God Favours Atheists (An Article WARNING: Potentially offensive)

Discussion in 'Your Projects' started by esaul17, Sep 29, 2006.

  1. #1
    esaul17

    esaul17 antichrist

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    “Look upon your bleak creation,
    But is it truly me
    That’s to be the human blasphemy?”
    -Davey Havok (AFI), Smile

    Humans are rational beings. God has endowed us with the gift of rational thought so that we can differentiate from right and wrong. This ability to judge is what gives us the greatest capacity for righteousness, and the greatest capacity for sin. However there is one sin that has managed to trickle into civilization unnoticed; one sin which immunizes itself from scrutiny by declaring itself the will of an entity far beyond human understanding. By declaring itself, by definition, as good, and all that oppose it as evil, faith has successfully deceived the world into failing to see its true nature. Faith is a sin.

    If faith is to be seen as a sin, the very definition of a sin must be discovered. The traditional definition of a sin, which is the “transgression of divine law” is simply inadequate for this purpose. For, this definition does not allow one to judge on what is and is not a sin, but simply justifies the sins we are given. By this definition, the Bible could claim eating a banana was a cardinal sin, and the world would be helpless to protest it, under its armour of divinity. Luckily, however, God bestowed us with the ability to analyze results and draw logical conclusions. While some may be less accustom to thinking than others (not mentioning any names…), it should be clear to even the most religious zealot that if we are to find what makes up a sin, we should start by viewing the sins dictated to us in the Bible.

    The seven deadly sins, or cardinal sins, are:

    1) Lust
    2) Gluttony
    3) Greed
    4) Laziness
    5) Anger
    6) Jealousy
    7) Arrogance

    When analyzing these it is not too difficult to find two common threads which tie them all together. The first thread is that each of the cardinal sins are temptations to be indulged into. Lust begs you to indulge in sex, gluttony in food and drink, greed in wealth and so on. Each and every one of the seven deadly sins depict the filling of some sort of a mental (or, if you insist, spiritual) void within the sinner. The second thread connecting these sins is that each of them goes against rational thought. Laziness, or the indulgence in idleness, struggles with the logic that one should be doing more work. Anger, or indulgence in rage, struggles with the logic that one should not act rashly. Jealousy, or indulgence in comparison struggles with the logic that one should praise others for their accomplishments, not resent them. When combining these similarities it is no great feat to conclude a final definition of sin, being “To commit a sin is to indulge in something to fill a hole in one’s life, despite it being irrational to do so.”

    Now, armed with a viable definition, let us inspect the heart of religion, let us inspect faith. If faith is truly a sin we must show that it is filling a certain hole in someone’s life, and that there is no rational reason for that hole to be filled. To satisfy the first part of the definition, imagine asking one who is religious (and if you are religious even better, you can think about it by yourself), what they would imagine a world without God to be like. If the discussion or thought process is allowed to proceed for long enough, the word empty is bound to arise. “My life would be empty without God” is a near-instinctual answer for those of the faith. For, if God is to be inside someone, He is bound to leave an empty space if due to some event He was no longer present. If one says God does not fill some form of void inside of them, then they are saying they have no room for God.

    To satisfy the second component of the definition of sin, faith must be in breach of logical thought. Now, once again this is not a task of extreme difficulty, as even many who belong to a religious faith are willing to admit atheism is a logical choice, but simply an empty one. The core of logic is that something must be proven before it is believed. The existence of God, similar to the existence of a purple, invisible marshmallow floating in front of your face at all times, has not been proven or disproven. In cases like this, logic dictates you are not to believe in the existence of this. The 14th century reasoning process known as Occam’s razor, the idea that given two possible explanations for a phenomenon the one with the least entities involved is more likely, solidifies this notion.

    For example, when faced with these two possibilities:
    1. One may see in front of themselves because the purple marshmallow, which would block their line of sight, is invisible (two entities) and;
    2. One may see in front of themselves because there in no purple marshmallow which would block their line of sight (one entity)

    It is easy to see the second is favourable; a belief in the first without evidence would simply complicate things without reason, as there are more entities than the minimum possible.

    A similar example would be:
    1. The universe was created by God (two entities)
    2. The universe is naturally occurring (one entity)

    Once again, there is no need to complicate matters by involving the existence of an unnecessary entity.

    So, having proven that faith is both used to fill a void in one’s life, and that there is no rational reason for that void to be filled, it becomes obvious that faith is to be classified as a sin. And, as a sin, you will be put in a negative light when you are looked down upon by the ultimate judge; God. Having said that, there is little left but to address any qualms one may have with this conclusion.

    The immediate thought which would strike anyone as odd is that God would make it a sin to believe in him. The religious community, usually content to lap up ideas at a sermon or from the Bible (for those who actually bother to read it in its entirety), at this point is in an uproar. While they accept that God arbitrarily created earth in seven days, and that our planet is a mere 6000 years old, an odd feeling comes over them when reading this: That doesn’t make sense! And as they wipe the dust off their little thinking caps and prepare to smite you with some form of holy (or full of holes if you will) logic you can kick back and let them deal with the barrier you have been trying to cross for all too long: God works in mysterious ways. As not to be hypocritical though, one can ask “If god desires to be believed, why wouldn’t He prove His existence to us?”. They might mention some nonsense about free will and “He doesn’t need to!”, but if pushed long enough they’ll ultimately fall back on the tried and true “It isn’t for humans to understand!”. However, you need just kindly point them to the similarity between that and you’re initial defence and they should just as kindly shut up.

    So, in summary it has been concluded that:
    1. To commit a sin is to indulge in something to fill a hole in one’s life, despite it being irrational to do so
    2. Each of the cardinal sins adhere to this description
    3. Faith exists to fill a hole that begs for greater purpose, justice, and direction
    4. Faith defies basic logic as well as Occam’s razor
    5. Since faith is a sin, you become a lesser being in the eyes of the universal judge, God
    6. God works in conveniently mysterious ways
     
  2. #2
    Rather Red

    Rather Red Well-Known Member

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    I think the insults in the last paragraph before the summary actually detracted from the impact of the essay.
     

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