Wikkid's blog: "Religion and Government"

Holy Fire Insurance

 

Salvation is exchanged for worship & it's nothing more than a holy barter system where you say the magic words & you are saved. On the surface it's cheap, easy and painless. It appeals to anyone who doesn't want to be burdened with thinking for themselves, but it's in no sense "free."

 

Christians claim we have free will to choose if we go to hell or not. It can't be free when you have to fear the consequences. That completely conflicts with the definition of free: to give or receive something without an expectation of anything in return. We call giving or receiving of such a thing: a gift.

 

If I put a gun to your head and say, "you have the free will to not give me your wallet, but if you defy me, I will kill you." This is not free will, it's Circumstantial Will.

 

If a parent put a gun to their child's head and said, "I want to give you the gift of unconditional love, but if you reject it, I will kill you." This is not a gift, it's conditional love.

 

You can love people even if they reject it or if you have good reason to not want them in your life.

 

Some people choose to live in fear and self-rejection, for example.

 

I tell them that when they are in my presence they are to love me and themselves and not burden me with their low self-esteem. If after compassionately and assertively trying to listen and understand them, to help them to learn to love themselves and they refuse, I often let them go, but love them from a distance. I have enough love and dignity for myself not allow the behavior of others affect me in ways I do not wish to be, but sometimes, it is necessary to let people go. Others you can love and accept as they are by having something better to say when they violate the laws of love.

 

Becoming something God did not intend that angered him and that with his free will, love and omnipotence he was incapable of still loving us and forgiving us does not make sense. He is supposed to be the ultimate authority of love and compassion, be all-powerful and all-knowing. Yet he somehow is not powerful enough to be infallible in love and compassion or to foresee his creation causing him pain. God would have the power to make eternal life mandatory and hell not an option. So could he also have given us the choice of several good choices, without the choice to choose evil. We are punished BY our sins, not for our sins. We punish ourselves enough with guilt, shame, embarrassment and fear. God does not need to help. Those who are psychotic (have lost contact with reality) and insane (so delusional they cannot distinguish the difference between right and wrong) are products of human abuse.

 

It's also said that those who go to hell, do it voluntarily, as if it's a consequence not a punishment. The Bible has God declaring that he is the creator of evil, apparently a task only for Satan. Although in this

instance it may mean calamity, he is seen throughout the OT ordering or committing murder and other atrocities. He also created Satan and unleashed him. Never is Satan seen creating evil, but does in fact follow God's own orders to cause trouble. God could have easily blocked the way to the Tree of Knowledge as he did the Tree of Life. If we have become like gods, knowing good and evil, God is also responsible for putting these things into place.

 

God is in fact guilty of the downfall of humans, as he did not need to make such things that he knew would eventually make him resent creating humanity. He is guilty from the beginning by forgoing with a plan that he knew was doomed at the start before he even created humanity. A just, compassionate omniscient god would have forgone the creation of a prime creation that he knew would piss him off and was doomed to suffer by his own hand.

 

You don't have to hurt anyone to get to hell. All you have to do is know about Jesus and not accept him as your Savior. It doesn't matter how virtuous you are, how much good you do, how happy an environment you create for others. Given this, the voluntary argument doesn't make sense and the free will concept is self-defeating.

 

It's also said eternal life is a "free" gift. What is a free gift?

Aren't all gifts free, which fulfills the definition of both words?

Gifts require nothing in return; unconditional means without conditions.

 

"Free" and "unconditional" gifts do not require works to be done to qualify for the "free" gift.

 

The requirements for salvation are belief, confession of that belief, maintaining that belief, repenting, being baptized, and performing good works. These are not optional and if you fail to believe in the

doctrine, you not only fail to get the reward, you will be punished as well. Belief is a required response and failure to believe is punished.

 

A just god who is infallible in love, compassion and forgiveness would have never judged us in the first place, but assuming he did, he would have had the ability to forgive us by his free will without a sacrifice. Love and judgment cannot exist at the same time. A god that is infallible in love and compassion who is judgmental is impossible.

 

It is claimed that Eve brought evil into the world by disobeying, and with Adam disobeying they rendered God's perfect creation imperfect. God punishes all women after her by making them have difficulties in child birth. Christians also claim we are born in sin as if it is some magical disease we are born with.

 

God claims he would not make sons and daughters responsible for their parents sins, yet he is seen in the OT killing innocent children for their parents sins or rulers iniquities.

 

After reading such verses, it would become apparent, even to a child, that this does not describe the actions of a loving Being. Anyone who reconciles the killing of innocent children with an intelligent and loving Creator can only come from great ignorance under the addiction of blind faith and an exaggerated respect for religion.

 

Why should all women pay for Eve's sin? Why should we be automatically guilty of Adam and Eve's ignorance? Maybe we should take a Christian and convict them of Jack the Ripper's murders. Or maybe we should take a TV Evangelist and stone them to death or crucify them for Hitler's atrocities....The connection here makes no sense at all. Only someone who is delusional and has a split personality could justify punishing a person for someone else's crimes.

 

The notion that the sacrifice of Jesus dying for our sins and that his death constitutes an appeasement for God's vanity and fallibility to forgive by free will is to rationalize and glorify sadism. This shows God is not ethical or intelligent.

 

An omniscient god who gives us free will, is incapable of intervening or changing the future and nothing we could do would be against his intentions. Claiming we became something God did not intend is an arrogant claim to say we outsmarted an omniscient, omnipotent god.

Jesus said that bad fruit cannot come from a good tree. If we are imperfect, the ultimate imperfection came from God.

 

Every choice we have made has been perfect so that we can learn what it is that we need to learn. Fear, shame and an overdose of guilt keep us from learning. There is no greater sin than that of a religion who instills fear and shame into people to keep them from learning. The evidence against Islamic, Judaic and Christian religions being historically guilty of this is monumental. There is no greater arrogance than religious arrogance.

 

If God is omniscient, nothing we could do would surprise him and therefore it is impossible for him to be jealous, resentful, angry, wrathful, etc. He would understand our ignorance and ability to make mistakes. He would understand that all human emotions and actions derive from love or fear and fear causes people to do horrible things. Help those who can transcend their fear and learn the true meaning of loving action and you have changed their world.

 

Dealing with people from love in the beginning and learning not to train them to fear so much in the world is how we stop "evil". We don't need fear to teach children how to not be victims. We don't need religion to teach them how to act out of love, be happy and make a difference in the world. The evidence for this is monumental but Christianity refuses to see it.

 

Calling people good or evil or wicked sinners or that they are more important to God because of belief is to put them in a box and not give them room to change. It's like telling people they are helpless to choose their emotional responses because of genes and chemical imbalances. These are all LIES that disempower people.

 

An omniscient God with a Plan is impossible as it would render our free will impossible, and a god who knows the future is incapable of changing it, therefore is not omnipotent. The state of humanity is as it is because of human action alone. Those who claim God has intervened are overlooking natural evidence and over-exaggerating claims. God does not heal amputees.

 

A god who is omniscient, infallible in love, compassion, understanding and forgiveness would never be jealous of other gods, nor be afraid of humanity questioning him. Jealousy is a reflection of the inability to love yourself. A single deity who is jealous of false gods is narcissistic, a god of vanity and who lives in fear.

 

God is seen ordering Moses to make graven idolatrous images TWICE in the OT. In the OT, there are 3 different versions of the 10 Commandments and 3 different reasons are given why the Sabbath was supposed to be kept holy. Punishment by DEATH was the penalty for breaking any of the Commandments, which morally conflicts with the 6th Commandment, "Thou Shall Not Murder." That Christians can have a double standard about this law shows they cannot distinguish between right and wrong, nor can the biblical God. Only the Son of Lies would deceive his followers to commit the very sins God did not want us to disobey. Remember that Satan deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden.

 

That salvation is free is a Christian apologetic myth and propaganda to gain converts and a bearing of false witness to what the Bible claims.

 

This form of holy fire insurance is nothing more than false advertising & should be treated with the same regard one would have when he opens a box of Cracker Jack & digs out the cheap trinket that came as a "free" gift when you purchased the box it came in. "Free" gifts in marketing ploys are a deception to make you think it is worth more than it is.

 

Given that Jesus reversed legalistic law in favor of love, this would also render NO need for faith and belief in order to have salvation, as God would also favor love over his own laws. Jesus said that the last 6 commandments, about how we treat each other, were needed to be kept to earn eternal life.

 

They had nothing to do with God, faith or religious observance. By the end of John, He was down to a New Commandment and Covenant, which by definition is meant to supersede and fulfill the old. He said "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

 

As Paul claimed that the New Commandment, "love thy neighbor as thyself" summed up and fulfilled the laws of how to treat others. To earn eternal life you do not need to know about God, or Jesus or have faith.

 

All human emotions, motives and actions derive from love or fear. There is no good or evil. These are judgments that do not exist in the world. There is only love or fear.

 

All humans are born with the natural capacity of love and compassion. We are only born with two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises; all other fears are LEARNED. Fear is an illusion and all fears boil down to a fear of death. Transcend the fear of death and you transcend all fears, therefore removing the illusion of needing reasons to be happy and removing the blockages of the natural ability to love freely without judgment.

 

Integrity, honesty, acceptance, appreciation, kindness, compassion, empathy, honor, respect, forgiveness, curiosity, understanding, happiness, etc; all of these are love.

 

Anger, sadness, depression, confusion, frustration, prejudice, guilt, shame, self-worthlessness, judgment, hate, jealousy; etc.: all of these are based on fear.

 

Love is the only truth. LOVE IS THE ONLY MORAL WE NEED. When you come from love you can never be wrong, proved wrong or argued with. You always know the right thing to do. Love is the my only truth, so how can I be wrong? Fear is not an option.

 

Understanding the motives and actions of others by love or fear, you have the compassion to not judge but help them deal with fear-based emotions with love and compassion.

 

Can you deal with people from a position of love and compassion? If you can't it is because you are judging them and judgment is just a reflection of something you do not like about yourself.

 

Christians, for example, judge pro-abortionist and violence in movies, music and other religions. They judge Islamic religion for claiming holy wars and murder in the name of Allah. How does that judgment reflect back on them?

 

God is seen hundreds of times in the OT ordering the murder of men, women and children including unborn babies. God becomes the worst mass murderer of all time during the Great Flood, commits a string of murders making him the worst serial killer in history and his prophets with the Israelites are seen to kill every man, woman and child in over 100 towns, while pillaging and burning these towns in the name of God. Contrary to the claim that most Christians believe, they were not murdered because they were wicked. Most of these atrocities were ordered for ridiculous and unjust reasons. King David and his army commits atrocities that rival the Holocaust by killing people with weapons and burning them in a brickkiln. Hitler, who was also a zealous Catholic Christian who's anti-Semitism stemmed from the churches beliefs and Martin Luther, whom Hitler admired, is considered the most evil person to ever live, but God's prophets and King David are considered to be "moral" and "just". Hitler was not only a Catholic but was supported by the Vatican.

 

What makes the biblical God more special than any other murderous deity? What makes Christians think their double standards are more just than Islamic religion whom they judge for the same reasons? What makes the violence in the Bible or the prophecy of the Armageddon that is told with tones of war, belligerence and violence more moral than in movies and music?

 

Christians who are angry and use hate speech to judge others for these things are only really angry at themselves. The World Is Your Mirror. Christians are just projecting their own self-image on to others. People usually are what they hate.

 

How does the judgment from Christian zealots who claim America is a Christian Nation that is being threatened by secularists who persecute them for their beliefs (ie, being judgmental, having double standards about war and murder, etc) reflect back on them How does their claim that their religious practice is being threatened while trying to force Christian beliefs in public places and school, and who sit on their high horse judging down on how others live reflect back on them?

 

They themselves are threatening the freedom of religion of others, and trying to make the very Christian monarchy of unification of church and state that the very first settlers from England and Europe were fleeing from! Though the first settlers were Christians, they came here to establish RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE with no national religion and no unification of church and state, the very principal the 1st Amendment of the Constitution and its Establishment Clause clearly states.

 

The Treaty of Tripoli in 1796 drafted by George Washington and signed into law by John Adams states that the U.S. is in no way a Christian Nation, and speaks against the idea of prohibiting religious beliefs.

 

However, Free Speech does not include hate speech and Freedom of Religion does not justify prejudice, hatred, being judgmental and rationalizing, justifying and worshiping sadism. Satan is the Christian image of the human ego, and there is no better way of deceiving people than by giving your God and Savior sadistic attributes and claiming to be "moral" and "holy divine mysteries", while teaching people to fear questioning what they are taught.

 

Private Prayer and reading of the bible has not been outlawed in school, but its forceful teachings have been since children in the past have had horrible nightmares by teachers telling them graphics details of how they could go to Hell.

 

A just and intelligent god who is love would favor loving action over beliefs and faith. Beliefs are nothing more than excuses to have faith in things that cannot be verified as the truth. Claiming things by faith without questioning them from a skeptics point of view, is only opening the door to be misled.

 

Anyone who claims to question what churches teach, yet still has the same contradicting beliefs and same patterns of thinking by trying to rationalize contradictions and sadism is just predictable and immoral as the last Christian I have encountered.

 

If heaven and eternal life were true in the sense Christians believe, those that claim there are requirements of belief are liars according to the New Commandment and Covenant Jesus made.

 

Anyone who claims there are "requirements" to earn a gift that is "free" in the same sentence or discussion.... is a false prophet.

 

Those who choose to remain ignorant and use excuses that it's all about faith, belief, agreeing to disagree or who are immune to acknowledging their double standards are only trying to rationalize sadism, and are afraid of the truth "creating doubt" because they are not lovers of the truth. People study the Bible to understand God, but when you question the clear nonsense of the biblical God, they claim that they don't think we can truly understand God, yet they also try to tell you how church has told them to understand God. When they get stuck or confused in the face of truth, it's all about faith again. This immunity to questioning blind faith out of exaggerated respect for religion and to justify sadism is surely the work of Satan himself or the Bible was written by fallible humans who have made an image of God in their own image to justify their immorality by an invisible man in the sky with higher power.

 

Christians claim atheists are fools. But who is the fool? The fool is the one who believes impossible things and calls them "divine mysteries."

 

Christians fundamentalists are the same hypocrites and deceived masses that Jesus boldly and assertively scolded through the NT.