Friday, January 9, 2015

The Fallacies and Follies of Religion

The reality of a situation often escapes our senses, a fact that religious people only mention when trying to support the result of this fact. The ironies of  religion are so numerous that one could spend decades listing, I wish to detail a few of them here.

The first one is the age of the universe, often religious people claim it's a few thousand years, and act as if this is a really long time. Even when Christians admit the Genesis account is made up they often say a day for the god could be "a thousand years," again thinking this is a long time.

They also fail to grasp what eternity means, citing that their god's idea of paradise is worshiping it "for all eternity." To understand what eternity is though, you must also understand what time actually is.

Time is an effect or force of existing, so it only applies to that which exists in a universe or reality like ours, outside of this time will be very different. However, the definition of eternity will apply to realities that do not even have a force of time.

Consider for a moment what that implies, reality defines time but time does not define eternity, in the same way that humans define math but math does not define infinity. So to grasp what eternity means to a being who is under the influence of our reality we must use what we call imagination, and once you understand the nature of time you realize how frightening eternity is.

Existing forever would destroy the sanity of a time bound mind, especially if that existence only includes one repetitive and mindless task. In essence, even in a paradise we would eventually beg to no longer exist.

It is said that by 2030 we will have conquered death, an unheard of claim until we applied scientific knowledge to it. This means we will have the option of living forever, for eternity, until this reality ceases to be.

But most will last maybe 500 years then switch off, allowing oblivion to claim them, if only out of boredom. Our minds are incapable of existing forever by nature of being bound to time, specifically linear time.

Consider this analogy: to a domestic feline 20 years, one fifth the lifespan of a human today, is an eternity. Yesterday 100 years to a human is an eternity, our observation of time is relative and so we cannot fathom eternal in any way, so to claim we know something is eternal is to lie.

An entire industry is dedicated to the fact that we cannot trust what we see, hear, or even feel. Our brains have this rather useful habit of trying to make sense of the world around us, but because of this we can fool it by presenting it with something which is nonsensical.

Religious leaders have historically used this same habit to sell their snake oil, because even concepts are affected by this habit. So how do you determine which is fact and illusion?

Religious people just go by what feels good, in other words, they fall for the illusion without ever questioning it. Enter the greatest tool invented by humans, science.

Science offers us a method of testing something to determine if it is fact or illusion, we can even use this in our everyday lives. The tests results are the key, should too many results differ then we know it's illusion.

The part often ignored by religious people is that the results must not differ, the claims are inconsequential to this. Touch a table and your hand cannot pass through, you don't truly know it's solid until you witness many hands being stopped as well, that is the scientific method.

The result is the same no matter who tests it, not matter who sees the results, no matter what the claim ever was, you can verify the results. If one person claims their hand passed through but did not do the test publicly you can reasonably ignore their claim, they did not present the results for public scrutiny.

Religious leaders are claiming their hands passed through the table while never showing anyone that they even tried the test. Religious followers often call this faith, but religious faith is only delusion.

Some pagan religions do leave their findings for public scrutiny and many will even change their beliefs to match reality, but none of their modern doctrine call for indoctrination, war, or death to those who oppose them. This is the best of both worlds, and one which can be tolerated, the alternative is to live as the Amish, apart from the rest of the world.

Denying humans are apes, the most heinous of fallacious dismissals of all. The deluded people will deny that we are apes because of the arrogance, if we admit we are animals then we must recognize that all other animals are our equals.

Often they say we would act like animals if we were yet they call for needless wars and torturing of their own, other animals don't, so how are we really better than the other animals, the beasts who only kill for necessity and instinctual drives, or us who have the ability to behave rationally but instead promote and spread violence and fear simply for the sake of violence and fear.

Another aspect of animals that we deny is unconditional love, anyone who cares for a domestic animal can tell you that humans know nothing of how to give love unconditionally. Unconditional means precisely that, not a single condition is required to be doted on in love, neither behavior, appearance, nor reciprocal love is required if the love is unconditional.

Religious people demand there always be conditions to love, either you must love them back, or the imaginary friends they call gods. Many even require you not "be" a certain way, like homosexual or black.

No cat I have ever met has had conditions to their love, even abused domestic animals will show love for the abuser, there is no condition to their love. But to demand that we love something or be tortured forever is conditional love, no matter how you try to justify it.

It appears I have some regular readers now, I would like to extend a quick thank you. You are the reason I have begun writing more lately, may logic and reason continue to guide your lives.

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