a 'higher power' to tell me not to hurt or kill. I, as a human being, am a pack animal. I believe that stewardship of the environment is my duty. Not just for me, but for the generations that will come long after I cease to exist. There is a debate on whether humanity is responsible for the crisis currently facing our environment. If it is the fault of our species or not dosen't matter. It is common sense to 'not defecate in your cave'. Even bears know this. I believe that helping your fellow man is a logical premise, as there will come a time in which I need assistance. I believe that lying is an improper way to deal with the other passengers on Earth. From the lies that are told to children (Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny), to the lies we tell each other as adults (A personal God). A lie is defined as 'a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth'. The stories of God have been proven over and over to be made by and written by man. Stories that have been edited and mistranslated over and over. Editing and mistranslations we have copious evidence of.
As an Atheist, I do believe many things. Atheists are often accused of not 'believing in anything'. My strong belief in my own inherent 'goodness' as well as proper ways of dealing with others, as well as my responsibility to be there for my fellow man disqualifies that statement. And I am FAR from alone in this.
I do not have enough hubris to say that I KNOW there is no God. I DO have enough evidence to state that the 'gods' created by man are just that.. creations. As to an actual God, I am an Agnostic. As to Allah, Jesus, Vishnu, Odin, Zeus et al. I am Gnostic in my disbelief. I believe that THIS is our only chance at life. A belief backed by evidence. And to believe this life is just a rehersal or test means you do not have a reason to take care of others, the planet, or even yourself. And even if you do, it's not for others, it's to earn your ticket to a paradise. Which, to me, is similar to a woman/man telling you that they love and are in love with you, while the real reason is as simple as to take your money. As an Atheist, I can see that with this being my only chance at Life, it just makes sense to make the most of it. For both myself and others. I, as a seeker of Knowledge, have studued many religious paradigms. I've read the Bible, the Qu'ran, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita .. and all struck me as similar in one blatant fact. They were all stories. Many do have good lessons in them. But stories nonetheless. Wisdom can come from many places. 'With great power comes great responsibility'. Good advice. It was said to a young man once. A lesson he took to heart, which served him well in his trials. That man was Peter Parker, also known as Spider-Man. An excellent lesson. And one we KNOW is just a story, a parable. As an Atheist, (and as a human being) I quest for knowledge and wisdom. But I see no need to, when presented with something I do not understand, create a story about 'How it all happened'.
I do peer councilling for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. I do this because I have MS. I do this because it heals me mentally as I help others to heal and cope. I will not lie to them and tell them there is a magical place that all their pain goes away. I WILL tell them that, thanks to science, we have methods to curb the pain. I have had people tell me that 'You're doing God's work, helping these poor people.' and 'I'm glad you have MS so you can help others with it'. To which i usually respond 'So, by raising money to help find a cure for MS, am i not going against god'splan.. after all.. god made MS. It existed before aspartame, before dental amalgam'. 200 years ago, MS was attributed to 'demonic posession'. We learned better. We learned better because we examined, we experimented. Medical science has in many cases been hampered by these stories.We have the same issue today in regards to stem cell research.
If evidence of a god, or an afterlife, is presented to me, and if I cannot prove it's fraudulent or inaccurate nature, I will consider it. This applies to any and all aspects of the 'supernatural' (psychics, ghosts, magic, etc..). I will listen to any reasonable conversation. And I will be polite. As long as you accept that if your 'proof' is fake, irrational based on what is already known and verified, or a misrepresentation of reality, I will not accept it.
The bottom line is, If you are reading this, there is a good chance that both you and I are currently alive. Therefore we share this planet. With roughly 6.5 billon others. Provided you do not tell me what I can do within the bounds of logical behavior, I will not tell you what to do. If you tell me who I can love, what I can or cannot do (provided it dosen't involve you), or lie to me..I'll be a courteous and helpful fellow pasenger on this planet.
I am Jester
I am an Atheist.
I am a human being.
I am the Rational Response Squad.
"Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell.... Kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change.
C'mon people, please write more of these!
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Bump
... I respond rationally. (This is my post from the freethinkers forum. I think it fits here.)
George Bush, General Motors, terrorists and the Pope.
by Tracy Valleau
As my years go on, human nature seems more transparent to me. For a while, I pondered why it is that humans have such a need for religion. Most with whom I discussed that topic suggested that it was "fear of death" but I now believe that lying at the very heart of the human experience is something quite the opposite: fear of life.
Life is chaotic. We arrive, "tossed in the pool" so to speak, and in our first years can learn only by imitation. Then comes cause and effect (I cry, mom arrives.) But we soon learn that it's not a simple relationship: sometimes when I cry, mom soothes me; other times she scolds me.
One of the first realizations to creep into our budding consciousness is the inconsistency, the chaos, of life. Even at age 60, I still recall my first awareness that mom and dad had different responses to the same situation. Nearly my first cogent thought was "there are no rules here; nobody seems to understand life," and "It's me and them." Budding self-awareness... and later the loneliness that blossomed into teenage angst.
My point here is that life is scary - it's ultimately each of us alone against a reality that cares not a whit whether we individually live or die.
That is, of course, the nature of life: big fish eat little fish; lions eat gazelles; volcanoes explode; earthquakes kill... it is chaos.
Our sentient human brains (since we have little in the way of physical prowess) must figure out how to help us survive within this swirling and dangerous reality.
And we have one really unique ability, unshared by any of the rest of life on earth, as far as I know: we tell stories.
(I am not the first to think of this. Anthropoligists noted it years ago.)
Stories pass along the experience and techniques of others in dealing with the tumult of life. "Try this; it worked for me." And rather than recount the millions of tiny details that went into the original experience, (even if one could remember them all accurately) the detail are whittled down to their essence - the bit that is common to a given challenge.
Thus, the story is made simple and memorable and serves as a tool when that experience is encountered for the first time in the life of the hearer (or later, reader.)
We hear stories from our parents beginning at the earliest age; then stories from brothers and sisters; grandparents; and later schoolmates and friends. They come from the pulpit and from the pages of books. They are nearly 100% of the content of television and movies.
Stories are a wonderful human invention. They have help us individually and collectively survive and prosper.
And because we fail to shed them along with the other affectations of youth, they are insidious and dangerous.
Stories should be something we merely learn from. They should be a part of the growing and maturing process, as they are... but then they should be discarded... something we fail to do.
Different cultures have (or do not have) rituals around the time when stories should be put aside, and one's own skills and observations are called to the fore.
The insidious part of stories is this: that we cling to them too long. That failing is natural enough, of course: they are all we have ever known... they are the only way we have ever learned to deal with this chaotic world. To let go of the stories is a very scary, almost suicidal, thing.
So fearful of letting go are we that most will, in fact, refuse to do so. The stories are seen as the basis of our survival; the underpinning of our entire reality.
We will often fight to the death to protect (in our own minds) the stories we have assimilated.
The insidious thing is that stories cease to be the parables and guides of our youth. Instead of controlling the stories, the stories begin to control us.
It is a tiny step from using our internal stories to help us choose a course of action, to the point where the stories instead dictate our actions.
And it is actions in this reality, not our thoughts, that affect our survival. Either we actually jump out of the path of the oncoming train or we do not - thinking about jumping has no effect.
In short, in our minds we enter the dangerous place where our stories assume the mantle of "reality" so intimately are they tied with our actions.
Instead of remaining the parables about reality they were in our youth, they have instead become literal descriptions of reality in our mind.
And unfortunately, they are still just stories. They are not "reality."
It is that disjunct that ties together George Bush, General Motors, terrorists and the Pope (not to mention the rest of us.)
General Motors' corporate story is that SUVs are what the American public wants. It's bolstered by the fact that they are cheap to make and thus provide for larger profits.
On the other hand, Honda and Toyota, less vested in that story, more easily saw the reality that gas was going up, and that the purchasing trends were toward smaller, more efficient cars.
While GM insisted on its own story about reality, the Japanese did not. They turned on a dime, and began producing smaller autos. GM's "reality" (failing to understand that it was just a story) pushed them to continue advertising and making huge gas-guzzlers.
Net result: GM is no longer the world's largest auto maker and has laid off tens of thousands of workers.
Even in the face of incontrovertible facts about auto sales, the corporate story at GM is so strong that to this day, they continue to push SUVs, and cannot understand why things are not working for them.
For GM, the story is profoundly confused with reality.
Now, tell this to anyone with marketing savvy, and you'll find i'ts old hat... sort of. That is they understand that you can influence people by feeding into their internal stories.
In fact starting with a widely assumed story, and manipulating it slowly, a bit at a time, is how societies and cultures are controlled, (just ask Adolf Eichmann or Karl Rove.)
Advertising agencies almost understand this. When I say "almost" I'm thinking specifically of GM again. Their agency has moved to marketing SUVs and trucks (the most profitable products) by appealing to the patriotic story so strong in middle Americans. Their ads croon "this is our country." Well, of course it is, and the same thing could be used to sell hair spray or toothpaste: there is no "reality-base" connection between patriotism and trucks.
Do the ads work? Sure - to some extent. They feed into an existing story and reinforce it. In turn, if you give little thought to it, which is the insidious part of stories in the first place, GM trucks become the patriotic trucks to buy.
If you don't buy one, you're not patriotic. "Not patriotic!" Wow: you're probably not a good American; you could even be an enemy. I may have to kill you... the power of the story is strong.
So, what's the almost? Look at the ads for the Toyota Tundra truck: they show how much it can haul; how much it can carry; how quickly it can stop. They say "actual demonstration" on the bottom of the screen.
The GM ads work on people who are deeply vested in their own mental stories; the Toyota ads appeal to people who better realize that stories are parables, and that work in the real-world demands real trucks, not patriotic abstractions.
The "almost" in GMs agency is the agency's own story-cum-reality: that they can sell more trucks appealing to stories than Toyota can appealing to real-world needs.
Obviously they, and their story, are wrong.
What about George Bush, terrorists and the Pope?
All of them (I'm using "the Pope" as a generic representation of religion as a whole) are profoundly and deeply vested in their own stories-are-reality.
Why, in the face of overwhelming facts to the contrary, does (or did) George Bush deny the reality of global warming; cause us to attack another country with little to no provocation; insist that "the splurge" will fix the issues in Iraq; think that the constitution does not apply to him and his administration?
Because he is so vested in his own mental stories as reality, that actual reality has no place.
Ditto for the terrorists, who have created a story that the West is "out to get them" when nothing could be further from the truth. But real suicide bombers kill real innocent people every day based on the strength of that story.
Right-wingers in the US are deeply vested in the story that they are persecuted, a story pushed and enhanced by Rove, Fox News and others with vested interests of their own. So controlled are they by their stories-are-reality that the rank and file are often heard saying that Democrats are "supporting terrorists."
That would mean that more than half the population of the United States are enemies of the State, a patently absurd conclusion, but demonstrative of the power of stories.
And it's the strength of stories; the investment of our lives in them, that have produced two "classes" of people in the US - those that matured to the point of remembering that stories are just that: tools of youth, to be dropped in adulthood, the lessons learned and absorbed, and now ready to deal with daily reality...
... and those who have nevered dropped the stories, but instead cling to them such that now the stories guide their lives, and have become confused with reality.
It's interesting to note the difference between the two groups, as it is to some palpable extent they are divided along party lines, or at least "liberal/conservative" and in fact may constitute a fair definition of the distinction between those two.
The Left's liberal policies offer up a choice of opportunities: you can do this or not do this - the choice is yours. The conservative Right offers no independent choice of options: you must do this our way. In fact, in the vestment in stories, the Right is so fearful of losing their stories that their one and only choice must be made into law; actually illegal to believe differently.
I'd wager that in the US, the power of stories is more pervasive than in most other countries. We are simply never rid of them; movies, television, advertising - tens of thousands of story-reinforcements hit each of us every day. That's true of most first world countries these days... and the need for the simplifying and soothing nature of stories seems to have grown as the speed of technological change, and hence complexity, has increased.
It may be a generational thing in first-world countries, however: those of us who have lived thru the information explosion - the "baby-boomers" are likely most vested. The generation born after the introduction of computers and the internet has come to dealing with vast quantities of information in their own way: grasping bits of information quickly (the so-called 'short attention span' and the "learn by doing" techniques inherited from video games, instead of the slower "read the manual" of my generation.
YouTube and MySpace promote frank and real interaction, at least to some degree.
But in the second world, the power of stories propels the youth to strap on bombs and go wander into a marketplace. Here, there is no significant technological generation (except, ironically, in Iran.)
That, at age 60, is my take on human nature and the likely fate of mankind: there are two types of people on this earth - those who have shed the stories of youth and opened their eyes to a more nuanced reality, hard as it may be to do so, and those whose fear of life has compelled them to cling to the parables of childhood, and have now become automatons in their control.
The fate of mankind depends on which type controls our governments and economy.
Good luck to us all.
(Note: Tues, May 1: Today I was thumbing thru an old copy of Communications Arts magazine (Design Annual, 2006) , and found an article with similar observations by Michael McPherson. Jung would be pleased at the synchronicity. His article predates my writing, but I wish to assure one and all that my ideas expressed here were independently concieved. Mr. McPherson's article is more scholarly than mine; makes no reference to religion, and is significantly different in other ways as well. I can heartily recommend it. I have no doubt that others have expressed similar observations previously as well... after all: human nature is human nature - observable by one and all. Tracy
I am the Rational Response Squad.
Agressively I have entrenched ideologies using
the faculty of reasoning and
the infallibility of evidence.
Today I war, in good conscience,
against the charlatans
of many false idols.
My weapons are
wrongfully controversial
systems of ideas
based on ernest
investigative
questioning.
My foes are an
evolving cesspool
of antiquated ideas
based on fallacious
delusive
intuition.
I will stop at well-nigh
the end of all
willful delusion; never.
And in this conviction
I strike fear into the
modern ideological profiteer.
For I am of the new age
of critical thought,
and am unafraid
of unyeilding public display
of all my rationalism
and the worst of irrationality.
Even theism.
So Jerry Falwell,
Pat Robertson,
Kent Hovind,
Ted Haggard,
all you blind
intelligent design,
ghost story,
televangelist,
question begging,
deck stacking,
experience arguing,
equivocating,
indoctrinating,
mental terrorist
morons:
watch out.
I am the Rational Response Squad.
Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
George Orwell.
I am the rational response squad.
I wake up weekdays to work.
I pay bills.
I goto school.
I enjoy music.
I love my family.
I live a moral life by most standards.
I'm just like you.
I use logic as a tool.
I use realism to decipher the truth.
I am a cynic.
I analyze the validity of ALL information I'm given.
I fill my mind with facts, not my heart with faith.
I am athiest, I do not have belief in a god.
I'm not like you.
Where you see miracles,
I see falasy.
Where you see god,
I see nothingness.
Where you see religious leaders,
I see manipulators, liars, and theives; the scum of the Earth.
Where you see god's work,
I see biological advancement at it's finest.
When you say you theres no way all of this Earth could have come from chance,
I say you're a fool, look at the galaxies, look at the stars, look at the billions upon billions upon billions of planets,
I say you're naive for thinking you're special.
When you say I'm going to hell.
I say I'll see you there, for the thousands of years of corruption, lies, theft, murder, and every other crime imagineable.
I say theres more blood on the hands and in the name of theism than any other organized group in history.
You provoke war,
I provoke unity.
You consider theisms other than your own inferior, and damned,
I consider you vain.
You want people to believe in your beliefs and see things the way you see them.
I want people to see things as they really are, without god.
I am the rational response squad.
I am the Rational Response Squad because I am a rational, logical, intelligent, and truthful atheist. I hold life, truth, and love to be the most crucial of values. I sincerely want to see our species blossom into everything it can be. And I strongly think that Theism in all its forms is a cancer to all of us. Religion is the poison and Science and understanding is the only cure.
Why do i have anything against theism? Because it is a destructive ideology. It promotes delusion, lies, dependency, willful ignorance, violence, and WAR. It gives power to the most deceptive and vile of men cloaked in a mask of righteousness.
I am the Rational Response Squad becuse i am not willing to let lies dominate our lives any longer.
Mr. Triple Z
I Am The Rational Response (Yeah I Said It)
(This was an original post I posted on my facebook page and on various facebook groups)Isn’t It Strange… (An Outreach To Atheist In Hiding & People Who Simply Cannot Make Up Their Minds)
Independent Essay by Byung Min (Online Alias: Rakehell)
Before you read this note I want to make clear this piece is just my opinion, nothing more or nothing less. I am aware that in the process of writing this note I may (and probably will) offend some of my dearest friends, but please note that I do not have the slightest intention of upsetting anyone. But perhaps it might be better for my more faithfully religious friends to dismiss this post. This is just my intellectual opinion. I just could not bring myself to believe in a supernatural god for I belive truth and reason. You are welcome to express opinions differing from my own, and I have no intention of forcing my ideas onto you. The main objective of this short piece is to bring out closet atheists and an attempt at persuading people that are on the fence about religious matters. Enjoy.
Isn't it strange that...
while faith, which is a belief in something in the absence of evidence, is considered a virtue, and Skepticism which is challenging a belief until given enough evidence in the search for truth is frowned upon?
Isn't it strange (and sad) that...
people of faith who reference one book for all the answers in life, command more respect than People of Reason who reference and research hundreds and thousands of books, seminars, essays, experiments, theories, and ideas to try and attempt to provide the more honest and plausible explanation for the unanswered questions of the universe?
Isn't it strange (and utterly idiotic) that...
creationism (or the fairy tale of the bible) sets up a conclusion first and searches for evidence (in total and absolute vain) to support their conclusion, while evolution (or heliocentricity and any other scientific fact for that matter) is a RESULT of thousands and thousands of research and experimentation?
Isn’t it strange that...
if an immoral and/or insane act is done in context of religion, it is overlooked or even admired. And isn’t it also amazing that, (to quote Dr. Steven Weinberg) ''With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.'' (I highly doubt that suicide bombers would think that their actions were for good if they didn’t think their god told them to be a martyr)
Isn’t it strange (as well as insulting and disgusting) that...
some people actually use that argument that there would be no moral guidelines for mankind follow in the absence of religion? It is mind-bottling (haha, I love Will Ferrell) to think of all the implications that this assumption takes on. It is a very doubtful speculation to say that before any heavenly moral handbook, people really thought that murder, cannibalism, and thievery were ok. If people of religion really believe that morals are really mandated from heaven, do they do good things because god promised them candy, and refrain from doing bad things because satan will spank them? Is their moral decisions really dictated by a divine surveillance camera up in the sky (as said by the brilliant Richard Dawkins)? Isn’t it more likely that we evolved into moral beings and in order to survive in human society morality was an evolutionary imperative?
Isn't it strange that...
while atheists all agree on the one fact that god most likely (I only use most likely here because rationally there is no 100% method of disproving the existence of god along with the celestial teapot, the flying spaghetti monster, the invisible pink unicorn, and the intangible invisible dragon in your garage) does not exists, followers of faith are constantly bickering and waging wars over their personal god(s) of choice?
(To quote Bobby Henderson the founder of the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, “Religious warfare is the fight over who has the better invisible friend”)
Isn’t it strange...
how some people argue that atheism is much of a religion as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. While in reality, agnosticism, atheism, non-theism, secular humanism, and even anti-theism is much of a religion as NOT collecting stamps, bottle caps, or all 150 pokemon (Gotta Catch’em All!) is a hobby?
Isn't it strange (and downright astonishing) that...
atheists are challenged to disprove god on a daily basis while people of faith become morally outraged when a rational man or woman asks them, in reverse to prove the existence of god. Isn’t it obvious that the burden of proof is on the claim? To take it even further; isn’t it funny how people of a certain religion don’t take it in themselves to disprove a god or gods of another religion?
Isn't it strange that...
while there is reasonable scientific explanation that the universe may be able to exist in and of itself (I’m referring to the fact that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed) religion tries to explain the beauty, power, and the complexity of the world by creating an even more powerful and complex being such as god? If so who created god? If god can exist in and of himself, why can’t the universe?
Isn't it strange...
how numerous people make the misstep in logic that because science can’t provide all the answers, religion can?
Isn't it strange that...
a revered philosopher like Blaise Pascal, can create a rationally idiotic, morally dishonest, intellectually degrading, and flat out insulting wager that almost seems like he is bribing one to conform to Christianity? IF (I cannot stress IF too much) there is a god, isn’t it much more honest to follow in Bertrand Russell’s example to say to him after you have reached the supposed pearly gates of heaven “But, my lord you simply did not provide enough evidence” and profess that you could not possibly bring yourself to believe in him. (courtesy of Christopher Hitchens)
Isn’t it amazing how...
many confirmed atheist are incredibly sexually attractive *ahem*, charismatic, wealthy, intelligent, respected, and remarkably eloquent (HAHAHAHA I just HAD to put this in). Atheist such as:
James Watson, E. O. Wilson, Marie Curie, Tomas Edison, Stephen Gould, Carl Sagan, Massimo Pigliucci, Steven Pinker, Michael Shermer, James Randi, Penn & Teller, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stephen Hawking, Ernst Mayr, Sigmund Freud, Steven Weinberg, Douglas Adams, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Woody Allen, Lance Armstrong, Darren Aronofsky, Isaac Asimov, Dave Barry, Ingmar Bergman, Lewis Black, Richard Branson, Berkeley Breathed, Warren Buffett, George Carlin, John Carmack, Adam Carolla, John Carpenter, Asia Carrera, Fidel Castro, Dick Cavett, Noam Chomsky, Charlie Chaplin, Billy Connolly, Francis Crick, David Cronenberg, David Cross, George Clooney, Alan Cumming, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Dawkins, Christoper Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Ani DiFranco, Micky Dolenz, Harlan Ellison, Brian Eno, Richard Feynman, Harvey Fierstein, Larry Flynt, Dave Foley, Jodie Foster, Janeane Garofalo, Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Ricky Gervais, Ira Glass, James Gleick, Robert Heinlein, Nat Hentoff, Katharine Hepburn, Christopher Hitchens, Eddie Izzard, Billy Joel, Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie, Wendy Kaminer, Diane Keaton, Ken Keeler, Neil Kinnock, Michael Kinsley, Richard Leakey, Bruce Lee, Tom Lehrer, Tom Leykis, James Lipton, Seth Green, John Malkovich, Barry Manilow, Todd McFarlane, Sir Ian McKellen, Arthur Miller, Frank Miller, Marvin Minsky, Julianne Moore, Desmond Morris, Randy Newman, Mike Nichols, Jack Nicholson, Gary Numan, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Camille Paglia, Steven Pinker, Paula Poundstone, Terry Pratchett, Ron Reagan Jr., Keanu Reeves, Rick Reynolds, Gene Roddenberry, Joe Rogan, Henry Rollins, Andy Rooney, Salman Rushdie, Bob Simon, Steven Soderbergh, Annika Sorenstam, George Soros, Richard Stallman, Bruce Sterling, Howard Stern, J. Michael Straczynski, Julia Sweeney, Matthew Sweet, Studs Terkel, Tom Tomorrow, Linus Torvalds, Eddie Vedder, Paul Verhoeven, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Sarah Vowell, James Watson, Joss Whedon, Ted Williams, Steve Wozniak
(And many, many, many more)
Isn’t it funny...
How a lot of people spell atheism with the “I” before the “E” so that they spell ATHIESM instead of ATHEISM? (Yes, I will judge you for poor spelling and grammar)
Isn’t it sad...
how some people search for answers and take the easy way out? Isn’t it sad how some people follow other people just to realize in the end that the people that they were following were in actuality not only clueless but looking to them for instructions? Isn’t it wasteful to deny all the information provided in this world alone and a pity to so eagerly cage one’s mind because of a holy text that was written in the bronze age of human civilization and translated more times than a one could possibly count? Doesn't it pain you to see members of the human race silently beg for a leader and is so desperate to have someone tie them up in a spiritual bondage that they imagine up a divine lord?
Isn’t it a pity...
That most atheists fear the consequences of voicing their ideas while there opinions are equally relevant as that of any other people? Well, I humbly request all agnostics, atheists, non-theists, and even anti-theists not to be intimidated or afraid to speak your mind.
Please do not be afraid.
" A personal god was nothing more than an exalted father-figure: desire for such a deity sprang from infantile yearnings for a powerful, protective father, for justice and fairness and for life to go on forever. God is simply a projection of these desires
I am the rational response squad.
I am just another man who choses the comforts of logic rather than the comforts of religion. In the words of George Bernard Shaw "The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one" . I think that it is the will of man that creates and destroys out of the illusion of god, and atrocities have been committed in the name of the delusion of god. I try to be a good human being for the sake of humanity, not for the sake of heaven. I believe that people are people regardless of race religion or creed.
I am logic. I use my knowledge of deductive reasoning to come to a rational and logical conclusion. I am willing to admit that my theories of the universe are wrong when evidence has arisen. I believe man evolved and was not created. I believe this because as a logical man i must have evidence for any claim.
I am Occam's Razor. I am but a humbly simple man. I stress the importance that a simple logical conclusion is usually the better solution. I see that religion is complex and is thus the less likely solution to the questions of the world.
I am one chance. I have realized that this life is my one life, and as suck i should not complicate it with the doctrines of religion. I recognize that all people live once, and i will do nothing to stop a man from his right to live.
I am moral. I derive my morals from social contract, not a long book of mans words but a simple idea that all men are equal and should be treated as equals.
I am intelligence. I understand that the world is best managed under the guidance of intellect not ignorance. Man can evolve mentally only through his use of intellect, and religion is a hindrance on those advances to be made.
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.-Karl Marx
Hi Rakehell and welcome to the forums.
We'd like to get to know you a little better. When you get a chance, we'd love it if you'd hop over to the General Conversation, Introductions and Humor forum and introduce yourself.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Who am I?
I am not the Rational Response Squad. I do not dismiss claims of supernatural out of hand. I do not think theism is a disease to mankind. I stay away from politics. I let others live however they want to. I do not brodcast my beliefs, because they are my own. I do not get involved in the hypocrisy of it all. I am alone.
Who am I?
I am the Rational Response Squad. I do not believe in any god or goddess. When challenged, I will meet the fight head on. I never go halfway. I see the problems inherent in today's Christians. When asked, I try to enlighten others, all the while trying to enlighten myself. I will always try to find the truth.
Who am I?
I am a fighter and a pacifist, without love or hate. I seek knowledge, knowing I will never find it. I am immoral, to help the better good. No sacrifice is too great - there is no sacrifice.
I am xamination, a name with no meaning, and a meaning with no name.
Who are you?
I hope that when the world comes to an end I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.
I am the Rational Response Squad. I live in conservative Indiana and was born into a life of religious indoctrination. My parents attended a small Pentecostal church, which operated under an evangelical pastor and his holier-than-thou-art wife. I was pulled out of bed and whisked away to the monotonous and irrational world of Pentecostalism every Sunday morning, certain Sunday nights, and the occasional Wednesday evening. Revival was also mandatory.
Not surprisingly, the situation took its toll. As the son of fundamentalist parents who surrounded themselves in a constant swarm of other fundamentalists, I was handed my beliefs to me. As a child raised by a family of blue-collar workers and high school dropouts, I was never exposed to the rational explanations science had to offer. No one in my immediate environment seemed to know or care about scientific explanations.
It wasn’t until high school that I seriously began to contemplate and to doubt the rationality of everything that had been prescribed to me. There was no traumatic event that “turned me against God”. There was no desire to pursue a life of drugs, booze, and insatiable lust. The whole idea simply ceased to make sense in my mind. God ceased to be rational.
Strangely, I couldn’t let go of God even when I doubted him. I felt guilty for my inability to understand the disparities between God and science. Study sessions would pass by in a daze as I pondered the fate of my own eternal soul. Every night, I would ask forgiveness for my doubt, and I would plead with God to reveal himself to me in some way that I could not question. He never obliged, but I continued to hang on, hopeful that I was among his cherished few, afraid that I would suffer the fiery alternative, and terrified of the disappointment I might ultimately cause my parents.
My senior year of high school and on into college, I developed an overwhelming curiosity toward specific areas of science. I discovered that the evolution I had been “taught” was not an honest account of the theory. I read articles describing emotions in terms of biological chemicals. I learned about morality as a sociological phenomenon rather than as an unquestionable set of rules decreed by a greater being. I learned about Big Bang cosmology, the geologic column, and opposing philosophical views. The more holistic my education became, the more irrational God appeared in my eyes.
Finally, I began to find people like Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett, Nick Gisburne, and David Mills. I became hopelessly addicted to TED talks (TED.com) and passionately interested in atheism. I’m not sure of the exact time it happened, but somewhere along the line, I had turned Christian doubt into Atheistic enthusiasm.
Today, I am a proud atheist. In promoting atheism, most of my energy (sadly) goes into debunking ignorant views about evolution. It really seems that every person in my area believes that evolution is “just a theory”, and even worse, they believe it claims humans descended from modern apes. There have been a few instances where I was asked to explain how the solar system could have occurred randomly and on its own. I have engaged my own father in debates about moral issues. For example, he honestly believes that piercings are abominations. He calls them “self-mutilation” and says that they “desecrate the temple of God”. On the other hand, he thinks ear piercings are okay. I only hope that I never sounded that ridiculous when I shared his beliefs.
Most importantly though, I want people to know how I came to atheism. I did not reject God as an act of teenage rebellion. I did not reject God because I take pleasure in immoral conduct. I did not reject God because I have never read the Bible. I did not reject God out of bitterness at the death of someone I loved. I did not reject God because he refused to talk back when I prayed. I did not reject God because I fail to understand him. I did not reject God because the voice of the devil persuaded me to turn against him.
I rejected God because I am a rational human being.
I am new to atheism compared to many, but my love of atheism and my fascination with science are tremendous. I continue to learn more every day, and I can only imagine how much we will know and how much sillier theism will look twenty years from now. In the meantime, I will be doing my best to profess atheism to those around me, and I’ll be recommending atheist literature whenever I can.
I am not afraid of your God.
I am the Rational Response Squad.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
This is just something I was writing back and forth to someone on line that was a Christian, and thought I was a bad guy because she read some of my blogs on myspace.
I thought it was funny cause I'm a goof ball, and had fun writing her back.
If I have the time I really enjoy the challenges I receive.
Didn't know if it was right to put her comments on here so it's just my response, hopefully you'll get the picture.
"I've always been the Rational Response Squad"
It's just in my blood !!!!!
Here's why...........
(She said that I was mean and kinda put words into my mouth
and said that atheists always freak out, and are in everyone’s faces
all the time)
Huh..........
Not sure what are ya talkin about ?
I don't get mad at such things at all anyway.
What I don't understand is the fact that
out of the 8 Tv. channels that I get here in
Pennsylvania 3 of them are Christian
channels, and every day now at 2 o'clock,
Pat Robertson has full rain over the NBC
air waves along with every major Television
station on Sunday mornings !
These programs preach every day that I'm
going to hell for not believing, and if I were gay,
had an abortion, or think stem cell research is a
wise choice for scientific exploration, I will surly
be swimming in the lake of fire as John Haggee
so bluntly put it yesterday.
These evangelists’s that are on TV. play a great
political roll as well, and that is frightening to
me to see that the money that people are donating
in to feed 3rd world children are being spent to
keep these Billion dollar stations going, and to
front a bulked up political agenda.
Most of what I see on Sunday is no more a
religious sermon; as it's a stump for a candidate.
It's been going on for years !
And now you come down on me for a little blog
that I wrote, which I'm not sure where it is from
{If you can specify, that would be great}
Anyways, I don't get mad at anybody.
I simply; in the facts of life, don't understand
why people believe in religious writings from
thousands of years ago, and fight till death
over them today.
The world is just so bizarre to me that I
question things, and that drives me to do the
research to find the truth about what was written
all of those years ago.
My conclusion is that there is no reason at all to
think that any of the writings in the bible to be
a work of god.
Therefore, man has tricked man into using
these writings to do harmful things, and god.....
if there is one, still does nothing to help us out
and finally put an end to the religious fighting.
I guess that’s why I am an Atheist…..I just see
no existence of a higher being what so ever.
Otherwise, I would be penalized in some way
for writing this very letter if something was
always watching me and can interact, as though
claimed by people who pray and believe in angels.
See, I don't get mad at people "for" believing,
and tell them that they will be in a terrible place
once they die if they don't follow a couple thousand
year old multi-translated book. I however run into a
huge conglomerate, spewing and forcing there fire
and brimstone idealism on me everywhere I go, so
I don't see why you wrote to me' what you wrote at all~
Although, I'm glad that you did write me because I
haven't had a good thought provoking e-mail in a while.
I've been very busy and it's good to hear from
someone who cares.
Thank you,
Les xo
(She then questioned how we got here if there's no god)
I have no idea how anything came into existence.
We're to young a species to explore into, or find
out exactly how everything came to be.
Until we discovered that the world wasn't flat
and that we revolve around the sun, not it around us,
did we take that much needed step towards the truth that
many like Galileo and Copernicus were more or less
crucified by the church for extending there findings.
Have you ever read anything by Stephan Hawking ?
That's as close to the openings of possibility as I can
say fits a non-universe is flat theory.....
Other than that, no body knows how anything was exactly
formed because everything is just a theory, so far..........
Other than that, I don't mean to be harsh when it comes to
expressing points of view, like on my blogs.
It's just that.........
Here we are facing a whole new religious war across the
globe because this genius thinks that his religion is
the hand of god; "so" lets kill the other guys like his
bible says to do.
I just can't see the use of any of these ancient words other
than when followed they produce a strange state of mind
where you need to break logic to put it in your heart, then
it just leads to contradictions and altercations if someone
believes in another thing, even if it's quite similar.
Like Catholics and Protestants.
But to plainly say.....I don't know what happened to get
me here, and I'm not gonna know where I go until I leave
this fine planet.
Until then, I just make others happy !!!!!
Sorry if I sound mean.
I just like ta get to the point, and stop all this nonsense
and be a peaceful loving planet.
Nice things......
Les xo
(Then she wondered why the fear of God or Satan
ever made me scared to say or think such things)
I don't believe in Satan either.
People can find peace in a million good things.
Like doing good for other people.
Not just thinking gods on your side, he'll
take care of it.
Because there is nothing that is God worthy that
happens ever.
No starving get fed, no wars get stopped, no
things magically get accomplished unless the caring
take care of it personally.
More over........more wars get fought, more people
die, which results in more people starving because
of fighting amongst different religions.
I mean personally between just you and me.
Your not hurting anyone by believing in god, and
that's good for you if it makes you feel better to
think something’s there.
I don't, and I am just looking at the bigger picture
of years of history and bloodshed.
And over what ???
Nothing......
You can't prove that there is a god.
I can't prove that there isn't a god.
This supposed entity (god) doesn't make it crystal
clear in any fashion that he even cares, yet
the fighting persists as though it's all revaluation
from god himself.
Every day on the Tv. or on line, more and more
people kill in the name of their Gods.
God still does nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Not one little thing.
Nothing.
So why do I try and turn people away from god.
I'm not.
I'm just showing that you don't have to put belief
before logic to be happy and prosper.
God is a choice not a must.
Plus what is written about god is really the poison
that keeps these people fighting.
And what's written is, and has been; manipulated and
changed, and is man made anyway.
I love when “they” (religious groups) come to my house,
ring my doorbell, I invite them in, tell’em jokes, offer them
food, drink, then no sooner than later it's Jesus talk.
They force Jesus into the nice time we were just having.
I love it, because…..
they like me......
I'm nice and funny,
They think, “I have to be a good Christian.”
Nope......
I'm really well read and they can't answer any
of my questions.
These aren't anyone else's questions but my own,
even though I'm sure other people who question the
bible probably have asked similar ones.
First, I say, before you go into the bible verses, start
at the index…the very front of the bible.
(This is the most important part, and very seldom does
the conversation ever leave this part because there's
too much to talk about just there.)
Like, show me the literature ‘anywhere on this earth’
that Jesus or Moses or Abraham or any one of the
leading characters wrote there own stuff.
They didn't.
How about the disciples or people that ‘first hand’ knew
any of these people.
There is no writings from people that knew these people
first hand either.
Well……then, “they” say, “god wrote it.”
Nope; don't buy it, and if he did, why are there tons of
contradictions and small world time lines that prove
that such a higher being couldn’t have had a hand in it.
It’s funny because, it doesn't even hint to you that the
world was even round.
God should know this.
I don't know, I could go on and on about how little sense
everything makes, but it just doesn't make a difference.
Belief is a strong force, and if welded unwisely it can
be a tremendously deadly force.
I mean Hitler talked thousands of soldiers to kill Jews
through this same set of principles balanced on believing
in something not real, but they did terrible things without question.
Our troops today put hoods over innocent people in Iraq
and some innocent people get tortured because the
administration is making young kids believe that what
they're doing is right.
So belief to me is a very scary thing.
This issue goes farther than just religion, so that’s why I
find writing about the impurities of belief in such things
to be impure and harsh to the fabric of society.
Trust me, I don’t like to see my grandmothers facial
reactions when I tell her that it doesn’t matter one bit if
I give a hoot if you believe in religion, and again it
really doesn’t matter if she thinks there’s a god or not.
I told her to talk the dog into believing in god and perhaps
then I’ll stand to take it into consideration……I guess that
‘is’ if the dog then~ can produce god,.......but -non the less-
neither of which have happened.
To finish up…..I don’t like people to get angry who are
happy and living well with there innocent beliefs.
It’s those that resort to bloodshed that need to understand
that god is all really not a true, and not a necessity,
and most of all, should not be a tool for hatred and violence.
I mean we (humans) are out numbered by all of the species in the
world that don’t have to believe in god to live and die.
I’m just like them.
Nothing more, nothing less; made of the same molecular
atoms and chemistry as everything else.
So the people that believe in god are really the minority.
I’m living proof along with all else, that believing is just
an invented theme.
I feel happy and more alive thinking so, and think the world
would be allot more at ease if these ancient tales would be
finally put to rest, and a further study into how to better
each other would be displayed as an alternative, based on
morals deep within your nature as a respectable human being,
instead of:
“you better do it because someone’s watching you.”
I just keep people laughing because that’s my nature, and I’m
sure you do too, regardless of what each of us believes.
That’s all the spice that is needed !!!
Thanks again for responding.
Les xo
"I'll always be a Rational Response Squad"