The price of religious belief is often obfuscated by the closet believers, those idiots who always defend religion with the old canard of "what's wrong with …" The fact is that everything is wrong with religion, everything.
I have gone into great detail about many of the inherent flaws with any belief that opposes reality, and why there are no true moderates. But one thing I never dud was state the simplest reason why belief that opposes reality is dangerous, because I always thought this was common sense.
If a delusion is present in one person we know they are at risk of that delusion causing their detachment from reality to affect their actions, bringing harm to themselves and others. We also know that the delusion will mask other possible mental problems, seriously dangerous and violent ones.
So we closely monitor this person for signs of other such dangers to reduce the chances of them bringing harm, making it possible to step in and hopefully prevent their delusion from getting out of hand. Now assume we did not recognize the delusion, or we called it something else, and considered it acceptable.
Delusions have this funny effect, making a person lose their ability to discern reality from imagination. When the delusion focuses on a television series we immediately understand the fact that it's delusion.
But when the same level of delusion focuses on a god we dismiss it as belief or religion. We make the delusion acceptable and pay less or no attention to those who suffer from it, but it is no less a loss of ability to discern fact from fantasy.
To make matters worse, many ideas that are common in humans are considered delusions because of this god delusion, even though the ideas do not conflate fact from fantasy in any way. Transgender, sexual fetishes, games, even cosplay are considered delusions and bad, by the delusion called religion.
Even today, people in the USA are allowed to discriminate, even commit violence, against these harmless and perfectly sane aspects of life. But we protect the obviously, demonstrably, harmful delusion called religion and allow it's followers to make laws for which the rest of us must abide by.
We, the USA, allow people who think they can make up reality as they go, to define what reality is for everyone. This makes the entire country delusional.
Showing posts with label delusion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label delusion. Show all posts
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
You're Picking On My Religion
Every atheist has heard this cry at least a million times, not only is it fallacious, it demonstrates the selfishness, egocentric, and arrogance of religion in one simple phrase. "Stop picking on my religion," or some other variant.
By nature of being an atheist we are inherently dismissing everyone's god claims, usually for lack of evidence (still waiting for just one of you god nuts to present empirical evidence of your claims). Atheist means we are without any belief in any form of god, by any name or description.
Being an atheist does not demand one be a skeptic or even sane, we have our own nuts like those denying medical science and those who think Bigfoot exists. However we all wind up being atheists, eventually, if we use our brains and ask questions.
So what about us vocal or "militant" atheists makes one think that we're picking on their religion and not others? Egocentrism, specifically. Egocentrism is the idea that only you exist, or only your "kind."
Each religion demands that all other religions are wrong, and evil. Thus when facing something like the atheist, with no inherent religious affiliation, it is incapable of demonizing us, or pretending we don't exist, the way it does other competing brands.
Then they feel the need to be the victim, a clear display of selfishness. This is a tactic used by preachers to keep their followers blind, they convince them that everything is out to hurt them just for being them, they are told that being the victim is inevitable and the followers are too stupid to see beyond what they are told by their leaders.
Now the final phase is the one where they believe they are inherently correct, that they have exclusive knowledge which everyone else is lacking. This is the display of arrogance that religion fuels in the minds of the blind followers, they cannot possibly be wrong because they are special and chosen by some magical sky fairy.
Thus they always fall into the belief that us vocal atheists are picking on them, they believe this because the preachers have told them thus as a tactic for protecting the mental engineering done to the believers. It keeps them insane and ignorant so the preacher can continue to profit off their stupidity.
Pity those poor fools, but more importantly, make them show it in public more and more. This is our only tool for fighting this delusion at this time, one day we will have the weight to use medicine to help these poor people.
By nature of being an atheist we are inherently dismissing everyone's god claims, usually for lack of evidence (still waiting for just one of you god nuts to present empirical evidence of your claims). Atheist means we are without any belief in any form of god, by any name or description.
Being an atheist does not demand one be a skeptic or even sane, we have our own nuts like those denying medical science and those who think Bigfoot exists. However we all wind up being atheists, eventually, if we use our brains and ask questions.
So what about us vocal or "militant" atheists makes one think that we're picking on their religion and not others? Egocentrism, specifically. Egocentrism is the idea that only you exist, or only your "kind."
Each religion demands that all other religions are wrong, and evil. Thus when facing something like the atheist, with no inherent religious affiliation, it is incapable of demonizing us, or pretending we don't exist, the way it does other competing brands.
Then they feel the need to be the victim, a clear display of selfishness. This is a tactic used by preachers to keep their followers blind, they convince them that everything is out to hurt them just for being them, they are told that being the victim is inevitable and the followers are too stupid to see beyond what they are told by their leaders.
Now the final phase is the one where they believe they are inherently correct, that they have exclusive knowledge which everyone else is lacking. This is the display of arrogance that religion fuels in the minds of the blind followers, they cannot possibly be wrong because they are special and chosen by some magical sky fairy.
Thus they always fall into the belief that us vocal atheists are picking on them, they believe this because the preachers have told them thus as a tactic for protecting the mental engineering done to the believers. It keeps them insane and ignorant so the preacher can continue to profit off their stupidity.
Pity those poor fools, but more importantly, make them show it in public more and more. This is our only tool for fighting this delusion at this time, one day we will have the weight to use medicine to help these poor people.
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.
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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