Holy Crap! Pardon my pun...

So I was sitting here watching Seinfeld and didn't realize it had ended and Jack Van Impe Presents had started. I was about to post my rant on religion and started listening to Jack and his co-host. I am just flabbergasted at the amount to crap these people spew. It's actually distrubing to me to think that there are people out there that really listen and believe these types.

What disturbs me the most is that these people believe this crap so much that they would be willing to do evil things to make their point.

"Born of a virgin" says Jack, without doing a whole lot of research I do believe there were at least a handful of other deities at the time of Jesus that were not only more popular but also born of a virgin. Mut-em-ua, the virgin Queen of Egypt, supposedly gave birth to Pharaoh Amenkept III through a god holding a cross to her mouth.
Ra, the Egyptian sun god, was said to be born of a virgin. So was Perseus, Romulus, Mithras, Genghis Khan, Krishna, Horus, Melanippe, Auge and Antiope. If memory serves me right, Jesus, in one of the original texts was not born of a virgin but that wasn't sensational enough to procure followers. Paul, the earliest New Testament author, never mentions the virgin birth. For someone who we rely upon for much of Christian theology, it is an odd omission. Paul refers to Jesus’ birth twice (Rom 1:3; Gal 4:4) and never says he was born of a virgin or of different means than anyone else. You’d think that would be important. The virgin birth is also not in Mark, the earliest gospel, or in John, the only other gospel not based on Mark. Why is such an important story left out of all the early sources? Probably because it hadn’t been made up yet. The virgin birth was not put in until later.

So, now that we understand the virgin birth as a myth then what do you have to say about the rest of the story? I like this quote...Thomas Paine, American revolutionary and author, said “Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course, but we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time; it is therefore at least millions to one, that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie.” Is it possible that the entire thing is a myth? Of course, there have been many examples, the most obvious being Greek and Roman mythology. I doubt we would find many today that still believe the Greek or Roman gods as anything but mythology, why should we think that Christianity is any different. The fact is it's not any different...it is mythology (albeit very popular mythology).

I find religion insulting and an damaging to modern human society. Religion had it's place when we didn't understand what the Sun was or why it went across the sky everyday, for example. It's time we move out of the dark ages. I am an atheist and have been as long as I can remember. I grew up in the Episcopal Church and was confirmed. I went to church every Sunday and Sunday school after services. I questioned everything and continue to do so.

There are many people in the world today that would commit atrocities in the name of whatever God they believe. They would be proud to announce it as a religious act. As far as I know, no one has ever committed an act of evil in the name of atheism...it wouldn't really make any sense since it's not a belief. Which then, would you rather have? Nut cases proclaiming their "evil" in the name of good or rational people with no need to believe in this crap?

Before I had even heard of Richard Dawkins, I had thought up the phrase "religion is the root of all evil". I thought to myself, how clever. Then my co-worker explained to me that Richard Dawkins had already made a documentary with the same name...oh well, at least I wasn't alone in that thought. Religion does do some good. It gives people a framework to live by who otherwise would not be able to come up with one themselves. There are some religious charities that do enormous good though I can't see why we couldn't do the same thing without the church.

I could go on and on and I will but now I should sleep...more to come...