Let's All Go to Hell!

The christian concept of hell is an interesting one. We won't delve into it's origins today; I just want to examine the whole concept and ask a few reasonable questions.

According to christians, Hell is a terrible place, worse than you can even imagine. If you are not "saved by the blood of Christ" you will go to hell for all of eternity when you die; there to be tortured forever in horrible pain and agony. Whew! Not a pleasant concept, is it?

There are currently over six billion (6,000,000,000) people alive on the planet Earth today. The number is incomprehensible to most humans, especially if you're not accustomed to working with such large numbers. I've got a "thought experiment" for you to help visualize how big a few billion are, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Of those six billion, only about two billion (2,000,000,000) consider themselves to be christians. If you are one of those two billion, you might not believe that all of them really are christians; they include catholics, protestants of all types, seventh day adventists, quakers, even mormons. However, for the moment, let's assume that if they say they are christians, then they are. So, two billion christians means that four billion (4,000,000,000) of the humans on earth are not christians. They are jews, muslims, hindu, buddhists, etc. Four Billion people, and, according to christians, every one of those four billion people are going to hell to be tortured forever when they die!

Four billion people alive right now are destined for eternal torment. How much is four billion? Well, if you line them up and then walk down that line counting them one by one at the rate of one per second: 1....2....3....4....5...., and you did this for a solid eight hours per day with no coffee, lunch, or bio-breaks, it would take you a little over 380 years to count them all.

Now, if the christian god is all-knowing (as he is reported to be), then he knew before these four billion people were ever born that they all were destined for the fires of hell.

The christian god knows that 2 out of 3 people on earth (at least) are destined for eternal torture. Two out three. Why? Because, for the most part, they were unlucky enough to be born in a country were christianity is not the dominate religion. Two out Three, Four Billion.

Remember Mr Jones? If you consider him to be a bad person, how can you possibly not consider the christian god to be likewise? So, for you christians out there, the next time you threaten me or especially your children with the fires of hell, I dare you not to think about those four billion people who are alive at this very moment! I dare you not to think about Mr Jones.

Simple Thinking

I'm not going to try and debunk religion. Too many people have already done that. Those of a religious mind are fully capable of ignoring or glossing over those arguments. What I am going to attempt to do is to instill just a bit of thought in their minds.

Let's start with a parable, shall we?

There was a man; we'll call him Mr Jones. Mr Jones had three sons. The eldest son he showered with love and affection. The young man always got the best food, the best clothes, was sent to the best schools, and was constantly told how much he was loved. On the boy's birthday, Mr Jones threw lavish parties with hundreds of guests in exotic locations. In short, the boy had everything.

The two younger sons, however, Mr Jones kept locked up in a dark, damp basement. There was not ventilation, no heat, no air conditioning. The boys were chained to a wall by their ankles, and could move at most a few feet. He fed them very little, and what food they got was tainted with animal droppings, mold and insects. They got just barely enough stagnant, slimy green water to keep them alive. Twice a day, Mr Jones went down to that basement with a whip and beat the boys until they collapsed from the pain. He then poured salt in their wounds.

When his treatment of these two boys was discovered, the police detective who first interviewed him asked him "Why? Why did you treat one son so well, and yet were so horrible to the other two?"

Mr Jones smiled, "Simple: he was lucky enough to be born first!"


I doubt that any reasonably sane human being from any culture would consider Mr Jones to be a good man, let alone a good and loving father. Even a devout Christian would be hard pressed to find any redeeming qualities in the man.

Remember Mr Jones, we'll get back to him.

It's Time to Act

First of all, let me come totally out of the closet: I am an Atheist. I do not believe in any gods. Secondly, over the past few years I have started to become something of a "militant" atheist. Living as I do in the "Babble Belt", I am constantly bombarded by the Fundie Bullshit. Yes, I said Bullshit. Recently, a group of secular organizations in NC raised a few billboards. Each of them had a simple message; the American flag superimposed with the words "One Nation, Indivisible". The furor among the faithful was a joy to behold. When the billboard was vandalized by some contemptible idiot, the act simply served to extend the attention of the media. The Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics, of which I am a member, has increased its membership by over 150 members (from an earlier total of around 700).

All of this just goes to show that there are lots of people out there who are giving up on the mythology, dogma, and outright lies of the past. How any intelligent human being can truly believe in a mythology written by bronze age nomads thousands of years ago and modified extensively by all those in power (both the church and rulers of the time) over the centuries defies understanding.

The religious right seems to have made it their task to destroy all the advances in science, politics, civility, and personal freedom that civilization has made over the last few hundred years. They do this by indoctrination of their children, massive media campaigns, "Creation" museums, letters to the editor, Faux News, political activism and campaigns, School Board "decisions" to rewrite History and geld Science, etc, etc.

This blog, therefore, is a clear announcement that I, for one, will not stand idly by and let four hundred years (or more) of intellectual advance be destroyed by a bunch of people who believe that "faith" can ever overcome reason. The human race has fought to hard for the few gains we have.

Here's what I "believe":

1. This universe is way too complicated and wonderful to have been "created" by the Abrahamic god (yes that includes all three of the major religions in the world.

2. The only way we will ever find any true answers to the great questions of life is by open, intellectual, scientific research. We may never find answers to all the big questions. We may even find that what we think are the right questions were the wrong ones to start with.

3. There is no god, no heaven, no hell. What we make of this life is it, and everyone should make the effort to try and leave this earth just a little better than they found it. I'm past 6 decades old, and I have to confess, I haven't done that much.

4. Wasting your life spouting the dogma and mythology of the past is a crime against humanity.

5. Attempting to suppress the ideas of others by threatening them with eternal damnation from an angry "god", or worse yet, threatening them with death at the hand of a savage mob of zealots, is wrong.

6. Pushing your "morality" on others, especially those whose lifestyle, sexual identity, goals in life, etc. are just "different" from yours is wrong. Leave others to follow their own paths, and don't claim that your "god" told you to "save" them. That's just your insecurity showing.

7. Do not, under any circumstances, harm another human being without extreme provocation, and then use only the means necessary to insure the safety of yourself and those around you. Yes, killing is wrong. Sometimes, unfortunately, those who are mentally wounded by physical, psychological, and religious influences will not stop until they are stopped physically. This is not something to be desired by a sane human being.

8. The human race has a long way to go before it grows up. I used to be very optimistic about our chances. Now, I am not so sure. We are facing a crisis of will. What we have accomplished in the last 100 years is amazing, but has come at a great cost. I truly believe that this planet will not be able to sustain our numbers much longer. We need to get off this rock. We need to start now. We probably won't. Unfortunately, if we don't we probably face extinction as a species.

9. Other than religious fervor, the greatest threats to the human race are : Energy, Water, and Population. We are seeing the beginnings of the end of the petroleum era today. We are, in my opinion, doing way to little to solve that problem. Water issues are also rearing their ugly heads, and there are way to many people on the planet now. Of course, the religious would have you believe that birth control and abortion are both sides of the same evil sinful coin.

10. We have gained more knowledge about our universe in the last century than in all the preceding thousands of years that we have been on this planet. We have done so through science, always striving to answer the questions we all ask. Yet there are those on this planet who insist the earth is at best a few thousand years old. We must educate our children (and yes, even their children) to the truths of the universe. Only an educated public can save the human race.


It's Time to Act!

(More ranting later)

22 Months and Counting

OK. It's been 22 months since my last post. A lot has happened. I turned 60. Sixty! Even I have trouble believing it. In my youth I thought of people who were in their sixties as old and decrepit. Sometimes I feel that way, especially when I find myself wide awake at 3 am for no apparently good reason. All right, let's see if we can keep this blog going. Any bets on how long? I thought not.

Where to Begin?

Normally, one would begin at the beginning, but since I tend to think of time as having no real beginning (we'll talk about that one later) I obviously can't start there.

For my entire life, I have been very puzzled by the strange antics of the dominant life form on this planet. The human race shows signs of intelligence, yet at the same time exhibits such bouts of extreme idiocy as to make one wonder if that blob on top of the spinal cord is really a functioning brain, or merely there to fill out that thick skull.

I've decided to use this blog as a therapy of sorts. A place to voice my weird, strange, odd, funky opinions about the human race, and my views about Life, the Universe, and Everything. (And yes, I am a HUGE Douglas Adams fan.)


Where will this all lead? Who knows. Will anyone actually read this? I don't know, but the writing of it might just help me better understand myself and this weird-beyond-belief universe we live in. If you get a chuckle out of something here, great. If you get angry or upset over something I say here, even better, I've at least made someone think about it. If something you read here actually changes your mind about some aspect of existence, I will be surprised but secretly pleased to be the vector of an infectious meme.

Let's ride!