Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Life ♥

The following post is a bulletin that I posted on MySpace in response to another bulletin I received, which is included in the copy of it I'm posting below.

In response to the following bulletin, I'd like to offer a counter bulletin for those that feel differently.

I would like to know who really believes in God on myspace. There is no bribe of a miracle or anything like that. If you truly believe in God, then repost this and title the bulletin as "God". If you don't believe in God, then just ignore this...thanks. In the book of Matthew, Jesus says..."If you deny me before man, I will deny you before my Father in Heaven."

I don't believe in God, I don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of god or the Christ etc. I don't believe in Heaven. I don't believe that morality or love are dependant upon a belief in one particular brand of superstition's particular holy book etc.

I believe in humankinds acension as an animal and in his or her innate ability to love, hate, fear, create and think freely, born of an aeons old system of gradual improvement through survival of the fittest, where the most successful variations in any system of chemical, molecule, cell etc will be more likely to carry on or reproduce and thereby ensure future generations and further improvements of it's characteristics. I believe in humankinds ability to choose it's own destiny and not be subservient to age old superstitions or the latest "god" in a history full of many gods who have come and gone... a testament to their nature as fictitious characters along humankind's road to greater knowledge and understanding of the universe around us.

"We are all atheists about most of the gods mankind has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."
           -- Richard Dawkins

I believe in not being afraid to stand up and state that I'm not another sheep in the flock. That I'm not afraid to say that the Emperor has no clothes. I believe in pushing the progress of mankind forward and doing away with the ancient superstitions and traditions that weigh down our progress and wet our history with the blood of millions who have died defending the idea that their particular fantasy was the one true religion... or as was more often the case, died because they simply didn't agree with someone else about the validity of that other person's beliefs, and were killed for it.

I believe in the Gradual Illumination of the Mind as put forward by Darwin... that we should focus on learning and advancing science and understanding the world around us... so that we might hasten forward the inexorable march of man in spite of the best efforts of religions, superstitions and traditions holding us back with ignorance, bigotry and intolerance. Dangerous beliefs that rely on a detachment from rational thought and understanding to maintain their suspension of disbelief. And which not only cower in fear of the revelation of truth borne out by the facts as presented through scientific study, but seek to actively supress all such knowledge in order to preserve a belief system fueled by ignorance.

I invite anyone to feel free to repost this bulletin with their personal beliefs. I invite dissent and disagreement... I invite discussion and thought. Knowledge is the key to greater understanding of our fellow man and woman... of first understanding the differences between our cultures and beliefs, but then in hopefully finally shedding the trappings of those ancient superstitions and irrational fears and traditions and moving forward into an era of vastly greater understanding of both who we are and the universe we live in.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away".
           -- Philip K. Dick

There are far greater wonders to behold in the universe around us once we move beyond the childlike fairytale of a loving father figure that lives in a castle in the clouds who created the universe in 7 days, man from mud and woman from his rib. When you stop being afraid to ask the questions "if the universe requires a creator, then why doesn't the creator require a creator?" or "why do we continue to believe a millenia old collection of stories by scores of different authors with different personal and political agendas, even when it flies in the face of not only massive amounts of scientific fact and evidence compiled in the intervening centuries, and when it is in fact riddled with self-contradictions, mass genocide and moral depravity?". and really look for the answers, and to be able to step past the superstitions and into the reality of the provable and disprovable, predictable and understandable world of science and reality. no more are you going to have bad luck from walking under a ladder or seeing a black cat or breaking a mirror than you are going to be struck down by an imaginary man in the sky if you were to raise your middle finger to the heavens and say "fuck you imaginary god. I'm done being a servant to a figment of my imagination."

trust me... I've done it many times... and I haven't worried about any lightning bolts yet. but I can sure tell you it's been refreshing to see the world so much more clearly. when you stop being a servant to your own imagination.

Life is truly such a wondrous thing that it is a heinous insult to Life itself and to ourselves to believe in such a primitive fairytale explanation and not seek with the fullest limits of our mental abilities to understand the vast wonders of the REALITY around us.

I for one don't need a figment of my imagination to cloud my understanding... and I hope that anyone out there who still does... might take awhile to consider the facts... to consider the possibilities. to ask the questions. and to not be afraid of the answers.

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