On the road ramblings II

5) Would you let God babysit?

Not on your fucking nelly. I'd rather have Fred West, or Jack the ripper. At least they limited themselves to less than a few hundred. God just doesn't know when to stop. He also doesn't seem to have any qualms whatsoever regarding who he kills off for some petty deed that they may not even have been guilty of perpetrating. The poor kids who happened to be born first in Egypt, for simply being a bit miffed at them. He almost had Abraham kill his son, but stopped him... Which was nice. The same could not be said of poor old Jephthah and his hapless daughter. He promised to sacrifice whatever came to his door after a battle, or a night on the town, or something, and his daughter turned up. Instead of God saying "no, we were drunk, don't worry about it... Say some hail Mary's and a couple of Our Fathers and well be good. Nope, the poor girl was burned alive. He decreed that children who dishonor their parents should be killed, as well as anyone who happened to follow another god. All in all, he comes across as a bit of a petulant child. Jealous, angry, pissed off, and for some reason, he seems obsessed with attention. Does God have ADD?

Why is someone allegedly so powerful, so loving, so quick to deal out death and destruction? (cheers Gandalf) it hardly seems like the actions of a loving God, or a God that has a desire for good to come of his flock. If God was a parent, or foster parent, and these things occurred, do you think people would be praising him, or do you think that they would have their kids taken away, and they be locked up in an institute? I don't think that is a difficult question to answer. So rather than being the delightful, caring overseer, he seems he'll bent on trying to be as scary as possible. It's a bit like the school bully. If you ignore them long enough, he will go away. Is God a Hitler type character? He really is a barbaric shit.


6) The odd things...

OK, not all of the god stuff makes too much sense to me. There are some questions that to me don't make sense, (aside from the rest), and I thought I'd pile them into one section.

Ok, so apparently the universe is only 6000 years old. So taking that as truth, what was god doing before that? Assuming that God is infinite, then what, exactly was he doing prior to the creation. What was he doing for the infinite expanse before that? Is he actually a completely lazy git, and his only work is a fairly gash universe, with multitudes of dead planets, and failing stars, complete with life that suffers pain,and all that stuff.
Why do we think he would actually care in the first place? Isn't that a bit like a scientist really caring about the bacteria in a Petrie dish?
Why did he create a perfect garden, and create some nice little humans, and then put a serpent in there? Why didn't he know that the serpent was in there, or what it's plans were? Why make the tree of knowledge in the first place? Why blame them for eating the fruit when it was he that made them the way they were?
Why the difference between the old testament and the new testament? The first thing I think of when comparing is "how can a supreme, all knowing, omnipotent being change his mind?" The fact he changed his mind is, in my opinion, proof that he is in fact not omnipotent, supreme or all knowing. It doesn't make sense. Where did hell come from? It wasn't mentioned in the OT so why the sudden inclusion? Did god change his mind, or was it purely a man made notion added later? It all adds up, in my mind, to the idea that God, and all the writings were man made, and not divinely inspired.
The Devil... Isn't that a bit like a batman letting loose the Riddler, or Joker, just to give himself purpose? Why on earth would he create something that could well cause the downfall of his creation? That makes no sense at all. If it was a plot line in a recognised fictional book, we'd all be pondering what a piss poor story it was. How can a perfect being create something so clearly imperfect, or contrary to the perfect beings wishes? Maybe they are business partners? A bit of a mutually beneficial relationship. A sort of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type scenario. What a load of piffle.


7) Things that go bump in the night

Ok, so religion pretty much relies entirely on the notion that the supernatural is an acceptable premise. The only problem with that is that, as the name suggests, it is supernatural. It is beyond what we can see, hear, touch, or detect in any way possible. It is beyond science. As such, science can say nothing about it. A lot of theists seem to get this part all horrible confuddled, and think that because science doesn't actually say anything about God, it is anti-god. It isn't. Far from it. For science to say anything on a subject, it has to have some sort of starting point with which it can formulate even a primitive or initial hypothesis. If there is absolutely no tangible, usable evidence, then that's it. There is nothing more to be said. It can search for possible evidence, but until that has been discovered, then science is utterly devoid of an opinion. Of course, if we did have even the smallest inkling of evidence, then it would not be supernatural, it would be material. Imagine if some sort of physical evidence was found. What exactly would that do for faith? Would it no longer be faith, but a science?
Now many people don't seem able, or willing to place deities in the same category as other supernatural bits and bobs. Unicorns, fairies, hobgoblins, the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. If we are to take the notion of a God seriously, as demanded by religious folks, then surely we should expect the same from everything else with zero evidence? That would, of course, open up the flood gates to reams and reams of made up, nonsensical entities, items, and events. Of course we know that this would not happen, as we already know that one believer of an invisible sky daddy will mock, dismiss, or het downright angry when another entity of equal evidence is brought forward.
So for God to be proven it would have to enter the material world. According to religious folks this happens all the time. For a miracle to occur, or for God to affect our world he MUST interact with the material world, so we should be able to detect him directly or indirectly. Until we can, God is relegated to the silly world of fairies.


8) Dear creationists...

Just want to tell you that it doesn't matter if you disprove DNA, palaeontology, chemistry, the theory of gravity, or than Ted Haggard is not a hypocrite, that does not mean God is true. You see, when you make a claim, in this case "There IS a God" then to prove it you have to actually provide evidence in it's favour. Just disproving an unrelated theory does not work for you. The sooner you realise this, then the sooner we can stop having those ridiculous circus events like the Dover trial, and all that creationist bullshit that you keep peddling. If you only put your resources into proving a God, rather than disproving something else, then maybe you would get somewhere. Oh, and why don't you endeavour to get some of your young earth theories peer reviewed. You keep saying you have evidence, but it's not really forthcoming, is it?

Bah... Home... I might add to this later, or remove it, or something. I don't really have the time to read it through. Have to be up early in the morning.. Booooo!