Jewish Atheist

How many died in the Holocaust, in every pogrom and act of mayhem over the centuries, because rabbis kept telling Jews to leave it in God’s hands?

The realization that religion is a mass make-believe is almost unbelievable, but there it is. Same for the reality that religious fantasies are much beloved and honored in most societies, including most certainly this one, though they are the cause of much suffering and death.

Winston Churchill advised reading books of quotes. Emerson hated quotes: “Tell me want you know.” Well, sometimes what we know can come from the benefit of other people’s observations or experience.

Until the BP oil spill is stopped, every entry will have the following preface:
America’s thirst for oil has created a disaster. Before the spill is stopped, the entire Gulf of Mexico could be ecologically exterminated. I hope I am wrong. But until this disaster is fixed, I hereby call for an immediate moratorium on the […]

All the good that religion does can be done without all the fantasies and delusions. All the evil that it causes results from differences in superficial, superimposed matters of doctrine and dogma. My god’s stronger than yours. My story’s the right one. Who cares? If all the resources spent in worshipping and otherwise propitiating imaginary deities were invested in improving the human condition, we would have a much better world.

It’s not money that’s the root of all evil. The root of all evil is the human mind and the horrendous behavioral decisions it’s capable of making. The fertilizer for that evil is bullshit: the invitation to turn off your thinking mind and let someone else decide how you should live.

Bullshit is the music of mindless conformity. Without bullshit, we would not have governments of psychotics taking over countries and leading them to ruin. Without bullshit, we would not have centuries of religious atrocities, which continue to this day. Without bullshit, we would not have our frantic hyper-consumptive (and probably unsustainable) culture.

Both religion and sports are heavy on shared honor-by-proxy. YOU’RE special because Jesus died/the Hawks won.

That a TV comedy could cause other people to commit or even threaten violence is sad evidence of the barbarism that is Islam. Where are the clerics speaking out against this bullshit? Where are the moderate Muslims? The governmental leaders?

At a crucial age, when parents should be carefully shaping their kids’ boundaries between fantasy and reality, these gooey New Age-y parents are blurring it. And priming them for the adult fantasies: that a political leader or religous figure or brand name can save you…these involve serious amounts of power and money. It is important to marketers, politicans, and clerics that the people’s capacity for fantasy and magical thinking be cultivated early and maintained throughout life.

Anti-monster sprays are NOT harmless story-telling. They are the foundation for much bigger myths.

Perhaps New Age sewage is an innocuous, de-fanged, relentlessly ecumenical (you believe my BS and I’ll believe yours) yet non-violent alternative to the barbaric Abrahamic faiths, perhaps a stepping stone to the eventual marginalization or abandonment of religion. Or maybe it’s a crutch. Religious beliefs get retained for particular reasons. Reincarnation is a powerful antidote to fear of death. As for memories, if the mind retains them, why not the body?