Faith and Godalmighty

Faith.

This is a token of my faith in faith.

Just because I don't believe in God,
doesn't mean that I believe that others should not believe.

For I believe in faith.

I believe that believing can help many engender faith.

I also believe that my having no belief in God
doesn't belie me that faith.

Faith in God alone may get us through life,
but faith in our families,
friends and fellow man

- for me -

transcends that faith,

to better ease the pain.

If others' place gods higher than those three f's,
then so-be-it.

But if YOU were God would YOU want it any other way?

I doubt it,
believe me.

Anthony W Allsop 1940 – 20??

**********

Godalmighty

God almighty? Don't make me laugh. Whenever I have raised the pro-atheist-anti-god argument I have been slammed for:

"....not being educated enough to voice my opinions on such highfalutin matters." and:

"....that sort of reasoning should be best left to the upper echelon in society, judges, politicians, scholars and their like."

But, only a few hundred years ago, Witch Finder Generals' were appointed and tasked to organize witch hunts, find the old crones regarded as witches -

"Every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furrowed brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice or scolding tongue, having a rugged coat on her back, a skull-cap on her head, a spindle in her hand and a dog or cat by her side, is not only suspect but pronounced for a witch."

(John Gaule in "Select Cases of Conscience")

- in order to "try" them by various means, such as "ducking stool justice" (if they survived the ducking stool, i.e.: they didn't drown, ergo it proved them to be witches and they would then be burned at the stake).

These Witch Finders would have been appointed by the "upper echelon in society, judges, politicians, scholars etc." who were "best suited" to make such decisions.

And of course religion is dictated by such people. Witches, wizards, elves, fairies, ghosts, leprechauns, pixies, goblins AND gods, are all imaginary manifestations which have been vouched for by such "highfalutin" society.

Why can't modern people see that, manifestly. We've given the Witch Finder Generals' their marching orders, now what about our church leaders.

Extraterrestrial observers beyond the dark side of our moon must be shaking with laughter at we silly Earth people, seemingly obsessed with religion. They - with their far superior intellect - will have kicked gods into touch many eons ago. So too would we Earthlings, given half a chance.

Imagine for one moment that we discover intelligent life on another planet far away in our galaxy. It isn't too much of a stretch of our imagination, after all, we've been imagining far more ludicrous ethereal beings. They might well take the form of a large brained dolphin with arms, legs and three opposable digits on each limb.

Imagine conversing over the eons of space-time and ether with that intelligent life form and learning about its life history that draws many parallels with our own.

Imagine learning that despite them successfully forming a very advanced society - much BETTER than ours in many respects - that they have absolutely

NO concept of gods or religion. Do we gasp in amazement? Are they to then be regarded as inferior beings? Do we try to educate them to accept that there IS

GOD?, for that is what happens here on Earth, where incidentally, we are the only species that worships and pays homage to gods.

'That 'Other Life in The Universe?'

The 2007 discovery of an Earth like planet orbiting a star in our own galaxy - capable of supporting life - and ONLY 20.5 light years (120 trillion miles) distant was and is most uplifting, and might be of some interest to sci-fi buffs and space fanatics.

But don't let's get too fanciful. Even if we had a space-probe capable of travelling at an average speed of 1,000,000 mph it would take it 14 THOUSAND YEARS (approx) to reach the planet Gliese (named by Man) and in the interim of that journey, that probe will have probably been overtaken by many more, more advanced and faster probes.

So near and yet so, so far, but if the Glieseians on that planet exist and they know that we god worshippers do too, they may be thankful for that 20.5 light-year space moat.

If all religious faith was allowed to be shown up for the instilled rubbish it is without fear of prosecution and persecution, many more Earthlings would come to their senses and see gods and religions for what they are. BUNKUM!

NB. If you feel an instant need to question my sanity then look no further than Man's present inhumanity to Man in the name of or under the present worldwide belief in some fanciful God or other.

Sigmund Freud had religion sussed when he denounced it as infantile bunkum.

God didn't create Man. Man created God, in his own image of course.

If God IS responsible for the Grand Order of things, then why did he create the midge, mosquito and tsetse fly et al to flourish and then introduce Man hundreds of millions of years later to be plagued by them?

And if God created everything, why did he create the insidious diseases. He'd have to have been one mean, sick God. Maybe God is the propounded Devil incarnate.

It makes my heart bleed to read about the little children tortured in the name of "religion" for that is what cults like witchcraft and voodooism are that appear to demand mutilation of children's genitalia. The mutilation of male and female children. equates to a form of crucifixion to appease some god or other.

Similarly, the offering of sacrificial virgins etc. are all carried out in the name of some other such god.

In my opinion - and I'm in no way alone in my belief - religion has no part to play in the modern world. Superstition, witches, fairies, voodooism and gods et al, they are all by-products of overactive human imagination, programmed from birth to fear the unknown and the inexplicable.

From early childhood we're capable of summoning up convincing imaginary friends that sometimes take on form. This facility of the young underdeveloped brain also leads them to readily believe in the supernatural. They can be fooled quite easily into accepting "magic" performed by a stage magician rather than form judgments of their own. This innate ability of the human mind – for it to be assaulted and manipulated by others who hold sway in society, for gain - is what founded Man's diverse religious teachings.

Why is it that their "betters" think differently and are determined to perpetuate pious lies?

Why do they insist on choosing impressionable children to help perpetuate these lies?

When is this religious nonsense going to cease? There is NO god. There are NO gods. There has never been any gods. If you teach religion you are lying to the pupil. What sort of message does that send out. It is propaganda on a global scale and it's being carried out in ignorance of real truth because people just will not open their minds.

The reason that these lies are perpetuated is that no projected god or religion has any more power than its band of followers. The more supporters a religion has the more powerful its god is deemed to be.

Where you find strife in today's world you will discover that some religious factions are making capital out of it.

It is high time that ALL religions were shown up for the "Old Hat" that they really are and to be given the order of the boot by the people. I am positive that - should a referendum be held on this subject - many eyes would be raised at the outcome and those eyes wouldn't in truth be raised to any god.

Whilst reading a newspaper article: "Teachers axe God." I thought EUREKA! There is a god after all (irony) and the laws of blasphemy have finally been shown the door. I'd waited many a long year to see atheism, agnosticism and other realistic views discussed openly and in schools.

But don't let's go overboard here and risk turning these radical beliefs into another religion. I would hate to see agnosticism and atheism PREACHED as the alternative to faiths that so many people are comfortable with.

And I also "pray" that these proposed changes in our schools' religious studies and teachings are not hijacked by the pious who are all too biased in their own God fearing beliefs, nor to radicals intent on subversion. I certainly wouldn't go along with the tenet that the teaching of atheism to our young should be the order of the day.

I am an unbeliever, a self taught radical, a realist. But to teach atheism, or any sort of anti-religion in schools would be tantamount to turning fundamentalism on its head. The danger being that this non-belief could turn in on itself and create yet another fanatical religious movement, devised and installed by a few through themselves being all TOO enlightened.

I firmly believe that:-

No FORCED religious teaching should be conducted in our schools/colleges.

No form of secular brain washing of young and receptive minds conducted by the already brainwashed.

And NO persecution of ANYONE, whatever belief or non-belief they wish to choose to adopt, as long as it doesn't infringe upon the laws of the land or offend common decency.

Being an unbeliever does not make one a BAD person (see Faith).

During a debate (Ok, a talk in the pub) on atheism v theism I was asked; "Do you believe in Creation Theory or Evolution Theory?"

Straightaway, and without doubt, I plumped for Evolution.

"Then how do you explain how the Earth itself and all the rest of the universe came to be?" went the questioning.

Maybe he had a good point, but maybe he had naught. That stock question deserved the stock answer from me;

"If you're saying that there was once absolutely nothing; then who, or what, created the creator?"

"God" only hitched a ride on the wagon train of creation but now his followers' think that he should be wagon meister.

I'm not prepared here to enter into the world of meta and quantum physics or delve into the birth of the universe, or bang on about big bang theories and continual expansion or see-sawing of our dimension - I will stick to OUR world and the facts that evolutionists and other branches of science have put before us in an effort to explain that elusive inexplicable.

Here, for what it's worth, is my take on the creation recipe of life, from Earth-zero to Man:

It would take greater or lesser degrees of:- gravity + sunlight + shade + dark + temperature change + gasses + water + chemical reaction + pressure + calm + asteroid and meteorite impact + agitation + lightening + fire + chance selection + adaptation + necessity + natural selection + 6,000,000,000 (give or take) Earth-years of TIME and lots of loving to bring about:-

Evolution!

And - if need requires - you can to take the time element even further and multiply that figure of 6 billion Earth years by whatever figure you can ever imagine, for time is immeasurable. How can it be anything else?

So why DO otherwise intelligent people still believe in gods and their like?

I suppose it's a bit like asking why people continue to smoke. The answer to either is most likely to be HABIT closely followed by BLOODY MINDEDNESS. For religion went out with the ark and the use of tobacco products will doubtless follow.

Our Holy Scriptures were put together by mere mortals, not any god!

When one sits down to read the Old Testament, seemingly every nuance of life is there, every argument against atheism is there and almost every base to uphold belief in god is covered. I suppose this is the same with the Koran and also Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. Forgive the pun but if you do find a chink in the text of the Bible, that base also will be covered in later editions (if it isn't guarded already by the dread laws of BLASPHEMY!)

That bit in our constitution about freedom of speech and freedom of the press has got lost somewhere along the line. It wasn't me who first said: "...publish and be damned!" but it might well have been.

We atheists/realists, have suffered hard times at the hands of the pious throughout the ages. We have had threats of "eternal damnation" and "pits of fire and brimstone" shoved down our necks until we are sick.

Can't people, or won't people see that - because of the laws against blasphemy - the church's argument is just a little bit one sided?

Those expensively grand splendifferous places of worship were designed and built (built by the poorest in society) to gather congregations together for the collecting of protection money.

Monies from the masses for their protection by God. OR ELSE!

A pious theistic contributor (Reader's Digest) quotes: "......you don't find atheists doing great GOOD in the world.

" Eh!? What sort of statement is that? You also don't find atheists doing great BAD in the world.

When did you last see one band of atheists declare war on another band of slightly different atheists OR any other religious order? NEVER!

When have we witnessed an atheist war anywhere in the world? NEVER!

When did an atheist ever board a crowded airliner with a ticking bomb, a brand new box-cutter and a roll of duct tape in order to make a point? NEVER!

Tragedy will happen, but much as I can sympathize with the victims I am getting sick and tired of many of the fortunate survivors of accidents and the most terrible disasters, when interviewed, immediately thank God that he/she has spared them. What has their survival gotto do with God?

Imagine for one moment that a group of people are trapped on an upper floor of a blazing office block. Smoke and flames are all around and there is seemingly no chance of escape.

Among the unfortunates is a happily married man who has four young children at home who all attend church regularly and dutifully say their prayers every night before getting into bed.

There are also three women who are all working to support their families who are also good, kind and God fearing.

There is one man, a sneak thief, who is there to see what he might steal. He beats his wife and abuses children and who, incidentally, has never set foot in church other than to steal the offertory money, strip the roof of lead or steal the candlesticks.

Yet another of the trapped and panicking has devoted the whole of his working life to the Church while at the same time always looking after the less fortunate in society.

Naturally all the trapped people are praying like mad for divine intervention but who is their god going to choose to save?

You've guessed it. It is just as likely that when the abominable sneak thief's bloodied body is pulled out of the rubble, the only one to survive and barely alive, he'll be heard thanking God that he listened to HIS prayers.

Now pardon me but what about all the other more deserving or at the very least equally deserving souls who God allowed to perish? Weren't they praying hard enough? But religion has this base covered too. The cry goes up:

"THEY'VE GONE TO A BETTER PLACE"

I could be one of those trapped in the office block. I'm a happily married family man. My wife for almost half a century and I have four grown up children. They are all happily married and have borne us twelve grandchildren who we adore and now one of those many grandchildren has a child of his own.

I am full of love for my fellow man and couldn't commit serious crime if my life depended on it. So I COULDN'T go to a "better place."

God!? God has no place in my life. God doesn't exist and I wouldn't give him her or it, the time of day. I have cancer, but I wouldn't pray to God to cure it. After all, he/she or it could well have created that cancer in the first place.

Or would that odious task have been left to a sidekick. By the way, I contracted the big C long after I'd sussed that gods aren't all that they are cracked up to be, so maybe it could be down to godly spite. Though that wouldn't explain why many pious churchgoers and god fearers contract life shortening and horrific diseases and meet otherwise untimely death.

God has never existed except in the minds of humankind. It is a confidence trick that has continued to be helped along, perpetuated by; the faithful but misguided, the idiotic, the terminally pious and the outdated laws on blasphemy that stifles general debate and won't allow free thinking realists to air their views in public.

THE EPILOGUE

Differing religions are behind most of the wars and unrest in the world. Almost every war that has ever been fought has religious undertones. Whether it be Catholic against Protestant, Muslim against Hebrew, Buddhist against Hindu or what have you.

Religion isn't for the realist, realists are able to SEE through their own eyes and THINK with their own untainted or freshly rinsed brains.

Believers can believe - if they want to believe - that there is an afterlife much greater than this one and if they manage to get some comfort out of it then so-be-it.

But life isn't like Test Cricket! There will be neither a second innings nor vestal virgins aplenty, so you had better be prepared to play a straight bat, stay around for as long as you can and hit as many runs as the bowlers will allow in this innings 'cos when the umpire points that finger heavenwards, it's going to be one hell of a walk back to the pavilion.

THE END (Or is it?) Anthony W Allsop 1940 – 20??

There's more eye-opening truth @ : http://www.geoffmather.co.uk/8.html so be sure to read on.